Re: At the edge

Lance <LanceGary@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: Again you patronise me because in fact cosmologists DO ask the
: questions I ask. I have, for example, seen articles by cosmologists on
: the question of what came before the Big Bang - and if I recall
: rightly the cosmologist speculated wildly by suggesting that the Big
: Bang was just one of many that have happened in sequence. The question
: about what might lie outside (hence the notion of an edge) of the
: universe created by the Big bang has also been considered. For example
: I saw a TV program in which learned cosmologists speculated about two
: or more "universes colliding", with the collision producing certain
: effects in the time and space we experience. I understand that there
: may be no good answers to these questions, maybe no intelligible
: answers even, but telling me that would be more honest than pretending
: that I am just stupid and can't understand. I asked the question
: because I do indeed find it very difficult to grasp what a possible
: answer could be, and because I had been reading some "metaphysics" on
: the nature of space and time. But anyway,

I think the problem is that "outside" is a word that has spatial meaning
and therefore relies on 3 of the dimensions that are integral to our
universe; and "before" is a word that has temporal meaning and relies on
another of the dimensions that are integral to our universe. Therefore,
asking what's outside and before is like asking what way is east when you
are standing at the north pole, or what is the name of the room the other
side of the front door.

Colliding (interacting) universes are not an unreasonable proposition, but
since there is no link between ours and their spatial and temporal
dimesnsions not only would we not know where to expect the interation to
manifest itself, we wouldnt know *when*, either.

I dont see any need for "edges" in order to have universes interact. For
example, take the balloon model to imagine 2-d universes that are the
shape of the surface of 3-d spheres (more like floatng soap bubbles,
if you like); i.e. these universes have no edge, and a traveller
eventually arrives back at his start position if he goes in a
straight line. Now imagine that two such "bubbles" passing are through
each other. In each universe, the interation zone starts as a point, grows
as a circle and then shrinks back to a point. No edges needed anywhere...

(The exact shape and trajectory of the interactions will depend on the
sizes and direction of travel of the bubbles - I have kept it simple).

Mark

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: At the edge
    ... I have, for example, seen articles by cosmologists on ... or more "universes colliding", ... In each universe, the interation zone starts as a point, grows ... Imagine that we are creatures in a simulation. ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: 8 science questions
    ... analogy I know is that of bubbles forming in a pot of boiling water, ... left by colliding bubbles. ... So in principle there could be evidence of multiple "universes" of this ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Time without end: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe
    ... > universes, and I don't understand all the possibilities. ... is that we are inside an expanding bubble of space-time ... > other bubbles that we will never be connected to, ... That would be the razor of irrelevance, ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: 8 science questions
    ... like ours nucleate inside other universes. ... analogy I know is that of bubbles forming in a pot of boiling water, ... left by colliding bubbles. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: What is this theory?
    ... I remember having seen a theory which relates the bubbles ... universe) is that there is an evolution of universes bubbling out from ... universes having the best combination of physical constants that allow ... sustainable and reproductive universes. ...
    (sci.physics.research)