The Unavoidability Of A Spacetime Singularity Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 713):

At least, what we do know is that, so long as Einstein’s picture of a classical spacetime can be maintained, acting in accordance with Einstein’s equation (with non-negative energy densities and some other mild and ‘reasonable’ assumptions), then a spacetime singularity will be encountered within the hole. The expectation is that Einstein’s equation will tell us that this singularity cannot be avoided by any of the matter in the hole and that the ‘tidal forces’ (i.e. Weyl curvature) will diverge to infinity — very possibly in a wildly quasi-oscillatory fashion, in the general case.

 

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, General Relativity construes gravity as the contraction of space intervals in the direction of a centre of mass. If the singularity at the centre of a black hole is the contraction of space intervals to zero, then the spatial dimensions of matter that "encounters" it will be zero. This self-contradiction suggests that either the spatial intervals do not contract all the way to zero, a mathematical point, or that matter-energy falls short of the singularity.