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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 2405301" data-attributes="member: 177">If they aren't, then we have no indication as yet what they are, and talking about them is more a matter of science fiction than science fact.  Not that science fiction is at all bad, but it is important to be clear that you're engaging in speculation.The big thing is understanding that when you ask a question, "What if X was true instead?"  you can only analyze that assuming that everything else we know is still true.  In some cases, that means that X being true is nonsensical.  Our universe isn't built of discrete things that are highly mutable.  It is made of a whole bunch of interconnected things, sometimes connected so strongly that you cannot change one of them alone and still make sense.With the exception that for the majority of physics, they've been shown to be be entirely consistent well outside our solar system.  Thus my reference to the visible universe - we can see the effects of QM and Relativity out there, too.The universe is large, yes.  But it is also observably uniform is structure and laws.  If we did have only proof of physics for Hoboken, NJ, then I'd support you.  But when our laws really do seem to hold through a sphere several billions of light years across, you have good reason to start generalizing, don't you?  While yes, it may be possible that the laws are different elsewhere, is that really the way to bet?If we're going to be picky - that's the popular hypothesis, but it isn't the only one.  It isn't as if our universe isn't already full of constants for which we don't have an origin.  Maybe the constant "just is".  Einstein first proposed the constant as "it just is", without knowing where it might come from, like the charge on an electron.</blockquote>

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