“If the universe is infinite, it has always been infinite”

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Ron Pavellas

My latest discussion with ChatGPT

Ron: How can we comprehend that the universe is expanding, without having reference to a ‘something’ that it is expanding into?

forbes.com

Comprehending the expansion of the universe without reference to it “expanding into something” can be challenging because our everyday experiences are based on objects moving through space. However, the expansion of the universe operates differently. Here’s how we can understand it conceptually:

1. The Universe is All of Space Itself

The universe doesn’t expand into anything because the universe is not an object within space; it is space itself. When we say the universe is expanding, we mean that the fabric of space between galaxies is stretching, not that galaxies are moving outward into some pre-existing empty space. In other words, space itself is growing, and the distances between unbound objects (like galaxies) are increasing as a result.

2. No External “Edge” or “Boundary”

The expansion is not like a balloon inflating into a larger room or into some pre-existing void. The universe doesn’t have an “outside” or “edge” in the conventional sense because space is self-contained. As space expands, more of it is created between objects, but this doesn’t imply that space is pushing into anything external.

One helpful analogy is the surface of a balloon. Imagine the universe as the two-dimensional surface of a balloon. As the balloon inflates, the surface area increases, and points on the surface move farther apart. However, from the perspective of beings living on the balloon’s surface (restricted to 2D), there’s no “outside” or “edge” into which the surface expands. Similarly, in our 3D universe, space itself expands, but there is no need for it to expand into something external.

3. Understanding Through General Relativity

Einstein’s general theory of relativity describes how space and time are interconnected and how the geometry of space can evolve over time. In this framework, the “expansion” of the universe refers to the change in the geometry of space itself. The mathematical description doesn’t require an external space for our universe to expand into—just a change in the distances between points within the universe.

4. The Observable Universe

Our comprehension of the universe is limited to the “observable universe,” which is the region we can see because light from distant objects has had time to reach us. Beyond this, there could be more universe that we cannot observe yet, but the idea of the universe expanding is about the increasing separation of galaxies in this observable region. The important point here is that as space expands, the observable universe gets larger over time, but we’re not looking at it as expanding into something else.

5. The Infinite or Finite Universe

Whether the universe is infinite or finite is still an open question. If the universe is infinite, it has always been infinite, even during the Big Bang, and it simply keeps expanding. If it’s finite, the universe might still be boundless, like the surface of a sphere (but in higher dimensions), and there’s no external space beyond its boundary. In either case, there’s no need for something outside the universe.

6. Expansion of Distances, Not Movement

When we say galaxies are moving apart, it’s not the galaxies traveling through space like cars on a road. Instead, the space between galaxies is stretching. This is fundamentally different from motion through space; rather, the fabric of space is expanding, causing galaxies to recede from each other without needing a background space to move through.

Conclusion: No “Outside” is Needed

The universe’s expansion is a growth of space itself, and it doesn’t require an external reference point or some “outside” into which it is expanding. Our difficulty in imagining this comes from our everyday intuition, which is based on objects moving in space, but the expansion of the universe is about the geometry of space evolving over time. There is no “container” for the universe to expand into—space itself is expanding.

Second Question:
If space is expanding everywhere, it must be expanding locally too; that is, within our solar system. Is it possible to measure the effect of this expansion locally?

Yes, space is indeed expanding everywhere, but the effect of cosmic expansion is so small on local scales—like within our solar system, our galaxy, or even clusters of galaxies—that it is essentially negligible compared to the forces that bind these structures together.

Here’s why the expansion of the universe isn’t noticeable locally and can’t be measured within our solar system:

  1. Gravitational Bound Systems Resist Expansion: The expansion of space becomes noticeable only on large, intergalactic scales. On smaller scales—such as within galaxies, solar systems, or even galaxy clusters—gravity dominates. The gravitational attraction between objects (like planets orbiting the Sun, or stars orbiting the center of the galaxy) is much stronger than the effect of cosmic expansion, effectively preventing space from stretching between them.For instance, the gravitational pull between the Earth and the Sun is vastly stronger than the minuscule effect of the universe’s expansion at this scale.
  2. Cosmic Expansion’s Rate: The rate of expansion is very small at human scales. The current expansion rate, given by the Hubble constant, is about 70 kilometers per second per megaparsec (1 megaparsec = about 3.26 million light-years). This means that objects a million light-years apart move away from each other at around 70 km/s. However, objects within our solar system or galaxy are much, much closer, meaning the expansion rate between them is effectively zero.
  3. No Observable Local Expansion: On local scales, such as within our solar system, objects are gravitationally bound, so we don’t observe any measurable expansion. Even on the scale of our galaxy (the Milky Way), the gravitational forces holding it together far outweigh the very tiny effects of cosmic expansion.
  4. Cosmic Expansion vs. Other Forces: In addition to gravity, other forces such as the electromagnetic force (which holds atoms and molecules together) and nuclear forces (which bind atomic nuclei) are also vastly stronger than the cosmic expansion. This is why objects like atoms, planets, and stars don’t “expand” as the universe expands.

Why Local Expansion Can’t Be Measured:

Even though space is expanding on the largest scales, the effect of this expansion in smaller, gravitationally bound systems (like the solar system) is so tiny that it is unmeasurable with our current technology. The gravitational binding between planets and the Sun, for example, completely overrides any effect from the expansion of space on that scale.

In fact, only when you look at distances between galaxies that are not gravitationally bound to each other do you start to see the effect of cosmic expansion. This is why the universe’s expansion is mainly observed through the redshift of distant galaxies, rather than any changes in local distances.

In short, cosmic expansion doesn’t affect local systems like the solar system or even our galaxy in any measurable way, and this effect is far too small to be measured at these scales. The observable effects of expansion only become relevant at intergalactic distances.

4o

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Satori at Age Eight?

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Ron Pavellas

(Posted November 6, 2018 in my ‘Being Old’ weblog, now shut down)

At age seven or eight I had an experience which I ever-more perceive as a satori.

“Satori (Chinese kāi wù) may be defined as an intuitive looking into the nature of things in contradistinction to the analytical or logical understanding of it. Practically it means the unfolding of a new world hitherto unperceived in the confusion of a dualistically-trained mind…” (Source)

My world changed almost entirely beginning, abruptly, upon my reaching age five and one-half. My first memories were of living with my father and mother and four others–my mother’s three siblings and their father–in the upper flat of a small Victorian house in San Francisco, just prior the USA’s entry into the Second World War. Soon after the war began, my parents moved me away from this large, loving, doting family, having garnered an apartment in a new government housing project on the south edge of San Francisco. Dad had gotten a job as a war worker in the Kaiser Shipyard across San Francisco Bay in Richmond. Soon after this move, my sister was born, my only sibling. Simultaneously, Dad became active in the Socialist Labor Party of San Francisco. Our small apartment often had loud and boisterous conversations when party members met there. And I contracted an inner ear infection from which I almost died. All these things were a sudden break from all that I known before.

I had my satori during the recovery period of my surgery.

It is in my nature to be intuitive, verified by my Myers-Briggs personality type, INTJ: “Quickly sees patterns in external events and develop long-range explanatory perspectives.” All these events  (including associating with other children for the first time) destroyed my first impressions of the universe; I had to make sense of it all, another characteristic of my “type.”

Here is what I remember, vividly, from my satori: I suddenly “saw” everything, whole. Things suddenly made sense. It startled me, and the vision/impression quickly dissipated. I remember the feeling of being unworthy of this vision, that I was too small to carry it.

Around the same time, I don’t remember if before or after my satori, but, certainly after my recovery from ear surgery, I had a singular experience. I was walking to school, alone, on a cool morning, beside a culvert bordering our housing project, when “I” shot straight up into the sky, looked down, saw my body below, then instantaneously returned. I have no intuitive or logical explanation for this. Both these events have stayed with me during the ensuing decades to this time, now at age eighty-one.

“… Or we may say that with satori our entire surroundings are viewed from quite an unexpected angle of perception. Whatever this is, the world for those who have gained a satori is no more the old world as it used to be, even with all its flowing streams and burning fires, it is never the same one again. Logically stated, all its (the world’s) opposites and contradictions are united and harmonized into a consistent organic whole. This is a mystery and a miracle, but according to the Zen masters such is being performed every day. Satori can thus be had only through our once personally experiencing it.” (Source)

I am now reading two books which seem to be leading me back toward my earlier ‘realization’:

I feel I am ready to understand what these books contain, through my many life experiences and through my readings.

It is almost painful to expose myself in this manner: I ask, “whence arises this need to communicate to others these inner, intimate thoughts and impressions?” The only answer I have, outside of my having an as-yet untamed ego, is that it is in my nature to say to others, “look what I found!” This is a major reason for my having initiated this personal magazine, or “blog.”

Here is a selection of books and authors which and who have helped prepare me:

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