From the point of view of a photon, is the universe a dimensionless point?

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From the pov of a photon travelling at the speed of light, no time elapses from the moment it emits from the sun and absorbs in my eyeball. This is true also of all photons going all directions off the sun. This implies there is no distance either, for the photon, in any direction. So does this imply that from the point of view of a photon, is it’s universe a single dimensionless point? That is, for a photon, is it existing in a pre-big bang universe? And further, since there is at least one photon, surely there isn’t space for more than one …. And since it’s the same universe we occupy with that one photon (viewed through differing points of view), is all light that one photon, possibly superimposed countless times?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

We don’t know what the universe would look like from the point of view of a photon because if you plug that speed into the equations of special relativity, you get some undefined terms. That space in the direction of motion flattens to a plane is one way to interpret the equations, but it’s not clear whether that’s really the POV of a photon.

Note that the contraction is not to a point, but it’s only in one dimension, so it’s not like the big bang universe. Moreover, there is space for more than one photon in the same space (they’re the kind of particles that are perfectly happy occupying the same space). So no, that all photons are the same photon doesn’t necessarily follow.

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