0. Seven Ages of the Universe

[On a simple sidewalk in Barzakh]

Socrates: One, two, three, four, five, six, but where is the seventh one, Ishtar? Yesterday I was a guest of you seven, in return today you were supposed to be my guests.

Ishtar: Juno is late as usual.

Socrates: If we don’t have all seven, our discussion won’t be as good.

Rabi: I heard Juno went to a Buddhist monastery between Lake Manasarovar and Rakshastal in the morning and hasn’t returned yet. How about we leave Barzakh and go down to Earth? You can host us there.

Socrates: Not a bad idea. And the discussion I want to host you with will be best suited by the shores of Lake Manasarovar. Let’s go then.

[Between Lake Manasarovar and Rakshastal]

Socrates: What’s up, Juno? We missed you so much that we came all the way from the sky to Earth.

Juno: I was going to Barzakh, but seeing the shadow of clouds in the lake, I forgot about you all. You know how rare clouds are here.

Socrates: It’s better if I don’t look at the clouds too much. I’ve already heard a lot of Aristophanes’ scolding without seeing the clouds.

Juno: Okay, no need to look at the clouds. Let’s go to the roof of that monastery, everyone come along. From the roof, you can see Rakshastal, Lake Manasarovar, and Mount Kailash together.

Socrates: With so many things to see, will you still need my gift of words?

Juno: That’s the test, Socrates. Yesterday we gave you a huge discussion on the constitution of an ideal state, in return today you have to tell us something so good that our eyes won’t turn anywhere else.

[On the roof of a Buddhist monastery by the shores of Lake Manasarovar.]

Socrates: I will talk about the fourteen billion years of history of the universe. Our European successors coined the word ‘universe’ by combining ‘uni’ and ‘verse’. ‘Uni’ means one, ‘verse’ means to transform, ‘universe’ means ‘transformed into one thing’. Yesterday you were talking about the nation, the institution created to form that nation is named ‘university’ because the meaning of ‘universe’ is found within it. Just as a university unites all students and teachers to create a national identity, the word universe brings everything in the cosmos into one single entity. I have many parts like hands, feet, nose, mouth, ears, heart, but all together I am one single person. Similarly, within the cosmic web, there are many galaxies, gases, stars, planets, satellites, asteroids, but all together the universe is one single entity.

The fourteen billion years of history of this universe can be divided into seven ages: Particle, Galactic, Stellar, Planetary, Chemical, Biological, and Cultural ages. The first three hundred thousand years are the Particle age, and the last three hundred thousand years are the Cultural age.

Rabi: The Brahmaputra river, born from many glaciers near Lake Manasarovar, also has seven stages.

Socrates: Exactly. And there is a metaphorical relationship with time as well. What do you think?

Rhea: Yes, like a river, our time only flows in one direction.

Socrates: Then we can elevate the comparison of the universe’s time with the Brahmaputra river from a metaphor to an allegory. The seven stages of the Brahmaputra (Angsi, Tsangpo, Siang, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Padma, Meghna) can be compared to the seven ages of the universe. Shakespeare spoke of the seven ages of human life from childhood to old age. The universe has grown quite large after passing through seven ages since its birth. The Brahmaputra falls into the Bay of Bengal through the Meghna. Do you see any relationship between the sea and the time of the universe?

Rhea: If all the rivers from Angsi to Meghna are compared to the past and present, then the sea is undoubtedly a metaphor for the future.

Socrates: Exactly. Just as the river is narrow like the past, the sea is vast like the future. In the past, only one set of events happened in my life, like a river bound by two banks. But in the future, many things can happen, there are endless possibilities like the sea.

Rhea: Wonderful, Socrates, your introduction is excellent.

Socrates: Thank you. But remember Rabindranath’s words: ‘When I open my eyes to this light, your gaze will be fulfilled’. If you do not open the eyes of your mind, I will not be able to see. You must first take the responsibility of showing the relationship between each age of the universe and each stage of the Brahmaputra. Then I will talk in detail about each age over the next seven days.

Rhea: We agree. Who will talk about which?

Socrates: You can understand. Your names coincidentally match the seven days of the week or the seven planets of our time. Rabi with Sunday and the Sun, Shashi with Monday and the Moon, Mars with Tuesday; Hermes being another name for Mercury matches with Wednesday, Juno as Jupiter’s consort matches with Thursday, Ishtar as Venus’s predecessor matches with Friday, and Rhea as Saturn’s consort matches with Saturday. Rabi will start with the comparison of the Particle age with Angsi, then everyone will follow one by one, and Rhea will finish with the comparison of the Cultural age with Meghna. Rabi, start.

Rabi: If the Particle age is the first three hundred thousand years of the universe’s history, then it is very easy to find a similarity with the Angsi river. The Particle age is a time that humans have not yet been able to observe directly. Just as it is difficult to find the source of Angsi, it is equally difficult to find the source of the universe. The Angsi river also clarifies the conflict between metaphor and science. The first stage of the Brahmaputra is not just Angsi; many rivers combine into one stream to form the Tsangpo at one stage. You may have chosen Angsi to keep the total number at seven, or because the name sounds short and beautiful. Just as brevity, beauty, metaphor, simile, and allegory work in poetry, trying to do the same in science will lead to many complications.

Socrates: You are absolutely right, Rabi. We will use metaphors the way Shakespeare did. When he calls Juliet the sun, we must always remember that Juliet does not actually become a burning ball of gas. Shashi, it’s your turn now.

Shashi: The comparison of the Tsangpo with the Galactic age can be made more naturally. The feeling of vastness in galaxies can be felt by looking at the whiteness of Tibet on both banks of the Tsangpo. Galaxies and their clusters are the largest structures in the universe, and the Tsangpo is the longest part of the Brahmaputra. If we try to make more comparisons, people will start calling us fundamentalists.

Socrates: That’s enough. Comparisons with the moon also don’t sound good for long. Mars, start your battle now.

Mars: The Siang in Arunachal is indeed a huge battlefield, as violent as the birth of planets and stars from the massive clouds of gas and dust in the Stellar age. The Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon is the deepest gorge on Earth, six kilometers deep. The Siang river has carved this gorge through the Himalayas over millions of years in love with the Bay of Bengal. The roar of this deep gorge cannot be explained to someone who hasn’t heard it, just as the violent and terrifyingly beautiful scene of the birth of a solar system from a rotating gas cloud cannot be seen by any living person.

Socrates: Perfect. Hermes, what are you thinking, looking at Manas?

Hermes: I was thinking about the sudden change in the character of the river when the Siang descends from the mountains into the plains of Assam. This change can easily be compared to the first one or two billion years of the Planetary age. After its birth, the Earth was as hot as fire, bombarded by thousands of rocks from space. After billions of years of this war, when the oceans emerged on the Earth’s surface, a home of love was created inside the sea, meaning a factory for creating life. If the Siang in Arunachal is the battlefield, then the Brahmaputra in Assam is the garden of peace.

Socrates: Such a beautiful comparison never occurred to me before. Juno, it’s your turn now.

Juno: After entering Bangladesh from Assam, the Brahmaputra becomes the Jamuna. This Jamuna has no relation to India’s Yamuna. Still, since the word Jamuna brings to mind the love of Radha-Krishna and the Taj Mahal on the banks of the Yamuna in Agra, the comparison of the Jamuna river with the Chemical age is very natural. If the hydrothermal vents created under the sea in the Planetary age are the home of love, then in the Chemical age, the first life forms were born in this home, capable of creating a lineage through pairing. This union can be beautifully compared to the confluence of the Jamuna and Padma (Ganges) near Dhaka in Rajbari.

Socrates: This union is indeed interesting. Think about it, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra are born almost from the same place near Lake Manasarovar, the Brahmaputra from the northern slope of the Himalayas, the Ganges from the southern slope. After traveling a long way, they meet in a place called Rajbari under the names Padma and Jamuna. If the Jamuna is a symbol of chemistry, the Ganges can be a symbol of culture, as one of the oldest state cultures in the world has grown on the banks of the Ganges. Well, Ishtar seems impatient, start.

Ishtar: It is very symbolic that the Biological age begins in a place where the two largest rivers of South Asia meet. What flows from Rajbari to Chandpur under the name Padma is actually the result of the confluence of two large rivers (the Brahmaputra as Jamuna, the Ganges as Padma). Since the Padma is one of the most revolutionary rivers in the world in terms of flow, its comparison with the Biological age is fitting. Because in this age, the universe’s history saw the greatest revolution with the filling of a planet with billions of species of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria.

Socrates: Undoubtedly the greatest. Rhea, it’s your responsibility to finish now.

Rhea: I think the revolution of culture was greater than that of life, and the comparison of the Cultural age with the Meghna is the most natural. In the beginning, the universe was like a single continuous gas, this gas gradually fragmented into many different things, but all these creations always wanted to unite with other creations. Culture is the best way to unite different things. The Meghna river does the same. Many rivers in Bangladesh fall into the Meghna, and the Meghna rushes towards the Bay of Bengal with everyone, just as culture wants to rush towards the future with many people, carrying many dreams in its heart.

Socrates: Excellent conclusion, Rhea. Since the existence of time has come up, I think we should think a bit more about it.

Rhea: Yes, and we should focus a bit on real science, stepping out of metaphors.

Socrates: Why not? The universe has some mathematical rules whose ultimate source humans do not know. Besides, we who are dead do not know them yet either. But we are familiar with the things these rules work on. Everything that follows rules in the universe can be categorized into four categories: space, time, energy, and matter (abbreviated as ‘STEM’). Einstein worked with these four things at the beginning of the twentieth century. His special relativity says that space and time are the same thing, and energy and matter are the same thing. General relativity (GR) tells us the fundamental relationship between spacetime and energy-matter. I do not understand the mathematical basis of this superstructure, although understanding it is a major task for my future eternal life.

Rabi: But is there any benefit in discussing this if we do not understand the mathematical basis? What I understood from studying and researching relativity until my death is that without knowing math, people understand it ninety percent wrong.

Socrates: Why ninety, I would say I myself understand it ninety-nine percent wrong. My only knowledge is that I know nothing.

Rabi: Then your gift of words will harm us more than benefit us.

Socrates: Oh, it was because my words harmed the youth that I had to drink hemlock and die. So now I am not afraid of harming anyone. But if you really want no one to be harmed, then please tell us yourself what is the best way to think about the universe’s spacetime.

Rabi: Whatever I say in Bengali or English will inevitably be wrong; only math can tell the truth. Since you are incapable of understanding the math of spacetime, listen to the ninety-nine percent wrong version. After discovering GR in 1915, Einstein thought that due to the vast amount of energy-matter, the universe’s spacetime would be very curved. The more matter there is, the more space curves. He also created a mathematical model of this four-dimensional curvature. But it is impossible for humans or even us to visualize this four-dimensional box model. But if we reduce the three dimensions of space to two dimensions, a three-dimensional model of spacetime becomes very clear before our eyes. You will understand if I draw it on a tablet. Look at this:

The surface of this sphere known as Einstein’s curveball is two-dimensional space, and along the radius is time. In this model, all energy-matter in the universe exists only on the surface of a sphere with a specific radius at a specific time. The radius increases with time, and so does the size of the universe with the surface area. Initially, Einstein did not think about increasing the radius; he believed in a static universe like Aristotle. To keep the radius from changing, he added a constant called the cosmological constant to his equation. But later in 1930, after finding evidence of the expansion of the universe, he removed this constant. In the twenty-first century, people have brought back this constant not to stop the radius but to control its expansion speed.

Currently, we know that the universe looks the same in all directions and its density is roughly equal everywhere. This can also be understood through this three-dimensional spacetime sphere. Think of the surface of this sphere as Earth’s surface and imagine you are floating on a raft in such a place in the Pacific where wherever you look you see only water and water; everything looks the same in all directions and wherever you go, water density remains equal.

Socrates: But Rabi, if I look up, won’t it look different?

Rabi: Oh Socrates, you are still as stubborn as ever. If we reduce three dimensions of space to two dimensions from the start, can there be anything called space other than the surface of the Pacific?

Socrates: No.

Rabi: And if there is no space other than this surface, how will you look up? To look up you need three-dimensional space which we have already reduced to two dimensions for this model.

Socrates: Okay, understood.

Rabi: The fact that everything looks similar in all directions in the universe is called the cosmological principle. Using this three-dimensional model we can explain two more interesting phenomena about our universe. The first one is like this. Hubble observed that all distant galaxies are moving further away from us and those further away are moving faster. Actually, galaxies are not moving; spacetime is expanding. If we think of the above sphere as a balloon and each galaxy as a dot on this balloon’s surface, then as the balloon gets bigger with increasing radius or time, its surface area increases and dots (galaxies) move away from each other. Each dot will think that all other dots are moving away from it; each will feel like it is at the center of everything since everything else is moving away from it. But actually no one is at center; there is no center on a sphere’s surface but standing anywhere on its surface looking around makes one feel like they are at center.

Socrates: Wonderful! And what about second one?

Rabi: The second one goes like this. No matter which direction we point our telescope from Earth we will see up to an equal distance in all directions. According to Einstein’s special relativity since light speed is constant our horizon is limited both in space and time directions. An example will make it clear; suppose we have three telescopes named X Y Z and assume all galaxies have same absolute brightness then more sensitive telescope sees further galaxies now suppose X sees maximum 1 billion light years away Y sees up to 2 billion light years away Z sees up to 3 billion light years away then X’s observed universe would be balloon with radius 1 billion light years Y’s balloon radius would be 2 billion light years Z’s observed universe radius would be 3 billion light years.

Socrates: But this doesn’t match our three-dimensional spacetime balloon; in picture balloon radius was time but your observable universe radius for three telescopes is space because its unit is light year.

Rabi: Here lies thinking point though light year unit distance it’s related with time seeing galaxy 1 billion light years away means seeing how it was 1 billion years ago because light took 1 billion years to reach here light travels at speed 300000 km per second distance covered by light in one year called one light year or nearly 10 trillion km so observable universe balloon radius actually time X’s balloon radius 1 billion years because it sees up to 1 billion years past.

Socrates: Here I have two observations first isn’t Einstein’s curveball picture also kind metaphor?

Rabi: Good point true curveball isn’t real picture our world four-dimensional reducing it three dimensions mathematically trivial but mentally imaginary yet curveball can’t be called metaphor it’s above metaphor maybe analogy fits better.

Socrates: Okay agreed second observation goes like this your observable universe map makes me feel self never seen present never seen only others seen only past seen if self can’t be seen can self known? I’m doubting my own words now.

Rabi: If by seeing past we learn about present can’t by seeing others through seeing learn about self?

Socrates: We have understood the present of the universe well because there is a timeline of the past. It is also impossible to understand the present of society without the past. I have doubts about whether it is possible to know oneself by seeing others in the case of humans. However, be that as it may, I think I can take this opportunity to show you the timeline I created.

In this timeline seven events from each age of the universe have been included. So there are a total of 49 events. Each event has a slide, and below the slide is a navigation that can be zoomed in and out and panned left and right. This will be useful for our meditation. Browsing the timeline can be a meditation of walking towards the history of the universe on a thin rope. I think it would be good for all of us if everyone, starting from Rabi, looks at the seven events of their respective ages and comments on them. Rabi?

Rabi: Yes, of course. First, I must say again, studying history in this way without math is not honorable for me. Still, I am reading. The first event of the Particle age is definitely the Big Bang, through which our universe was born approximately fourteen billion years ago. Since its birth, the universe has been expanding, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Immediately after the Big Bang, an event called inflation caused the universe to expand suddenly. Within one trillionth of a second, all forces were born. Within the first second, all elementary particles, quarks, electrons, protons, etc., appeared. Within the first 15 minutes, multiple protons gathered to form the nucleus of elements like helium. Initially, the density of energy was higher than that of matter. Fifty thousand years after the Big Bang, the density of matter increased, surpassing energy. And after three hundred thousand years, electrons combined with the nucleus of protons to form atoms, and photons were freed from the oppression of free electrons. These free photons can still be observed as microwaves. Through them, we have created the first picture of the universe. This is where the Particle age ends. Shashi?

Shashi: I saw the seven events of the Galactic age on the timeline. The story goes like this. At the end of the Particle age, the universe meant a single gas, with almost equal density everywhere, but with some variation. Where the density was a bit higher, those places became denser under the influence of dark matter during the Dark Age. The Dark Age ended one hundred million years after the Big Bang, and two hundred million years later, galaxies and stars began to form from gas accumulations in over-dense areas; this is called the Cosmic Dawn. Within the first six hundred million years, the intergalactic medium formed, and within eight hundred million years, our galaxy, the Milky Way, was born. One billion years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with galaxies, and within two and a half billion years, quasars, the most massive and active galaxies, were born. The Galactic age ends three billion years after the Big Bang when galaxies form clusters. Mars?

Mars: The Stellar age is considered to have started 10.4 billion years ago, meaning three and a half billion years after the Big Bang. At that time, the most stars were being formed within the galaxies of the universe. Ten billion years ago, Population I stars were born, which are young, metal-rich, and reside in the disk of galaxies. Nine billion years ago, many clusters of stars formed, and our galaxy got its thin disk. One billion years later, the formation of superclusters of galaxies created many voids in the universe. Six billion years ago, repulsive dark energy triumphed over attractive gravity, causing the expansion speed of the universe to increase. Five and a half billion years ago, the Milky Way got its spiral shape, and 4.6 billion years ago, the Stellar age ended with the birth of our solar system. Hermes?

Hermes: The first important event of the Planetary age is the birth of the inner (close to the sun) planets 4.55 billion years ago. Five million years later, the sun reached the main sequence, meaning it achieved the status of a full-fledged star. Approximately 4.4 billion years ago, the hot Earth cooled down, and the oceans were born. But for the next three hundred million years, the Earth was bombarded by huge rocks from space. At the end of this disaster, the continental crust formed, which is still moving and changing the shape of continents. 3.6 billion years ago, all the continents of the Earth joined together to form the Vaalbara supercontinent. This is where this age ends. Juno?

Juno: Socrates, you started the Chemical age 3.6 billion years ago when possibly the first organic life was created from inorganic matter in hydrothermal vents under the sea. The first fossil of life is found from three and a half billion years ago. The first successful life, bacteria, came to land from the sea about three billion years ago. One hundred million years later, a large amount of cyanobacteria in the sea began to release oxygen into the Earth’s atmosphere through photosynthesis. The first eukaryote with a nucleus in its cell appeared 2.7 billion years ago. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere increased significantly two and a half billion years ago, and three hundred million years later, the ozone layer formed. The Chemical age ends with the ozone layer. Ishtar?

Ishtar: In the Biological age, the diversity of life began to increase. One and a half billion years ago, the first complex cells formed. Six hundred million years ago, many cells came together to bring about the revolution of multicellular life. Two hundred million years later, animals came out of the water onto land. Two hundred million years ago, warm-blooded animals were born, and sixty-five million years ago, the Biological age ended with the extinction of dinosaurs due to an asteroid impact. Rhea?

Rhea: Approximately seven million years ago, the Cultural age began with the birth of the first hominins. The creatures of Australopithecus and Homo genus appeared on Earth four to one million years ago. And the first modern humans probably walked the Earth three hundred thousand years ago in Africa. Humans began to spread from Africa to the rest of the world one hundred thousand years ago. Fifty thousand years ago, humans started a huge revolution in religion, music, and art. Agriculture began ten thousand years ago, and five thousand years later, the first states appeared. Globalization began five hundred years ago, and its second wave started two hundred years ago with the Industrial Revolution. This is where the Cultural age ends.

Socrates: Hearing from everyone was really necessary. You can understand, I am not telling the history of every part of the universe, but actually the history of humans. The universe has come here as part of human history. This is why the Milky Way is mentioned in the Galactic age, the focus is mainly on the stars of the Milky Way in the Stellar age, the main subject of the Planetary age is the solar system, and the subjects of the Chemical and Biological ages are the Earth’s biosphere, and the subject of the Cultural age is only human culture. This is our history, the subject of our meditation.