I have thought a lot in recent years about the nature of the cosmos and I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the idea of so-called empty space being anything but …. that a tiny chunk of it, deconstructed could provide the material for all of the matter and energy in our known universe.
If I am right, then it follows that what we think of as matter … that which is ‘solid’ (albeit a thin solid like a gas or a dense solid like a diamond and everything in between) is in reality, infinitely less solid than empty space. If the decomposition of a tiny chunk of empty space could provide the material for everything in the universe it would have to have a density that is quite literally beyond our power to imagine.
I was thinking today about the relationships between time, space, size and distance and I found myself wondering about the universal speed limit … the speed of light. Why should light be limited to a particular speed? Just spit-balling here, but I suspect that the answer has to do with displacement.
A ship’s hull passing through water has its speed limited by displacement. You can actually calculate the maximum speed at which a displacement hull can travel, based on a lot of complex considerations like total wetted surface area, total length, specific gravity of the water, friction coefficients et al. It occurs to me that a similar set of constraints might apply to light passing through space, if it had in fact to displace the space that it passed through. It would explain the constant maximum speed, in my mind anyhow.
That got me thinking about the impossibility of mankind ever achieving inter-stellar or inter-galactic travel. The vast distances involved mean that, limited to the speed of light, we’d die of old age, long before we could ever travel any significant distance through space. I reckon the solution will involve a paradigm shift in our thinking. And we will need to learn to differentiate between the concept of travelling THROUGH space (which is the kind of thing we already conceptually think of) and travelling IN space …… WITHIN space!
Travelling through space involves movement of an homogenous object or group of objects… would involve displacement and be subjected to the limitations of displacement. If I am right, then warp speed (i.e. speed exceeding the speed of light) is a forever fantasy of the sci-fi folks.
Travelling WITHIN space, on the other hand is a whole different deal. Think of a tube that is closely filled with round marbles. If you attempt to push an extra marble into the full tube at one end, it will immediately cause a movement of every marble in the tube and one marble will be expelled at the opposite end of the tube. And the time taken for that to occur would be = to the time taken for the extra marble to be introduced into the tube at the other end i.e. instant
The tube will always contain exactly the same number of marbles, no matter how many new ones you force into the tube. It will always expel one instantly, at the other end of the tube. If mankind is ever going to achieve any kind of space travel, he is going to have to learn to disassemble himself at one point (one end of the tube) in space, insert his matter into empty space(an ultimately dense medium that cannot absorb ANY additional material), and reassemble himself when he emerges (instantly) at his destination. Just how he will achieve that … and even more interesting, how he will control his point of emergence from solid space, I haven’t a clue.
The bottom line for me is, if I’m wrong about my concept of ’empty space’ as a super-solid, then I see zero prospects for mankind to EVER achieve long distance space travel. Given the amazing things that we have seen technology give birth to in recent history though, if I am right about where the universe came from (a tiny chunk of empty space) then I’ve no doubt whatever that we ARE capable of one day finding a way.
And you were worried that YOU are a little strange?
Andrew Caddle 20130807
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