- #1
JamesOrland
- 93
- 0
Okay, now this question has been asked over and over, and all that stuff, so I am not going to ask whether the universe is infinite or not. Actually, my physical intuition says that it probably is, and so do two very intelligent people I admire, namely Eliezer Yudkowsky (a mere AI programmer, just look him up) and the physicist Max Tegmark.
Actually, Tegmark starts his paper called 'Parallel Universes' assuming that the universe is flat (the WMAP experiment seems to point in that general direction), that distribution of matter is ergodic and so that it is spatially infinite. And while they could likely be wrong, it still appeals to me to imagine an infinite universe, so bear with me.
My question is not 'whether,' it's 'how.' Let's assume for a second that the Universe is spatially infinite, with all its far reaching consequences (including the multiple copies of yourself who are at most 10^10^115 metres away from you). How could that be so?
I mean, there's this place here which states that the Big Bang was not the origin of The Universe, but rather the origin of the Observable Universe, and as such The Universe actually is infinite. Then the forum's FAQ seems to corroborate, and that's just fine by me.
Now I have also read that the Big Bang's Singularity actually held an infinite amount of energy.
That's my problem, really. Where does all that energy come from? I was under the impression that the amount of energy was constant and finite in The Universe, not merely in the observable one. And let me reiterate that I'm okay with the idea that there is infinite energy in the universe, really. I just want to know.
Okay, I'm repeating myself, but I just want to be very clear: does the property 'spatially infinite' not imply 'energetically infinite'? How is that? Is the Big Bang not the origin of The Universe (capital T and U), but merely of the observable universe (lower-case o and u)?
Also, from what I understood of Tegmark's paper, the Big Bang was in fact the origin of The Universe, which is but one stable bubble of the inflationary bubbles that are created all the time, each infinite in volume. If each bubble is infinite in volume, should they not also have infinite energy? This is the problem I have, really, the relationship between energy and volume.
I know I'm not being clear, it's past midnight as I'm posting here, but this has been annoying me for the past few weeks, because I'd never given it too much thought before.
Thank you for your patience :)
Actually, Tegmark starts his paper called 'Parallel Universes' assuming that the universe is flat (the WMAP experiment seems to point in that general direction), that distribution of matter is ergodic and so that it is spatially infinite. And while they could likely be wrong, it still appeals to me to imagine an infinite universe, so bear with me.
My question is not 'whether,' it's 'how.' Let's assume for a second that the Universe is spatially infinite, with all its far reaching consequences (including the multiple copies of yourself who are at most 10^10^115 metres away from you). How could that be so?
I mean, there's this place here which states that the Big Bang was not the origin of The Universe, but rather the origin of the Observable Universe, and as such The Universe actually is infinite. Then the forum's FAQ seems to corroborate, and that's just fine by me.
Now I have also read that the Big Bang's Singularity actually held an infinite amount of energy.
That's my problem, really. Where does all that energy come from? I was under the impression that the amount of energy was constant and finite in The Universe, not merely in the observable one. And let me reiterate that I'm okay with the idea that there is infinite energy in the universe, really. I just want to know.
Okay, I'm repeating myself, but I just want to be very clear: does the property 'spatially infinite' not imply 'energetically infinite'? How is that? Is the Big Bang not the origin of The Universe (capital T and U), but merely of the observable universe (lower-case o and u)?
Also, from what I understood of Tegmark's paper, the Big Bang was in fact the origin of The Universe, which is but one stable bubble of the inflationary bubbles that are created all the time, each infinite in volume. If each bubble is infinite in volume, should they not also have infinite energy? This is the problem I have, really, the relationship between energy and volume.
I know I'm not being clear, it's past midnight as I'm posting here, but this has been annoying me for the past few weeks, because I'd never given it too much thought before.
Thank you for your patience :)