Infinity is an impossible concept for humans to truly wrap their heads around. If I were to ask you; what does infinite mean? The go to answer for most would be when something is never ending, but people rarely begin with that it can also be representative of something which never starts either.
This post is a remake of my first post ever made, I thought I would bring it back for new followers.
Empiricizing Infinities?
Although maybe strange to hear for some, infinity does come in different sizes. In math, the two types which exist are a "countable" and "uncountable" infinity. Take the series of "real numbers" as in 1,2,3,4... continuing on to infinity. This series of numbers is infinite in size as no matter how large of a number you write down or imagine like 1239483920932093209328042013830129130192103 you could easily just add another digit like a 7 and get 12394839209320932093280420138301291301921037, it would be a new countable unit in the series. What defines this particular type of infinity is that regardless of the fact that it is infinite it is still technically a "countable" infinity. Yes, you may never get to the final number but if you started a 1 and kept counting until infinity you would be able to continue naming real numbers until you either lost interest or died. This may seem somewhat of a redundant case but the contrast is important when we consider infinities that we cannot count at all.
Let's instead now attempt to name every decimal between 0 and 1 as in 0.00000001, 0.00000002, 0.00000003, 0.0000004, 0.000005...until infinity. I'll ask you guys, what is the first number we write down?
If you already thought about it and answered that there is no way to start this series properly, you're right. Because we are attempting to number every number between 0 and 1 we would have to start with the smallest multiple 1.0x10^-x. For those unfamiliar with scientific notation that's 0.01 with the largest conceivable amount of zeroes in between the decimal point and the 1. So when starting this series our first number would be 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000--- well, how many zeroes would be before the 1? The answer is an infinite amount of zeroes go in between this first 0. and 1. This is where we see our example of an "uncountable" infinity. These examples, first demonstrated by Georg Cantor in the late 19th century explained how the set of infinite number set between 0 and 1 is in fact a larger than that which was derived from the infinite real number set 1,2,3,4....
What this is meant to highlight how hard it can be to conceptualize and empirically analyze infinite data sets. But, with number games out of the way, we move on to our universe and it's perplexingly infinite expansion. Many have often heard that our universe is ever expanding. Many others have heard scientific blather about dark energies and matter that are abundant in the universe but remain mysterious to even some of the leading physicists due to their ability to avoid detection from human technology. Let's take a step away from interesting brain teasers now to talk about the Universe.
What Does Infinity Entail for The Universe
This is the up to date understanding of what our universe is comprised. As you can see here the universe today is majorly dark energy (althought i've seen varying estimates of its percentage of the overall universe between 68% and 76%), which is believe by physicists to be the driving force for the expansion of our universe, which expands at a rate which is faster than the speed of light despite our understanding of relativity described by Einstein. You may also notice that at the beginning of the universe there was no dark energy to be found, as the universe had yet to expand and at this point was still a singularity of different types of matter.
The reason this comes together with the concept of infinity is because this expansion of the universe is not foreseen to slow down, rather it is constantly accelerating at a rapid pace. This means that on top of the fact that our universe as of this moment is expanding at a speed faster than the most basic information (light) can travel, therefore drawing huge empty gaps in space in which no energy will ever be able to cross and ultimately be lost. It will also hypothetically continue expanding faster until infinity, to the point when the fundamental forces of our universe can no longer hold it matter together. At this point it's hypothesized that the universe would become one vast, infinite sea of thermodynamic equilibrium where no particles would ever be able to collide. This is a fate of the universe coined "Heat Death" and has been conceived since understanding the true implications of the laws of thermodynamics.
Heat Death
The big unknown in this story is still what happens after this heat death occurs. One intriguing hypothesis is that the universe continually speeds up for trillions of years until it becomes so immensely large and dispersed, dark energy begins to slow and then the universe collapses in on itself. Somewhat like a black hole, then spewing out all of this matter out in a big bang-esque fashion. This spurs a new and expanding universe.
Were this true it raises the question of what the infinite attribute of our universe could entail, as in questioning if the universe itself is just one infinitely looping universal expansion and then impending collapse. Is it fated to have events play out exactly the same every time or do things change slightly with each cycle? Is it possible for things to change enough to prevent the expansion of the universe?
All of these questions are intriguing implications of the truly "infinite" attribute of our universe, and I'm definitely in no position to answer or confirm any of these theories or possibilities. The goal from this post is hoping that maybe you learned just a small tidbit to widen your worldview and cotemplate the nature of our infinite reality. It may be impossible for us to ever know the answers to these questions for sure, living in mortal bodies, bound by earth and time. Regardless it is still in our freedom to imagine and ask questions, hypothesized based on our understanding of the universe and debate with our peers to see somebody else's view of the universe.
Thanks for reading this post if you bared with the whole thing, appreciate it! Upvote, follow and leave a comment about how you picture infinity or what it means to you!
You are not in position to confirm any theory, in the same way as the entire scientific community. Therefore, I guess it is fine ^^
You mean I might already have read this article? :P
Upvoted!
Amazing my friend. Topic of my interest. Keep it up :))
This post received a 4.2% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @trismegistuz! For more information, click here!
upvoted and followed !
your posts are great!
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