h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yo, Doc. y'alright?

Yo buddy. Bright and early ain't we! Sorry, I was deep in metaphysics until now (see my space).

Hey, why ya been upsettin da modz? Tut, tut. I've just fired up MSN for the day if ya wanna chat real time. I'm [email protected] or Dr Dulbrane.

looks like you're getting your teeth into the ole Beginning thing over on the 'proof' thread. fair play, you like your hardball, don't you?

I must compose my theory into an Entry so that we can lock antlers on the Infinite universe thing again. it's just too much hastle to trawl through all that 'why does anyone believe' jazz, innit?

ahh, that'd be the latin motto I used. Foreign languages et al.

Well yes its the same old debate repeated. Think is however clearly you think you write, somebody has a query or disagrees. Dunno if hypertext would fix that. Might become something worth publishing after a lot of use by others.

Oh yep. I remember now. Your thing is whether the universe is infinite in size, ain't it. The size and age debate go together usually, although you can argue that they might not.

I saw your latin motto but didn't struggle too much as my Latin is so rusty. Something about 'bears' wasn't it?

aye, "if you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly bear".

re: infinity, my theory is that space-time is infinite, while the universe is of finite amount, but infinite age.

Hmmmm.... You seem to be assuming then that space-time can exist without matter or events. That is a very difficult one - ie; just about all philosophers would agree (unusual in itself!) the it's impossible as in inconceivable.

If you imagine space-time as an infinite expanse of nothingness in which the universe is expanding, then time as we know it does not exist in the space-time outside of the universe.

To put it another way, space-time is like the air where sound waves travel. It carries sound, but does not have a sound of its own, nor a pitch.

Hi Guys

I'm reading Stephen Hawking's The Universe In A Nutshell at the moment.

Can I join in your discussion in about six months when I've finished it?

why wait. It'll be fresher in your mind. You can poke holes in my limited understanding of an incomprehensible subject.

The mad thing is, is the number of assumptions -(starting with 'i think therefore i am')- one has to make to get this far into the subject. Even the most eminent scientists have nothing more than educated stabs in the dark when it comes to such mysterious concepts as the space-time continuum.

I'll have another go at this one Myc. Nothingness may well be infinite but it ain't there, its, well, nothing. Space-time is different. The space-time nexus IS the universe, galaxies etc and all. THAT is finite. Don't worry about the nothingness - nobody else does!

The way I see it, space-time is like the (4 dimensional) mesh that the tapestry of the universe is woven into, if you see what I mean. Space-time isn't made of matter, hence it is infinite nothingness.

Apparently, there are as many as eleven dimensions, but that's heading further into thoery I understand even less. I suppose these other dimensions could account for the nature of space-time.

Hang on, maybe we've only found 11 dimensions out of 42. Maybe that's the answer, or is it the question? oops, my brain just stalled.

I think you're putting the conceptual knife in at the wrong point. I'm no expert on this, but to me space-time requires matter and energy for its existence. I have to flatly contradict you on this. Rather than being infinite nothingness, space-time is finite somethingness. If you want to say that it is surrounded by nothingness, fair enough. But nothingness implies no space and no time. The great thing about h2g2 is that I'll be corrected if someone here disagrees.