Why/how is light the fastest thing in the universe and nothing else can be faster?

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Why have we ruled out the possibility of finding something faster when we’ve only scratched the surface of space exploration and understanding?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The only reason we call the speed of light “the speed of *light*” is that light is the first thing we discovered that moves at that speed. In truth, the speed of light should really be called “the speed of causality.” Because as far as we call tell, when anything happens in our universe, the fastest the universe will let the effects of that thing propagate is 670,616,629 mph. That’s the speed of light. So truly, no matter what occurs, anywhere, the effects of that event move no faster than the speed of causality.

Light moves at this speed. So does gravity. Even information moves at the speed of causality. And the reason we believe nothing can move faster than this is that, contrary to intuitive human understanding, the nature of motion seems to be part of the makeup of the universe itself. It appears that beyond that speed, there really isn’t such a thing as motion anymore. Saying “go faster than light” is a nonsensical statement, like saying, “be more round than a sphere,” or “be less than nonexistent.” We can say the words, but the apparent reality behind them just don’t make sense if you actually understand what you’re saying.

Assuming that Einstein was right and the universe is constructed the way *every single test of Relativity, ever* indicates that it is, if we were to discover “speeds” beyond the speed of light, they won’t be the same kind of moving that we currently consider motion to be. And nothing made of the matter or energy we know about now will have anything to do with it.

But in short, light is the fastest thing in the universe because “fast” has an upper limit based on how our universe works, and light just so happens to be one of the few things that moves at that upper limit.

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