Cosmic Zoom

This blog entry is perhaps somewhat metaphysical for a second installment but it’s about a thought I’ve had for some time. Fractals are never-ending patterns; the patterns repeat at different scales. Fractals are a foundation of chaos theory. If one accepts that the universe is chaotic, is it a leap to expect to find that the universe is a fractal?

What is a galaxy? It’s a gravitationally-bound system of stars and other matter orbiting a center of mass. What is our solar system? It’s gravitationally-bound objects orbiting the sun. What is an atom? It’s a nucleus of one or more neutrons and protons orbited by electrons. But as a lifeform, we can only observe a small fraction of the world around us. Our eyes, for example, can only see visible light and this amounts to just 0.0035 percent of the visible spectrum.

The current theory is that the smallest element in the universe is the atom. But what if an atom was just one scale of a fractal pattern? What if the electron orbiting an atom was actually a collection of objects bound together in a pattern that at a different fractal scale resembled … an atom? Or consider the other end of the spectrum. What if our universe is just a different fractal scale of a multiverse that resembles a collection of objects orbiting a central mass? Or consider a galaxy: some scientists postulate that its center of mass is a black hole. What if the black hole was … a universe?

In eight minutes, Robert Verrall’s 1968 short film, Cosmic Zoom, takes us from the farthest point out in the universe to the smallest known particle, the atom. But what if a cosmic zoom really starts eighty, or eight hundred minutes farther out? Or actually, goes eight thousand minutes farther down in a fractal scale? Fractals are never-ending patterns. Our cosmic journey would have no end.

See the National Film Board production: https://www.nfb.ca/film/cosmic_zoom/.