What was our universe before the Big Bang?

a reply to: RAY1990

If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into? Is it the same thing that was there before the Big Bang? Does it have it have it’s own limits and if so what could possibly be beyond that?

My conclusion is that at some point we have to accept we are dealing with something that is ultimately infinite.

a reply to: Dr UAE

Ouroboros, or this symbol: ∞

Just points on a circle, we can say this was the beginning and this will be the end but it's just perception.

It's all the same circle going round and round. Starts to twist the melon when considering multi-verses... We barely see the curve though. We could be way off in our theories.

a reply to: surfer_soul

The absence of matter, nothingness. For all we know spacetime requires matter to exist itself.

When space itself expands what fills the void?

It could be that at the end of our universe there's another and our interaction creates energy and matter. We ain't expanding into anything but being repelled from something and nature hates a genuine vacuum. Constant endless creation.

I love this topic... I get a free pass to talk nonsense and can't be proven right or wrong.

originally posted by: RAY1990

When space itself expands what fills the void?

How can space expand? What would it expand into??? Space.

Is 'space' actually a thing? Or is it another construct we use when trying to define our reality?

originally posted by: Itisnowagain

originally posted by: surfer_soul
a reply to: Itisnowagain

Is there really such a thing as now? Or is it another construct we use when trying to define our reality? Where does the present exist exactly between which moment to the next, is it a mili second or a billionth of a second etc...?

That is an interesting question.
When have you known a 'time' when it is not now?
How long is now?

Now is not in time - the concept of time appears now.

When have I known a time that is not now? Well I have plenty of memories of the past and the past isn’t now. My point is when have I known or can I know a time that is now, that truly is now. It seems to me now is another way of defining time and time as we experience it is as a series of events.

Is time the medium which allows events to happen? If there is no time and it frozen as in a photo then no events can happen.

originally posted by: surfer_soul
When have I known a time that is not now? Well I have plenty of memories of the past and the past isn’t now.

Memories appear now.

My point is when have I known or can I know a time that is now, that truly is now. It seems to me now is another way of defining time and time as we experience it is as a series of events.

What is appearing now is seen/known now.

Is time medium which allows events to happen? If there is no time and it frozen as in a photo then no events can happen.

What is appearing now is constantly appearing different.

originally posted by: RAY1990
a reply to: surfer_soul

The absence of matter, nothingness. For all we know spacetime requires matter to exist itself.

When space itself expands what fills the void?

It could be that at the end of our universe there's another and our interaction creates energy and matter. We ain't expanding into anything but being repelled from something and nature hates a genuine vacuum. Constant endless creation.

I love this topic... I get a free pass to talk nonsense and can't be proven right or wrong.

If there is constant endless creation then how can there be such a thing as nothingness? Endless is another way of describing infinity. Nothingness is another kind of infinity but at the opposite side of the coin.

I love this topic too, while there are no proofs of the concepts anything could be possible and most probably is.

originally posted by: surfer_soul
If there is constant endless creation then how can there be such a thing as nothingness? Endless is another way of describing infinity. Nothingness is another kind of infinity but at the opposite side of the coin.

A river flows like endless creation - but the river is never made of things.
The confusion lies in the belief in things.

originally posted by: CJCrawley
Before the Big Bang was the previous universe.

The present universe was born from the death of the previous.

Ummm...I've always pictured the collapse of a universe by black holes being ingested by larger black holes until there's only one left...

When that one remaining black hole compacts the universal entirety down to infinite density...

During this final compaction...even space/time ceases and attains harmonic stability until harmonic imbalance causes the entirety to explode outward again and the beginning of the process is repeated...

The question for me is...what causes the instability...if it's a wave or frequency...if the universe is compacted into an singular tone or harmonic...what causes that note or tone to be sung off key...

What enters or exits from that infinite density state as the key stone that unravels or becomes the primer to the explosive outpouring of infinite density into a new space/time...


Scratches head...continues to ponder...





YouSir

originally posted by: CJCrawley
a reply to: alldaylong

logic says there had to be an " initial universe " to start it all.

Logic doesn't necessarily follow, as in the highly illogical world of quantum mechanics.

There is a saying which goes " You can't make something out of nothing "

Which is true.

originally posted by: alldaylong

originally posted by: CJCrawley
a reply to: alldaylong

logic says there had to be an " initial universe " to start it all.

Logic doesn't necessarily follow, as in the highly illogical world of quantum mechanics.

There is a saying which goes " You can't make something out of nothing "

Which is true.

The only reason 'things' are believed to be is because you have assumed (misidentified) yourself a thing separate from what is.

originally posted by: Itisnowagain

originally posted by: surfer_soul
When have I known a time that is not now? Well I have plenty of memories of the past and the past isn’t now.

Memories appear now.

My point is when have I known or can I know a time that is now, that truly is now. It seems to me now is another way of defining time and time as we experience it is as a series of events.

What is appearing now is seen/known now.

Is time medium which allows events to happen? If there is no time and it frozen as in a photo then no events can happen.

What is appearing now is constantly appearing different.

I think I understand your points, but that photo which I am experiencing now is apparently just the same, it has captured an event, a now moment and frozen it in time.

For me the concept of now is just as difficult as the concept of infinity, perhaps consciousness can transcend concepts and grasp what actually is, but fail to describe it, even to itself.

a reply to: surfer_soul

Yes ...there is just what there is.
Concepts arise in this and are not made of anything but this.

As above, so below...
What if we are just a single cell being part of something bigger?

To answer this question first we have to find how this universe came from.
What if this universe just existed?

The big bang? Based on expansion and contraction. But what if what the scientist see as expansion is expulsion from let say a "black hole"? But from our perspective looks like expansion, everything moving away from one point.

We can only imagine such an amazing moment.

There is a saying which goes " You can't make something out of nothing "

Which is true.

If you can think it, you made it.

originally posted by: RAY1990
a reply to: surfer_soul

The absence of matter, nothingness. For all we know spacetime requires matter to exist itself.

When space itself expands what fills the void?

It could be that at the end of our universe there's another and our interaction creates energy and matter. We ain't expanding into anything but being repelled from something and nature hates a genuine vacuum. Constant endless creation.

I love this topic... I get a free pass to talk nonsense and can't be proven right or wrong.

There is no void. Even what we call "void" is something.
A fish, does it know is swimming on water or just think is moving on nothing?

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Judy21

One theory is there was a "big crunch"

Basically everything in the previous universe was smashed into infinite density... after which came La Big bang...

Wash, rinse, repeat

I'll go with that idea

That makes sense as things seem to be cyclical. But where did they begin? What was "there" before? Was there no "before" these cycles? I have to agree with Spader. This gives me a headache.

originally posted by: Abednego
A fish, does it know is swimming on water or just think is moving on nothing?

Yeah but a fish is barely aware. It is of it's immediate surroundings but that's it.

a reply to: Judy21

What was our universe before the Big Bang?

A tickle on the nose hair of the giant being that sneezed us into existence.

We are the bacteria on his mucus.

originally posted by: intrepid

originally posted by: Abednego
A fish, does it know is swimming on water or just think is moving on nothing?

Yeah but a fish is barely aware. It is of it's immediate surroundings but that's it.

Some of them are aware. Have you ever try to think if a dolphin or a whale ask themselves why they cannot breath water like the other fishes? Maybe they do.
So what if this thing we call air is liquid but of different density than water? What if the universe is just a "fish tank" on someone else living room?
At this level of thinking anything is possible.