Wormholes and Hyperspace

To those familiar with scientific theories, the 2 terms making up the title of this message will probably sound familiar. Then again, the terms may also sound familiar to those who have seen science fiction television shows such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Babylon 5. They are very ominous in nature, however: though theories assembled by undoubtedly brilliant minds, they in my mind do not appear to have advanced to a stage of being presented as concrete, clear, well-defined concepts. My main goal here, then, is to address this problem by presenting my humble opinion on the exact, precise details on just how these 2 phenomena do what they do. An equally important goal of mine, furthermore, is to do this with as much simplicity as possible. What, then, is a wormhole, and what is hyperspace? Let us turn to science fiction - a popular medium of expression - to get general ideas.

According to the highly successful movie "Contact", based on a book by Carl Sagan, we are told that wormholes are complex, interconnected tunnels that make possible direct transportation to designated locations within the universe. In the movie an orb-like vessel is constructed that provides access to the tunnels. This orb, in turn, rested upon a framework that was raised up above a body of water. How is this important? When the orb was activated, those observing the orb witnessed it to senslessly drop down into the water over the course of, say, a second. The occupant of the orb, however, claimed to have taken an 18-hour voyage to and from several regions of the cosmos. How, then, could the orb's 18-hour voyage occur in a second's worth of time in which those on earth observed the orb to go absolutely nowhere? I will share my view on this.

Understanding this means understanding what the theory of relativity calls space-time. As the first step in grasping the concept of space-time, picture an inflating balloon. As time passes, the balloon increases in size. Because the balloon increases in size as time passes, a specific balloon size corresponds to each moment in the balloon's inflation. We can therefore access any given moment in the balloon's inflation by simply designating a balloon size. In doing so we therefore make time a spatial entity. Let us continue. Imagine that we possess a marker, and a significantly inflated balloon, similar to the one we have just worked with. We then proceed to use the marker to evenly distribute round dots onto the surface of the balloon. These dots represent celestial bodies such as a planet or a star. We then deflate the balloon. Next, we begin to inflate the balloon, and imagine that as the dots move outward, they leave linear trails behind them. Einstein called these "world lines". Here, for the sake of the material, I will call them "space-time worms": spatial entities that exist extended across empty space. Next, imagine a network of small, thread-like interconnected tunnels spread althroughout the inner hollow part of the balloon, interwoven around all space-time worms in all ways possible. How does this transit system work? How, furthermore, did the occupant of the orb make an 18-hour voyage in 1 second?

Because we are treating time as a spatial entity, as you may recall, a moment in time is nothing more than a physical location within the inner hollow area of the balloon. Depending upon which tunnels you take, you will end up next to a cross-section of a space-time worm (an instance of a celestial body). That cross-section's distance from the centerpoint of the balloon determines what moment in time the wormhole tunnel has brought you to: wormholes provide transit through both space AND time! Let us continue. Whatever physical location in space-time (the inner hollow area of the balloon), you are HERE NOW. A physical location in space-time cannot be subjectively experienced in any other way. This is true for every and all physical locations in space-time. To experience a physical location in space-time as anything other than HERE and NOW is impossible. This is why the orb was not observed to leave the planet and in not doing so neither be subjectively experienced as being absent for any period of time. Though the orb tunnels out into space-time and returns, being gone as long as it wants and perhaps returning as many times as it wants, all the orb need do to be subjectively experienced as being HERE NOW by those on earth, is simply to assume, whenever necessary, the physical location in space-time where the orb dropped into the water. Those observing on the planet will not, therefore, according to their subjective experience of time, notice an absence nor hence therefore delay of departure of the orb. Departures and arrivals of the orb are subjectively experienced by those on earth as being instantaneous, quite simply, because both events take place at the same physical location in space-time. To those on earth, these visits can only, by the very nature of space-time, be experienced as being HERE and NOW. The concept of the delay we associate with the subjective experience of passing time loses meaning, you see, when time is treated as a spatial dimension, as the theory of relativity treats it. What of 'hyperspace'?

In the television series "Babylon 5", ships travel through "hyperspace" to cross extremely large distances in small amounts of time. The common procedure is to 'enter' hyperspace from your point of departure, travel through hyperspace, then 'exit' hyperspace at your destination point. This sounds like a very favorable system, but just exactly what are the details as to how it works? I will present my view on the issue. Let us return to our 'space-time worm' model. Assume that on the surface of the balloon is a 2-dimensional ship. It is landed on one body on the surface of the balloon and intends to travel to another body on the surface of the balloon very far away. How does it cross the large distance in a small amount of time like in Babylon 5? The ship first 'jumps' into hyperspace. It does this by moving perpendicular to its universe - in this case, into the empty space within the balloon, directly toward the balloon's centerpoint. Because it will be moving parallel to all space-time worms, it is impossible to collide with anything during the 'jump'. This is an invaluable advantage to hyperspace travel. As the ship gets closer to the centerpoint of the balloon, an interesting thing happens: the 2 bodies marking the distance the ship intends to travel get closer together! This is obviously because the space-time worms representing the bodies converge at the balloon centerpoint. Once the bodies are close enough together, the journey from body to body is made. The ship then moves back up to normal space. One might argue, however, that to go through this tedious hyperspace process could possibly involve a total distance even longer than an attempt to make the journey form body to body without using hyperspace. It must be realized, however, that when one moves perpendicular to one's universe, one moves through time. Because the distance travelled into the past is the same distance travelled back up to the future where normal space lies, the negative and positive time cancel each other out! The only actual time to pass during the journey is the time taken to cross the distance between the 2 bodies as they were near the centerpoint of the balloon - indeed a distance much smaller than the distance in between them in normal space.