Since the early 20th century, the world has encountered an unusual type of science that was developed by Alfred Jarry, through his character, Dr. Faustroll. The imaginary eminent scientist, Dr. Faustroll, mentioned at the end of his book of opinions and observations on Pataphysics that ‘Pataphysics is the science’.
We have investigated it and have come to the conclusion that its principles and scientific philosophy are in line with fictional cosmology, Super-symmetry and String Theory. In this article we wish to delve into some of the aspects of this science and its implications for cosmology.
Pataphysics in a nutshell
Pataphysics can be defined as the science of imaginary solutions. Namely, it is a branch of philosophy or science that examines imaginary phenomena that exist in a world beyond metaphysics.
Furthermore, according to Christian Bök (Pataphysics: The poetics of an Imaginary Science, Northwestern University Press - 2001), it is the science of the particular, in the sense that it does not study the rules governing the general recurrence of a periodic incident (The expected case) so much as study the games governing the special occurrence of a sporadic accident (The excepted case); In other words, the ever ongoing battle between PECTED and CEPTED, or good and evil, or Yin and Yang, representing a cosmic duality of its own.
However, unlike Yin and Yang which delves mostly into the metaphysical world, Pataphysics goes beyond and examines imaginary solutions. Such a feat is only possible because the two starting axioms in Pataphysics, imply that:
- The virtual or imaginary nature of a phenomenon, if detailed through the heightened vision of poetry or science or love, can be lived as real;
- Humanity has always looked at its existence as a struggle. Furthermore, when humans are desperate to believe in something, and that ‘thing’ is so important to them, they cling on to it. The line between what is real and what is not becomes blurred and in fact the realness of the ‘thing’ becomes irrelevant.
Pataphysics and Cosmology
Applied to Cosmology and particle Physics, the above 2 points lead us to String theory and super symmetry, two mathematical frameworks built to overcome certain weaknesses in the Standard Models (cosmology, and particle Physics). It is also an attempt to provide a theory unifying all particles and forces in nature, the famous Theory of Everything, which eluded Einstein.
Drawing parallelism with point 1 above, String theory and super symmetry are mathematical (virtual) models and frameworks of the universe, described through science (mathematics) and poetry. They cannot be proven to be right or wrong, because they are mathematically consistent and there are no known physical-world-tests to validate or disprove them.
Furthermore, according to the second point, we are so desperate to know about our universe, that some of us are willing to accept the virtual world as real, as long as the entire model is consistent in some framework (mathematics). These discussions lead us to the ‘Simulation Hypothesis’, which proposes that all of our existence is a simulated reality, as in a computer simulation.
We can thus conclude this note by the following point:
Super-symmetry, String Theory, and Simulation Hypothesis are all emanations of Pataphysics, and provide a reality, albeit virtual, in which, regardless of existence or not of God (the one that most of us have been raised with), humanity has an eternal life, even if that is just an imaginary solution to our fear of death.
February 24, 2023, Cambridge,
Berta Seintan, PhD & Charlene Wardin, PhD