~~ My definition of our Cosmic Horizon ~~
As Universal expansion continues the separation between objects grows at an exponential rate.
If you line up two people to the left of where you are standing, each one of you separated by 1 metre and then issue a command that each person must separate by 2 metres then the person immediately to your left must move 1 metre further away. He is now 2 metres from you, but the person to the left of him must now step 2 metres away to maintain separation. This person is now 4 metres from you. He has gone from 2 metres to 4 metres in a 1 metre increase between all objects in the line !!
The further an object is down the line the greater the distance it must travel with each 1 metre step of separation.
If an object is far enough away a point will be reached where its separation rate is greater than the distance light can travel, in the time allowed, to bridge the gap. This point is called the Cosmic Horizon.
The Laws of Physics forbid light, or anything that began its journey at less than the speed of light from ever passing across this gap. This is the part of our Universe that is unknowable. No word or information package has ever reached us from across this abyss. Nor could it have, nor ever will.
Our Cosmic Horizon has been likened in comparison to the Universe as less than a grain of sand compared to all the oceans and beaches of the world. (altho I don't have a reference). So it turns out that the vast majority of our Universe is totally unknowable, in fact nearly ALL of it.
NO information can ever cross, none
And yet, we know quite a lot about it. How have we cheated the Laws of Physics in this way?
- We know what it consists of, the same elements as we do.
- We know the stage of its cosmic evolution.
- We know the objects that populate its Spacetime.
- We know its shape.
- We know its age.
But we don't know, nor ever will know the finer details. We will never witness the cataclysmic supernovas, but we know they occur. Its massive, everchanging nebulae clouds, its clusters and super clusters will never be seen, but we can draw a fairly accurate map.
No telescope can ever peer into it. We have not one empirical item of proof of its existence !!
So how is it that our consciousness knows so much about the unknowable? No other species can ever approach this. How is it that we accept this achievement with equanmity?
Sometimes when I think about this deeply I am amazed by our incredible analytical achievements, but at other moments am assailed by grave doubts that all our mathamatics, the cornerstone of our logical reasoning, is nothing more than a toy we have invented to titillate the extreme tips of our liking for complex puzzles. A candy for our senses.
My question is this: Has Natural Selection in a moment of triumph created in mankind a new Superspecies, one able to comprehend even the unknowable, or has Natural Selection, in its moment of triumph overstepped the evolutionary line ?
cool bananas ... greg
