Was reading over some esoteric material recently, and came across an interesting idea.
For purposes of this discussion, when I say 'space' I mean, as in, cosmologically.
Imagine that, 'space' is not quite the 3d dimensional 'volume' construct that we think it to be. There is, in physics, a notion of spacetime, in which space and time are basically the same thing. So maybe there's some justification for this idea. But at this point we're not arguing for or against, we're simply exploring an idea.
Imagine that, when you look out into space and see another star or another galaxy, what you are looking at is not simply a different ball of gas or balls of gases 'over there really far away.' But rather, you're looking at an entirely different phenomenon that because of worldview and socially trained manners of thinking, you're not interpreting correctly. Imagine an ant looking at a bridge. He wouldn't understand what he's seeing. imagine a dolphin hearing the noise made by a boat rudder. He might tend to think of it as 'oh, well that's the singing of that particular species of creature.' Because 'creatures make noise to communicate' is a familiar part of his worldview. It doesn't occur to him to think that the noise is an unintended consequence of an unfamiliar means of locomotion. He lacks the context to properly interpret what his senses are telling him. Imagine that humans, similarly, lack the context to properly interpret what we see and what our instruments tell us when we gaze out into space.
Again, I'm not asserting that this is or isn't the case. This is a thought experiment.
So imagine, that those lights that you by training tend to think of as stars 'over there,' and not actually 'lights over there' and that 'space' is not composed of 'volume' or 'distance' that is crossed via physical movement.
Instead, imagine that a much smaller area, say...our solar system, is a discrete reality bubble. And imagine that other star systems are their own reality bubbles. And imagine that the spatial relationship between these bubbles is not Euclidean. Imagine that the light you see coming from other stars does exist, that it does occur, but that its arrival to your experience did not happen via a process of 'going really fast over time.' Because what we receive as 'space' is not 'volume. Rather, light from other stars is instead encroachment upon your reality by other reality bubbles.
Discuss.