Conventional physics views the universe as evolving from initial conditions via fixed laws. An alternative view is that the universe is a self-constructing system with no external builder. Life is the physical process through which the universe explores possibilities and generates novelty.

Selection is not exclusive to biology. It is a fundamental physical force that acts on matter, favoring configurations that persist over time. This process of 'selfish matter' battling for persistence was happening long before the first cells emerged, making life a natural consequence of physics.

Cosmologists mistakenly model the universe with simple gas laws, as if it's a random bag of chemicals. Instead, it behaves like an evolving organism—"a dog"—that grows more complex and interesting over time. This fundamental mischaracterization leads to flawed theories.

Cosmology is stuck because it operates on the unexamined axiom that our universe is a random, one-shot event. This single, unproven assumption forces all subsequent theories and interpretations of data into a flawed paradigm, preventing exploration of more fruitful ideas like an evolved universe.

Long before Einstein's relativity, scholars like Pierre-Simon Laplace and John Michell theorized about "dark stars." They reasoned that if a star were massive enough, its escape velocity could exceed the speed of light, trapping light and rendering it invisible. This early concept was based entirely on Newton's laws of gravity, demonstrating remarkable scientific foresight.

The universe builds complexity by repurposing existing structures for new functions, a process known as exaptation. For example, the CNO cycle evolved to make stars more efficient at producing black holes, but its components (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen) were later exapted as the building blocks for life.

This theory posits that the singularity of a black hole in a parent universe "bounces" to become the Big Bang of a child universe. Slight variations in physical constants are passed down, and universes that produce more black holes are more "reproductively successful," driving cosmic evolution.

The dominant cosmological model, based on a random one-shot universe, fails to predict observed structures. Instead of questioning the foundational axiom, scientists invent "dark matter" as a fudge factor to fix discrepancies, much like Ptolemaic astronomers added epicycles to save their geocentric model.

Due to time dilation, an observer falling into a large black hole would witness the entire future history of the universe unfold. Simultaneously, extreme tidal forces would stretch their body apart in a process called "spaghettification," extruding them like toothpaste through spacetime.