If the universe is the answer, then what was the question? Really a tough nut of a question to crack. Imaginch decided to make an attempt whether it was rhetorical or philosophical. The Universe is immeasurable in size, content and complexities. It contains mysteries like dark energy, dark matter and regular matter, God particles and God only know particles, planets, comets and mystery laden interstellar objects. This much he knew.
It operates fusion plants to birth protostars from enormous gas clouds and keeps tight control on the transformation of these infants into main sequence stars, giant & supergiant stars in blue and red colours. These the aged, giant and supergiant stars, after consuming easily fusionable materials collapse inward, under ever increasing gravitational pressure and their cores become millions of degrees hot. Reaching a breaking point, they explode spectacularly as a supernova or a hypernova explosions.
The lean mass stars are incapable of sustaining the fusion reactions for long and are unceremoniously relegated to become the planetary nebulae, white & black dwarfs. Medium mass stars which tun into sun like stars (yellow dwarf) and end as red giants disintegrating into a planetary nebula which then become white dwarfs and fade as black dwarfs. Heavy mass stars become hyper and super red & blue giants and explode as supernovae ending in a black hole or a neutron star (magnetars & pulsar). The remnant debris left over from these exploding fusion reactors produce heavier elements, electromagnetic waves and extreme cosmic rays.
There is a purpose in this madness. Or else, how it could upgrade the next generation stars with richer and heavier elements as starting material unless it distributes the heavier elements, stardust and nebulous clouds into the vastness of space? The ejected mass of enormous gas clouds, rich in heavy elements such as silver, gold, platinum etc, becomes the starting material for forming beautiful planetary nebulae which in turn produce the next generation stars and planets.
Imaginch stood awestruck by the power and beauty of these ultra efficient recycling plants where it could pulverise the cores of these nuclear reactors, at will and with an “iron” hand! It believes in taking one star generation at a time to reach its goals and the only way forward is by orchestrating different kinds of celestial explosions.
The Universe has a role for the formed back holes and neutron stars. The black holes have to monitor the local groups, keep the planetary nebulae and their star population under control while performing additional duty as a super vacuum cleaner. How else the Universe would collect and crush debris, dusts, ejected star shells and even the errant stars to keep the raw materials supply chain for the next generation celestial objects?`
For entertainment, it keeps bending the very fabric of spacetime and to remind the celestial bodies, tiny or ultra super giants, that the Universe is the boss! Like a puppeteer it pulls the lightyears long strings, as it does not want the celestial bodies to get entangled or collide with each other during the performance of the cosmic dance.
Acting like a business tycoon, it goes after acquisitions and mergers. If the deal goes sour, it lets the entities to fight it out among themselves and silently watches the collisions and annihilations resulting in bursts of Gamma-ray, spewing of remnant materials and push gravitational waves through the spacetime fabric.
Imaginch started to worry – is the universe becoming reckless and careless or over-burdened or plainly bored with certain entities? Or has it found a quicker way to recycle? After managing all these activities, spanning over astronomical distances, the universe still has time and energy to expand and enlarge its space. Pursuing its architectural hobby, the Universe builds gigantic structures and bridges spanning millions of light years!
Obviously, for this cosmic realtor dealing in millions and billions is just a pocket change. To bewilder us, it operates a cosmic theatre fitted with gravitational lenses, to give us a peek at the primordial stellar objects from its depths. The Universe seems to say without saying it - “what you see through these lenses now are not what you will ever get to see.”
Unable to live with his worries any longer, Imaginch posed a question to the Universe. “Why are you allowing all these to happen?”
The Universe thought it would be better to come clean and reply. “You are still confused because you had merely collected so much information but failed to convert it into knowledge to appreciate the workings of the Universe! If you need a refresher course, for brevity’s sake, I will give my reasoning.
Destruction and construction have to go hand in hand. How on earth would you get the heavier elements silver, gold, platinum and other heavy element deposits to extract, unless celestial bodies merge, explode and produce gamma ray and heavy elements? How do I produce the abundant materials for the next generation stars to form? How am I to make magnetic stars and nebulae if I don’t allow collisions, explosions?
Am I not sending gravitational waves as signals of such events so that you people don’t get scared? Collisions and mergers are not by accidents but a regulated recycling process member, I am the Boss!
Aha, really you think you have a tough task in solving the enigma “If the universe is the answer, then what was the question?”
Am I not handling seamlessly the task of charting paths for trillion upon trillion galaxies and quadrillion upon quadrillion upon quadrillion stars, planets, dwarf planets, comets and star debris and keeping track of them in finite orbits forever. A small worry but I have the trump card called the four-dimensional fabric of spacetime curvature, to make them behave properly. Mind it, I have to be vigilant for ever! Of course, there are few galaxies, ejected black holes and run-away stars trying to chart their own independent paths and manage to collide in a death-wish. Now think, who has the toughest task in the Universe?”
Imaginch's mind was panting like an athlete clocking six seconds to finish a hundred-meter dash! Still, he had no clue as to the answer for "What was the question?" Not giving up hope, he continued to pose many rhetorical and philosophical questions to himself, to dig out the probable question that would have been asked.
From where we came into existence and why?
For what purpose we exist?
Oh! Maybe, to ask the first question! (This
attempted humour fell flat on his face.)
If we had not come into existence, then what?
Where from our medieval, modern and evolving
post-modern theories and knowledge originated?
When everything, even the light, cease to exist, then what will be there?
The answer for all the above questions invariably came up as ‘The Universe’
He was disappointed to note that his questions lacked the elegance to be worthy of evoking that answer. Yet his mind kept nagging him with the question, “If universe is the answer, then what is the question?” For good measure it added a warning, “It will still exist to keep trying to get your question!”
Eager to settle the issue, he asked this question to his mind “If universe is everything, then the question could not have come from someone from the universe itself is it not? If so, did it come from outside of this universe? Imaginch commanded it to try and guess ‘who would have given this answer and who had asked that question?”
He was aware that theoretically the existence of parallel and multiverse is possible. As a consequence, theoretically this question coming from an alien origin is also a possibility. This possibility raised multiple questions: “who in this Universe could understand the statement made in an alien language? Who is that alien residing unbeknownst to us? Why should an alien come up with this question to get that answer unless this question was asked to seek clarity or to emphasise a greater purpose?”
Imaginch remembered reading about Nobel laureates, who have experimentally proved that the universe isn’t locally real. This led him to get confused by thinking that, if this universe is not totally real, then parallel, multiverse and the aliens, the question and the answer also could be locally unreal or imaginary. When the universe may not be locally real then he, Imaginch has every probability of being locally unreal! Is the universe not worried being locally unreal?
At this juncture, frightened and shaken, he wondered ‘why the Universe has gone silent and not talking to him like it did while lecturing about destruction and construction, collisions and mergers. It had boasted of playing the spacetime curvature trump card to steer and shepherded 99.99999% of the celestial behemoths and dwarfs in precise orbital paths. Of being the bog boss and bragging about its cosmic log listing numbers in millions, billions, trillions and quadrillions, as if it was nothing but a pocket change!”
He did not know why he is bothered about the question and the questioner? As like him, will there not be alien minds in other purported universes, making similarly attempts to find out what is the question and who asked it?
His knowledge bank and question bank simultaneously getting exhausted, he safely concluded that the answer would remain the same, in the respective categories, for those who believed in a parallel or multiple or even in an infinitesimal Planck Universe
A serious doubt crept in. Is the universe itself trying to find out what could be the question that brought up its existence as the answer? Or is the universe asking him indirectly to answer the question “who could manage all these celestial events? If so, how the answer got into his mind to set him in search of the question?”
At least, he got to enjoy a brief glimpse on the working of the Universe. This tour into the realm of the universe has been educative and helpful in enlarging his data bank. He realised that this feat would not have been possible but for the efforts of tribes of astronomers, their published works and their tacit approval. Yet his knowledge bank did not open its counter to answer that question. He had vainly searched for an equivalent to cul-de-sac in the parlance of the universe, reaching a dead end.
Stymied, he took a detour and decided to let
his brain to explore on its own. No problem on who comes up with the question. At
last, the spark plug came alive and jolted his mind to pop out the question:
" Which is not bound by time but gets time to bind with it?
A hypernova exploded in his mind and the pulsar beamed the answer, " The universe!" The universe does not simply exist in time; it outlives everything including the Time. Time is something the universe continuously uses to write lessons for us! Now, blame yourself for not thinking about the question that I nudged into your brain.
Having had enough worries about the universe,
Imaginch started to believe that universe knows why it is doing what it is
doing and what for. He will be safe as long as he did it a wide berth. This
made him to feel happy.
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