soulfood said:
en.wikipedia.org
I actually subscribe to that one to be honest just because its funny and ignorant and flies in the face of everything rational.
but uh, here we go:
If you imagine the universe is a donught and we live on the inside skin, thats infinite in 2 dimensions. a mathmatician will tell you how to make a shape which is infinite in 3, 4, 5, or even N dimensions. So our universe is ever ever expanding, into its own freshly created spacetime. Although there are some debates as to whether it is ever expanding or whether it will come to a giant 'big crunch'. I like this idea because it neatly ties everything up into the infinite, that's how it always was. it also totally avoids the debate, which some physicists find distasteful.
Other thoughts in my head include: everything could be ONE infinite being of some impossible complexity, like a gigantic creatuuuure... which kept changing shape...
or it could be ALL of these, including kind of 'fractal' in nature, as in, it doesn't really exist beyond a tiny point; but then when you go to measure beyond that tiny point, the structure of the whole thing changes and you get some reading for the part which you were measuring; up until you decided to measure it, it didn't exist!
In that way, we are creating what we experience; Its impossible to have a universe if you don't have a mind. Mind and universe are inexterobly and inseperably linked. - Scientists will keep finding more and more fundemental sub-atomic particles inside other sub-atomic particles until they realise that it's the scientific community and their collective thought energy which is giving rise to these things! Actually I think this is common knowledge but it still doesn't stop them smashing further and further into infinity looking for something which really, is allready found. (higgs boson, god particle, fundemental truth... etc)
To quickly summerise the various standpoints I can think of:
1 - there is no universe outside of yourself at your very highest level, like an infinite totem (see luke brown)
2 - the universe is infinite in all directions
- 2a : either because its perfect and flawless and it was made that way as a breath of pure art
- 2b : or because its incredibly tangled and it has always been like that, the tapestries of life got caught up in the loom at some point
3 - mind-universe mixture only, what you observe you change, therefor you cannot observe the 'true universe' (quantum theory)
...
GREAT question! thankyou
It was a pleasure to give my 2 cents.
if anyone can think of more please do add
Ya said:
Imagine zooming-out to where all the galaxies of "The Universe" together from a distance look like a bright ball floating in black darkness.
Most current thinking defines "The Universe" as merely the collection of galaxies WITHIN that ball, meaning the seemingly-infinite blackness beyond the edge of our ball-of-galaxies defines and limits our definition of "The Universe".
But I think the term "The Universe" should actually be expanded BEYOND that edge, to INCLUDE that seemingly-infinite ocean of blackness beyond the edge of our ball-of-galaxies, to INCLUDE the OTHER balls of galaxies one would eventually discover if one zooms-out one's perspective far enough (currently called parallel universes, but all blackness and all of the various universes should be included in the newly redefined all-emcompassing term "The Universe.")
Im not sure on this but doesn't there have to be mass in order to be space? nowhere isthere space without somekind of giant mass. the two are conjoined? I would hazard a guess that they are in perfect balance too; that the amount of space in the universe (if we could measure it) is in some equilibrium with the total mass in the universe.
As I said above though, one school of thought is that it's actually infinite because it wraps round in a higher dimension. 4D [xyz+time] wrapped around in a 5d shape.
From what i've observed in my experiences though I think everything is infinite in all directions and all dimensions, but it appears fixed and limited to our senses. If you expanded your perception enough you'd see everything never ended and you'd stop waiting for a stop. I think bhudda lives here.
88 said:
which is to say, the notion of first cause and linearity are a peculiarity of human perception that we try to map onto that which is outside of us. Beyond the human understanding of time, the very idea of beginnings and ends has no meaning. To put it another qwya: when you are in space, which way is up?
Yeah!! just like that! the plane of infinite awareness.
idtravlr said:
psychosisdoses said:
he went where no other fish dared and for this he gave his life. if only for a moment he got a glimpse of whats beyond the tank.. maybe one day we will too.
PD - That's just flat out awesome! :lol:
Absoloutely, that is some amazing stuff. Poor little guy. Fishplorer.
About the universe and all things which are infinitely connected; I agree with this too - it is a very empowering way of looking at the world because if all things are connected then everything is within your reach. If, to you, everything is not connected, then you have no control.
