Also consider the speed of light is also the speed of causality. If there was no such limit it means it would be possible for effects to precede causes which would lead to a very different kind of universe!
replies(8):
No matter how fast an effect propogates, it is always after the cause (with an infinite speed, I guess effects happen instantaneously, but not before).
Of course, this doesn't fit with a universe described by general relativity, where time can be different for different observers. But you wouldn't have a universe described by general relativity without that constraint in the first place.
> No matter how fast an effect propogates, it is always after the cause (with an infinite speed, I guess effects happen instantaneously, but not before).
If everything happens instantaneously then there is no real cause and effect, and the universe would be over before it really got started.
Imagine a universe like Conway's way of life, where only neighboring cells can be affected in one timestep. Now add to it a rule that all blocks have a color, and the color of all blocks are changed when one block changes color. Now you have a universe with both immediate and non-immediate effects.
The distance between the mirrors is a number of meters. A meter is based on how far light travels in a second. How long it takes light to go between them is based on the speed of light. Speed, distance and time are connected.
If we untether the speed of light and it’s unlimited, then in some sense there is no way to say how long it takes light to bounce between the mirrors - it doesn’t take any time. And there is no way to say how far apart the mirrors are, if light passes between them instantly that implies there must be no gap to cross. If light crosses no distance in no time then it also bounces back covering no distance in no time, ahh does lots of bounces in no time. There goes the concept of a time step and any concept of “non immediate effects”.
If you try and add time as a separate thing, then you have some kind of Conway’s game simulation - but that gives you a way to track where light is (which simulation cell it’s in) and therefore a kind of distance (how far the mirrors are apart in simulation cells) and then you lock down how light moves in “simulation cells travelled per timestep” which brings you back to a fixed speed of light again.