For a long time I've thought of the universe as not a place or a thing, but an event. We normally think of events as things that happen inside space and time (in fact, it usually requires both space and time), but I prefer to think of things as events. Believe it or not, there is a scientific basis for this.

Imagine, if you will, throwing a rock into an otherwise calm pool of water. We all know what will happen here: the rock will cause waves in the water. You could even say that these waves were brought into existence by the force of the rock. Now imagine a force that breaks through an otherwise calm nothingness that makes a lot of waves... and I mean a lot!

Now, as we all know, there are constructive waves and destructive waves. Constructive waves are those waves that, when more than one exist in the same medium ("place") and are the same frequency, they amplify each other. Conversely, if the same two waves arrive at the same place at a slightly different time, then they can actually destroy each other. In other words, a particular waves perfect opposite actually cancels out that wave.

So, continuing with this line, we also know that strings, from String Theory, behave like waves (or they are waves, even). Imagine, then, that a huge imaginary rock has crashed into the calm pond of the universe, creating a countless number of vibrating strings and - here's the fun part - these strings are created in an equal number of opposite vibrations that go in different directions. Basically, because two strings that cancel each other out (call this matter and anti-matter, if you want) have gone in different directions, they both exist long enough to interact with other strings and begin forming the Universe! We've even discovered mathematically that this happens on a very small scale. When two strings meet up in space, they bump into each other and create (yes, I said "create") a string/anti-string pair by "borrowing" energy from the universe. This is a very short-term loan, though because this string/anti-string pair is expected, rather quickly to pay back this energy loan by destroying each other and emitting the same two original strings. (See this page on Perturbation of Strings for a better description of this.) So we see that this concept does work on a small scale, at least.

As Brian Greene likes to do, imagine rewinding the video tape of the universe backwards. We'd see that, as the vibrating strings get closer and closer, they will eventually occupy the same space and cancel each other out leaving.... nothing!

This doesn't solve the question of who threw the rock, but - as you may have noticed from some of my other posts here - I don't think we'll ever find that out.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment (if not tomorrow, then soon) when I tie this idea into a new idea I had for the soul (or spirit, or life itself, whatever) while on the subway this afternoon. That idea is only about an hour old, so give me a little time to develop it.

By the way, it looks like you can download Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe in it's entirety from this page. Please note, however, that I feel somewhat confident that this is a copyright infringement.