What do you think of Roger Penrose's theory of the origins of the universe?

Question

I think at present he's a little too sketchy on just exactly how one universe "gives birth" to another, though the maths works out great. In contrast, the Many Worlds approach is too easy an approach, I feel.

Regarding his Twistor Theory .... I really do think this has potential to be the cornerstone (though not the whole concept) of an underlying description of how spacetime functions, instead of (or maybe incorporating, though not on a fundamental level) String Theory.

Answer 1

Don't know tons about it, but from what I know, it sounds pretty good.

Answer 2

I just watched an interview with him on YouTube. It seems that his reason for believing that the is the "specialness" of the initial conditions of the singularity that started the Big Bang. The odds of these conditions happening by chance were something like 1 in 10^120. Presumably by proposing a pre-existing universe which creates a new Big Bang (seeds it, if you like), those odds are brought down to a much smaller number, possibly 1.

To me a much simpler way to explain it is to have an infinite number of potential initial singularities. Then you are guaranteed to get some that create viable universes. What makes our singularity exist out of all the possible singularities is the fact that it has created consciousness (us).

I get the impression that Penrose is not to keen on many-worlds theories.

Answer 3

He's a very smart guy.  But this idea is still at the hypothesis stage.  And most hypotheses turn out to be wrong.  And Penrose will agree that what is needed is evidence.

Brian Greene seems to think that String Theory (with many worlds) can be tested in the next 5 years or so - perhaps in the Large Hadron Colider (LHC).  It would be very exciting for all of these ideas.  As Brian says, we may have real knowledge of this stuff in our lifetimes.

Answer 4

You mean the TWISTOR theory? Actually, this is more a theory of how the multi- dimensions of space may fit nicely into each other. It was just a few diagrams in the 1970's when Penrose first proposed it. TWISTOR is gathering steam now that computers can do the complicated math to show many possible results. Yes, it is a brilliant theory. Yes, it may be a foundation stone for a theory of everything. It may be the key to unlock the string theory to smooth many of the rough edges.