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CONTEMPORΛNÆ
It is possible to identify a single primary culprit that is responsible for the majority of the current scientific confusion. The Scientific Method commonly resorts to the use of Constants of Proportionality, mathematically adjustable numerical values used in equations to allow the computed results to agree closely with empirically determined findings. Although a Constant of Proportionality has an impressive ring to it, it is in fact a polite euphemism for a fudge factor. Although the results of such manipulations are working formulas often successfully applied to solve physics problems of a practical nature, they should not be confused with explanations of any phenomenon. The famous Universal Law of Gravitation, first explored mathematically by Newton, is an example of the blatant misuse of such a mathematical short cut.
These factors are mathematically related using the Gravitational Constant of Proportionality (G) and when applied to solve problems of celestial mechanics excellently reflects real world conditions. This successful application has given it enormous legitimacy, making it the cornerstone of one of the physical sciences, and has conferred upon it the title of Universal Constant. However, the simplicity of this constant obscures the true nature of the phenomena which the equation represents, and does nothing to explain the physics it quantifies. The so-called force between the masses involved being numerically proportional to their magnitude suggests to the uncritical mind that mass has the property of mutual attraction. Since it is a straightforward mathematical formula, and because the magnitudes of r, M or m are not restricted the arithmetic operations remain valid even when infinite distances separate the masses and when they are infinitely small.
This Action-at-a-Distance approach has turned the operation of the universe inside-out, resulting in a totally unrealistic understanding of celestial mechanics, which has lead to extremely bizarre rationalizations of the internal and external relative motions of galaxies. Unfortunately, once formulas demonstrate they adequately predict the flight of projectiles and planets, they become unchallengeable scientific gospel thereafter. Careful examination of the so-called Law of Gravitation reveals that it says absolutely nothing. It merely allows the calculation of the speed at which apples will strike the ground after falling from a tree of a given height, exactly as it did when Sir Isaac lived. Calling it Law is nonsense, since it can be considered little more than a mathematical gadget offering some numerical convenience. Explanations of Gravity it contains are certainly quite obscure. It is even unable to properly distinguish between Force, Mass and Weight, since these are semantically disguised as Newton, Slug and Pound. It is completely at loss to explain what happens to the acceleration of gravity once the apple lands on terra firma, where suddenly it seems unable to perform further work. This formula has scrambled understanding of the true meaning of potential and kinetic energy.
Though philosophically speaking it is probably scientific rubbish, it is not suggested to be discarded entirely, because it is a handy little tool, just as a ruler is a handy device to determine linear length. However the convenience of a ruler gives it no claim to be a Law of Lengths, and Newton’s Law of Gravitation should likewise not be claimed to be Universal Law. Simple renaming may be fitting, for instance Local Æther Drag Coefficient seems a far more precise description.
Many of the fallacies of current cosmology stumbled out of centuries old observations that cannon shells fired into the air seemed to be attracted earthward by unseen forces in the earth. By definition, the cannon ball, being made essentially of the same stuff as the earth must therefore have this force also. If the earth and iron ball both have this force, then by extension so does the sun, and of course galaxies do as well. The end result of this medieval philosophical alchemy was the assumption of the Universal Gravitational Constant. This innocent looking gravitational constant, so useful to predict the amount of gunpowder required for artillery, and to guide the course of a man landing on the moon, has sidetracked and derailed investigations into the true nature of the underlying cause of the phenomenon of gravitation. Since Newton was either unable or unwilling to speculate as to the cause of gravity, his work left a gaping hole in the theoretical framework. Regardless what Newton himself thought about the cause and operating principle, his Universal Law of Gravity insinuated that matter itself had potency, a key misconception which later introduced and perpetuated widespread scientific confusion. Thereafter the emphasis of the search for the mechanism of gravity shifted to finding causes internal to matter, which in turn made the existence of and search for an external gravitation medium pointless. Effectively, this removed all motivation to theorize about the æther since the Universal Law of Gravity seemed to have streamlined the concept to the point where even young schoolboys could understand it.
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THE CRUCIAL EXPERIMENT
Regrettably, at the end of the nineteenth century, earnest experimenters conducted a naive and ill-conceived experiment, which unwittingly produced evidence seemingly contradicting the existence of the æther. Though actually suggested by proponents of the theoretical æther, this famous experiment failed to detect the æther, and was heralded by detractors as having dealt the final deathblow to the concept. The Michelson-Morley Experiment (MMX) drew upon simplistic assumptions about the properties of the æther in a vain attempt to carry out foolproof tests the aim of which was to detect the æther should it exist. The then popular embodiment and understanding of the æther considered it to be a becalmed stationary continuum of immense dimensions through which the earth and other celestial bodies drifted with frictionless ease. It was thought possibly to be stationary with respect to a universal reference point, such as the center of the universe. The authors of this experiment had pictured the æther as gently floating by somewhat like a summer breeze. Popular scientific opinion still held to the belief that matter and the æther were entirely different substances, although many great philosophers, notably Descartes, had previously suggested that matter was in fact æther passing through microscopic circulatory systems. There was no doubt that the motion of a large body of matter, such as a planet drifting through this æthic medium, could easily be detected by sensitive optical interferometers which would then satisfactorily settle the debate. In brief, the experiment setup consisted of light from a single source, diverted by means of mirrors and beam splitters so as to travel along two lengthy orthogonal beams, and optically recombined thereafter into a single beam. In principle, at least one of the beams should at all times be moving with respect to the æther, and the resultant beam propagation delays would then produce observable optical interference fringes in the apparatus. These experiments were performed on large massive stable platforms, floating frictionless on pools of mercury so as to permit rotation of the experimental device without disturbance to the critical optical alignments, a necessary arrangement to provide a range of random observing orientations. The results were quite counterintuitive, seeming to indicate that light traveled at the same speed regardless of propagation direction in space. Certainly this appeared true when traveling in a plane horizontal to the surface of the earth. However, by its very nature, the surface of the pool of mercury, which was required to create a frictionless rotation base, was oriented perfectly parallel to the surface of the earth, and herein laid the Achilles Heel of the experiment. As shall be shown later, the æther is not a stagnant sluggish soup that the earth blindly plunges through, but is an exceedingly mobile super-fluid, a dynamic and highly ordered system of circulation and flow. As the earth rotates, the apparent local direction of æther flow is exactly toward the center of the earth, and therefore always perfectly perpendicular at the surface of the earth. The experimental beams of light traversed in a plane parallel to the planetary surface, and therefore traveled exactly perpendicular to the æthic flux. When all measurements and tests failed to measure any statistically significant relative velocity between earth and æther, a Null result was declared. The small fringe shifts that were detected were within the margin of error for the expected result, so these data were discarded as artifacts of the apparatus. These results were similar without regard to the hour of the day or time of year when conducted, and understandably this dumbfounded the experimenters. The inescapable conclusion seemed that even in moving frames of reference the velocity of light was constant regardless of direction. This brought the very existence of the æther into question, and was certainly going to require some awfully clever explanation. Since the outcome of these experiments ran totally counter to all reason and intuition, the scientific community was quite prepared to accept explanations that they knew probably no one would fully understand. A virtual stampede of scientists followed to answer this call. Many unfortunate theories are left in the wake of this simplistic experiment, and have left a crippling legacy for scientists to this very day. In hindsight, that these experiments showed any measurable movement of the interference fringes is a miracle in itself. Never was there the slightest hope of detecting anything but the minutest perturbations, since the orientation of the experimental apparatus predisposed it to the least sensitive mode of detection.
The unfortunate fallout of this crucial (MMX) experiment was that it set science upon an endless comedic journey of conceptual errors. Math-magicians using incomprehensible mathematical tools seized upon the results of this experiment, twisting them into unreal concepts and laws of stone. So were they able to fuse time and space, abstractions to begin with, into a space-time reality. In this type of bendable space concoction, all things are relative, real measurements non-existent, and time becomes a mathematical variable in a rubber-like reality. Had the æther concept not been so hastily and summarily dismissed this distorted understanding might never have become accepted science, as eventually the true nature of space and gravitation would have been made apparent. The the Galilean and Newtonian concepts of gravitation now also seemed incomplete and flawed, so that the even less likely conceptual solution of warped space was introduced. This delusion served to further twist concepts of space and time into ever more improbable pretzel works and cosmic contraptions, thus leading to the postulation of additional physical dimensions, singularities, black holes, hot primordial matter energy soup, big bangs, cosmic expansion at near light speeds, and motion-induced cosmic scale redshifts. These are just a small sampling of the incredible explanations offered to extract science from an interminable intellectual quagmire. Neither of the currently held conceptions of the mechanism of gravity as either an attracting force, or a space warping effect, are viable concepts, and no clear interpretation of the physical cause can ever be achieved through either of these approaches. Though the magnitude of intricacies implied by these theories is well beyond reasonable comprehension, there seem to be unlimited extensions and workarounds available to prop them up. These are nothing less than epicycles on top of epicycles. Warped space is simply another abstraction running counter to rational thought, explaining nothing, and merely providing inapplicable analogies to ponder.
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Once the æther had been eliminated from scientific discussion and replaced by the concept of truly empty space, multitudes of ad hoc cosmic contraptions with attendant mathematical explanations and patches were hastily developed in a misguided effort to bring sense and order to this new understanding. Based on a false reality, the abstractions required to explain this new universe inevitably became quite bizarre, since everything must now operate through the agency of invisible fields and forces. Magnetic fields, electrical fields, strong force, weak force, the entire universe was apparently nothing more than a giant cobweb of fields and forces. Gravity was conjectured to be a force or field, and like all other forces must therefore originate inside subatomic particles, or might possibly even be a virtual particle called a graviton. Light, previously regarded as a mere disturbance, was unwisely elevated to an entity unto itself, sharing properties with particles. In the wild scramble to reinvent the universe, eminent scientists of the day were furiously trading notes, all agreeing that the cosmos was far more complicated than at first imagined. It was clear that a whole new set of terminology and mathematical lingo would need to be invented to describe space and time. This was a tremendous departure from earlier thought, because previously philosophers had assumed that Length, Time and Space were not actually real, but merely constructs of convenience, existing solely to avoid describing daily events in terms of velocity, acceleration and momentum. Now apparently it was possible to use them in formulas at the celestial mechanics level. The mathematics alone to support this was going to be mind numbing. Terms like Euclidean space were simply inadequate. Pure space was not the simple nothingness that the rational mind had pictured, but was curved in no less than four dimensions! The simple Newtonian notion that objects could move through space at uniform velocity in perfect straight lines was now looked upon as simplistic and childish. The speed of light was to be the new frontier, where the big boys of science would now operate. The speed of light was now the key element, the magical unifying phenomenon. This was best left to experts, going far beyond what the man-in-the-street could comprehend. What hope was there for the ignorant masses if the best scientific minds were struggling with this stuff? Thus, Relativity, the new wonder science, grew out of the need to reconcile results of physical observations with immature concepts of space and time. The concept of æther, which by then had already risen to a well-established and accepted theory, lacked both concrete descriptions and sound experimental evidence to support it. The science of Flow Dynamics, then still in infancy, was too immature to seem to apply to the functioning of the æther, as no connection between the two had yet been established. Since the æther, then as well as today, is impossible to detect intrinsically, its postulation was as much a product of faith as it was of reasoning, always casting an aura of suspicion over those that champion it. Those that saw MMX as proof of the non-existence of the æther resorted to the expedient pronouncement that interstellar space was an empty void and belief otherwise found adherence only among small groups of religious nuts and quaint old scientists from another era.
Since space was now empty, and light rays always had the same speed, then light must propagate as a self-contained mechanism, at least so the reasoning continued. Light, from distant galaxies still seemed to travel at this magical speed when striking detectors on earth, the motion of these detectors apparently not affecting the perceived speed. Since empty space had nothing that could be considered a reference, then clearly velocity was a matter of perception, linked to the manner in which time was experienced. Time seemed always to pass at the same rate to each observer, and therefore must be linked to velocity in some fashion. Time, was redefined as a dimension. On paper this made a lot of sense, especially if the speed of light can be defined as a Universal Constant. The consequences of this type of reasoning are that motion, duration, and lengths then all become relative. Physicists could now play hat tricks with measuring rods and clocks, could confound laymen with clever paradoxes, deny simultaneity and even convince everyone that one identical twin would be younger than the other after a fast trip through space. These pointless mind games tremendously damaged true progressive scientific thinking, which by comparison was now popularly perceived as rather sober and boring. The man-in-the-street is far more intrigued by time travel, colliding cannibal galaxies, black holes, singularities and exploding universes, than by mundane discussions about invisible vortic flows. It is not entirely unreasonable to suspect that the authors of this twisted relativity theory did not really even understand it themselves, as a certain delusional aspect surrounds those that profess to understand it today. To contradict this twisted theory openly, which is staunchly defended by the scientific community to this day, invites censure and is tantamount to committing professional suicide.
Astronomer Edwin Hubble had noticed that the wavelength of spectral lines of light from distant galaxies seemed shifted in their entirety to the red end of the spectrum, and this fact correlated well with their apparent distance, an effect dubbed the Redshift. Having recently and unceremoniously discarded the æther, scientists now needed a convincing way to explain how empty space could effect such curious changes to light after traveling tremendously long distances. The Inverse Square Law explained how light grew dim after dispersing geometrically into space, but this was now something entirely different. This was going to take a little more ingenuity to explain, and may even require weird science. The weird science that seemed a perfect fit was the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect demonstrated wavelengths of radiation stretched when sources receded, and compressed when approaching an observer. Despite the rather unthinkable implications of applying the Doppler Effect to this aspect of cosmology, it was nevertheless hailed as a scientific godsend. The implication being, of course, that the galaxies were rushing away from each other at fantastic speeds. By this time science had grown accustomed obtuse abstractions, so that this implication did not seem particularly unreasonable. No doubt thinking men, which included a skeptical Hubble, were struck dumb at the audacity of such a suggestion, because without further ado, the Redshift and the Doppler Effect were scientifically conjoined as though they were one and the same. This scientific perversion played out despite the following basic discovery by Max Planck that:
Just as the dust settled on the exploding universe concept, it dawned on scientists that the idea of gigantic galactic island universes drifting off onto trackless space at dizzying speeds was probably the most benign aspect of the entire theory. The obvious and inescapable conclusion was that turning back the clock meant that in the past the entire universe originated from a single point in space and time, apparently erupting from that singular point in some form of gigantic instantaneous explosion. Even though the term Big Bang was disparagingly suggested to identify this event, it surprisingly became the terminology adopted by mainstream science. The first calculations of the time of this event, placing it 5 to 10 billion years ago, were most likely gross miscalculations, even though later refinements to this figure are just as ridiculous and meaningless.
The curvature of space, which seemed such a handy way to explain gravity without the æther, now introduced additional layers of unnecessary complexity to the already unfathomable concept of an expanding universe. The result was simply another dial added to the cosmological black box that allowed physicists to tweak a hypothetical Cosmological Constant. The universe wasn’t just simply expanding uniformly, but might conceivably be slowing down or speeding up. Gosh, it might even be in exact balance. Balance is good, but slowing down or speeding up is bad. It was now not enough to try to visualize four-dimensional-curved-space-time, but how about negatively-curved-four-dimensional-space-time, now there is an abstraction a man can sink his teeth into. Negative space meant that all matter would go zipping off into infinite space, forever. Except for the local stars in a galaxy, this future meant an empty sky. All matter would eventually cool to a temperature of zero degrees absolute (0ºK).
Just as the loose ends of the theory were piling up, the prayers of the doubtful were answered when scientists at Bell Labs discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, which was immediately touted as positive evidence that the Big Bang did actually occur. This so called supporting evidence couldn’t have been better had it been custom made. In interpreting this new discovery, scientists needed to remain true to their theory as it then stood. They had already seriously painted themselves into a pretty tight corner by assuming space to be empty, and that the Redshift was due to receding galaxies. The most obvious answer, one supported by most aether theorists, that this energy was merely the transfigured remnant of the general attenuation of intergalactic radiation, was again tossed aside. This forced the conclusion that Redshift was not due to parasitic loss, but was simply stretched out light, which is of course greatly preferable to Tired Light. The true connection between the Redshift and Microwave Background Radiation was never made, and instead the radiation was attributed to an artifact of the Big Bang. This was yet another desperate attempt to vindicate the conceptual colossus when it was boldly declared to be irrefutable evidence of universal expansion. Confidence in this theory is now apparently so unshakable, that it is incorporated into numerous textbooks and scientific publications masquerading as fact. Entire generations spoon-fed on this theory in the intervening years, rarely if ever bother to challenge its validity which is almost universally believed to be beyond question.
When astronomers developed means of measuring orbital speeds of stars about galactic centers, an odd and troubling trend was noticed in the data, indicating a seemingly serious conflict with Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. Kepler’s law, which is the accepted mathematical basis for predicting the paths and periods of planets in solar systems, states that the further out from the central star a planet orbits, the slower the rate of travel. At least all planets in the solar system hold true to this rule. However galaxies exhibit entirely different patterns of orbital behavior, namely that beyond certain distances the stars all orbit at approximately the same speed, commonly referred to as the Galaxy Rotation Problem. Inserting these observed values into formulas using Newton’s Law of Gravitation makes it appear as if the entire galactic system has insufficient mass. Questioning the validity of the universality of the gravitational constant, which after all is nothing more than a locally applied multiplication factor, would have been good science at this point. Instead, additional sidetracks are inserted into the search, like missing mass, Dark Matter and WIMPs. Today, the number of eminent scientists who are actively scouring the heavens looking for that Missing Mass would easily fill many large auditoriums. If this wasn’t costing so much money and diverting time and energy from more worthy studies it might even be humorous. Later it will become clear that this peculiar galactic orbital behavior is the very reason that galaxies appear as they do, and is key to understanding how they are created and managed.
This resultant mish-mash of misconceptions and abstractions has presented a rather demented view of the cosmos. Straight-faced scientists have even proposed massive Neutron Stars, made up entirely of neutrons, which spin on axis at rates defying all the laws of centrifugal force. The only way the known laws of physics can apply is if they were the size of Manhattan Island. An eyedropper full of this stuff would then weigh more than the Isle of Manhattan itself. The fact that neutrons never last more than a few minutes unbound outside the atomic nucleus is apparently not relevant. Clearly laws that were poorly understood are responsible such strange and exotic phenomena. The suggestion that objects of such density can even exist becomes a routine matter raising little concern when the space between protons and electrons is regarded as being empty. Without all that pesky æther in the way, it is just a matter of pressure to crush all those little elementary particles down to their true size, which according to the proponents of Black Holes is a true point. The belief that time actually stands still in a black hole, totally blurs any distinction between science and science fiction. Instead of becoming master of the equation, science has become a slave to it. Unfortunately, exploration of reality is now based not on the reasonable assumptions of seasoned intellect, but on undisciplined imagination and blind arithmetic. The formulas, as penned by the great abstractionists are incapable of untruth. This was quite evident with the discovery of Quasars, where the problem amounted to using the Hubble Constant, derived from the so-called Doppler shifted radiation, as a convenient look-up table to estimate distances to celestial objects. The apparent Redshift placed these quasar objects well beyond even distant galaxies, but the brightness fluctuations and apparent magnitudes were comparable to nearby objects. Put these two facts together results in objects smaller than solar systems, but brighter than 10,000 galaxies put together!
Current generations of scientists continually add to this grand façade in their own imaginative ways. The Big Bang is a hard act to follow, but it seems to matter little how wacky or strange new theories are since nothing seems impossible anymore. Once the Big Bang premise became accepted science, all things became plausible, and no concepts can be considered unlikely or any theory regarded as too extreme. The æther theory is however the only exception to this as it is apparently considered too extreme and improbable to be a believable alternative.
According to the Standard Model the dynamic goal of the universe seems to be the ultimate diffusion and depletion of all energy through a one way Entropic process. Since all energy would eventually radiate into space, which is never ending emptiness, coldness and expansiveness, its apparent ultimate fate would be infinite feebleness. Matter, which had such power at the Big Bang, will in time, spin down and become cold lifeless ashes. The remnants would drift off into infinite dilution, or in a so called closed universe, would collapse into infinite densification. This conception makes it difficult to place in proper perspective either the source or destination of matter and energy. It also insinuates that the creator was careless enough to choose to build all civilization strapped to a gigantic bomb having the seeds of destruction visible at conception, a disrespectful notion that common reason should decline. This twisted thinking was not intentional or in any way part of a plot to delude all mankind (as far as we know), but simply sprang forth from hasty conclusions drawn by respected theoreticians, and the blind obedience of those that followed. While this has created an illegitimate honor society out of the most recent crop of pop physicists, and a superstar out of Einstein, it has simultaneously discredited many of the great critical minds of the past. The foundation work of these almost forgotten great and noble thinkers, now temporarily in ruins, will need to be reexamined, updated and re-instituted. Understandably, serious flaws can be found in this early reasoning as well, and many modifications to these concepts will undoubtedly follow before once again can be spoken of a cohesive model of physics. These early visionaries are not to be honored because they saw all things in perfect clarity, but because of the path which they hoped to set us upon today. Today, much finer instruments exist for scientific investigation, but many of the tools of deduction and reasoning remain the same, the human mind and spirit, and good old Common Sense. ♦♦♦
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SARCI: Isn't science
supposed to be impartial, just collecting and analysing facts? How
can a theory have a bias? Is there a 'Silver Bullet' that can bring
down current theories?
FAUSTI: Was there a
turning point or a path not taken in current science that has lead
to the situation faced by contemporary theoretical physics?
NEWI: Has the idea
that objects can attract other objects become an outmoded scientific
fixation? Is the law of gravitation an adequate tool to explore
gravity on a conceptual level?
It is well to remember the maxim
that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The famous null
result, seized upon at the time as proof of the non-existence of the
æther, could today, in the light of current understanding of the
æther, be interpreted as indicating the perfect degree of
synchronization and mechanical equilibrium existing between the axial rotation
of the earth and the vortic force of the æther that powers it.
ALBI: It seems that
science has gone off on a tangent to rational and common sense
thinking, is there any limit to credibility when reality is only
presented as mathematical phantasy?
When the mathematics
becomes so extreme that even wizards cannot solve the riddles, then
the existence of simpler solutions must be assumed. In the future,
when the true operating principles of the cosmos are fully
understood, no exotic mathematics will be required to describe it,
and it will be found that truth is far simpler than fiction.
GALI: Where did all
these theories that sound a lot like science fiction come from? If
we treat time like a fluctuating variable, doesn't this cause all of
reality to come apart at the seams?
PLATI: If we are
expanding, what are we expanding from? Isn't this a simplistic
inference drawn from incomplete data? Is a singular creation event a
mere 10 to 20 billion ears ago a realistic possibility?
This gloomy prospect was pure joy compared to the
alternative, positive space. Positive space has, you might say, its
ups and downs. On the upswing things are great, the galaxies are
receding, the redshifts are red, and life is good. Then one day,
the bad news, the redshifts have turned to blue shifts. Suddenly
the sky is filled with galaxies, big ones. Heck, finally all the
bugs are out of civilization and then this happens . . . !
HOMI: Does the Cosmic
Microwave Background Radiation help support conventional theories or
aether theories? 
Editors
Desk
