Have you ever looked at a science article that had a title like, “How Old is the Universe?” or, “How Big is the Universe?” or, “What are the Elemental Particles of Matter?” I remember reading an article that said the universe was 13.8 billion years old. And another one that said the universe is 93 billion light-years in diameter. Now I understand that these numbers come with caveats built in. They’re estimates based on some model. The age is based on some calculation involving the background microwave radiation and modelling how long it would take based on some estimate of the energy present at the moment of the “big bang” to degrade to what we see now. And then the size of the universe is based on this age and how far light could travel in that time or some such logic.
But even with these asterisks attached, even reputable scientists talk about figuring out the size and shape of the universe. And this always make me laugh. What do they think this finite universe rests on? A giant turtle’s back? Even the limited glimpse that modern science has given us of the immensity of time and space should have convinced anyone with a rational mind that we’re dealing with infinity. And that’s the infinitely large and the infinitesimally small and the infinitely old.
Our perch even in this island universe the Milky Way galaxy is absurdly isolated. We can reach the Moon relatively easily. We can send robotic missions to the planets. And that’s about it. Even reaching the nearest star with a robotic probe is ridiculously beyond our capability as a species. We could get a space craft to Alpha Centauri in something like ten thousand years with our current rocket technology. But that is longer than our race’s complete written history. Even if the probe reached the Centauri planets and there were intelligent being there to send a message back what are the chances we would still be waiting for the message? And I’m not even saying we would no longer exist as a civilized species. I’m wondering if anyone would remember or care that the mission had occurred and be waiting if a message came back.
And none of this is to belittle the achievements of scientists and engineers over the course of the last five hundred years. We’ve gone from horse carts and wood burning stoves to space ships and nuclear power plants in that time. The difference between a long sword and a hydrogen bomb is a remarkable change in the amount of power we can wield in that short stretch of time.
What is annoying to me is that anyone thinks time and space are finite. If anyone told me that the universe was some absurdly large number of trillions of light years in diameter, I’d just ask him, “So if I were standing that absurdly large number of trillion light years from here and I was facing away from where we are now, what would I see? A brick wall with a sign that said ‘End of Universe, do not fall off!’? I mean, come on! If I were versed in multidimensional geometric topology maybe I’d know if there is a shape that has no external surface but a finite volume. But I’m pretty sure I still wouldn’t believe in it.
And as far as the very small, we’ve gone from atoms, to protons, electrons and neutrons, to quarks, gluons, bosons and heaven knows what else but none of this convinces me we’ve reached the bottom. I don’t think we ever will.
But at the same time, I don’t see the problem. There are no ends to infinity. But so what? That’s the whole fun of the thing.