It pains me to add anything to Rahvin's very well put together and extremely educational posts here, but I think this is a good note to add:
When listening to all this talk of T=0, people always say that "before" T=0 doesn't make sense. And that's the end of the point.
They'll describe how "North of the North pole also doesn't make sense" and that's the end of the point.
They'll describe other analogies where things no longer make sense, and that's the end of the point.
It always leaves me wondering... am I just not fully understanding the rest of the connections? Is there some more information they're just not actually saying and perhaps I wouldn't even understand anyway?
These feelings of expecting something more are exactly the same feelings that are forcing your friends to extrapolate into their imaginary ideas that do not match with reality.
It is important to note that just because we want or think "there should be more," doesn't necessarily mean that there actually is more.
That's the whole point.
There might not be any more to it at all.
We can't say for absolutely certain yet (I think?), but all evidence is leading us to believe that there is no "more."
T=0, with no such thing as "before."
That's it, and no amount of us
wanting there to be more to this description of our universe is going to force reality to actually be a certain way. At some point we just have to accept that there is no "more" to this description. That's all we can say about it because that's all there is. There may be no explanation as to
why there is no more, it's just simply the way it is.
A square has 4 sides.
There's no "why" to that, some may find it dissatisfying but most of us are used to the situation... it's just a description of what a square is.
There is no "before" T=0.
There's no "why" to that, some may find it dissatisfying since most of us are not used to the situation... but it's still just a description of what a universe is. (Or, at least,
our universe)
™ Version 4.2
