3 ms·
Of course headlines have to be catchy, but this universe-in-a-black-hole concept is hardly a new one. Rather, the novel part here seems to be the idea that the
by taliesinb 14y ago
Of course headlines have to be catchy, but this universe-in-a-black-hole concept is hardly a new one. Rather, the novel part here seems to be the idea that the connection in GR might might possess non-zero torsion, contrary to what is normally assumed.
In the whole black-holes-create-universes vein, last century the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin presented the quite delicious idea (described in his book The Life Of the Cosmos) that entire universes might be subject to the process of natural selection.
This would work if singularity formation involves the transmission of physical constants to the 'daughter' universe with slight modification, quite a thing to suppose given we don't really know what physical constants 'mean'.
If it occurred, this natural selection would optimize these constants for the production of black holes, which luckily for us co-incides with the production of life-bearing stars. Of course, all very unfalsifiable, but kinda epic.
- dalke 14y agoOne SF short story takes this further. The best form of interstellar travel generates black holes, so the universe is optimized for producing the type of life which does interstellar travel via that process. No need for coincidences here, and even more un-falsifiable.
- ctkrohn 14y agoWhat's the name of the short story? Sounds like it could be interesting.
- gliese1337 14y agoNot sure about a short story, but there's a novel with that idea: Learning the World: a Scientific Romance by Ken MacLeod
- pavel_lishin 14y agoGregory Benford also wrote a novel that touches on this topic called "Cosm", which is a pretty excellent read.
- Zaak 14y ago"What Continues... and What Fails..." by David Brin, perhaps?
- dalke 14y agoThat's the one - thanks!
- carlob 14y agoI remember trying to compute the Swartzschild radius of the universe during my GR class and thinking it was compatible with the whole universe being inside a black hole. According to wikipedia [1] it turns out it's a bit smaller than that, but the same order of magnitude. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwartzchild_radius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwartzchild_radius
- photon137 14y agoWow! That's a revelation to me! So, in effect, that implies that information cannot escape the "boundary" of the universe as nothing can surpass the speed of light, ie, the universe is a black hole. This would certainly explain some things - like why energy is conserved, why (some) physical constants have the values that they have.