[NT] Is there such thing as infinity?

[guesswho]

It seems that our universe is not infinite.
Now, if our universe is not infinite, can it contain something infinite inside of it? I highly doubt it.

And how can you even prove something is infinite? Since you would need an infinite amount of time to explore something infinite.

It seems that only possibilities are infinite, infinity being just a theoretical concept.
(for instance assuming that there are an infinite number of universes)

Mother nature was not able to create infinity, we have created it, so in a way we create what our creator failed to create, in an abstract way.

But is infinity plausible, if it does not exist in reality? Can it be in fact just one very big number?

Is there any concept similar to this one?

Is there anyone interesting in talking about this?!

 

[entropie]

Infinitiy is important in many technical or virtual processes. Yet it's no real infinity at all at some point a thing which is infinite zero reaches zero nevertheless. On a more theorethical, microscopical and philosophical level you're right with what you claim. Yet there are a lot of questions open, like Did the big bang and the great collapse happen infinite times, if they happen at all ? Is our universe composed of infinite layers of dimension and does that explain why gravitation is so fundamentrally different from the other natural laws ?

Will the USA forever not win the soccer championship ? Questions over questions

 

[Such Irony]

I've pondered alot of these thoughts myself. No I don't have the answers, sorry.

I do think that maybe there are no physical things in nature that are truly infinite, I think numbers go all the way into infinity. But numbers are just an abstract construct.


Now here is a pardox for your thoughts:

What about multiplying infinity by infinity? Is the resulting number an infinite number of times larger than infinity? Yet it wouldn't make sense to multiply infinity by itself since there can be nothing greater than infinity.

 

[guesswho]

Whoaa I think you just answered the question if the universe explodes and collapses an infinite number of times.

The big bang and the collapse actually happen an infinite number of times to prove that the US will forever not win the soccer championship, no matter how much time repeats itself, assuming that time actually repeats itself, and assuming that time restarts.

What about multiplying infinity by infinity? Is the resulting number an infinite number of times larger than infinity? Yet it wouldn't make sense to multiply infinity by itself since there can be nothing greater than infinity.

There is an amusing answer to that. Infinity is not a number, therefor it will not act as one.

It was the other way around actually.

∞ + ∞ = ∞
=> ∞ is not a number

Infinity does not obey the laws of math.

But why can we add ∞ + ∞ , I mean...it's "legal" right? We can add 1 + ∞

So even though ∞ does not obey the laws of math, you can still add numbers to ∞ resulting ∞.
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Another theory to why 1+∞=∞
Assume that 1+∞ does not equal ∞
It would equal 1+∞
1+∞=1+∞
But 1 cannot exist outside of ∞, because it would mean that ∞ does not contain 1 even though it's infinite, resulting in it being limited to everything except one

So 1+∞=∞

But how can 1 exist on the left side of the equation? How can we add 1 to ∞, shouldn't ∞ contain 1 from the start?

So yes, it's a paradox.



An infinity of confusion that's what it is..................

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My initial assumption was wrong. Just because nothing is as big as infinite, doesn't mean that infinity doesn't exist.
Because infinity is not about size, it's about "how many".
So even though we may not live in an infinite universe, it may create and destroy itself an infinite amount of times. So infinity may actually exist in reality. Or not.

 

[EcK]

The true question is rather, is there such a thing as continuity.

Continuity in nature, to me, hints at infinities.
From these infinities there's only one step to singularities, and \ or an 'everything is equal' maximum entropy state.
So no differencials
No work
No time
surely no life to observe of all this

But for the same reason such an universe wouldn't allow for complex life, infinities simplify our models of the world, smooth them out to save computations.

 

[Craft]

Yes. The idea.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

I like thinking about this, but one of my particular favorites is if you our universe is not infinite, then what shape does it hold? Most like thinking that the universe expands infinitly and if this is true, and you're looking at just behind the universe's expansion what does nothing look like? I don't believe infinity can exist in reality.

I have also enjoyed the thought that as a universe if it began we aren't going from 0 to 1 to 2 and so on, but we're going from 0 to 0000000000000.....1 and so on. We're trying to make it to one even in our concept of time. We just don't know when we'll actually reach one. Giving it a sense of infinity.

 

[guesswho]

what shape does it hold?

Sphere, or something close to a sphere, since the spheres seem to be the most stable bodies (planets stars etc.)

Most like thinking that the universe expands infinitly and if this is true, and you're looking at just behind the universe's expansion what does nothing look like?

I think it is wrong to assume that there is nothing outside of our universe, how can something expand, and occupy more nothing?! Turning the nothing into something, and if there really is nothing outside of our universe it might as well be infinite.

But if nothing is infinite, as size, what is at the end of the big "something" ? It's also hard to believe that the universe has a "dead end" sign where you'll just have to turn around.

The correct assumption would be " we don't know"

I have also enjoyed the thought that as a universe if it began we aren't going from 0 to 1 to 2 and so on, but we're going from 0 to 0000000000000.....1 and so on. We're trying to make it to one even in our concept of time. We just don't know when we'll actually reach one. Giving it a sense of infinity.

0.(0)1 has an infinite number of zeros, so you can't get to 1.

 

[Haphazard]

 

[Arclight]

I think it's a loop.. There is no infinity because things just eventually end up where they started, where they are going and where they have been .

So time is infinite but space isn't , does that make sense?

Then I wonder. We live very lineal lives. Everything we know has a beginning and end. SO while we can conceptualize infinity, I wonder if we can truly grasp it's meaning.

 

[Haphazard]

If the universe isn't infinite, when does it end?

 

[Arclight]

To further explain from a different angle.

We exist.. This is a mathematical fact. Whatever the odds of our existence, we exist. So no matter how great the odd, eventually we come around again to that 1 in whatever chance of something happening , happening.

 

[ThatGirl]

I think it's a loop.. There is no infinity because things just eventually end up where they started, where they are going and where they have been .

So time is infinite but space isn't , does that make sense?

Then I wonder. We live very lineal lives. Everything we know has a beginning and end. SO while we can conceptualize infinity, I wonder if we can truly grasp it's meaning.

I think it is like a Chinese yoyo that eventually expands wide enough to fall back on itself and out the other direction... Also as much as it lengthens in one direction also the other. Basically stretching, collapsing, then each end producing the opposite momentum.

I don't know why but when I think of infinity I picture a figure eight.



Yeah, even I don't know what that meant.

 

[guesswho]

If the universe isn't infinite, when does it end?

And if it ends then what's outside of it is infinite?

 

[INTP]

im fairly sure that there is a perceptual infinity, and im not talking about heaven

 

[Arclight]

I think it is like a Chinese yoyo that eventually expands wide enough to fall back on itself and out the other direction... Also as much as it lengthens in one direction also the other. Basically stretching, collapsing, then each end producing the opposite momentum.

I don't know why but when I think of infinity I picture a figure eight.



Yeah, even I don't know what that meant.

The yo-yo imagery is good

It's like the big wheel on the price is right.. only much much larger.. But eventually $1 comes around again.
I go with the sphere or loop because look around you.. Space is circular

But I think our concepts are the same.

 

[ZPowers]

There is, of course, always the infinite proposed by, say, infinite divisibility or Zeno's paradox (i.e. any movement, before being completed, must reach fist it's halfway point, and before behing halfway it must go a quarter, and an eigth and a sixteenth, ad infinity). Essentially, things like time or space can be broken into infinitely smaller parts, not just infinitely bigger ones.

Another less grand example of infinite is two mirrors facing one another. Technically, isn't that an example of infinite? The image is repeated infinite times, though it is eventually becomes to small to see.

Still, it's true that infinity lacks a certain amount of logic as a purely mathematical concept.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

0.(0)1 has an infinite number of zeros, so you can't get to 1.

That is to say that the universe never ends, age wise. 1 would be non existence.

 

[ajblaise]

Well, you can never reach infinity, or prove its existence. The potential for infinity is out there, but will never be realized, for obvious reasons.

 

[Craft]

The question is "Is anything infinite?" not "Is there infinity?". There is "infinity" as much as there is "dragon" as much as there is "1." But these things exists in the abstract dimension---utilized by man in his designation of language. We can designate "1" to many things but what things can we designate "infinite" to?

Time. I doubt there is ever an end to Time, even with the end of the physical universe. How "physical" is time? But then what about the relativity of time...

So, I think, the question is "Is absolute nothing possible"?