Universe [Probably] 250+ Times Bigger Than What Is Observable

[LMNO]

As I understand it, the Big Bang was a dilation of space itself.  It's not that more universe is being added onto what we've got, it's that what we've got is being stretched, distances keep getting greater, like two points on a balloon as it inflates (except that matter itself is not expanding, otherwise nobody would notice anything).

I'm noticing.

The other galaxies are moving away from us because they hate us.

It's probably for the best.  Containment is key with things like this.  It's not enough to keep us at the bottom of a gravity well, light years from anything worth ruining.  It is also necessary to run.

Combine this with the Malevolent God concept, and we're pretty close to finishing the Grand Unified Theory of Everything.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

As I understand it, the Big Bang was a dilation of space itself.  It's not that more universe is being added onto what we've got, it's that what we've got is being stretched, distances keep getting greater, like two points on a balloon as it inflates (except that matter itself is not expanding, otherwise nobody would notice anything).

I'm noticing.

The other galaxies are moving away from us because they hate us.

It's probably for the best.  Containment is key with things like this.  It's not enough to keep us at the bottom of a gravity well, light years from anything worth ruining.  It is also necessary to run.

Combine this with the Malevolent God concept, and we're pretty close to finishing the Grand Unified Theory of Everything.

Not necessarily a bad thing, of course.  Better goin' out than comin' in.  There's too many fucking people around me as it is, the last thing I want is to hear 100 billion solar systems say "HAI GUISE!"

[Phox]

It's probably for the best.  Containment is key with things like this.  It's not enough to keep us at the bottom of a gravity well, light years from anything worth ruining.  It is also necessary to run.

[Requia ☣]

It's probably for the best.  Containment is key with things like this.  It's not enough to keep us at the bottom of a gravity well, light years from anything worth ruining.  It is also necessary to run.

It can be bigger than the speed of light limit would suggest because the speed of light is part of the universe, and in the very tiny fraction of time between time existing and the speed of light existing, things could go much much faster.

(Disclaimer, its been a long long time since I looked at inflation theory seriously, I might be misremembering the explanation).

[Nephew Twiddleton]

But it could be that the Big Bang that formed us is only a localized event. What if there were some other Big Bang that occurred simultaneously 154 quadrillion light years away (random number). We would never know about it, but it would still be part of the Universe.

There wouldn't be any distance between the two big bangs.  Just saying.

I think I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying, but it's been a pretty tiresome week (not in a bad way for some parts mind you). I'll try to come back to this thought later.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

But it could be that the Big Bang that formed us is only a localized event. What if there were some other Big Bang that occurred simultaneously 154 quadrillion light years away (random number). We would never know about it, but it would still be part of the Universe.

There wouldn't be any distance between the two big bangs.  Just saying.

I think I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying, but it's been a pretty tiresome week (not in a bad way for some parts mind you). I'll try to come back to this thought later.

If there's no universe, there's no empty space.  Space is made up of these little things called "Ashtekar Loops", which have structure and no mass (and are thus the inverse of Rush Limbaugh).  These little loops are exactly one "Planck Constant" across, and are very dangerous when they form gangs.  Anyway, no universe = no loops = no empty space = no distance. 

This is why Abhay Ashtekar is illegal in all but 14 states.  Nobody likes a smartass.

[BadBeast]

Have you checked out the Dayjob Orchestra?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKqJiMfkUs

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Have you checked out the Dayjob Orchestra?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKqJiMfkUs

Just to not bury it. No I haven't. half way through now. It's awesome.

[Golden Applesauce]

And also, I remember reading somewhere that lightspeed isn't even a constant, as it travels at different speeds, through
different mediums. So what we are using for light years, may actually only be light moments. And  because of the the infinitely ineffable dimensions of the Uni/Multi verse, any system we attempt to quantify Time or Distance with on such a scale is meaningless. And distracting. And far too confusing to try and apply to our little pinpoint of existence. But the Wormhole/Stargate analogy works for Star Trek, Farscape Babylon 5 etc, and I think it's the way to go.
As long as Wesley Crusher isn't involved at all, it should all work out in the end.   

Partially right.  Actual light waves/particles travel through different media at different rates (something like 1/2 speed for glass and 2/3 speed for water, IIRC) but the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant, and that's the one people talk about when they say "speed of light" or "light-years."  The speed of light in a vacuum is also the hard upper limit of speed of anything (rumors, monarchy, gravity, information) in the universe, regardless of medium.

I'm not sure what you mean by "infinitely ineffable dimensions," or by quantifying such things as being meaningless.  The scale means there is 1.3 seconds of lag between any earth-moon communications, and about 8 minutes of such lag between the earth and the sun.  Seems meaningful to me.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Topic split on account of Shatner.  Is now the star trek post in AT.

[BadBeast]

I meant that the increments we measure distance or time with, are meaningless when you start to think of crossing even our Galaxy using them as a template. I know the numbers are probably do-able, but trying to  get a realistic model of it's size, in our heads is  absurd. So the numbers describing distance become just numbers, and irrelevant because their immensity isn't anything we have a working model to scale it to.
In that way, we are shackled to the mundane. With the things that are dense enouigh to drop on your foot, and
accurately estimate the weight of. And how long it was since the biggest big lump of dense stuff we can see, or hold in our heads, sinks below the horizon. And all of it would mean nothing at all, without our quick brains. Seeing patterns, making educated predictions, that's what we are really fucking good at. We've nearly thought ourselves right off the Earth, with it's
We can only see the things at the bottom of this gravity well. the slow moving, dense things. But we know that matter is just a tightly packed mass of tiny theoretical parts, going around each other. We can't see the spaces in between quite so well, but that's the way we are going.   

Doesn't matter, might matter,  Dark matter, Light Matter, Microcosm &  Macrocosm are fairly exact models of each other on the Atomic / Solar scale, with the planets and moons being the electrons and neutrons, with the Sun shining on as a nucleus. That is a comparison I can get my head round.  BeforeI start losing interest again.

[BadBeast]

Topic split on account of Shatner.  Is now the star trek post in AT.

Good move Rog. There's a place for everything, and yesterday, I learned that Trek's place isn't just whereever I carelessly drop it.  

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Topic split on account of Shatner.  Is now the star trek post in AT.

Good move Rog. There's a place for everything, and yesterday, I learned that Trek's place isn't just whereever I carelessly drop it.  

Well, anyways, I had Scotty beam it up there.  NOT JORDE.  SCOTTY.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Topic split on account of Shatner.  Is now the star trek post in AT.

Good move Rog. There's a place for everything, and yesterday, I learned that Trek's place isn't just whereever I carelessly drop it.  

Well, anyways, I had Scotty beam it up there.  NOT O'BRIEN.  SCOTTY.

Fixt. That is all.

[Bruno]

And also, I remember reading somewhere that lightspeed isn't even a constant, as it travels at different speeds, through
different mediums. So what we are using for light years, may actually only be light moments. And  because of the the infinitely ineffable dimensions of the Uni/Multi verse, any system we attempt to quantify Time or Distance with on such a scale is meaningless. And distracting. And far too confusing to try and apply to our little pinpoint of existence. But the Wormhole/Stargate analogy works for Star Trek, Farscape Babylon 5 etc, and I think it's the way to go.
As long as Wesley Crusher isn't involved at all, it should all work out in the end.   

Partially right.  Actual light waves/particles travel through different media at different rates (something like 1/2 speed for glass and 2/3 speed for water, IIRC) but the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant, and that's the one people talk about when they say "speed of light" or "light-years."  The speed of light in a vacuum is also the hard upper limit of speed of anything (rumors, monarchy, gravity, information) in the universe, regardless of medium.

I'm not sure what you mean by "infinitely ineffable dimensions," or by quantifying such things as being meaningless.  The scale means there is 1.3 seconds of lag between any earth-moon communications, and about 8 minutes of such lag between the earth and the sun.  Seems meaningful to me.

Seems like I remember reading somewhere that space may be able to expand faster than light.

Or maybe I didn't.