"Stanislaw Lem - Ijon Tichy 02 - Memoirs of a Space Traveler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lem Stanislaw)

nothing has existed except Earth, and that all the galaxies, suns, stellar clouds, and Milky Ways are only a
mirage? But that's not it at all, because I really did create everything, absolutely Everything -- and thus
Earth, too, and the rest of the Solar System, and the Metagalaxy, which would certainly be cause for
pride, if only my handiwork did not contain so many flaws. Some of these lie in the building material, but
most are in the animate matter, particularly in the human race. This has been my greatest regret. True, the
people I shall mention by name interfered in my efforts, but by no means do I consider myself thereby
absolved. I should have planned, supervised, seen to everything more carefully. Especially since there is
now no possibility for correction or improvement. Since October 20 of last year, I am to blame for all --
and I mean all -- the constructional defects in the Universe and the warps in human nature. There is no
escape from that knowledge.
It all began three years ago, when through Professor Tarantoga I met a certain physicist of Slavic
descent from Bombay. A visiting professor. This scientist, Solon Razglaz, had spent thirty years in the
study of cosmogony, that branch of astronomy that deals with the origin and early formation of the
Universe.
Razglaz reached, after a thorough study of the subject, a conclusion that stunned even him. As
we know, theories of cosmogony can be divided into two groups. One comprises those theories that
regard the Universe as eternal -- in other words, devoid of a beginning. The second holds that at one
time the Universe arose in a violent manner, from the explosion of a Proto-atom. There have always been
difficulties with both views. Regarding the first: Science possesses a growing body of evidence that the
visible Universe is from twelve to twenty billion years old. If something has a definite age, there is nothing
simpler than to calculate back to its zero moment. But an eternal Universe can have no "zero," no
beginning. Under the pressure of new information, most scientists now opt for a Universe that arose from
fifteen to eighteen billion years ago. Initially there was a substance -- call it Ylem, the Proto-atom,
whatever -- that exploded and gave rise to matter and energy, stellar clouds, spiral galaxies, and dark
and bright nebulae, all floating in rarefied gas filled with radiation. This can be precisely and neatly
determined as long as no one asks, "But where did the Proto-atom come from?" For there is no answer
to this question. There are certain evasions, yes, but no self-respecting astronomer is satisfied with them.
Professor Razglaz, before taking up cosmogony, had for a long time studied theoretical physics,
particularly the so-called elementary particles. When his interest switched to the new subject, he quickly
saw that the Universe unquestionably had a beginning. It obviously arose 18.5 billion years ago from a
single Proto-atom. At the same time, however, the Proto-atom from which it sprang could not have
existed. For who could have placed it in that emptiness? In the very beginning there was nothing. Had
there been something, that something, it is clear, would have begun developing at once, and the entire
Universe would have arisen much earlier -- infinitely earlier, to be exact! Why should a primordial
Proto-atom remain inert, waiting motionless for unknown eons? And what in God's name could have
wrenched it so, in that one moment, causing it to expand and fly apart into something so tremendous?
Learning of Razglaz's theory, I often questioned him about what led to his discovery. The origin
of great ideas has always fascinated me, and surely it would be hard to find a greater revelation than
Razglaz's cosmogonic hypothesis! The professor, a quiet and extremely modest man, told me that his
concept was, from the viewpoint of orthodox astronomy, quite outrageous. Every astronomer knows that
the atomic seed from which the Universe is supposed to have sprung is a highly problematical thing. What
do they do about this, then? They sidestep, they evade the issue, because it is inconvenient. Razglaz, on
the other hand, dared to devote all his energy to it. The more he amassed facts, and the more he
rummaged through libraries and built models, surrounding himself with a battery of the fastest computers,
the more clearly he saw that there was something not right.
At first he hoped that eventually he would succeed in diminishing the contradiction, and perhaps
even in resolving it. However, it kept increasing. Because all the data indicated that the Universe arose
from a single atom, but also that no such atom could have existed. Here an obvious explanation
suggested itself, the God hypothesis, but Razglaz set it aside as a last resort. I remember his smile when
he said, "We shouldn't pass the buck to God. Certainly an astrophysicist shouldn't. . ." Pondering the