Top all-time · #5284
Julian Gough
Personal blog · theeggandtherock.comsciencewriting
Julian Gough writes THE EGG AND THE ROCK, a personal blog at theeggandtherock.com about science and writing. Since 2024, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 29 times, most often “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-05-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (12) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Julian Gough's blog for its cosmology theories, such as the Blowtorch Theory of structure formation and cosmological natural selection, and for fiction such as the End Poem story.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 12 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Novelist Julian Gough (author of Minecraft's End Poem) redescribes the universe.
Most-linked posts?
- The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2025-03-20
- "Life Without Stars? Request for feedback on a chapter of a non-fiction book3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-12-31
- /p/predictions-what-the-james-webb-space2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-05-28
- A compressed-spring model of spiral galaxy formation2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-31
- Interesting Background of the Minecraft End Poem2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-07-19
- The key implication of Cosmological Natural Selection2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-31
What Hacker News says?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_natural_selection https://theeggandtherock.com/p/the-blowtorch-theory-a-new-mo...
Comment linking /p/the-blowtorch-theory-a-new-model
on “Research suggests Big Bang may have taken place inside a black hole”Submitted The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe as a story · 187 points
HN discussion> the early universe was building them in parallel with — or before — galaxies Reminds me of the "blowtorch theory"[0] discussed here on HN a while ago. [0]: https://theeggandtherock.com/p/the-blowtorch-theory-a-new-mo...
Comment linking /p/the-blowtorch-theory-a-new-model
on “A single, 'naked' black hole confounds theories of the young cosmos”Submitted "Life Without Stars? Request for feedback on a chapter of a non-fiction book as a story · 12 points
HN discussionWe need a model that includes electromagnetism. The author isn't the only one making this claim. When we do magnetohydrodynamic cosmological sims we consistently find surprising effects. The recent simulation showing that black hole accretion disks are supported by magnetism comes to mind.[0][1] Apologies, I know this is typically considered bad form, but have you gotten to the following section in the article?[2] I…
Comment linking /i/158515951/more-matter-or-less-gravity-coke-or-pepsi
on “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”Submitted The ocean floor is covered in naturally-occurring batteries that make oxygen as a story · 12 points
HN discussion> They are non-falsifiable and are just stories. It makes a falsifiable prediction: > What’s novel in my theory is the idea that all the supermassive black holes must form first, by direct collapse – before galaxies form, and indeed before there’s any significant number of stars, or (probably) any stars at all. This emerges directly from the application of Darwinian evolutionary logic to universes. It’s not predicte…
Comment linking /p/predictions-what-the-james-webb-space
on “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”Submitted The Blowtorch Theory: A New Model for Structure Formation in the Universe as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI understand your critique. But it proposes a sequencing of events which is novel, and testable. For example, it made these predictions in advance of the James Web’s first data: https://theeggandtherock.substack.com/p/predictions-what-the... And these were later validated by the James Webb: https://theeggandtherock.com/p/killer-new-evidence-that-supe...
Comment linking /p/killer-new-evidence-that-supermassive
on “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”Submitted A compressed-spring model of spiral galaxy formation as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf it will help, you can check out the predictions this approach was able to make before the James Web space telescope sent back any data. https://theeggandtherock.substack.com/p/predictions-what-the... And how they were validated later by the James Webb. https://theeggandtherock.com/p/killer-new-evidence-that-supe...
Comment linking /p/killer-new-evidence-that-supermassive
on “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”Submitted The key implication of Cosmological Natural Selection as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> By contrast, the model I’m exploring actually predicts shit in advance. > Feel free to check: Predictions here. [0] https://theeggandtherock.com/p/predictions-what-the-james-we...
Comment linking /p/predictions-what-the-james-webb-space
on “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”Submitted Life Without Stars: Stanets and Ploons as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI'm not sure I agree. The first few sections are clear, concise, supported by links to observations you expect, and cover exactly what you say is missing: > THE PROBLEM > THE CURRENT, PASSIVE, ANSWER > AN ALTERNATIVE, ACTIVE, ANSWER > A MORE FRUGAL ANSWER > SUPPORTIVE EVIDENCE Here's a direct link to that last section: https://theeggandtherock.com/i/158515951/supportive-evidence Edit: Alright, as I get further into…
Comment linking /i/158515951/supportive-evidence
on “The Blowtorch Theory: A new model for structure formation in the universe”Submitted Life Without Stars: Stanets and Ploons as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWell, that's a purely physics argument. You need to think instead about the information about an evolutionary history that can be extracted from an evolved organism (and the implications thereof), even if you only have one example. There's a surprising amount. As an evolutionary theory, it therefore makes predictions about the order of structure formation in the early universe. Which are working out pretty well so f…
Comment linking /p/the-key-implication-of-cosmological
on “Earth's organisms developed via evolution. What if the cosmos did, too?”Submitted Interesting Background of the Minecraft End Poem as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAgain, I've written about the reproduction of universes at length here... The key implication of cosmological natural selection: https://theeggandtherock.com/p/the-key-implication-of-cosmol... And here... A history of cosmological natural selection: https://theeggandtherock.com/i/158515951/background-lee-smol... And if you prefer Youtube, I've talked about it here on the Infinite Loops podcast: https://www.youtube.c…
Comment linking /i/158515951/background-lee-smolins-original-theory-of-cosmological-natural-selection-drawing-on-john-wheeler
on “Earth's organisms developed via evolution. What if the cosmos did, too?”Submitted A compressed-spring model of spiral galaxy formation (initial email version) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionYes, they slip into resonances. This is even more pronounced in the case of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The resonances give them stability. As I've written before, elsewhere; Ganymede, Europa, and Io, for example, are in 1:2:4 resonance with each other: that is, for every single orbit of Jupiter that Ganymede makes, Europa makes two, and Io makes four. That keeps all three orbits stable, longterm: if one were t…
Comment linking /p/life-without-stars-stanets-and-ploons
on “Earth's organisms developed via evolution. What if the cosmos did, too?”Submitted The Blowtorch Theory: A New Model for Structure Formation in the Universe as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHighly recommend Julian's whole blog, The Egg and the Rock, which others have linked to on this page. It's mostly about a theory of the cosmos which I think he calls "evolved-physics holism". This post is a good place to start: https://theeggandtherock.com/p/in-which-i-tell-you-about-my-... It will change the way you think about the universe (and not every blog does that :). He is great at weaving compelling visions…
Comment linking /p/in-which-i-tell-you-about-my-next
on “End Poem by Julian Gough”Submitted An Overview of Cosmological Natural Selection as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOh wow. I found this by him too: https://theeggandtherock.com/p/the-ihole-by-julian-gough-fic... Really good! Not sure how I've missed this guy. I guess I never did play Minecraft all the way to the end.
Comment linking /p/the-ihole-by-julian-gough-fiction
on “End Poem by Julian Gough”Submitted Energy energy efficiency may anchor civilizations – solving the Fermi paradox as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIt is really good, isn't it? Also, mandatory reading for context: https://theeggandtherock.com/p/i-wrote-a-story-for-a-friend
Comment linking /p/i-wrote-a-story-for-a-friend
on “End Poem by Julian Gough”Shame on the journalist propagating this. There's not even an Arxiv preprint, which is a low bar any crank can clear. The source appears to be https://theeggandtherock.com/p/the-blowtorch-theory-a-new-mo...
Comment linking /p/the-blowtorch-theory-a-new-model
on “Irishman's universal evolution theory challenges accepted cosmology”
