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Science A couple things I've wondered about...

jasperkent

jasperkent

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1. OK, so the universe is about 3.7 billion years old. What was around before that?
2. The universe is expanding. Am I expanding too? I mean-- if I am expanding along with the universe then I'd never perceive a difference, right?
Just curious...
 
1. Baby Jesus?
2. No.

In all seriousness tho, I think 1. is an interesting question. My theory is that the universe has a sort of expiry date. I think "matter" always has and always will exist, it's just where it goes. I don't think there was nothing before the big bang, as what could have triggered it? So is there some kind of cycle where the universe forms, exists, decays, then forms again? Haven't got a Scooby, but it's interesting to think about.
2. Blew my mind a little bit, imagine if we were constantly ballooning by a thousand times every second, but so was everything else, so we'd never know. Madness. I think the universe expanding is again part of the big bang theory. Like an explosion going outwards rather than everything getting larger. Although I did read something about subatomic particles getting farther apart with time, which I suppose could be true.
 
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I think a possibility is that we might live in just one of many, maybe infinite universes and our one is somehow embedded in another one. Read about that in a fictive book but maybe it's close to the reality. Or that it does repeat, expand, collapse, big bang, expand again. But it's a very interesting question I've also wondered about. And if then where and how are the other universes, could we theoretically access them?

Where does it expand? Idk, difficult to imagine that there is nothing around our universe and it somehow creates spacetime as it expands. There is assumed to be lots of dark matter in our universe which can't even be detected yet.. there are quite a few yet unsolved mysteries.
 
my random theory is that when a black hole accrues enough mass it punches a hole in space and leaks mass into a nothingness that becomes a new universe. if our universe continues expanding because of energy then it seems reasonable to assume that energy is leaking into this universe from somewhere and isn't just self-sustaining.

even the sun is not truly self-sustaining as it will eventually burn out, we just perceive it as infinite because it has so much fuel to burn through that it's just always there as we live and die from generation to generation.
 
Maybe sentience is an inevitable and irreversible consequence of natural constants, so that the most powerful sentient being eventually conquers and subordinates all of material reality and eliminates duality thus collapsing everything together creating conditions for a new bang and new cycle.
 
it's fun to ponder, but until cosmologists and quantum physicists unravel it all... i think we can only speculate on what happened prior to the first moments of the big expansion.
 
jasperkent said:
OK, so the universe is about 3.7 billion years old. What was around before that?
Click to expand...

today, we believe that the universe is over 13 billion years old.

it's a great question. if you consider that time began with the big bang, then the question itself makes no sense (like the commonly quoted parallel "what is north of the north pole"). but today there are other theories that suggest time did not begin with the big bang so we don't know for sure.

i think, sometimes, that we're not wired to understand your question. i found this helpful (in understanding why we may not understand :)): flatland

alasdair
 
If the Big Bang was the creation of out universe then we are living in the aftershock of an explosion…if that’s the case then free will is a myth right ?
 
Also what was around before the bang ? Space and a type of black hole we haven’t observed yet, then once a super massive super massive black hole eats enough…bang…like everything expands up until a certain point where the pull of said black hole is so strong it sucks everything back up…I mean that makes sense right ?
 
jasperkent said:
Free Will might be a myth but I don't see what the Big Bang has to do with it.
Click to expand...
The Big Bang is essentially a explosion right ? We’ll just like with explosions we set off the trajectory of everything in said explosion could be mapped out using enough maths, like explosion happens sending X flying at Y speed and colliding with Z at speed/trajectory which hit A at said speed ect… it could all be mapped out at the time of explosion all the way down to bouncing around molecules technically
 
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