What was there before everything came to existence?

[Hugh de Launay]

By extension it applies to the 3-dimensional universe. The universe can be wrapped around upon itself so that, if you travel in one direction long enough, you will (in theory) arrive back at your destination.

This is true if the observer begins and ends his/her trip inside our universe. Beyond being philosophical, what would an observer outside our universe observe about our universe? -- assuming some sense can be made of such a question.

 

[jbriggs444]

This is true if the observer begins and ends his/her trip inside our universe. Beyond being philosophical, what would an observer outside our universe observe about our universe? -- assuming some sense can be made of such a question.

It is philosophical. There need be no outside. Any speculation about an outside is just that.

 

[phinds]

It is philosophical. There need be no outside. Any speculation about an outside is just that.

I disagree that it is philosophical. I think it is nonsensical. "Universe" is, by definition, all there is. It is one thing to say that there might be a part of the universe that has different characteristics than the rest (and there is not at present any inkling that there is such a place) but even if there were, it would STILL be part of the universe, not "outside" it.

 

[jbriggs444]

Is such an abstraction applied to the "edge" (if any) of our universe?

Since no edge is required and no evidence for an edge is found, no edge is assumed. Instead, we use Occam's razor and take the simple background assumption that, on the largest scales, the universe is the same everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_principle. A universe with an edge would violate this principle. A universe that is finite but which wraps around on itself would not.

The abstract ideas of a finite but unbounded space or of an infinite and unbounded space give us confidence that we are not building our cosmological models on a self-contradictory foundation. Both possibilities are consistent with the evidence so far. There is no need to choose.

 

[berkeman]

Thread closed for Moderation...