Chapter 15

The sex of the angels

Reinvigorated, our four companions set out again, curious about the activities and manners of Homo sapiens sapiens on his blue planet.

The skeptic Martin proposed to them to travel not only through our tiny sublunary world but also within the beliefs, the sects and the superstitions of their contemporaries :

" We visited many regions, considering functioning, rather badly than well, the highly developed societies, others in the search of an imperceptible development, but it would be interesting, don't you think, to be confronted with the knowledges, the beliefs and even with the divagations of these societies ? "

Fortunate Bigboss: "In connection with divagations of knowledge, I have heart, by a friend, that there is a scientific field where the most delirious opinions are predominant. It is modern cosmology. Does that interest you? "

His three companions agreed with much spirit. Fortunate Bigboss put them in relation to his friend, a multidisciplinary researcher with a pitiless critical spirit and an extraordinary scholarship. This researcher, Milton Ratio, very introduced into the spheres of research, succeed in making them invite to a world congress where all the Gotha of contemporary cosmology was present.

Before the opening of the congress, Milton Ratio informs his guests:

"You will attend a surrealist congress. Works of modern cosmology became absolutely comparable with the medieval controversies on the sex of the angels. One discussed then, with much passion, of the imaginary sexuality of imaginary beings. Today, the contemporary cosmologists discuss, with an identical passion, various imaginary characteristics, of imaginary universes ".

Several hundreds of researchers, came from the whole world, attended this congress. The greatest part of them came from the most prestigious universities from the U.S.A., Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc... The others came, mainly, from the european organizations of research, primarily of England, France, Germany and Italy.

The Chairman opened the congress by briefly pointing out the history and the results of modern cosmology : the consensus of the researchers on the birth and the primordial explosion of the universe, the Big Bang, its detractors marginalized and the developments in hand.

The discussion began and became quickly general.

A contradictor: " The consensus around the Big Bang theory is not as unanimous as one makes it clear it. Many difficulties weaken the theory : the age of the universe, the abnormal redshifts, the abnormal iron concentrations of the first galaxies, many very old planetary systems observed recently and well of other problems that all know... "

A defender, peremptory: " These difficulties are secondary and completely temporary. They will be well solved a day. The important thing, it is that the theory is globally positive. The theories of the Pre-Big Bang which deepen the Big Bang. illustrate it perfectly ".

Milton Ratio to his companions: " Here we are in the heart of the sex of the angels! According to the theories of the Pre-Big Bang, before the birth of the universe, other universes preexisted, with superstrings. As the concept of time terribly obstructs these supertheories, one removes it quite simply ".

Martin: " Is there evidence of the validity of these theories ? "

Milton Ratio: "No. It is not any more necessary. It is considered, in modern cosmology, that experimental evidence is completely superfluous. They are even to exclude because they encumber, without reason, the theories. It is enough that the theories are mathematically aesthetic and coherent! With long, expensive and sophisticated data-processing. Even if they rest on extremely fragile or very debatable bases ".

The most famous researcher of Great Britain set the tone: " The birth of the universe, about fifteen billion years ago, is in perfect agreement with the Holy Scriptures and the work of the Creator".

Martin: "What the Bible comes to make here? "

Milton Ratio: " The sex of the angels! Now, observe well the theories which will be exposed. You will note that, if their credibility appears very low, their intellectual audacity is unbounded ".

An european theorist: " Our universe is topologically crumpled ".

An european cosmologist, imaginative and believer, which is not contradictory, quite to the contrary: " Our universe is a primitive atom which exploded ".

An american astrophysicist, of foreign origin as it should be: " We live in a parallel universe with another universe with which we are connected by a hole of worm".

Pangloss: " Why a hole of worm? "

Milton Ratio: " To wring the neck to the hopelessly uniform conception of time which put a curb on imagination. And to disconnect itself from the mediocrity from the empirical observations ".

A famous emigrated professor of the university of Stanford: " We must learn how to scorn the immediate reality. Our universe inflated with the power 10^50 i.e. its volume was multiplied by 1 followed by 50 zeros. This event occurred at 10^-35 sec after the creation of the universe i.e. after 1 second divided by 1 followed by 35 zeros. In one infinitely small duration, 1 second divided by one 1 followed by 32 zeros. It is the true metaphysical reality. I can even, if I wish it, create quite simply in my laboratory, a comparable universe with that in which we live!!! ".

Candide: " What an extraordinary imagination! This artist is really brilliant!"

Milton Ratio: "I remind to you, naively, that we attend a scientific congress and not an artistic exposure".

Pangloss: "He is a true creator of universe!"

Milton Ratio: "An angelic universe ! The researcher, of american stock, which will now intervene does not want to be surpassed by an emigrant. He probably will overbid ".

The astrophysicist, american of stock: " No theorist will be able henceforth to exceed my theory. It includes all the universes, recognizable and unknowable. It is the multunivers ".

Candide, innocently: "How can one know unknowable universes? "

Milton Ratio: " The sex of the angels! "

The last theorist who spoke had decided to exceed his predecessor and to cross the limits of the unlimited :

"It is exclusively thanks to the appearance of the man that the universe exists. Thanks to the Anthropic Principle. Without the arrival of Homo sapiens sapiens, the universe would not be perceived. One can thus say, without exaggeration, than the Man is the Creator of the universe. No man is no universe! "

Pangloss: "Unavoidable and splendid conclusion!"

Milton Ratio: "Exactly. The sex of the angels is largely exceeded. Live metaphysical cosmology. Down with prosaic physics " .

Very satisfied with their respective performance, the participants of the congress set out again in their universities, in the search of increasingly complicated universes, far... very far... from the miserable reality!