If you take a box surrounding any volume of the universe and just look at its contents as a given configuration of mass - energy, then the difference between this box and another at any given distance is just the difference between the configurations of mass - energy. So space travel is just the substitution of a given configuration of mass - energy (call it CME to abbreviate) with another one. So traveling in space doesn’t really mean anything, we are just visting different CMEs (Configurations of Mass - Energy).
These CMEs are made up of the same particles electrons, protons, neutrons and photons just assembled in a given configuration. It is as if they were in a box that is standing still but are constantly changing their configuration. They don’t travel, but space travel appears to be linear and gradual. But “travel” really is just visits to different points of the space of configuration of the particles.
So then if you substitute the box you are now observing with a box that would correspond exactly to the same configuration of an environment in the year 1950, you would actually be travelling through time and visiting directly the past. So not only does space not exist but TIME ALSO DOES NOT EXIST. The size of the universe then is just the possible number of different CMEs that are possible and the speed of light is just the minimum time interval that separates different CMEs or the maximum speed with which these different CMEs can be visited.
Since space and time doesn’t really exist, what we observe is just a convenient way of organizing these CMEs according to how they vary. What exists in the end is just a space of combinations and the limits for an observer of this space are simply combinational limits. How many different combinations can be observed ? Any given CME can correspond to a given place in space (surface of mars) or even in time (earth during the Roman Empire). So both time travel and space travel are one and the same, that is a path through different combinations of Mass - Energy, the size of the universe is not measured in distance or time, but number of possible combinations.
An interesting result of this is that the only thing that really exists is INFORMATION. So a virtual reality world on a computer doesn’t have to be so precise as to be indistinguishable from the real world but is ACTUALLY JUST AS REAL AS ANY REAL WORLD, because both are just combinations of Mass - Energy which in the end is just pure information. Therefore even matter does not really exist, only information and therefore the universe is infinitely manipulable.
Wow. So you topped Einstein. A few minor problems with the theory is what portion of the volume does the observer occupy ? Of course it really isn’t important because I guess the observer and remaining volume are all in the same box so they together form a unique combination of Mass - Energy. Another question is how big is the box ? Even this may really not matter because if the box is the size of an electron, then the combinations are relative to what is happening in such a small box. If it is the size of say a thousand miles on each side, it can contain a perfect replica of any possible world we as the size of humans could observe and interact with.
So this 1,000 mile box can contain an ancient Rome, or a home of 1950, the observers could be exact replica of people who lived there or in that home or maybe people who travel back in time but are just exact replicas of the Mass - Energy etc.
I guess the theory stands up pretty well. Since these “replicas” then are really made up of exactly the same combination of electrons, photons and all, they are EXACTLY EQUAL to the real thing. In fact they are like numbers, the number 6 is the same everywhere, elementary particles are indistinguishable etc.
What is interesting of the theory is the fact that space travel is a subset of visiting all possible combinations of a mass energy matrix, a bit like a counter that counts all the numbers of a very large number. It reminds me of the idea that a DVD can contain a movie of 2 hours that is composed of a unique comination of 5 billion numbers, so all the possible movies that can possibly exist are 10 to the 5 billion (10^5,000,000,000). So measuring the size of the universe with units of space and time is using a much smaller scale than measuring it as a combination or sequence of combinations of Mass - Energy.
Within this framework, the laws of physics represent those configuration paths that are preferred by Matter. I don’t think there is any intrinsically forbidden configuration or sequence of configurations for Mass - Energy to assume, it is just that a configuration will naturally and immediately follow certain paths more readily than others, each configuration being unstable and ending up into a stable one. A rock doesn’t avoid the force of gravity, it naturally falls and doesn’t go up, this path of configurations is where the laws of physics express their opposition to certain alternative paths, their inertia and desire to follow certain predetermined paths.
So maybe space, time and the laws of physics just measure the inertia or difficulty for a configuration to go from one to another. Then again if you take the box in a given configuration and the observer sees it, and then from outside force the box into another (even if completely against the laws of physics) and the observer sees this new one and so on, he would see any possible path of configuration, even ones that radically break any laws of physics. He would see this because his observation would last a millisecond, and then the forcing machine would shut off his observation for the time necessary to force a new configuration, and then would turn on the observer again for another millisecond and so on. The observer would follow it all as if he was never shut off, it would appear naturally so then anything could be possible.
This is a bit like if our mind was turned on for a millisecond , then shut off for a year, then turned on again for a millisecond and this cycle for many millions of years, only we would perceive a linear flow of events totally unaware of the fact that millions of years have past instead of just an hour; ( another hidden layers theory ? ).
The difference between the contents of box A and box B is the difference in their CME’s, as you say. But that is not the only difference between box A and box B. A and B are situated in different environments that affect their evolution and future contents.
No. When you travel from box A to box B you also change your environment from environment(A) to environment(B). Box A and B are not in general closed systems that can be separated from their environments. The only truly closed system is the universe itself.