Leaves and balloons drift in the breeze …
And dark matter is the ultimate drifter. In modern cosmology, the only force acting on it is gravity. That means it is in free fall, and like an astronaut in orbit, it feels no forces. Hypothetical dark-matter beings might be able to feel tidal forces though … “spaghettification” could act on it near a small black hole, for instance. They also might be able to feel a passage through a caustic, one of the bright lines where a lot of dark matter has piled up. This picture shows density data from a computer simulation.
Suppose a dark-matter being existed, and fell radially inward into this cluster. If it could feel the bumps in the density field, and play them like a phonograph, it might sound a bit like this; each pulse is a trip through the center …
Again playing the density like a phonograph, but this time along a spiral trajectory into the center:
Here is a speculative narrative by a dark-matter being:
We drift, free-fall in the dark. We were born, and then for a long time, nothing. Then, there was a first sensation. The next sensation came soon after, then another. They arrive so fast that we no longer notice them. Together, they compose our thoughts. We only sense when we join. We never feel any pull, always adrift, but we feel a harmonious little stretch when many of us coast and commune in bright places. Occasionally, there are new, grand sensations, when we meet a new community, and form a larger family. Our first families remain close-by, but then come families, and families of families, of families … mergers bring torrents of sensation and thought, each more fantastic. When the family is big enough, our stars are born, and black holes, our central hearts. We are forever completely adrift, but we also feel a tiny stretch when we pass through a star, or a planet, like the Earth.
The most delightful experience is after the union, after the center. We slow down, and float at the other side, at the edge of our new family, before we go back in for deep conscious communion. There, new ones, previously alone and sense-deprived, first meet us and awaken. This is a special motionless moment, without frantic union, at peace.
But, it has been a long time since the last big union. Now, we seek communion with other life forms …
author
Mark Neyrinck
Content produced in the context of the Marble Breeze workshop.