I was thinking you could measure the Infinite Void in light years. So Eternal time in light years equals the time it takes for a photon to travel from the Universe to the furtherest limit of the Infinite void (times 2). On the assumption the Universe is roughly in the geometric centre of the Infinite void.
Or: The void is the absence of spacetime, "occupied" by the singularity. It is dimensionless (zero volume) and eternal (timeless).
Your statement that eternity can be measured in light years makes me think I made a poor choice in terms. Certainly, eternity seems to have meaning to us as we are dragged though time, but what does it mean to be in a state of timelessness where there is no metric?
This was my reasoning for saying the envelope of the universe impinges on the dimensionless timeless realm which you call the void. At the each point at which space (or the asymptote at which space converges) impinges on the void, each such point must lie in superposition with every other such point. This is necessary because nothing larger than a point can exist in the dimensionless void. This is also interestingly compatible with the idea of an infintely dense singularity at the BB. I inferred from this that every other singularity (black hole, supermassive hole, quantum hole) is forced into the same superposition.
Dywyddyr and AlexG raise valid objections concerning the nature of timelessness and the necessary explosion at t-zero. I was left to offer a scenario that there are two coexistent realities - the eternal integrated singularity, and the temporally-chained disintegrating universe.
On thinking about "the void", I am inclined to think that coexistence of the two implied realities (eternal/integrated and temporal/disintegrating) can be satisfied as follows:
(1) outside the envelope ("in" the void) the universe is infinitely dense and integrated, i.e., a singularity; and
(2) inside the envelope, it is expansive, strapped to time and disintegrating.
So that would appear to return us to my original premise: that the universe is created ex nihilo, and at the same time it is infinite.
Of course this use of
ex nihilo has nothing to do with creationism, because it arises by itself, without any help.
To review the hypotheses/assumptions of the model:
(1) the outer envelope of the universe impinges on the dimensionless void. No time or space exists "there". Thus, each point on the envelope converges to one single point - or, all points are in mutual superposition, since they all lie in the dimensionless void.
(2) just inside the envelope, spacetime is created, not as a discontinuity, but as the smooth divergence from an event horizon.
(3) the eternal unchanging singularity remains in stasis, stranded in the void...
(4) ...while -inside the envelope- an expanding disintegration is underway, chained to the arrow of time.
(5) the two realities coexist, despite the apparent paradox, for the same reason that it is paradoxical to fit the universe into a dimensionless void (eternal dimensionless singularity).
Corollary:
Every singularity (and event horizon), where time is stopped and space is compressed to a point, whether associated with a black hole, supermassive hole or quantum hole, necessarily coexists in the void, in mutual superposition with every other point on every other singularity or event horizon, including the envelope of the universe itself.
Corollary:
There is merely one singularity in the void, which, projected into the envelope, diverges into the largest possible number of instances of singularities, i.e., the total number of cosmic and quantum singularities that ever were and ever will be. (i.e., double summation/integration over all space and all time)
Corollary:
The paradox of mutual existence of an eternal integrated BBS, with the second state - an exploded, disintegrating BBS chained to the arrow of time, arises out of the paradoxical nature of event horizon itself, which negotiates between the two realities by gently collapsing the laws of physics upon approach, ie., forming a buffer zone of convergence wherever spacetime would otherwise impinge on the void.
