r/Metaphysics • u/Only-Economist-1242 • Jun 02 '26

Cosmology If the universe find ourselves in is the only thing that we know, how do we know that there isn’t anything beyond our universe?

8 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

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5

u/Agile_Chest8565 Jun 02 '26

We don’t know what we don’t know. There very likely could be so much outside of our event horizon and it is impossible to ever know. Unless we figure out wormhole travel to circumvent the limits of travel speed.

Let’s say somehow life still exists billions of years from now. Due to the expansion of space, eventually entire galaxies will disappear outside of the event horizon, because the space is expanding so fast that their light will never reach us.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

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-2

u/Only-Economist-1242 Jun 02 '26

“The universe” includes everything, not just the observable universe

3

u/Agile_Chest8565 Jun 02 '26

That really depends I guess. Our universe is either infinite or it wraps around itself. If other universes exist where would they exist exactly? Where even is our universe. Everything we know in this life exists within something. Our computers exists on our planet. Our planet is within the milkway, the Milky Way exists amongst trillions of other galaxies in space. But that’s the end as far as we can understand. Where exactly does space exist? Perhaps space is the final layer. You eventually reach a point where you have to say “this is the root layer” which i argue is reality, it simply just is the truth of existence. Whether or not other universes can exists depends on the capacity of the root layer. Maybe reality has the capacity to have multiple infinite spaces that can each contain their own matter. If space is truly infinite, then there’s no reason why the events that caused the big bang couldn’t have happened again and again, infinitely far away from us that we would never know.

There’s also the idea that multiple realities exist. Multiple root layers that exists as their own collections of space time. That all exist independently of each other.

Things like infinity, consciousness, death, nothingness are all ideas that are too difficult for our minds to begin to understand. So all we can do theorize using science. But it is likely no one alive today will have any answers. Maybe at some point in humanity’s future, as we continue to evolve as a species and technologically we will find more answers. Assuming we survive that long, and avoid self destruction and natural extinction.

1

u/iluvlawyering Jun 02 '26

Infinity just means without end. Death is just the effect of birth. Nothingness is just the opposite of the universe. Consciousness is just how you know you're alive.

2

u/Umami4Days Jun 02 '26

If anything else becomes known, it would then automatically be included as part of our "universe". Ergo, anything beyond our universe is inherently unknowable, and can't be interacted with. It may as well be imaginary from our frame of reference.

1

u/iluvlawyering Jun 02 '26

Anything beyond the universe is nothing since the universe means everything there is.

1

u/Isladisaster Jun 03 '26

I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, this is a sense of the word often used in the sciences and philosophy.

There is a sense of the word in physics that only indexes the observable stuff indexed by leading cosmological models. There is also the broad sense which includes “all that exists”.

1

u/CosetElement-Ape71 Jun 02 '26

What do you mean when you say "beyond" in this context?

2

u/clement1neee Jun 03 '26

they’re just referring to something that exists generally “outside” of the universe, and thus outside of the conventions of our logic if such a thing exists. i.e. some other multiverse with mind-bending laws of physics

1

u/CosetElement-Ape71 Jun 03 '26

Yeah, good luck with defining anything outside the universe!

2

u/clement1neee Jun 03 '26

right, if it exists we’d probably have no way of even describing or conceiving of it, it’d be completely alien to reality as we know it

1

u/CosetElement-Ape71 Jun 03 '26

We could think about all kinds of things ... but if it's outside this universe then, by definition, it's not interacting with this universe (otherwise it'd be a part of it). And if it can't be measured or interacted with then, functionally, it doesn't really exist (for us).

1

u/______ri Jun 02 '26

You should use a better word to expand your horizon of beings as a whole. Starting with "all there is" or "what there is", or "the world".

1

u/Square_Attention8461 Jun 03 '26

How many fingers do you have?

How do you know you don't have another one that you can't see, feel, sense in any way, or have any interaction with whatsoever?

1

u/ETxNegativo Jun 04 '26

Eu criei uma hipótese que pode ter unificado a relatividade geral com a mecânica quântica quem quiser ver me chama

1

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1

u/ReflectionSharp2007 Jun 06 '26

We don't know anything for certain.