Have you ever looked at a science article that had a title like, \u201cHow Old is the Universe?\u201d or, \u201cHow Big is the Universe?\u201d or, \u201cWhat are the Elemental Particles of Matter?\u201d\u00a0 I remember reading an article that said the universe was 13.8 billion years old.\u00a0 And another one that said the universe is 93 billion light-years in diameter.\u00a0 Now I understand that these numbers come with caveats built in.\u00a0 They\u2019re estimates based on some model.\u00a0 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 \u201cbig bang\u201d to degrade to what we see now.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
But even with these asterisks attached, even reputable scientists talk about figuring out the size and shape of the universe.\u00a0 And this always make me laugh.\u00a0 What do they think this finite universe rests on?\u00a0 A giant turtle\u2019s back?\u00a0 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\u2019re dealing with infinity.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the infinitely large and the infinitesimally small and the infinitely old.<\/p>\n
Our perch even in this island universe the Milky Way galaxy is absurdly isolated.\u00a0 We can reach the Moon relatively easily.\u00a0 We can send robotic missions to the planets.\u00a0 And that\u2019s about it.\u00a0 Even reaching the nearest star with a robotic probe is ridiculously beyond our capability as a species.\u00a0 We could get a space craft to Alpha Centauri in something like ten thousand years with our current rocket technology.\u00a0 But that is longer than our race\u2019s complete written history.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 And I\u2019m not even saying we would no longer exist as a civilized species.\u00a0 I\u2019m wondering if anyone would remember or care that the mission had occurred and be waiting if a message came back.<\/p>\n
And none of this is to belittle the achievements of scientists and engineers over the course of the last five hundred years.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gone from horse carts and wood burning stoves to space ships and nuclear power plants in that time.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
What is annoying to me is that anyone thinks time and space are finite.\u00a0 If anyone told me that the universe was some absurdly large number of trillions of light years in diameter, I\u2019d just ask him, \u201cSo 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?\u00a0 A brick wall with a sign that said \u2018End of Universe, do not fall off!\u2019?\u00a0 I mean, come on!\u00a0 If I were versed in multidimensional geometric topology maybe I\u2019d know if there is a shape that has no external surface but a finite volume.\u00a0 But I\u2019m pretty sure I still wouldn\u2019t believe in it.<\/p>\n
And as far as the very small, we\u2019ve gone from atoms, to protons, electrons and neutrons, to quarks, gluons, bosons and heaven knows what else but none of this convinces me we\u2019ve reached the bottom.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we ever will.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, I don\u2019t see the problem.\u00a0 There are no ends to infinity.\u00a0 But so what?\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole fun of the thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever looked at a science article that had a title like, \u201cHow Old is the Universe?\u201d or, \u201cHow Big is the Universe?\u201d or,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1263,3545],"tags":[5043,4868,165,5042],"class_list":["post-35000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-science","tag-infinity","tag-particle-physics","tag-science","tag-universe"],"yoast_head":"\n