wrote:
"What's more likely. A Big Bang where everything starts from a
singularity or M-theory Big Splat (ekpyrotic scenerio) where two higher
dimensional colliding branes produced the matter and energy in our
universe?? "

There are BB theories that do not start out as 'singularities', one of
which was developed by Hawlking.

In any event, the physics we understand today is simply not capable of
describing much about the universe before around 10**-35 seconds and is
completely incapable of describing the universe before 10**-43 seconds.
A lot of strange physics occurs between t=0 and t=10**-35 seconds.

As I understand it, the ekpyrotic scenario evolves into the BB senario
around plank time (10**-43 seconds) but is based upon physics for which
not test has yet been devised to acertain whether these string theories
are a part of physics or part of philosophy.



i don't think there's any question string theories are more philosophy
than physics and why i love it so. if you broaden the definitions
and perspective, it's astounding how this dichotomy of physics
(digital) and philosophy (analog) is so pervasive, and so fundamental
to the nature of things. what's striking to me (and i'm novice at
this), is the analog nature of "strings" itself, and what they do,
vibrating at different frequencies that could almost be interpreted as
music, and yet produces particles that are so cut and dried -- so
digital. that the analog strings produce digital electrons, protons,
neutrons is the mirror opposite of how digital dna produces analog
proteins in our own bodies. there is a rough inverse symmetry there
between how the universe is made vs how our bodies are made.

what fascinates me about the bb theory is how such an infinitely
chaotic and analog event produces such a handful of digital constants
that govern the laws of our universe (i believe there are only about 20
or so constants such as the speed of light, the mass of electrons,
etc.) shouldn't infinite chaos produce an infinite number of
constants? that's why i'm inclined to any theory that is less chaotic
than the bb theory. that's why i like string theory, i suppose.

i think einstein was right: god doesn't play dice. rather, god is the
dice.



In addition, the colliding branes only release the energy that is
embodied in our universe, it took until about t=300 seconds for the
first atomic particles to condense out of the fireball. That is; matter
is simply condensed energy, and the BB (by whatever means) was pure
energy until the universed cooled to the point where mater could exist.


The only really strange part is how were the diemnsions of space and
time were released in the BB.

I suspect that when these theories are more developed and more
measurements are performed, that they will either converge or become
different mathematical tools to describe the same set of events.
Thereby, I refrain from picking a winner, but get to watch it all play
out (hopefully).