# DAVID BIRNBAUM METAPHYSICS #
The Trajectory of the Big Bang
David Birnbaum, Potentialism Theory and C+
Harvard and yeshiva-educated independent scholar David Birnbaum of Manhattan is the author of a (quite-readable) 3-volume treatise Summa Metaphysica (1988, 2005, 2014). The work presents an original metaphysics – Potentialism Theory. In turn the theory advances the idea that hypothesized Infinite Quest for Potential drives the universe.
The theory elucidates that the potential-driven universe inherently seeks ever-increasing degrees of Complexification, that is ever-greater complexity/sophistication/richness/integration/varirty/wondrousness. Note that Complexification (shorthand: C+) is a 21st century Birnbaumian term.
The Big Bang is commonly used to refer to the beginning of the universe. More properly though, it is a description of the stages of the universe from the beginning to our current age. However, we commonly think of the present as the last stage of universal evolution. There is no reason to suppose this to be the case. To explain this, it is simplest to look at the stages of the universe which came before the present one.
The Singularity
The beginning of the known universe is considered the singularity. We use singularity to describe the universe at the beginning of known time because it was near infinitesimally small. People oftentimes think of this singularity as exploding into empty space. However, this is incorrect. The universe itself was the singularity. There was no outside for it to explode into. It is the universe itself which expanded outwards to create the space it encompasses today.
Inflation
This expanding outwards of known space was called inflation. Before inflation, the rules of physics as we know it did not necessarily exist. This is a particular point worth noting. People tend to, incorrectly, assume with certainty that the rules of physics are eternal and immutable. The inflation period saw a homogenous spread of superhot quark-gluon plasma.
Cooling
The cooling period is the stage at which the universe began to look like its current form. The fundamental forces we take for granted today – gravitation, electromagnetism and the strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces – all came to be. The cooling period is when the first atoms began to form due to nucleosynthesis.
Structure Formation
The last major period noted by physicists is structure formation. This is when the matter in the universe began to draw itself together through gravitation and form; on a micro scale, the elements and molecules present today and, on a macro scale, the cosmic bodies we are familiar with such as the planets and stars, solar systems and galaxies. From a physics perspective, this is the last of the periods which the universe has gone through from the Big Bang.
A History of Complexification
The common element of each period mentioned is the universe’s change in its level of Complexification.
Inflation created time and spatial physics. The cooling gave us the fundamental forces now governing the universe. The structural formation period gave us complex molecular structures and galactic formation and all heavenly bodies in the universe.
The commonality in all these periods is each gave birth to not only a more complex universe, but phenomena in the universe which did not exist before. Reasonably speaking, it is impossible to say the Big Bang sequence is done. The only thing that can be extrapolated from the universe’s history is that when the next period arrives, it will usher in a form of complexity which does not exist today.
Two More Periods to Consider
If you step away from pure physics, the universe has already given rise to at least two more periods of fundamentally different and new types of Complexification. The first is life – organic, living organisms which can be seen today in everything from single-celled algae to trees. The second is the rise of the animal kingdom.
While the physics community may consider biology separate from the physics of the Big Bang, biology is actually another – and more advanced – potentialism platform on the same metaphysics trajectory as the initial Big Bang.
Potentialism’s Next Step
Complexification (C+) is expected to be expressed in new ways. For instance, the universe continued to increase in complexity as heavier elements formed to flesh out the current periodic table. At some point though, Complexification shifted and began to form molecules out of those elements – a completely novel, at the time, expression of complexity.
According to Potentialism, there is no end to this cycle of greater and greater complexity. Thus the plant then animal periods were predicted. Not necessarily the form that they would take, but only that something must come next. Now, logic would dictate that something must supersede animals – and 21st century-style humans – as the highest form of Complexification.
Age of Man
For Potentialists, the current era is that of humankind itself. The scientific community, driven largely by atheistic dogma, have classified humankind as simply another animal, albeit a highly intelligent one. Potentialists argue that this is an absurd notion. Classifying a human as just another animal is like classifying a dog as a smart plant. Humankind possesses traits of Complexification non-existent – except in the faintest of hints – in the highest orders of animals.
Humankind possesses an intellectual/emotional/creative range which allows them to uniquely affect their environment. They can change their environments and build tools to solve their quest du jour; they possess full linguistic ability and communication options to easily transmit and replicate knowledge.
As Potentialists often point out, it is the new expressions of complexity which are the hallmark of Potentialism itself. Reason and emotion are just the latest in a long line of complexity events throughout the universe’s history.
Physics may argue the relevance of ideas and emotions, but Potentialism elucidates that it is simply naive to expect every universal event to be simply physics based simply because the first few were.
What is to come next? That is the question. Where and how Potentialism will universally express itself next is unknown. The only thing we can know for sure is it will be in a way not seen before and it will leave us with a fundamentally more complex universe afterwards as the cosmos infinitely seeks its own Potential.
See also SummaCoverage.com.
