The standard cosmological model interprets cosmic redshift and Hubble’s law as direct evidence for expanding spacetime. Yet modern cosmology has largely ignored a simple but profound fact: the angular resolution of astronomical instruments has risen dramatically and continuously over the past century, a trend that has never been seriously questioned at a fundamental level. We propose Instrument-Resolution Cosmology (IRC) as a minimalist, unified, and falsifiable working hypothesis. We suggest that cosmic expansion, redshift, and the Hubble tension may not be true cosmic dynamics, but observational patterns induced by steadily improving instrument resolution. As we observe deeper, sharper, and farther, natural observational shifts emerge that have long been misread as an expanding universe. We further suggest it is plausible that core features of quantum mechanics might also arise from the same kind of instrument-resolution effect, a topic we will explore in future work. This framework assumes a static, closed, non-expanding universe, removes ad-hoc ingredients such as dark energy and cosmic expansion, and offers a surprisingly unified and intuitive alternative to standard theory. We present this not as speculation, but as a serious, testable perspective that could be fundamentally correct. It provides a surprisingly fun, radical, and coherent new viewpoint for physics, one that challenges long-unquestioned foundations. V2;This paper presents a revised and mathematically consistent formulation of Instrument-Resolution Cosmology (IRC), a static, non-expanding universe hypothesis based on global observational distortion. Compared with the previous version, this revision significantly strengthens the theoretical foundation and quantitative framework: we introduce a physically well-defined distortion operator derived from instrumental wavelength calibration error, establish a consistent and testable mathematical relation for cosmological redshift, eliminate internal inconsistencies such as dimensional errors and contradictory monotonicity, correctly derive the observed Hubble law and Hubble constant evolution, and provide a natural and self-consistent solution to the Hubble Tension without introducing spacetime expansion, dark energy, or ad hoc parameters. We also improve the logical structure, clarify the physical interpretation of observational distortion, and add empirical fitting to historical Hubble constant data as well as concrete, testable predictions. The revised IRC theory remains minimal, realist, and falsifiable, while achieving full internal consistency and compatibility with observational evidence. It demonstrates that cosmological redshift, Hubble’s law, and the Hubble Tension can be fully understood as systematic observational artifacts caused by the century-long monotonic improvement of astronomical instrumental resolution and calibration precision. wxsq1638@outlook.com 0009-0000-3175-1681 Xinyu Zheng
Xinyu Zheng (Thu,) studied this question.