The Picard Topology, illustration © The New
Scientist
ENLARGE IMAGE
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Welcome...
The true shape of the Universe is not the Picard Topology, shown
in this illustration from the New Scientist Online. The question is:
why?Why is this a complex question? Because the Universe appears to have an arbitrarily complex
structure; dark matter and dark energy filling in the gaps.
We orbit the Sun of course, and the Sun has about 4 billion years of
lifetime left. At the same time we are part of the Milky Way Galaxy,
which itself is on a collision course with Andromeda, which it is
estimated to meet in about the same length of time.
The Milky Way is part of an even larger 'Local Group' called the Virgo
Cluster, and this, in turn, is in thrall to the Great Attractor. What
shape can explain this complexity? Some kind of folded, looped
flowering? An impressively clever 4 Dimensional visualisation? Or just
something much simpler like an ovoid or
Dodecahedron? The true answer is as revealed above - but with one very slight modification.
It is this modification which is not going to be revealed until 2010. Unless you do it.
Coda:
Be aware that the Shape of the Universe is also
the shape of the Mind. Who Am I? Edward De Bono
advises that we, and others, can avoid all the negatives of argument -
the entrenching of position; the closing of mind; and the character
assassinating - by considering what is interesting about a new idea;
separately from the spot judgement of what is a good idea, or a bad
one... You can find out more about me here...
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