Collide and Collapse

Just how many Higgs Bosons can dance on the head of a pin?

Everyone's buzzing over the LHC, CERN, Higgs Boson, Supersymmetry, Dark Energy, Black Holes etc. Well, let's see. Best and worst thing that could happen is... nothing happens. It's back to square one for those who think they know their forces and particles. Or it could be a case of I-didn't-see-it-cuz-I-ain't-lookin'-for-it. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

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And to that nice gentleman who got a little enthusiastic about Lynds' cyclical time theory of the universe during my lunch hour, yes sir I gotcha. I couldn't talk much around the shrubs in my mouth, so I just wrote down what's nagging me about that theory: Lynds says that the finite universe follows infinite cycles. The problem with that is for a cycle to occur there has to be a pivot point -something that stops and something that starts (whatever it is, matter, energy, the works). Since the cycles continue on for infinity the pivot point must be infinite; the pivot point decides when the cycle ends and begins. It has to be something or someone that says "ok stop, now start again." Do matter and energy have some kind of consciousness to decide when to start the cycle? Or stop it? Who or what decides? What is the pivot point?

I recall reading somewhere that the universe is so peculiarly fine-tuned, that the most infinitesimal change in force strengths will destroy it. And this model has to deal with a finite universe (since there is no cycle in a infinite universe). And if it is indeed an finite universe, where do the ends lie? What mechanism makes sure all energy and matter are conserved -because if they're not, they would have been all used up an eternity ago?

I'm gonna get a little metaphysical here: if the cyclic universe has been happening an infinite number of times, that means it has been happening for eternity past. You cannot traverse the infinite, therefore if we had an eternity past, today and tomorrow will never happen, because eternal time will keep on stretching the other way into the past. Time will never move forward because it will never escape an eternal past.

Sooo...if today happened, it's because time is moving forward from a beginning. If the beginning point was eternal, the progression of time has to be infinitely fast to escape an eternal past.

(Dontcha notice that some theoretical physicists are sounding more and more like philosophers? That the concept of infinity has become a sort of crutch when we can barely understand it?)

I'm not any sort of scientist, mind you, just a mere dilettante. It just might show in my rant. You're welcome to call me on it when I see you at lunch tomorrow :)

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Meanwhile, I'm cooling my heels to this funny rap vid: