151: Chapter 151: We Live on the Surface of a Supermassive Black Hole

"Xiaoyu, if we take it step by step, you'll see that the properties of the universe and the properties of a black hole are actually identical!"

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly and held up one finger: "First, the speed of light cannot escape!"

"Our universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and the speed of expansion far exceeds the speed of light. Inside the universe, that is, within galaxies, the speed of light is the fastest. This is very contradictory and counter-intuitive to physics!"

"And what about black holes?"

"The surface of a black hole—the Event Horizon—is also a place where light enters and can never come out again."

"Comparing the surface of the universe to the surface of a black hole—light from within cannot escape the surface of the universe or the surface of a black hole."

"Light within the universe cannot outrun the expansion of the universe; the universe prevents it from escaping."

"Light within a black hole cannot outrun the black hole's immense gravity; the black hole prevents it from escaping."

"Number one: [The speed of light cannot escape.]"

Xiaoyu's breathing slowed as she listened. She felt that in this regard, the universe and a black hole were indeed very similar.

Jiang Zhe held up a second finger. "Second, the universe feels like a sphere, yet no curvature can be measured on a large scale."

"The Big Bang model—traces of the Big Bang have indeed been detected in the universe. Due to the expansion waves coming from all directions, it feels to the human scientific community like a constantly expanding sphere."

"But scientists have used the most precise instruments to analyze even the oldest light in the universe, and they found that on a large scale, our universe is bizarrely flat. No curvature can be measured at all!!!"

"And what about black holes?"

"From the outside, a black hole appears pitch black. However, gravitational changes in its vicinity can be captured through mathematical formulas and cutting-edge telescopes, allowing us to calculate what a photo of a black hole would look like."

"Xiaoyu, imagine you're standing on the surface of a supermassive, super-smooth black hole. In the small area we can perceive, we would likely feel like the ground beneath us is flat. Why flat?"

"Because near the Event Horizon of a black hole, space-time is warped, creating an [infinite stretching] effect."

"It's like you're standing on a piece of plastic wrap being pulled infinitely tight from both sides. In the area under your feet, it would be stretched extremely flat—so flat that you wouldn't be able to measure any curvature!"

"This flatness of a black hole isn't truly flat; it's being [pulled flat] by super-strong gravity. The larger the black hole's mass, the stronger this force, approaching the limit. Looking at the surface of a black hole, it appears flat, and curvature is almost impossible to measure."

Hearing this, Xiaoyu couldn't help but swallow hard.

Standing on the surface of a black hole and looking in all directions, everything is an endless expanse of flatness, with no measurable curvature.

Are we human scientists just like people standing on the surface of a black hole—unable to measure the curvature of the universe?

Not just her, even the viewers in the stream felt a chilling sense of dread rising within them.

Jiang Zhe held up a third finger, his voice growing serious:

"Third, it's possible that there is simply no [outside the universe]!"

"No outside the universe?" Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes narrowed.

"Yes."

His gaze fell on Xiaoyu as Jiang Zhe got straight to the point:

"Xiaoyu, the universe has no outside."

Jiang Zhe picked up the phone on the table and lit up the screen.

"The curvature of our universe cannot be measured. I mentioned earlier that it was [flat], right?"

"Right!"

"Now look at this screen, this icon, the starry sky in this wallpaper, the little running figure..."

"They think they're in a [world] with an up and a down, where they can run and jump, right?"

"But to the [phone screen] itself, there is no [inside]. All the icons (galaxies) and all the images (planets) are just light and shadow printed on this screen."

"We humans are fixed inside the universe. Even if we were faster than light, we couldn't escape—just like the little figure in my phone can never break through the screen and run into our hands."

Jiang Zhe turned the phone screen toward Xiaoyu and tapped on a pitch-black area on the glass.

"Our universe is this screen."

"And black holes!"

"Are just permanently locked black icons on this giant screen."

"From outside the phone screen, you can see its edges and the colors of the black hole's edge simulated by scientists. From the real world, no matter what we send into a [black hole]—data, light, matter—it will eventually just be swallowed by it and become part of it."

"It displays no content; it is itself an interface that cannot be read, where things only go in and never come out."

At this point, Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "The [universe screen] we live on is, in all probability, essentially the same thing as a [black hole icon]. Both are a larger [display interface] or a [cosmic horizon/black hole Event Horizon surface]."

"Our [universe screen] has no concept of [inside]. The so-called [inside of the universe]—where we live—is just an illusion created by the programs running on this [universe screen]!"

"Xiaoyu, this is the most terrifying part—we think we are explorers, but the fact that the physical universe has no curvature defines it: we are on the [surface of the entire universe]."

"You feel the expansion waves of the Big Bang spreading in all directions—just like the little figure in my phone sees a Big Bang. It also thinks something exploded and is spreading in front of it. But from another perspective—to us outside the screen—the [explosion] inside the phone screen is [flat]."

At this point, Jiang Zhe took a deep breath, his expression becoming focused:

"Xiaoyu, given everything, is it possible that we have always been living..."

"...on the interface of a supermassive black hole?"

As soon as he said this, Xiaoyu gasped, her body feeling a sudden chill.

Meanwhile, in the livestream, countless viewers felt their scalps tingle with shock.

"Damn, even light can't escape. It matches, it matches perfectly!"

"The contradiction between it being flat and feeling like a sphere... I have goosebumps."

"No outside... that's terrifying to think about!"

"So our Earth and the Milky Way are all stuck to the [skin] of some giant thing?"

"To the person above, yes, it's just like the Event Horizon of a black hole. If you lived on the Event Horizon, what you'd see would be flat, and what you'd see outside would be infinitely stretched rays of light. If you could leap through cosmic space at the speed of light, you'd be surrounded by a [canvas of starry sky]. To [the speed of light itself], the [universe is flat]. But to us, the universe feels like a sphere yet no curvature can be measured. It perfectly fits everything Big Bro said—we really might be living on a giant [black hole]!"

"This isn't just a wild theory; it's the truth, isn't it? Damn, my scalp is tingling!"

"..."

Countless viewers were so stunned by Jiang Zhe's explanation that they hardly dared to breathe.

The "outside the universe" that humanity has been searching for simply doesn't exist—the universe is essentially a flat phone screen. Any attempt to find what's outside would be met by the thickness of that phone screen fleeing at [three times the speed of light] via the [cosmic expansion wave]!

We will never be able to escape to the outside of the universe in our lifetime!!!

...

Meanwhile, in the lounge at Huaqing University.

The students who had been heatedly debating moments ago were now completely silent.

Even Professor Wu, who had maintained an opposing stance, was staring fixedly at the screen.

He wanted to say something but found himself unable to speak—because everything Jiang Zhe said was correct.

The curvature of the universe cannot be measured; it feels like a sphere and seems to have up, down, left, and right, but in reality, it's just an infinitely long [black cloth] stretching in all directions.

He was even afraid that Xiaoyu, a high school sophomore, wouldn't understand, so he specifically used a [phone screen] to explain what the [universe] was like.

"This!!!!"

Beside him, Professor Ouyang took a deep breath. "Everything he said about these three points is based on real evidence, not just ethereal nonsense. Especially the third point—it was so easy to understand that even my grandson could get it!!"

"He's presenting a terrifying concept..."

Everyone cast a look of incomprehension.

"A virtual world!!!"