Quote:
Originally Posted by evman150
What is beyond that? That question is like what philosophers call a category error. "What lies on the outside of everything?" How can there be anything beyond everything? That statement contradicts itself and is thus a category error.
The universe is borderless and centreless. Trying to conceptualize the "shape" of the universe is not really possible. You can look at all the hypercubes you want, aint gonna help you conceptualize an isotropic four dimensional universe.
Here is a gedankenexperiment to attempt to help you imagine the difficulty involved:
Imagine you are on the surface of a (expanding - fwiw) beachball. Does the surface of the beachball have a border? Does the surface of the beachball have a centre? Bring this example up from 2d\3d to 3d\4d and you have what our universe is. A three dimensional entity wrapped around a fourth dimension, no edge, no centre.
|
I was thinking more in a scientific/tangible sense. As stated in the post previous to this, the beachball, as it expands, occupies a volume. To say no edge, no centre would than dictate that the measurement of 78 billion light years means nothing. To give a measurement must mean there is a distance from one point to another.
I'll ask this than, if the distance of the universe is 78 billion light years across...what is beyond that point? Incomprehensible. There is one error in the philosophical sense. To say "Anything beyond everything" means that it is known that "everything" is around us, Is this true? We can't be certain of that. Interesting train of thought that will eventually make ones head blow up
