My Ideas on Gravity - by: Chiron Bramberger
Gravity is dead. There is no gravity. Since Newton we've been all wrong. Gravity is not a force. It doesn't exist. It's just an illusion; a fake; a side-effect; an emergent property of another process. We've been had.
The following is an informal discussion of my collection of ideas on gravity and how I think it works.
Before going into the ideas, it's important to outline certain observations about gravity and the universe.
Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Hawkings and others, have given us many pictures of gravity. Gravity describes that objects warp space-time such that they accelerate towards each other. More specifically, the following lists what we think and know about gravity:
- Objects accelerate towards each other
- Without an external frame of reference, a person in spaceship accelerating through space wouldn't know if they were in the presence of a gradational field, for example if the box were sitting on the surface of the Earth, or actually accelerating
- Time appears to go by at a different rate in a gravitational field than outside of it. For example, orbiting a black-hole in a spaceship would be like travelling into the future, thus time would appear to move more quickly if you were to observe something far away from the black-hole.
- Gravity works over great distances, seemly instantly or at least the speed of light, without being blocked by any confirmed known substance of method. For example, nobody has created a gravity shield that blocks the effects of gravity.
- Gravity has been hypothesized to work via waves or particles, yet neither gravity particles have been discovered, nor have gravity waves been directly measured, although they have been measured indirectly.
- Although there are various hypothesized methods for which gravity may work at the quantum level, there isn't definitive quantum model for gravity. In fact, gravity and quantum mechanics have a history of not getting along together.
- Light is bent by gravity.
- The universe is expanding.
- The speed limit of the universe is the speed of light.
- Time slows down when travelling at near the speed of light, similar to that in the presence of a gravitational field.
Going into detail on the above points is outside the scope of this discussion.
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The main idea in my vision of gravity is that gravity is simply an emergent side-effect of the expansion of the universe, and that there is no real gravity in this sense. I think that there may be something like waves in space-time caused by gravity, but that there is no real gravity that is made of waves or particles.
With the expansion of the universe, I think of the universe like a sheet of material, such as a piece of plastic wrap. As plastic wrap expands, it gets stretched. Like the skin on a drum.
I think that masses grip space-time such that prevent the expansion of the universe, or using the above analogy, the stretching of the universe is reduced when compared to the rest of the plastic. Like a piece of tape stuck to a piece of plastic wrap, the tape keeps the stretching from taking place evenly, and the unevenness creates areas where near the tape the tightness is reduced. However, unlike a piece of tape on plastic wrap, in space masses can move. I believe they move through the universe without releasing their grip on the space-time around them.
If there were a single object in an expanding universe like I describe, then there wouldn't be any gravity to readily observe. However, when there are two objects in an expanding universe, they each grip the space-time changing it's "tightness", such that there is a pocket of "looser" space-time between them. Since objects can move without releasing this grip on space-time, the objects experience a "tightness" or "pressure" of sorts all around them, effectively pushing them towards the pocket of "looser" space-time between them.
This idea of space-time having a density goes along with the Einstein view of gravity, but in this model the density or "tightness" is the result of the competing expansion of the universe verses the pockets of more slowly expanding universe between the masses.
Here are some pictures of plastic-wrap and circles of duct-tape to illustrate the effect describing a moment in a 3D universe, as projected onto the 2D universe of the plastic wrap. The silver grid acts as a reference to the "stretching" of the universe.
(pictures of before and after we expand our plastic wrap model of space-time and it's duct-tape masses)
This would explain how gravity works over large distances while being unaffected or blocked by anything. These pockets of "looser" space-time form between all objects, and their formation would instantly affect the "tightness" of both nearby space-time as well as the entire universe. Even distant object would create a sightly less "tight" pocket of space-time between them, and as the universe expand, the surrounding universe is "tighter", and the pocket is "looser", thus the objects are "pushed" by the differing "pressures" of space-time between them. The objects would have nowhere else to go but to be "pushed" by this "pressure" into the pocket. The pocket would then be smaller and the pocket would have more "looseness" than before since the space between the objects would be smaller, all while the universe expands more increasing the "pressure" and increasing the overall effect and hence the acceleration.
This would also explain why time seems to run differently in a gravitational field. An object near a massive object would be in a "loose" pocket and therefore as it travels it is moving through more dense space-time as compared to a tighter area of the universe where the expansion would be proceeding unabated. As you move through a "thicker" or "looser" area of space-time, you travel across a greater distance of space and time, therefore, compared to another observer, you seem to be moving through time as well as space, more than they are, and thus it appears they are travelling forward in time, compared to us.
If we look at the weird things that we observe with gravity, we can try to explain these observation with these ideas.
"- Objects accelerate towards each other"
As the universe expands, massive objects create pockets between them which act to shield the pocket from the expansion of the universe. But because the objects can move while keeping their grip on space-time, they are eventually "pushed" or "sucked" into the "looser" pocket of space-time by all the more "dense" or "bunched up" and "stretched" areas around it. This "bunched-up-space-time" "differential" creates these interactions that the object are both pushed and fall into each other.
"- Without an external frame of reference, a person in spaceship accelerating through space wouldn't know if they were in the presence of a gradational field, for example if the box were sitting on the surface of the Earth, or actually accelerating"
When we are standing in an elevator, we can't tell if it's acceleration through space, or sitting on the ground. Using these ideas, we can see that even sitting on the ground, we are accelerating. The universe is stretching, and pushing down and out from under our feet so-to-speak, the effect is the same as accelerating, only it's the energy of the acceleration of the universe and the differential in space-time "squeezing" down on us that creates the same conditions that looks and feel like acceleration.
"- Time appears to go by at a different rate in a gravitational field than outside of it. For example, orbiting a black-hole in a spaceship would be like travelling into the future, thus time would appear to move more quickly if you were to observe something far away from the black-hole."
As we travel though a region of space near a large body, like a sun or black-hole, we are traveling through more "dense" or "thick" or "bunched up" space-time and therefore appear to be moving through time more quickly.
"- Gravity works over great distances, seemly instantly or at least the speed of light, without being blocked by any confirmed known substance of method. For example, nobody has created a gravity shield that blocks the effects of gravity."
When objects move through space, they exert their influence of the "bunched-upness" of space-time, without releasing the "bunched-upness". The reason objects' gravity work quickly over large distances is because all the points between the two objects "stretch" or "release" their "tension" at the same time. The effect is not instant, which is why we can indirectly observe gravity wave-like effects, but the waves aren't actually carrying the force, like for example the way light waves are both waves and carry the force of the light energy within them.
"- Gravity has been hypothesized to work via waves or particles, yet neither gravity particles have been discovered, nor have gravity waves been directly measured, although they have been measured indirectly."
Gravity doesn't actually exist, therefore we'll never find gravity particles or waves like we do for light. Gravity, as we know it, is just a side-effect of the interaction of masses on warping space-time and the energy of the expansion of the universe.
" - Although there are various hypothesized methods for which gravity may work at the quantum level, there isn't definitive quantum model for gravity. In fact, gravity and quantum mechanics have a history of not getting along together. "
There isn't a quantum model of gravity that really feels right, because there is no gravity - it's just a side effect. The quantum model that would work would be a model that explains how masses effects space-time. I suspect that space-time, when compressed to be dense enough, actually becomes or converts into matter. Just like matter and energy are related and interchangeable, I think space-time and matter-energy are interchangeable. In this sense, masses moving through space-time are like icebergs moving through the ocean. They are both water, just in different forms. A quantum model of how matter, energy, space, and time actually convert between these forms would explain how the energy of the expansion of the universe, as imparted through the big bang, is converted into space-time, and how mass is converted into space-time, and how the conversion works, perhaps through the squeezing we think of as gravity. Once we understand that, we'll understand how this weird side-effect of gravity takes place.
"- Light is bent by gravity. "
As light travels through space-time, masses creates loose pockets, and as light travels through the pockets, it is bent because inside the pocket the same apparent distance is full of more space-time and therefore contains more time, so the light is moving through "denser" space-time and, just like light passing through glass into air or another liquid, the different "densities" cause part of the bean to slow down vs. the other part, and change the course of the beam of light. But also, light having it's own particles, creates and fall into the pockets of other masses, but like any other masses in the universe. Nothing really changes here other than how we think about gravity.
" - The universe is expanding. "
The big bang an explosion of energy. Whatever this stuff originally was, I think matter, space, energy, and time all comes from this base. As the universe expands, parts of the universe eventually turn into matter, and the matter start creating pockets and, as above, we have what looks like gravity. The engine of gravity drives everything else in the universe, through condensing into stars, which then create other elements, release other energies, etc. Therefore, gravity isn't the engine that creates everything in the universe, the expansion of the universe is the energy of the universe from the big bang, and that energy drives and is converted into matter and everything else. This looks like gravity, but it's just a process, not a force onto itself. The big bang creates everything, and gravity is just a description of a part of that process.
"- The speed limit of the universe is the speed of light. "
If the expanding universe drives what we think of as gravity, then the speed of light is probably related to the speed or the amount of energy needed to outrun the universe. But you can't outrun the universe, because you'd have to leave the universe and can't get outside of the universe. I think that speed of light is related to the speed of the expansion of the universe, such that nothing ever gets enough energy to outrun the universe itself, because that would require all the energy that exists inside the universe itself. So we can never leave the universe. It is the stuff, the power, and the container and the clock, all in one. The speed of light is the only way the universe can exist and be stable without any given process having the ability to use up all the energy in the expanding universe in trying to outrun the expansion.
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One implication of these ideas is that if the expansion of the universe were to stop, gravity would appear to change instantly throughout the universe. My gut feeling is that gravity would seem to disappear altogether, or more likely, gravity will change from being an acceleration to a simple velocity. The differences between masses would still create pockets, but without the expanding universe around it pouring energy into it, I think that objects would appear to fall at a constant rate instead of an exponential rate. This would probably complicate things for everyone, if all the stars in the universe don't all explode at the same time.
Finally, I believe that it will be possible to manipulate what we think of a gravity. I'm really not sure how it would work, but my guess and gut feeling is that space-time is probably like non-Newtonian fluids. If we can find a way to create a tiny pocket of expanding universe, even if only for a moment, inside a large loose pocket (inside what we think of today as a gravitational field) then I think if we switch on and off this tiny pocket of expanded universe, it will "appear" to other objects in the universe like a "tighter" area of the universe, without actually needing to constantly expand, and hopefully disrupt or even shield the effects of "gravity" nearby. The effect would probably not work over large distances and probably be a very local phenomenon. So my very big guess is that a very large and powerful oscillating electromagnetic field at the right energy levels and frequency should simulate a "tight" pocket of universe and create what we would think of as a gravity shield. These non-Newtonian fluid-looking standing wave patterns would "tighten up" an area in the pocket and appear to everything else like the rest of the "tight" expanding universe. This would have the effect of appearing to block the sliding of masses further into the "pocket" and look just like a "gravity shield" of some sort. I think that manipulating the universe to appear `just like the expansion of the universe is the key to manipulating gravity.
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It is important to note that I am not a professional physicist nor am I even remotely well practised in the mathematics required to engage in a certain level of discussion in this area. However, after my own research, it is clear that these ideas are new and possibly interesting enough to openly share. It is in the spirit of sharing that I write this.
If you are well versed formally in physics and mathematics, and are interested in working with me, I've love to hear from you. Maybe together we could actually try to put some real work into these ideas and create the foundations for a new working model of gravity… or at least have a lot of fun trying.
Get in touch. Leave comments below, visit my website www.chironbramberger.com or email me: chiron (at) bramberger (dot) com. Thanks!
