String theory

[Solarbaby]

I can barely get my head round this concept.

I have watched videos and read several articles but bleurgh! My head is going to explode.

I am writing a story - to cut a long story short part of it is about humanoids who appear human but come from a different galaxy. Theres a mystery about how they evolved so human like. The chances are highly unlikely.

I wanted to use string theory to try and explain this.- I am not saying this is the going to be real reason for the human like aliens evolving in a different galaxy. However I wanted to present a theory/argument that string theory is one way the aliens are so similar.

Trying to put this into words is a daunting task. Especially to present it to the layperson(me).

Does anyone understand string theory and able to help me to sort this astounding technobabble nightmare into some useful words.

Thanks

 

[Solarbaby]

OK heres the dialogue I have had a go at.

Before reading- I want to make you aware that the explanation the alien gives is one he's trying to use to pull the wool over the eyes of the crew.

captain: I am still curious as to how humanoids evolved in this galaxy. And
how you are aware of our arrival thousands of years ago.

alien: As I am too. I have no idea where or when or how my people
evolved. All I know is as long as we can remember we have been in this galaxy. And the prophecy has always been with us.

ensign: The chances of another humanoid species so similar to our own
evolving in another galaxy are incalculable. You could easily pass for human.

alien: Are you familiar with super symetric string application?

ensign: Yes. I was top of my class in string theory at the academy.

alien: Theory?
ensign: Yes its still pretty much a preparadigmatic science after centuries of
study.

captain: I’m afraid it’s been a long time since I was at the academy.

alien: Perhaps you would refresh your Captain on the subject.

ensign: I’ll try.(laughs) Ok here goes. If you break the universe down into its
absolute basic structure we have atoms which are made up of a nucleus with electrons, neutrons and protons. These are made up of quarks, and the theory is that inside the quarks are filaments of energy that resemble vibrating strings. The different vibrations make up the different particles in the universe. These particles appear all over the universe. Gravitons, photons, neutrinos are all created by the vibrations of the strings at the microscopic level.

captain: OK, that explains the abundance of elementary particles and energy
but how did that create almost identically evolved humans in this galaxy?

alien: Well how does a star exist in this galaxy similar to one in the
milkyway? What are the chances of that happening? Superstring as you call it unifies the universe with these precise patterns of vibrations. It’s highly probable that chance, or some natural force has replicated the exact same precise vibrations to create a near perfect humanoid.

captain: Well that’s certainly very intriguing. I’m not sure how much I can
believe this without evidence.

alien: Perhaps we can prove it soon. What you call theory we call practical
application. We have developed technology to scan and map these string filament energy vibrations. It allows to calculate precisely every particle surrounding us. We can use this data to manipulate the fabric of space around us and warp and bend space to propell us.

Kudril: Thats how you travel?


Is this just gobbledeegook? Lol I dont pretend to understand string theory!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I shall now commit scientific heresy by stating that as far as I can tell, string theory is a rather clumsy attempt to explain phenomena that make more sense in WSM (wave structure of matter) theory. The idea of oscillating "strings" is confusing to most people because it is never really explained that the theory DOES NOT postulate that matter is made of long vibrating fibers, but rather, that particles of matter "vibrate" in ways that exhibit harmonic relationships, similar to the strings on a violin, and that the interactions of matter can be expressed in terms of those harmonics.

WSM makes this a bit simpler by assuming that all particles are really just spherical standing waves, in which case the harmonic effect is explained by the traveling wave component between such particles. That's not "electromagnetic" waves, mind you, but some fundamental surface vibration in the structure of spacetime itself.

In layman's terms, the theory COULD be interpreted in such a way that certain vibrational patterns from all the particles of a particular object might travel together until they encounter just the right set of oscillations in the quantum foam to collapse into standing wave patterns themselves. The result would be, let's call it a "pattern reflection," wherein an exact copy of some object materializes in space some arbitrary distance away (the same thing basically happened to Tom Riker). You might even postulate that this is something that has been known for a long time and was the original theoretical basis for, say, transporter beams: a device that cancels the wave pattern of a specific object, causing it to generate exactly that kind of "pattern reflection" within the confinement beam which the transporter machinery can then amplify and regenerate, recreating the original object in a new location. As Tom Riker found out the hard way, a pattern reflection is really just a data construct with no physicality, and anything that can act as an amplifier can give it physical expression even without meaning to.

In this case, you could say that "cosmic pattern reflection" can only occur naturally across huge interstellar distances where very special circumstances (say, subspace eddies or gravitaitonal lensing from several black holes) can amplify the signal, and the longer the distance, the more complex the pattern being amplified. Across interstellar distances this can mean, say, finding a rock somewhere that looks exactly like Ben Sisko's baseball, but across intergalactic distances, entire civilizations can sometimes be mirrored between the two galaxies.

 

[Solarbaby]

Wow, thats really useful. It's also explained it better for me. Thanks a lot.

 

[YARN]

Check out Peter Woit's Not Even Wrong for a dissenting opinion about string theory.

 

[Green Shirt]

Check out Peter Woit's Not Even Wrong for a dissenting opinion about string theory.

I suppose someone named YARN would know about string theory.