RE: Forget Flat Earth Theory, now we have Flat Universe Theory!
November 27, 2010 at 8:19 am
(This post was last modified: November 27, 2010 at 8:22 am by Welsh cake.)
(November 25, 2010 at 4:09 pm)TheDarkestOfAngels Wrote: You are indeed correct that mathmatical infinities are quite possible. This cannot and never does apply to reality.By this omission I think you've unintentionally made a claim to knowledge by arguing the negative.
I agree that the context in which chuck is trying to apply infinity as a quantitative measurement of the cosmos was impractical in a sense, but that's because the very definition of the word is unboundedness. Its usage only begs further questions as to whether the universe actually has "limits" in the literal sense. What does the universe exist in? Is it the very fabric of reality or merely a closed system within other universes? Is there an inside or outside to it? By our current knowledge the answers to such rhetoric is unattainable. It's all speculation at this point...
When I refuse to use the term 'infinity' I'm merely being pragmatic. I do the same whenever someone makes a red herring argument from absolute knowledge because it would be absurd for us to label anything as "infinite" or "absolute", regardless of whether its square bounds or causal effects are know or not because you can't get from finite to infinite, there is no "highest number". Likewise you can't reach omniscience for this reason if causes and events are still ongoing. It's implausible to correspond or correlate anything else to eternity... I doubt we'd even be able to identify it when we got to it, assuming we're actually existing within an infinite cosmos of course.
However despite my objections, I must recognise that logic alone cannot refute the concept of unboundedness, theoretically in physics it may have valid applications in cosmology; since we don't yet know the scope of the universe or indeed if there is even an end to measure to or from, infinity subsequently falls into the category of the logically unknowable, not the logically impossible.
As far as I know and believe the universe is vast, transfinite even, but infinite? I make can no assertions either way for I simply don't know.