The Cosmos within which our Universe exists

[cursuswalker]

(Cross post from the Rational Skepticism forum)

I tried a little abstract visualisation yesterday with regard to the an eternal Cosmos within which our Universe came to be and will die.

This is not Woo. I am not claiming to have been delivered some great cosmic message. But I am fascinated to see if any of the conclusions I came to in my imagination concur with any existent theories.

So here it is:

The cosmos is a 4 dimensional space, in which what we experience as Time is a directional dimension.

In that space Universes such as ours are the result of a collection of what we experience as space (which acts as matter in the cosmos) reaching critical mass and undergoing rapid expansion due to the production of energy/matter, which acts as just energy in the Cosmos and is an emergent property of compressed space.

This is best visualised as a shell expanding from the source of an explosion, with the space of the 3 dimensiinal Universe we occupy being visualised as a two dimensional Universe inhabiting that shell. The shell consists of space (matter in the Cosmos).

The expansion of that shell is experienced as Time. But the are undulations in it produced by the gravity wells of Einstein's theory.

The gravity wells produced by our matter (energy in the cosmos) drive parts of the shell of our universe's space away from the centre of expansion at a greater rate. Where a black hole forms these can cause space to be distorted radically, and even to "pinch off" into separate bodies of space/matter that can then form new universes.

This would mean that the increasing expansion of our universe is something actually being driven by the very gravity (momentum of expansion in the cosmos) that one would think would prevent it.

Anyway. Enough for now, before I begin to sound too much like I've dropped acid.

[treegod]

It took me a couple of times to read it to get my head around it, but I think I know what your thinking.

Dotted around the "shell" there are gravity wells, where bits of matter/energy are closer than other bits, so there is a disporpotion of gravity around the shell.

Working with the momentum and the direction of parts of the shell, the gravity "pulls" matter even further. That's what the "pinching" bit is about right?

A group of galaxies close together could, if this were the case, drive each other "downhill" and increase outward momentum.

[cursuswalker]

Exactly right. The lumpiness of the Universe makes the shape of the expanding shell uneven.

Gravity wells being further away from the centre of the shell is also consistent with the slowing of time by gravity as well as at great speed, as those gravity wells accelerate as they increase in volume of matter within them.

This also addresses relativity, as such wells have passed more time than the other parts of the shell, though this would be experienced as no different to anyone living in one of them (such as us)

[whitehorse]

Are we also saying perhaps that our particular universe is one of perhaps an infinite number of universes I'd buy that, as it is also the obvious answer to the 'fine tuning' problem. but do i also understand that the multiverse hypothesis also involves an eternal hyperdimensional reality in which our space time-universe is embedded in some sense?. Again this is not woo, but apparently is a necessary requirement of Superstring theory with its 11 odd dimensions.
I really like also the possibility that the past, present and possibly the future (??!!) are in some sense continually present in principle, in what has been called a 'block universe'. In principle the whole time line could be viewed from the perspective of an entirely notional hyper-dimensional observer...but then how to account for our sense of time passing? It seems this is the result of entropy...but oh dear my brain hurts ( of course I only superficially understand the science here as filtered through popular science books!)

[cursuswalker]

Are we also saying perhaps that our particular universe is one of perhaps an infinite number of universes I'd buy that, as it is also the obvious answer to the 'fine tuning' problem. but do i also understand that the multiverse hypothesis also involves an eternal hyperdimensional reality in which our space time-universe is embedded in some sense?. Again this is not woo, but apparently is a necessary requirement of Superstring theory with its 11 odd dimensions.
I really like also the possibility that the past, present and possibly the future (??!!) are in some sense continually present in principle, in what has been called a 'block universe'. In principle the whole time line could be viewed from the perspective of an entirely notional hyper-dimensional observer...but then how to account for our sense of time passing? It seems this is the result of entropy...but oh dear my brain hurts ( of course I only superficially understand the science here as filtered through popular science books!)

Our perception of time passing would simply be the expansion of the shell.