The sound of the Universe

[Quill]

Out of black hole's deep throat, a bass note

A Deep Voice From Deep Space

Is this what Nita "heard" on the Moon?

[Magic Butter]

Huh, I doubt she'd been able to block it with her walkman if it'd been that, hehe. Look at that! 1 vibration per 10 million years, ouch.

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Magic Butter, better than normal on your toast.

[PK]

I think it was described as being something else -- but I bet the black holes in the YW universe are saying something in the Speech that way.

(And... hmm. Fred would have had to go from black hole to white hole at some point, and perhaps from star to black hole before that. I wonder if the Lone Power in some version much like sa'Rrahh's role as Mistress of the Tenth Life presides over such transitions, and if that's one reason Fred found the sunless New York horrifying and would help the wizards against the Lone One but wouldn't say it was wrong.)

[Magic Butter]

Hehe, it was...and sure, they probably got some kind of Nova indigestion.

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Magic Butter, better than normal on your toast.

[Nathan]

I believe that Nita was hearing the 2.7K cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB --the "afterglow" from the Big Bang). I remember this being fairly explicitly stated in the book, though I don't have access to a copy at the moment so I can't check my memory. Of course, hearing the CMB implies that some sort of wizardly synesthesia is occurring (both because the CMB is electromagnetic radiation out of the visible range and as its peak is not in the audible range of frequencies either [~280 GHz]), which has been discussed further (including this particular example) in the topic 'hearing of speach' [sic] in 'The NitPickery'.

While I don't think that there is enough intergalactic material between here and the Perseus cluster to support direct transmission of the sound waves from the black hole, nor would its speech seem to have the same insistence or 'hiss' of the CMB, I still imagine that a wizard on Earth could listen to it fairly easily 'from home.'

One possible (and, given the many other forms that we've seen, most likely probable) form of wizardly synesthesia that I find particularly fascinating (and I don't think has been mentioned before) is 'hearing' gravitational waves (providing they exist, of course --there has been no direct detection of them to date [though that may change soon --see, e.g., LIGO], though there is indirect evidence for them [such as the so-called "binary relativistic pulsar"] and they are predicted by general relativity). It's especially interesting to think of what wizards would hear being said via gravitational waves --particularly in light of Sunspark's description of mating (in The Door into Fire) and some of sources that should generate gravitational waves (which include, besides core-collapse supernovae, two neutron stars or black holes spiraling into each other).

I really like PK's analogy between the transition from a star to a black hole and the transition to the tenth life, though a black hole is probably a more ambivalent creature than a cat on his or her tenth life (however the situation that started this discussion does imply that at least some black holes can have an important regulative function). I do question the existence of a transition between black holes and white holes, though. While, obviously, everything involving white holes is extremely speculative (and I haven't read any speculation on them for quite a while, most likely because they seem to have gone out of favor with theorists [for obvious reasons]) I remember white holes being inverses to black holes not just as a set, but on an individual basis (i.e., there is an bijection * between the white holes and black holes in the universe [or perhaps the local sheaf of universes]).

Nathan

* Sorry for the unwarranted mathematical intrusion --sometimes I just can't stop myself. All that I mean is that each white hole has an associated black hole and vice versa (though upon further consideration I'm not sure that all the speculation I've seen went quite that far --the main consideration was that each white hole was somehow connected to one [or more] black holes, possibly in another universe [I'm not sure whether all the black holes had to be connected to white holes either --as I said, it's been a while]).

Ubi materia, ibi geometria. --Johannes Kepler

Non doctrinam, sed perspicuitatem quaero.

[PK]

Actually, that seems like it would rather nicely explain Fred's mass being "elsewhere" -- he, or the part of him present, could be just the emission point, and the mass would then be elsewhere attracting more mass as a black hole. Of course, that treats the pair as a single entity -- I suppose the alternative is that he has a reverse twin of sorts (photo-negative?) -- and in that case I wonder what the black hole thought about Fred blowing his (their?) quanta.

[Birdhead]

Nathan: did you make that up on the spot? *is depressed* You couldn't have done my project on red shift for me, could you have? *sighs and wanders off feeling depressed about said project*
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
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Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[Magic Butter]

Wow! Nathan, that was impressive, lol. Yeah, what she heard was the "afterglow" of the Big Bang, I was fooling about, hehe.

The whole theory on Black/White holes is really interesting, though I'm not much into White holes, since I first met one in the person of Fred, and actually thought they were an invention for a while. Never looked it up...and I'm not about to since it's already 3:10am...and I don't know what I'm doing out of bed when I said in another thread I'd be going to it about 2hours ago...

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Magic Butter, better than normal on your toast.

[Nathan]

PK: I had always imagined that Fred's "singularity-class temporospatial claudication" was not a natural feature and had been constructed to allow him to interact with other beings without the possible barrier of gravitational interactions (pun only slightly intentional). However, I see no reason why it has to be that way --and there are certainly some nice points in it being a natural feature.

I would consider a white hole/black hole pair as a single entity --in particular, I really can't fathom how two separate consciousnesses could develop in such a situation.

Birdhead, regarding "making this up on the spot," some of that post was 'off the top of my head,' but other parts required me to delve fairly far into my memory. It basically was a synthesis of a fair amount of reading in astronomy and astrophysics and some of the thoughts I have had on the various topics.

Originally posted by Birdhead:
You couldn't have done my project on red shift for me, could you have?

What, you don't think that your grasp of general relativity is better than mine? (For one thing, I can do very few quantitative calculations and my knowledge of the more subtle qualitative points isn't what it should be either.) Just out of curiosity, did you just do the cosmological redshift, or did you also include gravitational redshifts? (I'm assuming that you weren't considering the Doppler shift as that can be a blueshift as well as a redshift.)

Nathan

Ubi materia, ibi geometria. --Johannes Kepler

Non doctrinam, sed perspicuitatem quaero.

[Birdhead]

Well, the project was actually on (my choice) the scientific basis that led Hubble to be able to conclude that the universe was expanding, (proving Einstein right or wrong depending on your point of view) to find the Hubble flow and Hubble;s equation (velocity=hubbleconstant times distance). So my broad headings were
-Waves and the electromagnetic spectrum
-Absorption spectra
-the Doppler Shift
-Hubble
*shrugs* It was OK. It was kinda hard to write up, though.
And no, I don't think my grasp of general relativity is as good as yours. not even approaching yours.

have I mentioned your posts are always really well-thought-out?
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
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Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[PK]

Nathan: I always thought it was a special... travel arrangement or something, myself, rather than a natural feature -- but while there might have been some modifications (as I would be somewhat surprised if white holes, hypothetical or fictional, make a *habit* of darting around planets or elsewhere like halogen fireflies), the idea that there should be a black hole associated with each white hole does seem to give a very neat explanation of the "elsewhere."

Hmm. I think there *are* special arrangements going on, though -- otherwise he wouldn't have expected to be able to grab the pen and keep it intact, I should think.

[littlehorse82]

Nathan, haven't seen you in a while. Nice to see you again.

I only understood about half of what you were talking about, but that's okay. I'm trying to learn things through immersion. They say you remember everything better.

originally posted by Birdhead:
Have I mentioned your posts are always really well-thought-out?

Yes, they are, come to think of it. It sounds like you're reading a book that took years to write. That's a good thing, by the way.

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost.

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

[Birdhead]

*nods* See, they always look (comes back an hour later. that post wasn't finished but the bell went so...) so very... solid. Like essays. it's very impressive...
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
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Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[Wiccangixie]

I would like to believe that hearing the universe sounds like a type of energetic wave. Maybe she felt life as a beating sound, you know like what happens when you hear a hip-hop track, without the lyrics. Sometimes you sense energy in music and I swear that I can sometimes feel the universe too. Just listen, and the sound of life can be heard. I think it's a tune more beautiful than the one of the Faeries. But that's just me.

[nelina]

I have heard, and read articles about how the emptiness of the universe emits the sound of a low B flat, several octaves lower thatn is audible to the normal human ear. This is the note of the universe. (yes, I am a band student.)

[QUOTE=Nathan;40832]PK: I would consider a white hole/black hole pair as a single entity --in particular, I really can't fathom how two separate consciousnesses could develop in such a situation.]

About the linked/conjoined consiousnesses( is that spelled right?), such a strong link can also ocur between the minds of two human wizards, however, this requires either to be family(by blood), or to be in True love. You'll be comunicating just in regular thought, and pretty much discussing every sinle thing that passes through your mind. it is a very intimate relationship, that it now seems that very few have to opportunity to experience.

Anyway, back on original topic, I think that what Nita heard was the B flat of the universe, seeing as that was a foothold connection to it's heart and conciousness in the scenario, just as one hears the humming thoughts of the trees when one establishes a connection to their consciousess.