5. Epochs: The Expression of Complexification

“The current state of knowledge can be summarized thus: in the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.”

― Terry Pratchett

The universe is old. Really old. Our best estimates are 13.77 billion years. The interesting thing about the universe, though, is that it didn’t always look like it does now. It has changed a lot since the “0”-Point fired off the Big Bang.

It is easy to take for granted that the universe is an unchanging place. When we hear that our sun is 4.6 billion years old, it seems like everything around us is static, and things have been the same forever.

However, that is not the case. Looking at the bigger time scale, the universe has gone through changes so drastic that, if you went back in time, it would be unrecognizable. Moreover, it has had drastic changes occur that are far more recent than the formation of our sun.

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Science recognizes these fundamental changes as epochs –when things changed so much in the universe that it was like nothing that came before it. This begs the obvious question: Why?

Why do these changes occur? Birnbaum tells us that these epochs occur as a result of Complexification. Critical build-ups occur on occasion where the universe is forced, in its endless quest towards Extraordinariation, to find a new path forward. As always, we see the universe striving to realize itself due to the law of Q4P∞ → C+ → E+.

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