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Thanks, Lawrence, for producing such interesting and important information. I love the podcast interviews and written articles. And I'm especially looking forward to more live Q & As. Happy New Year!

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thanks!

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Condolences, Dr. Krauss, on the passing of your mother. You only get one as they say.

A centenarian, think of the advances in science, medicine , aviation, and technology that occurred during her lifetime. We live in interesting times yet, historic maybe.  Are we on the threshold of spectacular discoveries that will improve life on this planet or are we in for more unnecessary destruction, death and ignorance?

Here’s to a new year filled with great science and spirited discourse. Happiness, and success to all. And especially to you and our little group here @ Critical Mass In 2023. 

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thanks!

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founding

Thanks for providing a cordial environment where we can exchange differing ideas and thoughts. Many of the topics you touch upon are novel to me, which is refreshing and some are well-known yet interesting nonetheless (I have come to appreciate your friendship with Dr Chomsky, whose writing and devotees drove me to extreme annoyance in undergraduate school). And welcome home.

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Thanks.. That means a lot.

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Lawrence,

Few questions I can’t resolve about cosmogenesis.

I know you cannot ever truly know what the initial conditions were, and inflation serves as a cosmic eraser of sorts for those initial conditions, but here is what I can’t figure out.

At T=0 and “nothing”, the temperature had to be near absolute zero.

We need to get to 10^26 Kelvin/10^16 GeV at start of hot Big Bang for GUT temp/energy, right?

Key question is what were temps at start and during inflation? I can’t wrap my head around how quantum fluctuations would get to such a hot temp to start inflation. I haven’t been able to find what you deduce it might have been from your books or lectures.

Would the temps during inflation have been near absolute zero as space expanded exponentially and diluted the density of the any particles to start? (Will Kinney wrote in his book Infinity of Worlds that the temp was near absolute zero during inflation). Then the heat is generated as the inflation field decays and the potential energy gets converted into kinetic energy?

We also need homogeneity of the temp of the universe throughout the cosmic horizon at the end of inflation to explain the scale invariant power spectrum of the CMB, right? Does the decay occur evenly everywhere? Would it not decay like a crashing tidal wave? I.e., the phase transition would propagate and have a leading edge and not transition everywhere instantly to create the homogeneity of particles.

So…can the link between absolute zero temp during inflation (if you agree with Will Kinney), and extremely hot start of Big Bang be a Bose-Einstein Condensate? The condensate would be homogenous one wavelength and distribute the energy evenly throughout the cosmos at the end of inflation. Does this make sense or is it dumb?

Thanks,

Steve

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Hi.. this is a very good question.. Strict answer is, we don't know.. But if the universe arose as a quantum tunneling event, then it could tunnel directly to an inflating state with energy storied in the vacuum on the order of 10^16 Gev^4... if that gets released quickly it will heat the universe up to close to 10^16 Gev.... the beginning of a hot big bang. Otherwise we have to rely on initial conditions for the early universe that were hot and dense.

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You're the best, Lawrence!! Thank you!! I wish you the best 2023 possible. This 2022 held the treasure of Greenland and becoming associated with the Origins Project Foundation. Meeting you and your wife this year was the treat of a lifetime for me!

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It was truly a gift for us to share the trip with you and meet both of you

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I'm sorry to hear of your loss, quick segue into Substack complaint; I will personally grassroot on my end, so I will involve Critical Mass more strongly into my Tweetsphere going forward and that should garner a good 2 or 3 extra followers. I enjoy the science a great deal.

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Thanks. :)

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founding

Happy New Year from one Lawrence to another.

Before Christmas I met a man with a Physics PhD from Columbia University, who, after 9/11, which he watched live from his apartment, traveled to Afghanistan, learned Arabic and Pashtun, and spent three years trying to find out what was really going on there. Anand Gopal is his name. You might find interviewing him worth your time.

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thx!

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Does the subscription expire a year from when I first joined or the first of January? I don't want to miss anything.

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As paul indicated you can check when . Nothing expires on Jan 1. Thanks for asking.

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founding

Mike - look under your account profile and you'll see you "manage my subscription", therein you can find your subscription renewal/expiration date.

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Thanks paul.

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founding

Thank you Prof Krauss for the invaluable subject matter and debate that you ,your team and your guests bring to the site and elsewhere. Pardon the pun, but it is definitely a "godsend" for me, and there are too many "highlights" to highlight themselves, such is the range, quality and significance of the content.

I wish you and yours the very best of health, wealth and happiness going in to 2023 and, coming out of the back COVID times, I hope that we can find a way to emerge in to 2023 with more momentum, to "spread the word", broaden the subscriber base and welcome more people to the fold of Critical Mass and the Origins Foundation.

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Amen! Thanks.

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Thank you for the content you post. I listen and watch most a few times. I'm enlightened and entertained. Subscribing for me is like donating to what you support.

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Thanks so much!

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