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Has there ever been a viable alternative to the phsycialist model of the universe?
(sh.itjust.works)
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Yes, but this is assuming an objective, universal frame of reference, and that's not really a thing. For example, things like time dilution mean that there is no universal "clock." There is an objective point at which things become unobservable to my (Earth's) frame of reference.
It's true that there could be some alien halfway across the observable universe that could observe the stars that have exited our observable universe. But, we could not observe the alien observing them, because information still can't travel faster than the speed of light.
Not really. Nothing I said has any dependence on a universal clock.
Right and this is my point. Any philosophical theory that has anything to do with the observable universe is inherently self-centered. Not even Earth centered. Not even conscious-being centered. Literally self-centered. The observable universe is subjective. And so that puts it in the class of philosophies that insist that the universe arises from your own consciousness.
Which is not to invalidate it, but it's not objective, and it has nothing to do with science.
The way I see it, this places quite a lot of physics into the category of "nothing to do with science." The Copenhagen interpretation of QM, for example, is based on what we can observe and detect, and asserts that particles do not have an exact position because there are limits on how closely it is possible to measure it. To me, it's the same principle.
There is a subtle distinction in my position. I'm defining existence as a relational property, meaning that what I am claiming is that things outside the observable universe do not exist relative to me. They may exist relative to someone else, although I have no way of knowing if they do. Therefore, I don't consider it self-centered.
In opinion, the thing that has nothing to do with science is making claims about things that we can't observe, because they are outside of the observable universe. How can we say, from a scientific perspective, that the universe continues beyond that if we can't test that theory? By definition, such claims cannot be considered empirical or testable.