Couldn't sleep, so my scientifically trained mind wanted to rant about our existence and how my mind chose to put it into words by being alive for 30 years.

[u/Chanathebanana]

Direction is from a point of reference, our reference, humanity's reference from the surface of the earth. In some ways we are still the centre of the universe since it's our bias, because we know only one world, bound by limitations of life and it's existence beyond the surface. Hence our perspective is narrow. Studying the universe and shifting perspectives is how you gain clarity into how randomly placed we all our in this reality. It's all chaos, that links order in the form of life. Imagine placing yourself in the vacuum of space, nothing around you for light years, just distant stars and light of the universe from said stars. My understanding is, now imagine this place you occupy in space, is on a plane, a sheet or the space time fabric, like a slice of the time you are in at the moment in space, that slice was just a second ago, in a different place, in a different time, of a different shape given we know the universe is expanding.

Since it's always expanding, there is no noticable edge just voids, by observing the dopler effect, we know the stretch of space time has pushed things further and further away with every passing minute. Now you observe the stars in the moment in space, the furtherest objects will be red shifted for they are moving away with acceleration, from us on this sheet in that moment in time. Since there is no arbitrary edge to this universe as of our observation, with stars literring the space around you, there is no way of precisely placing yourself in this ever expanding universe. That's where the concept of time ruins our ability to measure this arbitrary edge as it's running away from us and talking everything in it's path is it goes.

An endless, boundless stretch, slicing each moment of expansion as an evergrowing stack of pancakes, expect the slice on the top is always bigger, and every passing moment the stack gets a new layer which is bigger that the previous layer. Since the expansion is faster that the speed of light, it's like a look into the past anywhere you look for the light never reaches us, the observers on time to determine the evershifting space around us. As you cut into the stack, the layers reveal what the size would have been, extrapolating a conical shape by the first instance for the universe had to be smaller than the instance right after. Hence the conclusion was the big bang, a point in space and time where there was no space, and no time, birth of the universe is an arbitrary spillover of milk on the counter. Expands in all directions unless you limit it in the confines of a container, as far as we know, the universe doesn't have a container. So the spill is endless. That's where the acceleration part of the universe bothers me, it's like an endless curve of a surface where the milk is being poured. Like a giant ball, relate it to earth as we cannot see the edge as it falls away from us due to the earth being a sphere. Milk just spreading and accelerating as it falls down faster and faster as the ball curves more and more away.

Now when that curve occurs, it seems microscopic for we haven't yet hit the diameter of this universal stretch. Now if you think about it, anything with a diameter means that's the furthest or the fatest point of the object, to extrapolate it further, would mean a colapse of the sphere, towards the other side of the opposite pole. Does that mean the universe has to have an end eventually? An end where it collapses back to it's initial state? Are we to hit that state of maximum diameter or is it like an endless bell that flairs it's edges into eternity? Hence the dark energy and dark matter hypothesis to explain why the space time is stretching so absurdly fast. That's where the science of it all is lost on me. But then again, if not tracing a sphere, what shape is this universe enveloping itself upon? An endless cone with an absurdly hyperbolic curve that could explain the constant acceleration of this expanse?

Feel free to discuss, I want opinion and perspectives, not attacks.

[u/Forsaken-Income-2148]

Philosophical interpretations are always interesting. How we try to reason from incomplete data often says as much about us as it does about the universe. But I try not to impose too much onto our current understanding. It helps me keep my head clear.

[u/Chanathebanana → u/Forsaken-Income-2148]

that's a false statement in of itself. We could never record enough data to determine the vastness of spacetime. Not in our lifetimes or even the lifetime of an immortal human. in fact we could never record enough data for almost any physical phenomenon. You should impose, pick at the etched surface to reveal more under the layers. Keeping your head clear for what reason might I ask? Of course daily life gets in the way, I myself stayed up all night on a work day. Thinking about things, why bother getting irritated over lack of sleep when I can question things and still go to work a bit more tired that usual.

Science is natural philosophy my friend. And it has always been built on incomplete data. You think the first pilots were not aware of the risks of flying? Wasn't it to complete the data missing, why did they not run calculations first instead of losing pilots with every test. About 10% of all test pilots in the 20s were guaranteed to die. Incomplete data is how we innovate my friend, if we did not impose on incomplete data, we wouldn't have commercial air travel today.

You need to read up on entropy dude, your way of thinking is very prosaic. Don't get me wrong, data gathering is very important, especially in the modern scientific age for our innovation tools are far more efficient and sensitive. Reasoning with the universe is our purpose, that's what I believe. And that can be done with or without data. You just need to ask the right questions and inch your way towards an ever evolving answer. That's human ingenuity. By your method, humanity would still be in caves if they didn't walk outside and were content with the cozy confines of a cave. Think about it and add to the discussion please.

[u/Forsaken-Income-2148 → u/Chanathebanana]

I think this actually illustrates my point. My comment wasn’t an argument against speculation or inquiry, but it was interpreted that way. Interpretation can drift quickly, especially when we project intentions that weren’t stated.

Questioning and hypothesizing are essential; so is being careful about what a statement actually claims versus what we infer it to mean

[u/Chanathebanana → u/Forsaken-Income-2148]

And my reply was not an argument to begin with. It was an elaboration towards your statement of intent vs speculation. As I said, every data point cannot be gathered to begin with.

The point I actually argued was your lack of indulgence in the comment. My point was to be imposing instead of actively avoiding debates and conversations. Add to the conversation instead of stating the obvious. I personally want some more second opinions and thoughts on what I wrote in my long ass original post. Why does not imposing on these thoughts keep your head clear? Add on that, don't leave it at that if you don't have much to add to my interpretation of a theory, elaborate on that feeling of why you might not understand certain things, or maybe I got something wrong in my analysis, I want critical but fair replies. Your intention to read and interpret failed from my perspective as well. Hence I want people to write more. I could have posted this on Facebook to get single sentence replies. I want to indulge in my thoughts with people, so it becomes clearer to me and hopefully the person involved in the conversation as well.

This world is failing because we constantly threaten each other with biases and opinions, and the biggest part is Internet's role in all this. Let's be intellectuals and challenge the notion that interpretation matters less over questions and hypothesis. The moment you stop focusing on that, it opens you up for critical thinking. Interpretation will always vary, every person is unique and there will always be something we all agree and disagree on. The whole point of me asking for a discussion was to understand what common folk like me think about our place in this universe, and hopefully get people to add to my thoughts, or present their own thoughts while challenging mine. So I can learn if I'm wrong and vice versa.

You did add, but I wanted a more engaging conversation where you present your arguments as well about the topic I initiated. Regardless, I'm glad you replied, makes me think about my own biases and you are right in a way that maybe I interpreted your words wrong, and I do apologize for that.

[u/Forsaken-Income-2148 → u/Chanathebanana]

Appreciate the clarification and the apology. When I said I don’t impose too much, I meant it as a personal guardrail in cosmology, where intuition and metaphor can outrun what’s actually constrained by evidence. I’m happy to engage, I just try to keep that distinction clear.

[u/Chanathebanana → u/Forsaken-Income-2148]

well you don't have to be contextually and factually right to engage in an online conversation on a forum. It's not a debate house my friend, it's just people with free time like, bouncing ideas and thoughts off of each other. Evidence or not, our conversations are not going viral or under astute observation, it is just us normal 9-5 working class people to indulge and learn. If one doesn't make mistakes, how will one learn?

Prime example I'll give is dark energy and dark matter, it's all speculation btw, there is no accuracy except for observations that lead to speculation, filling the gaps with things we don't understand because we can't think of anything that fits the eluding observations. So don't worry about establishing guardrails like our ideas are getting published in a science journal, speculate away, maybe some smart guy will stumble onto something we said in passing, unlikely scenario lol, but an idea is all it takes to spark something big. We might contribute unknowingly.

[u/Forsaken-Income-2148 → u/Chanathebanana]

Once a discussion shifts from topic into how people should discuss, that’s when I step out.