Of course, maybe there is some sort of super-time that transcends ours, maybe the soap-bubble that is our universe is floating around in something (and maybe there are other soap-bubble universes floating around in it too.
I read something a while back that suggested that the universe that we’re in might be the result of a collision of two things called ‘Branes’ that exist in the 4D space, or something like that; here is a cite on that, but be prepared to get a headache from reading it.
'Tis a nice song that the Koalas are singing, Mangetout, but I think that they are a little out of tune. 
The now-dead physicist R. Feynman once commented, (in a library-book that I have at home, :o , alas, and so can’t reference), that everything seems to come in atoms.
I think that he was (hesitatingly, reluctantly) talking about all the cosmological theories, to include the “latest” ones [Will they ever stop coming?] from the new area called (Super)String Theory.
[Rather than our Universe being in some 4-space (plus time), String Theory puts It imbedded in 10, or 11, or even 14 dimensions (or even more!). I’ve just recently posted links in the (GQ?) thread “What is the Universe” to the “freshest” of these theories and will dig said links out if anyone is interested.]
Which is to say (IMHO) that Mr. F. (perhaps) seemed to think that our Universe was just one “atom” in a vast field of universes. Since we can’t get out of our Universe to see, the only real importance (IMHO) to the reality of if our Universe is surrounded by a myriad of other universes, would be (if and) when we came to within “influence” of another one. Bounced apart like two atoms? Drawn into collision like two galaxies? Sent into reverse to the “inevitable Big Crunch”?
Who knows what the effect might be should it be true that we are but one (humble) Universe in amongst many, many others?
And then, of course, there is this by Fiver:
If it could “bubble out” so too could it “grubble back in”. (“Grubble” is the reverse sound of “bubble”;–some, I suppose, would prefer “a giant sucking sound” back into near-nothingness of the primordial state. :eek: ) Since there seems to be an ongoing “experiment” in producing such “a giant sucking sound” out in Colorado and since that is what I came into the library to check-out (preferably before it happens), I close my wee contribution to this exceedingly vast subject.
FORTY-TWO!
Nope, doesn’t work. Nevermind.
When you say it ends.
How do you know it ever began ?
I think the main theory is that you get a big bang, it spreads out and then falls back on itself again followed by another big bang.
You can make up your own theory on this one as no one will ever know.
Oh the Koalas aren’t all that sure about it all Sea Sorbust [sym]O{[sup]Ä[/sup]·[sup]Ä[/sup]}O[/sym] [sym]O{[sup]Ä[/sup]·[sup]Ä[/sup]}O[/sym]
But one impossible, nonintuitive theory is as good as any, so I humour them.
Has (central) Colorado disappeared yet (with a modest sucking sound: GRUBBLE, GRUBBLE!! WHOOSH)?
What is outside the universe is the same thing that’s inside the universe. Stephen Hawkins may disagree with me, but what does he know.
Mangetout wrote:
A.K. Dewdney’s The Planiverse can kick Flatland’s butt any day of the week!
Among the 6 billion people on this planet, very few truly understand the significance of electromagnetic spectrum nor what is possible after nanotechnology. When this 6 billion ask “what is beyond the universe?”, they are asking the question (and trying to answer it) based on their limited ability to SEE (even through electron nanoscopes) or HEAR. In the electromagnetic spectrum, the visual and audible ranges have miniscule bandwidth compared to the rest of the spectrum. If we were “beings” in this universe with inherent senses capable of perceiving the contents of cosmic rays in the electromagnetic spectrum, then perhaps we could address the issue of “beyond universe”, and have the ability to understand the answer, if any.
As it is, being constrained only to perception and analysis based on visual and aural inputs to our brain, us humanoids are too egocentric to recognize that we do not possess the required senses to even pose the right questions about the universe, let alone having the “brain power” to understand the answers, if any.
In short IMHO, considering our make up and limitations of human senses, brain and perception, the answer to the OP is either “Nothing”, or “Forget it”.
One Cell wrote:
Audible? You can hear electromagnetic waves?! :eek:
[sub]I hear dead ones.[/sub]