Serenity595
Active Member
Can We Leave the Universe?
Could we reach the "edge" of the universe? And if so, could we leave its confines? These are intriguing questions in the realm of science and philosophy that I believe need answers, so I've decided to pose my theory on the subject. You may agree or disagree as you see fit. Also, if you see any incorrect science in this article, please tell me!
Alright, so we know that our universe is finite. We also know that it's constantly expanding. With the knowledge of these two facts, we can then conclude that our universe started from a single point (i.e. the Big Bang theory). From this, we can then conclude thereafter that there is indeed an "edge" to the universe. A finite system must have an end, right? Otherwise, it would be infinite.
So, now that we have deducted that our universe has an edge, the next question is: can we reach it? In my opinion, no, and that's because of the universal speed limit, and the accelerated rate at which our universe is expanding.
As you may know, the generally accepted speed limit of the universe for an object with mass is near the speed of light. So why can't said object reach the speed of light itself? Well, the postulate is that this object would require an infinite amount of energy in order to travel at such a speed. And, as we discussed earlier, the universe is finite, so it would be illogical to assume that any matter or energy in our universe is infinite by nature.
The accelerated rate at which our universe is expanding makes the goal of reaching the edge of the universe even more impossible because not only would you have to catch up with the universe's already massive expansion, you'd also have to outrun the expansion of the galaxies. As you may know, the galaxies in our universe are expanding away from each other at a rate faster than the speed of light. This is possible because the "universal speed limit" only applies to local velocities; it does not apply to comoving coordinates, such as in the case of galaxies traveling at relatively increasing velocities.
For the sake of discussion, though, let's say that you could go faster than the speed of light with some kind of mass stabilizer and an interdimensional energy core. You've traveled across thousands of galaxies to get to your destination and it seems like you'll reach the edge of the universe in no time. But even with this luxury, you still have a problem: time itself.
You see, according to theory, any speed less than the speed of light makes time go slower in your perspective while everything else relative to you goes faster. Once you reach the speed of light, time would be infinitely slow for you which means everything else relative to you passes by at an infinite speed. However, we already established that you have to go faster than the speed of light to reach the edge of the universe. This is where things get strange. Based upon a theory involving this equation:
...time would actually start speeding up once you go faster than the speed of light. This means that from your view, time outside your ship would be decelerating as shown in this graph:
So if we follow this logic, we can conclude that it would be impossible for you to reach the edge of the universe even if you could go faster than the speed of light because time itself would work against you. The faster you go beyond the speed of light, the faster you experience time. The faster you experience time, the longer the amount of time it would take for you to reach the edge of the universe.
If we follow the line of the graph shown earlier, we can also conclude that eventually it will drop to a time slowing factor of 0 (for reference, our real time is based on a time slowing factor of 1). So what would happen when that event occurs? Of course, all of this is entirely theoretical, but we could predict that since time would be slowed to a halt, time itself would no longer move forward. As far as I know, this does not violate the idea of a linear time structure, as you wouldn't regress in time, but rather, never advance.
But let's say you had some kind of apparatus on your ship that negated the effects of time dilation with travel that is faster than the speed of light. It may sound absurd, but we've gotten this far, so why not keep going? So in this scenario we finally are able to reach the edge of the universe. But the next question is: can we cross it? This is where things get wacky because you have to first understand what a universe is.
The definition of a universe is "all existing matter and space considered as a whole". This means that anything outside of our universe (assuming there is only one universe) could neither be matter nor space, otherwise it would be considered part of our universe. You may think that nothing would be outside of our universe, but that's not entirely reasonable.
First, you have to define what "nothing" is. If you think that nothing is empty space, then in this context, that would be incorrect. The reason is because scientists have found something called the cosmic microwave background or CBM. It's thermal radiation assumed to be left over from the Big Bang. I think we can all agree that radiation is still "something", and since this CBM appears to permeate throughout all of known space, then every centimeter of our universe would never be literally empty.
With this in mind, we now need to redefine nothing in this context to explain what lies beyond the edge of our universe. Well, we know that a universe consists of all matter and space. Therefore, the "nothingness" outside of our universe would be outside of space itself. So think on this: how can you leave the universe if there is nothing to leave into? You can't fly a spaceship into space that does not exist. A spaceship is physical matter and therefore requires physical space in the same way that your body requires physical space to exist. So then if you can't enter into space that is not there, what would happen if you tried? To be frank, I have absolutely no idea. It's some interesting food for thought, though.
So in conclusion, if you ever wanted to leave the universe, you'd not only have to go faster than the speed of light, negate the problems that arise with infinite mass and energy, as well as avoid the effects of time dilation - you'd also have to travel into space that doesn't even exist! But in the end, why would you want to leave? Our universe is such a wonderfully intricate and beautifully complex place to live in. Is it all that there is? I think not, but I'll leave that for you to decide on your own.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Have a nice day.
Could we reach the "edge" of the universe? And if so, could we leave its confines? These are intriguing questions in the realm of science and philosophy that I believe need answers, so I've decided to pose my theory on the subject. You may agree or disagree as you see fit. Also, if you see any incorrect science in this article, please tell me!
Alright, so we know that our universe is finite. We also know that it's constantly expanding. With the knowledge of these two facts, we can then conclude that our universe started from a single point (i.e. the Big Bang theory). From this, we can then conclude thereafter that there is indeed an "edge" to the universe. A finite system must have an end, right? Otherwise, it would be infinite.
So, now that we have deducted that our universe has an edge, the next question is: can we reach it? In my opinion, no, and that's because of the universal speed limit, and the accelerated rate at which our universe is expanding.
As you may know, the generally accepted speed limit of the universe for an object with mass is near the speed of light. So why can't said object reach the speed of light itself? Well, the postulate is that this object would require an infinite amount of energy in order to travel at such a speed. And, as we discussed earlier, the universe is finite, so it would be illogical to assume that any matter or energy in our universe is infinite by nature.
The accelerated rate at which our universe is expanding makes the goal of reaching the edge of the universe even more impossible because not only would you have to catch up with the universe's already massive expansion, you'd also have to outrun the expansion of the galaxies. As you may know, the galaxies in our universe are expanding away from each other at a rate faster than the speed of light. This is possible because the "universal speed limit" only applies to local velocities; it does not apply to comoving coordinates, such as in the case of galaxies traveling at relatively increasing velocities.
For the sake of discussion, though, let's say that you could go faster than the speed of light with some kind of mass stabilizer and an interdimensional energy core. You've traveled across thousands of galaxies to get to your destination and it seems like you'll reach the edge of the universe in no time. But even with this luxury, you still have a problem: time itself.
You see, according to theory, any speed less than the speed of light makes time go slower in your perspective while everything else relative to you goes faster. Once you reach the speed of light, time would be infinitely slow for you which means everything else relative to you passes by at an infinite speed. However, we already established that you have to go faster than the speed of light to reach the edge of the universe. This is where things get strange. Based upon a theory involving this equation:
...time would actually start speeding up once you go faster than the speed of light. This means that from your view, time outside your ship would be decelerating as shown in this graph:
So if we follow this logic, we can conclude that it would be impossible for you to reach the edge of the universe even if you could go faster than the speed of light because time itself would work against you. The faster you go beyond the speed of light, the faster you experience time. The faster you experience time, the longer the amount of time it would take for you to reach the edge of the universe.
If we follow the line of the graph shown earlier, we can also conclude that eventually it will drop to a time slowing factor of 0 (for reference, our real time is based on a time slowing factor of 1). So what would happen when that event occurs? Of course, all of this is entirely theoretical, but we could predict that since time would be slowed to a halt, time itself would no longer move forward. As far as I know, this does not violate the idea of a linear time structure, as you wouldn't regress in time, but rather, never advance.
But let's say you had some kind of apparatus on your ship that negated the effects of time dilation with travel that is faster than the speed of light. It may sound absurd, but we've gotten this far, so why not keep going? So in this scenario we finally are able to reach the edge of the universe. But the next question is: can we cross it? This is where things get wacky because you have to first understand what a universe is.
The definition of a universe is "all existing matter and space considered as a whole". This means that anything outside of our universe (assuming there is only one universe) could neither be matter nor space, otherwise it would be considered part of our universe. You may think that nothing would be outside of our universe, but that's not entirely reasonable.
First, you have to define what "nothing" is. If you think that nothing is empty space, then in this context, that would be incorrect. The reason is because scientists have found something called the cosmic microwave background or CBM. It's thermal radiation assumed to be left over from the Big Bang. I think we can all agree that radiation is still "something", and since this CBM appears to permeate throughout all of known space, then every centimeter of our universe would never be literally empty.
With this in mind, we now need to redefine nothing in this context to explain what lies beyond the edge of our universe. Well, we know that a universe consists of all matter and space. Therefore, the "nothingness" outside of our universe would be outside of space itself. So think on this: how can you leave the universe if there is nothing to leave into? You can't fly a spaceship into space that does not exist. A spaceship is physical matter and therefore requires physical space in the same way that your body requires physical space to exist. So then if you can't enter into space that is not there, what would happen if you tried? To be frank, I have absolutely no idea. It's some interesting food for thought, though.
So in conclusion, if you ever wanted to leave the universe, you'd not only have to go faster than the speed of light, negate the problems that arise with infinite mass and energy, as well as avoid the effects of time dilation - you'd also have to travel into space that doesn't even exist! But in the end, why would you want to leave? Our universe is such a wonderfully intricate and beautifully complex place to live in. Is it all that there is? I think not, but I'll leave that for you to decide on your own.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Have a nice day.