Universe, Order, and Intelligence

Never mind how big the Universe is; that is a red herring. The fact is, it is our human viewpoint that makes the Universe seem big; it would be just as great a mystery if it were really tiny- and maybe it really is. If it is tiny, then we are even tinier than we thought we were all along. We are still a mystery, and so is the Universe.

A more important fact is that the Universe has order. The real question is why should there be any order instead of chaos? Chaos would be random particles vibrating about here and there, having nothing to do with each other, except for bumping into one another every so often. Why don't we have that to this day?

It seems logical that we would have chaos unless something intervened. However, there is an argument that goes, "Here we are wondering about our Universe again. It is pretty clear that the Universe had to have order, because if it didn't, we wouldn't exist, and then we couldn't be here wondering about the Universe. So the only kind of Universe that could ever get wondered about, is one that has order in it, ipso facto, cogito ergo sum, and so forth." The problem with this argument is that it appears to put the effect before the cause, but causes and effects are time-related concepts, and who knows what time is anyway?

Since the Universe is thought to have started with a Big Bang, and since Bangs tend to be chaotic as a rule, one would naturally think that chaos would have stayed the order of the day.

The order in the Universe represents a pattern or several sets of patterns. Here is where I make my first assertion. Pattern IS intelligence. To the extent that the Universe is nonrandom, it has intelligence. Chaos theory, a kind of math that is too much for me, has suggested that order emerges naturally out of any chaotic system. This is like saying that a tendency, or bias, toward order is built into the fabric of the universe itself.

Intelligence is order - or the ability to create order. We think of intelligence as the thing it takes to create change - but surely it takes intelligence to keep things the same as well? All the matter of the Universe has the ability to maintain itself as matter; to maintain itself in form and in orbits and spirals. We know through quantum mechanics that such continuity of form is really the ability of matter to re-create itself instant by instant, as it vibrates in and out of our 'normal' space. Particles appear to 'remember', most of the time at least, where and what they were, and they return to that.

A rock has just enough intelligence, built into it's molecular patterns, to recreate itself as rock in each instant, like a continuous loop program, constantly running. This recurrent pattern represents the 'intelligence' of the rock. As a rock might say, "It ain't much, but it's all I've got".

We know there is intelligence in the universe, because when we look in the mirror, we recognize ourselves, and we think we're intelligent. We think wer'e pretty high on the scale of intelligence, but just try and stay the same for a thousand years or so. Can't do it? Ahh, too bad. A rock can.

Just maybe the whole universe exists not because of intelligence, but AS intelligence. I'm not saying it does, but it does make one think. If so, then we are seeing the face of God whether we stare at the woods, the sky, or the trash-heap.