Ask Ethan: Is the Universe alive?

On the left, neurons and their connections in the brain; on the right - computer simulation of large-scale structures of the Universe

You have already seen such analogies: how atoms look like solar systems, how large-scale structures of the Universe resemble neurons in the human brain, and strange coincidences of the number of stars in a galaxy, galaxies in the Universe, atoms in a cell, and cells in a living organism - all these numbers fit into range from 10 ¹¹ to 10 ¹⁴ . The question arises, how did it arise in our reader Mike Paul Hughes:

Can we be brain cells of a larger creature, on a planetary scale, which is yet to realize itself? How would we know about this? How could this be verified?
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Believe it or not, believe it or not, but the idea that the whole Universe is in fact a kind of rational being has existed for a very long time, and in the Marvel universe there is even a concept of such a creature: the character Eternity .



It is very difficult to directly answer a similar question, since we ourselves do not know 100% what consciousness and self-consciousness are. But we are sure about several physical things that can give the best answer to this question that we are capable of:

• How many years of the universe
• how long did different objects exchange signals with each other,
• how large are the largest gravitationally related structures,
• and how many signals are interconnected and unconnected structures of different sizes exchanged.

Having carried out these calculations and comparing them with what is happening in the simplest brain-like structure, we can give the best possible answer to the question of whether there are intelligent structures of cosmic scales in the Universe.



Since the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years have passed, and the Universe has since expanded at high speed, which corresponds to the following composition: 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, 4.9% normal matter, 0.1% neutrino, 0.01% photons. Previously, matter and radiation played a big role, and the numbers were different. Since light always moves at the speed of light, and does so in an expanding universe, we can determine how many “messages” could pass between objects moving away from each other due to expansion. If we define a message as the amount of time required to transfer information in one direction, then how far we could transfer them in 13.8 billion years:



• 1 message: up to 46 billion light years, the entire observable Universe.
• 10 messages: up to 2 billion light years, 0.001% of the Universe. These are 10 million nearby galaxies.
• 100 messages: nearly 300 million light-years, closer than the distance to the Veronica Volos cluster, containing 100,000 galaxies.
• 1000 messages: 44 million light-years, to the border of the Virgo cluster, which contains about 400 galaxies.
• 100,000 messages: 138,000 light years, the size of the Milky Way.
• 1 billion posts: 14 light years, roughly 35 nearby stars and brown dwarfs. This number is changing due to the movement of stars in the galaxy.



Our local group is gravitationally connected — we, Andromeda, the Triangle galaxy and another about 50 dwarf galaxies — and it will eventually merge into one structure of several hundred thousand light years in diameter. Most groups and clusters will have roughly the same fate: all connected galaxies will merge together and form a single giant elliptical galaxy of several hundred thousand light years and a structure that will remain in the next 10 to ¹⁵ years. And then, after 100 000 current ages of the Universe, the last stars will spend their fuel and disappear in the dark, after which there will be very rare flashes and collisions that will reignite the process of synthesis, and then these objects will begin to separate gravitationally, between 10 ¹⁷ and 10 ²² years old.

But these large single groups will move away from each other due to dark energy, and they will not have the opportunity to meet or exchange messages with each other. For example, if today we send a signal at the speed of light, it will reach only 3% of galaxies in our observable Universe. All others have forever gone beyond reach. So we can only rely on a separate related group or cluster, and our own will be one of the smallest (and most common), consisting of a trillion (10 ¹² ) stars, and the large ones (the ones that Veronica's hair will turn into) will consist of 10 ¹⁵ stars



If we are talking about self-awareness, then the best example for us would be the human brain, in which there are about 100 billion (10 ¹¹ ) neurons and about 100 trillion (10 ¹⁴ ) neural connections, with each neuron sending a signal about 200 times per second. And since the average person lives 2-3 billion seconds, this is a pretty decent amount of signals during a lifetime! To compare with the number of neurons, their connections and the number of transmitted signals in the human brain, you need to take a network of trillions of stars contained in a volume not exceeding a million light years and existing 10 ¹⁵ years. In other words, the common figures, both in the human brain and in a large galaxy in the final state, are quite comparable.

The main difference is that the neurons in the brain form a coherent and definite structure, and the stars inside a connected galaxy or group move rapidly under the influence of all other stars and masses, and the distance between them changes.



We believe that such a random movement of sources and their orientation will not allow the coherent structure of signals to form, but perhaps this is not the case. I would say that on the basis of what we know about self-awareness, different objects simply do not exchange information with each other in the quantity necessary for such an opportunity. But the total number of signals that can be exchanged on a galaxy scale during the existence of stars is intriguing and very interesting, and is potentially comparable to the amount of information with which the only class of self-aware objects known to us works. But even if only this parameter was enough, then our galaxy would be an analogue of a 6-year-old child: not very smart. Larger consciousnesses have not yet appeared.

Moreover, it can be said that the concept of "Eternity", which unites all the stars and galaxies of the Universe, is too grandiose, given the dark energy and our knowledge about the fate of the Universe. The only way to test this is, unfortunately, either to rely on simulations (with their inherent flaws), or to sit in anticipation of what will happen. And until the giant-scale intellect tries to get in touch with us by creating and sending us an apparently “reasonable” signal, all we have left is the option of the Monte Cristo graph: wait and hope.