Initial
Notes with Astronomer Charles Liu - January 20, 2006
Professor
of Astrophysics
The
City University of New York
College
of Staten Island
Department
of Eng Sci and Physics
Research
Scientist
Department of Physics
and Astronomy
Barnard College
Columbia University
Associate
The Hayden Planetarium and
Dept of Astrophysics
Division of Physical
Sciences
American Museum of
Natural History
TOPICS
COVERED:
a. Musical Mapping etc. on a logarithmic scale
b. Diagram of Big Bang by Rocky Kolb and Mike Turner
c. The Brian Schwartz Big Bang materials - more detailed
d. Conversation re Steven Weinberg contact w/ PG in 2003 regarding the Big Bang
e. Web page research on my own
f. All info I know regarding the BB is correct so far
g. More on logarithmic intervals
h. What's interesting is expressed in logarithmic environments as opposed to linearly
i. How to express piece as a graph - A TOUGH THING
j. SPIRALING TIMELINES
k. The piece to be around 40 minutes - mapping by the minute
l. Questions on Super-symmetry - it would have happened before the Big Bang
m. What motivated the Big Bang to happen? What have we observed "from here to here?"
n. Whatever happened before that explains everything observable
o. Whatever uniquely distinguishes all cosmological models (strings, symmetry, holographic) still lead to the Big Bang
p.
How to incorporate these "motivational impeti" before or after a Big
Bang in the piece but not within - unless via FLASHBACKS
q. Not in chronological order could add interest
r. End the piece on a big Question Mark?
s. PG show CL The Idiots Guide to the Universe - it has very PC moments and mentions "Intelligent Design" concepts
t. CL: "You just gotta take a stand."
u. PG says he's always been lazy in math but CL finds his grasp of the concepts "very sharp."
v. Trying to map out of piece thinking in Factors of Two:
1+2+4+8+16=31
min. or 1+2+4+8+16+32=63 or grow by 50% each Time
w. Starting in pitch blackness? - CUNY "EXIT" sign problems
x. Astronomers always clock Time in seconds (or kilo/milli-seconds)
y. One could also map the piece up by Factors of √2 (1.1414…) OR by the Golden Mean:
1+√5
(2.236)
2 ß Perfectly Recursive 1,
2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 24 etc.
z.
WHATEVER RATIO IS USED WILL "READ" NONETHELESS (plus 3 Flashbacks?)
===============================================================
TEXT
METHODS:
a. Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait" as a narrative model?
b. CL has no problem with this model and offered to create a whole text even thoughg it would take much more Time
c. One could run all text that's not PD through a thesaurus program to bring out "accidental poetry," then to be flesh out with the lights and the music
d. The text does not always have to be clear - aphoristic and mysterious is OK too (for a staging)
e. Sections could be pre-taped and run through Digital FX
===============================================================
COSMOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS:
a. PG mentions beginning with a "BANG!" saying people like to be scared - CL differs. It could be lead up to with a preface consisting of the Quantum Gravity Era (everything before 10-43 seconds) and then "BANG!"
b. PG must see the Rose Center's Big Bang exhibit
c. Best model for the Quantum Gravity Era (QGE) is that of Zero Point Energy - a uniform sea of energy in which bits of matter come together and fall apart on many different tiny, tiny scales. Some could be big flashes of light but most are much, much smaller
d. At some moment, something goes out of stability and that is why the Universe begins to exist - the equilibrium has been broken
e. It could be this first Symmetry Break that causes this instability
f. It's like a screw-up, like it wasn't meant to happen. It's like in Chaos Theory where a water drop bounces of the surface of water in a pail instead of just falling in. Something so unlikely that one is completely taken by surprise. It doesn't make sense in an ordinary scheme of things
g. This brings poetics into question: Maybe this whole thing, the Universe, wasn't even meant to happen?
h.
Who knows? Amongst all the possible things that could have happened, this did.
i. Randall-Sundrum idea: The Big Bang was a collision between two 5-dimensional membranes (called branes). Like two soap buBig Bangles in a bathtub making contact and creat a 2D skin, these 5D branes, upon contact, make a 4D structure: SPACETIME. Now that's unexpected.
j.
It's very unlikely and unique but we do have this Universe and if we're going to have any at all, it's kind of neat that we have
this one.
