Stenger\'s Cosmology (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, March 24, 2014, 01:11 (3898 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George: I just found this via twitter:
> Alan Guth on the BICEP2 Results - also indicates universe zero energy state
> 
> http://www.mit.edu/newsoffice/2014/3-q-alan-guth-on-new-insights-into-the-big-bang.html... 
> The energy of a gravitational field is negative. As the patch expands at constant density, more and more energy, in the form of matter, is created. But at the same time, more and more negative energy appears in the form of the gravitational field that is filling the region. The total energy remains constant, as it must, and therefore remains very small. 
> 
> It is possible that the total energy of the entire universe is exactly zero, with the positive energy of matter completely canceled by the negative energy of gravity. I often say that the universe is the ultimate free lunch, since it actually requires no energy to produce a universe.-This proposal of Guth's has been existent in his book "The Inflationary Universe on page 12 since 1997. I have it carefully quoted in my first book to point out the philosophic error. I'm not arguing physics. I understand the point thoroughly.All physics equations work from observations of this space-time. I want to know if there is anything before. Your answer is no, and I agree that time did not exist before, but somehow this spacetime appeared from something. It cannot appear from nothing. Since the universe is energy, some version of energy is eternal, a conclusion from your own statements.