Big Bang = Big Crunch

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Scientists cannot tell us whether the universe will continue expanding, settle into a steady state, or contract.
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In the Meta Model the universe is infinite in size and scale, and black holes (singularities) are impossible to achieve through gravitational compression because of gravitational shielding.

I agree with the Meta Model in that the universe is infinite in size and that collapse to a point of singularity is impossible.
Assuming that the universe existed before the BB, it is still possible for an explosive event to cause space to expand locally. And if we define a universe as a localized BB, then space may have many "universes" in it.
When these universes collapse, they probably pull themselves in very slowly as their local space contracts - more of a "Slow Crunch" than a "Big Crunch".
Thanks for info on the Meta Model; I will read this, starting with cosmology.

wisp

"particles of nothingness"

Wisp,

Current cosmology is a gigantic edifice with about 100 or more layers of assumptions and free parameters to get it to work. I am convinced that the same group of cosmologists if they thought epicycles were correct could develop a similarly complicated system to explain the same observations. The first step in speculating about space expansion is to show that any such thing occurs in the first place. It would also be helpful to show that true black holes exist (which hasn't been done except by inference). What does space expansion mean? What is expanding, everything? The space between galaxies? The space between atoms? If not everything then why does space expansion not occur at a certain level? And if everything then we should notice nothing because all our instruments are expanding too. BB theory is only well supported if you are willing to simultaneously accept a mountain of hypothetical entities like Dark Matter, Black Holes, Dark Energy, Branes, Superstring blah blah blah...

I aggree with the above statement. It would be better to just forget about expanding anything and study the data. The BB model is just a model and should not be used as a substitute for thinking about this stuff.

I think it is possible to explain expansion if space is made of ether.
When matter forms in the ether, it makes the ether around it less dense, which creates pressure that drives expansion. As space expands, everyday objects stay the same size (forces that hold objects together prevent their structures expanding), but the ether between galaxies is expanded, because matter formation pushes space apart. The reverse effect is contraction, which happens when matter gets swallowed by black holes - the ether around the black holes contracts.
These are unproven ideas, but thinking about them may result in developing new experiments.

wisp

"particles of nothingness"