A bold new theory on why the universe keeps expanding | Lee Cronin

“I’m not 100% comfortable saying that, but it’s fun.” Chemist Lee Cronin on his bold theory on the ever-expanding universe.

The universe is inflating like a cosmic balloon. Lee Cronin, Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, has a new theory about why.

Many scientists believe cosmic inflation is occurring as a result of the Big Bang, but Cronin has a different idea. Time, he explains, may be expanding alongside space. This suggests that time and life may have a deeper connection to one another.

According to Cronin, life could be seen as the amount of selection happening per unit volume, with selection being what keeps the universe inflated. Where there's interaction, there's selection, and, perhaps, this could explain the expansion.

We don't fully understand what drives the universe's expansion or what time truly is. Testing this idea, even if it's wrong, could lead to ground-breaking discoveries about the nature of time, space, and the forces that shape our universe.

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Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

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[sevinchsaid]

I do belive not only me thinking that it's too abstract to understend the point in 3 minuts.

[Dullydude]

Maybe the universe isn't expanding, we're just shrinking

[davidowen]

Bold and brave of Lee Cronin to put this out there. Universe expansion, dark matter and dark energy are mysteries that may need unconventional thinking and approaches. This theory will at least get people talking.

[LovelyCheckeredFlags-ovol]

What the fuck is this guy saying?
What does life has to do with expansion of universe why would universe shrink if no life??

[bglass]

We need more outspoken, out of the box thinkers like Lee to overcome the stagnation in fundamental physics. Selection is fundamental to all existence, not just biological life. Thank you Dr. Cronin for pushing the boundaries of conventional thought!

[MikeWiest]

Interestingly, this maps onto Penrose. At 1:17 he says space and time lose meaning and you’re back at the Big Bang again—that’s Penrose’s conformal cyclic cosmology. Then the irreversible time as selection events maps onto Penrose-Hameroff’s orchestrated objective reduction. That is, irreversible time comes from objective wave function collapse which is a “selection event”! And in their theory those selection events are when proto-consciousness occurs: the universe is “alive” as Cronin said and Giordano Bruno said and as Spinoza said. The part about the above ideas implying EXPANSION could perhaps be derived from Spinoza’s concept of the absolutely infinite being manifesting every conceivable possibility as actuality… Cool!👍

[RoastHardy]

Basically you say it expands because it's fun. That's correct, a contracting sky would be terrifying! Some people already horrified when thinking about our merge with Andromeda. Personally l can't wait what we'll get to discover! If we can't get to the mountain, it will have to come to us, same the other way round!

[sssutube]

One theory as per some Indian scriptures is that "Universe keeps on expanding and contracting. This cycle keeps on repeating". Even i got to know about this from a documentary by Carl Sagan. And currently its in the expansionary phase. Seems more plausible isnt it.

[holdinmuhl]

"Time is not reversable." Space is not reversable as well. "We don't really know what time is." We don't really know what space is as well.
In my opinion they both have no meaning. They are only coordinates to measure the movement of matter.

[dutchjack]

His statement at 1:24 is not novel, it is a rehashing of Roger Penroses idea of conformal cyclic geometry.

[RahulYadav-nkwp]

We are thinking from the lense of a three dimensional being. For life in fourth dimension, it would be completely different for them.

We are thinking at level of infant civilization.

[PlatoCave]

Universe is constantly expanding but interestingly earth ( though part of universe) itself is shrinking from its corners constantly.

[unadomandaperte]

Has it ever been postulated whether or not gravity may be forcing the universe to expand?

[Yuusou.]

The videos and content have become significantly worse over the past months. A lot of what's being said here is pseudo-science or just utter nonsense. I understand that the Templeton Foundation tries to merge religion with science, but this video right here is neither one or the other.

[baraskparas]

In an Origin of Life book by Austin Macauley Publishers titled From Chemistry to Life on Earth the author concludes that life accretes and becomes more complex by the fact that bond forming relleases energy whilst bond breaking requires energy. The same happens in non living objects and on a larger scale by gravity causing accretion of planets, stars and galaxies.
IMHO entropy drives the expansion of the universe as more of it points outwards from the universe than back into it. The inward reaction to this outward entropy action vectors into individual points in the universe and together with inward vectored entropy is the force that concentrates matter into a galactic web and drives accretion.

[master_rafiki]

I’ve thought the same for decades. The samkhya karika school of thought posits that all change happens as consciousness (purusha) comes to know itself through the observation of nature (prakriti) and causes all variegated forms of existence to evolve.

[Greguk]

I have seen some bonkers theories on YouTube but this a way up there as ridiculous and crazy

[ThebigbrAIn-psqd]

I feel intuitively that the expansion is related to our perception of time.

Everywhere we look we are looking into the past relative to where we are. Every moment that has happened has to make room for the next moment. If we look deep enough into the night sky we can see almost 14 billion years into the past in every direction. I see the expansion we perceive as the storage of information of all past events that have occurred in the Universe if that makes sense 🙂

[sentientflower]

The Universe didn't start expanding until humans showed up, must be something you said ...

[ValidatingUsername]

0:00 Preamble prequel: What precisely does each expert mean by expand?

Literally two objects moving away from each other in a vacuum at a constant velocity?

Literally two objects moving away from each other with unexplained acceleration?