SOCRATES: The Brahmaputra originates on the northern slopes of the Himalayas from some glaciers like Chemayungdung and Angsi, which are only 71 km east of Manas Sarovar. Many rivers emerge from these glaciers and merge into one stream to form the Tsangpo River. As difficult as it is to find the source of a river, it is at least 24 times more difficult to find the source of the universe.

Rabi: I understand that you want to focus only on Angsi to make things easier. But simplifying the description of the particle age of the universe will not be so straightforward. This cannot be understood without understanding the standard model of particle physics mathematically.

SOCRATES: The ancient Indians said that Brahma is the foundation of the universe, Manas Sarovar is created from the mind of Brahma, and Brahmaputra is the son of Brahma. Since Juno could not understand the mind of Brahma after so many visits to Manas Sarovar, I don’t think we can understand the mathematical form of the Standard Model, no matter how much we talk to you.

Juno: With that out of the way, everyone, let’s go to the supposed source of the Brahmaputra. Sitting on the ice and talking will hopefully reduce Rabi’s fire a bit.

Socrates: Where is this ‘supposed’ source?

Hermes: Latitude 30.348, Longitude 82.045, meaning 30 degrees north of the equator, and 82 degrees east of the prime meridian passing through Greenwich, England. It should be remembered that the distance from the equator to the north pole above is 90 degrees, and if you go around the whole earth along the equator from the prime meridian and return to Greenwich, a total distance of 360 degrees is covered. So 30 degrees is one-third of ninety degrees, and eighty-two degrees is about one-fourth of 360 degrees.

[Everyone flies to the source of the Angsi River while listening to Hermes’ useless speech. Sitting on the ice on the banks of Angsi, everyone listens to Rabi about the particle age.]

SOCRATES: The big bang theory, the standard model of cosmology, says that our universe, meaning all of us, came from an almost infinitely small point. Do you remember the comedy of Borges with two point-dwellers? From a point about fourteen billion years ago, spacetime began to expand, an event called the Big Bang. This expansion is still going on due to the explosive energy of the Big Bang, our universe is still getting bigger day by day. But when I go to tell this to the gods of Olympus, they ask, what was before this big bang or how did this big bang happen? If the gods ask such questions, what will happen to mortals?

Rabi: If spacetime was born at the time of the Big Bang, then the question of what was before, or beyond, the Big Bang is meaningless. But the question is, can there really be no spacetime except our spacetime created from the Big Bang? Could it even be that nature is actually a multiverse with many or an infinite number of four-dimensional universes? Is there nothing beyond the four dimensions we are thinking of with three dimensions of space and one dimension of time? Could our four dimensions be born from another world of higher dimensions? We still don’t know the answer to these, many mathematical theories have been made as an attempt to know, but which theory or model is correct has not yet been proven through observation. It is very common to use many dimensions in string theory.

SOCRATES: I understand that we know what happened after the Big Bang, but the cause or mathematical basis of the Big Bang itself is still unknown. Are mathematical theorems part of the universe, or laws imposed on the universe from outside?

Rabi: Good question. The debate started by your student Plato and his student Aristotle is still going on. This figure made by Roger Penrose can explain the matter. Three worlds can be imagined in nature or reality: mathematical, physical, mental. There are countless things in the mathematical world (everything in mathematics), but only a few of them (eg, the fundamental theories of physics) make up, or govern, the entire physical world, shown by the arrow marked ‘1’ in the figure. Similarly, there are countless things in the physical world (from gorillas to galaxies), a few of which (eg, our brains) make up, or control, the entire mental world, shown by ‘2’. And there are countless things in the mental world (all the thoughts of all beings), only a few of which (some thoughts of theorists) can contain the mathematical world, shown by ‘3’. Now the question is which world is the first in this cycle, from which world the other two worlds were born or started, or do all three exist together? According to Plato everything starts from the mathematical or formal world, according to Aristotle the physical world first, and according to Bishop Berkeley everything is born from the mental world.

SOCRATES: That means Plato thought that all theories would exist even if there were no universe, because theories exist outside the universe in a separate mathematical world.

Rabi: Yes. And according to Aristotle, theory is a human-made model to explain various phenomena of the universe. If there is no universe, there will be no theory.

SOCRATES: But Aristotle’s materialism seems the most correct for our universe.

Rabi: That is your own choice. I am a Platonist. One who understands the meaning of the beauty and theory of Math cannot think of anything other than Math as the source.

Socrates: Well, then these three worlds together what can be said to be the basic structural elements of reality?

Rabi: Definitely STEMIC, meaning space, time, energy, matter, information, and consciousness.

Socrates: Where is your math?

Rabi: Everything in math is inside that information.

SOCRATES: What was the need to separate consciousness? Everything mental is information.

Rabi: Many cognitive scientists think that consciousness is another type of thing, not information. But that is another debate. We should first focus on just the ‘STEM’ of STEMIC, meaning space, time, energy and matter.

SOCRATES: These four together can be explained by relativity, but only on a much larger scale. Relativity does not apply at very small atomic or subatomic scales, where energy and matter have to be explained by quantum theory. If a theory can be made combining general relativity with quantum theory, it is possible to explain STEM at all scales together. Many physicists are still trying to make a Theory of Everything (TOE), aren’t you one of them?

Rabi: I still think some future version of string theory will unify everything. But surely you will not understand that. Rather, we should now see what it means to unify, and what is this ‘everything’ in TOE?