enormous antipodes

Fascinating, Captain. We may be living in a universe subject to a phenomenon called "dark flow." The basic idea, based on a recent* theory, is that all the matter in the universe is being pulled toward two enormous "structures." I find myself imagining the universe as a sphere, with these gigantic, gravitationally charged clumps on opposite poles, and all the matter in the universe flowing toward these clumps, leaving the universe's center empty. From the relevant National Geographic article comes this wild suggestion (which is actually a variation on a theme that has bounced around scientific circles for decades):

The presence of the extra-universal matter suggests that our universe is part of something bigger—a multiverse—and that whatever is out there is very different from the universe we know.

Multiverses aren't new. Dungeons and Dragons players have known about them since the 70s; they're a regular feature in science fiction, and have analogues in religion-- the latter having generated plenty of cosmologies featuring "parallel" worlds or a tiered cosmos. See this Wikipedia article for more.

Nevertheless, it's fascinating to speculate on the existence of enormous clumps of matter pulling "the rest of us" in different directions. The article isn't quite clear on what it means for these structures to be "extra-universal." It might be possible to render the problem mathematically, but in terms of the prosaic imagination, how does one visualize anything being "outside" the universe?

From a philosophical perspective, we should note that the terms "universe" and "reality" aren't synonymous. A "multiverse" would, despite the multiplicity of universes, still constitute one reality (a point I've touched upon in discussions of religious pluralism; I think my book mentions this). There's no escaping the unifying factor. If our universe is an egg in an egg carton, sitting with a bunch of other eggs, all those eggs are still encompassed within the context of the single egg carton. Even if we ratchet upward a notch-- many egg cartons inside a crate-- there's still only one crate. Many crates inside a truck? There's just the one truck. Many trucks on the planet? Just one planet. And so on. No matter how high you go, there's always a single, unifying context-- one reality.

Here's a loopy thought. The article doesn't say whether the clumps of matter are on exactly opposite sides of the known universe; that's just what I'm conjecturing, based on what little information the article provides. But what if we truly are talking about enormous antipodes? With all the matter rushing to opposite sides of the universe-bubble in which we live-- galactic clusters behaving like chromosomes-- one begins to wonder whether we're inside an incomprehensibly huge cell... and the cell is undergoing mitotic fission, splitting apart to make two cells. If our universe is one cell... what larger organism are we part of?

Yes, I'm just being spooky. Halloween isn't that far in the past, and the notions of infinite progression and regression are alluring.

But, loopiness aside, I can't help wondering what it is that we're a part of.

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*I have a sneaking suspicion that this theory isn't that recent, but has instead been tossed about the scientific community for a while before finally making it into public view.

UPDATE: This is the 1000th post of Kevin's Walk! Only 4000-some more to go before I catch up to the number of posts at my other blog, which came into existence in 2003.


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