Is the universe a doughnut?

Cosmos Magazine ^ | September 6, 2007 | Paul Halpern

[SunkenCiv]

Someday spacecraft will be powerful enough perhaps to journey at extraordinary speeds, spanning the vast interstellar voids. Our technology might develop until we become a vast, powerful intergalactic society, capable of resolving the deepest quandaries ever known. Only then could we definitely answer what is perhaps the ultimate question: "Is the universe shaped like a doughnut?" This last question pertains to an idea attributed to Homer and mentioned by guest star Stephen Hawking in an episode of The Simpsons. In the episode, Lisa Simpson joins Springfield's chapter of the brainy organisation Mensa, which assumes mayoral duties and vows to remake Springfield into a perfect society. The prospect of experiencing a blossoming utopia attracts the attention of the British cosmologist Hawking, who - in his first animated appearance on the show - decides to visit and see it for himself.

[bigheadfred]

But it is with the waitress that I prove my theory of the Big Bang.

[bigheadfred]

Perhaps the past is only contiguous to the future. And the present is the illusion. But to the observer on the outside time may appear as a singular event.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[SunkenCiv]

I guess it could be said then that you've done a 360°.

[Eastbound]

New movie coming out called "Ladies in Black" (LIB). The plot is to destroy the twin universes which are hidden in plain sight.

[bert]

He really meant to say toroidal but knew if he did, no one would read the article.

[Eastbound]

"It is a total illusion.However, causality is in the mind, as is nature, and fortunately does not operate in reality. It is a total illusion."

When you look in the mirror, what you see is a reflection of yourself. A two-dimensional illusion.

If man is a reflection of its creator, then we are a three-dimensional reflection/illusion of the creator. We are one dimension short of being the creator.

Can it be said that the universe and what it contains reflects the nature, person, and personality of its creator, though not the totality of the creator, for it lacks the fourth dimension?

[RightWhale]

When you look in the mirror, what you see is a reflection of yourself. A two-dimensional illusion.

You see a virtual image in three dimensions.

[Eastbound]

"Perhaps the past is only contiguous to the future. And the present is the illusion. But to the observer on the outside time may appear as a singular event."

Okay, I can visualize that. Cut out the passageway in the hourglass and you have a bottle of sand which isn't moving. But you would have to also say that the future and past is but one substance, like a carton of Morton's Salt.

(As an aside, I view tipping over the hourglass to start anew is a perfect analogy for the biblical 'new dispensation of time.' But who or what does the tipping?)

(Hi, AG! Just wanted to wave atcha.)

[Alamo-Girl]

Hi Eastbound! So good to see you!

[Eastbound]

But how do you apply a yardstick to the third dimension?

[RightWhale]

You have a meter stick in your hand. Look! The virtual image also has a meter stick!

[Eastbound]

But a ‘virtual’ image is a holographic image, not a mirror image. You can’t walk around the mirror image and see your backside as you can with Princess Leah. (Spelling?)

[RightWhale]

No time now. We’re landing the Shuttle.

[bigheadfred]

(As an aside, I view tipping over the hourglass to start anew is a perfect analogy for the biblical ‘new dispensation of time.’ But who or what does the tipping?

Maybe moving through RW’s 360 a weird type of coriolis effect takes hold , a reversal? at some point? as you move thru time, at which what aspect of time is contiguous to what aspect of time as the determining factor, causing the appearance of having been tipped.
This is probably too muddled (Fubar) but having a hard time trying to find the correct wording.
Thank g for my day job.

[Eastbound]

My question would be when the sand in the top has passed through the passageway (manifests as the STAGE upon which the present is performed in a linear fashion -- the quantum) does it go to a collecting point called the 'past' -- the bottom of the hourglass and await further use -- which amounts to a very literal end of time for a season until someone turns the glass upside down again.

And when time ceases to function, nothing in the universe moves. In fact, the universe blinks of completely, for space, matter, and time are interlinked so dependently and so tightly that when one ceases to function, the other two stop functioning as well and the universe blinks off.

Back to your question: Maybe the past is actually the causality of the future and the future is the causality of the past. The present is both a suction machine and a leaf blower at the same time. Sucking time from the future and blowing the residue into the past.

[RightWhale]

a ‘virtual’ image is a holographic image, not a mirror image

A virtual image is one you can't touch. It is inside the glass.

[mikrofon]

OK, it's definitive -- the universe is NOT a doughnut, it is a pizza...

[Eastbound]

And the planets are the pepperoni! I knew it!

[bigheadfred]

Yeah, except this one, it’s an anchovy, or will be if that cold dead fish gets rulership.