Poll: Everything Exists.

[Bobbity]

The universe is not, in fact, infinite, sorry to say. Furthermore, infinity, as a concept should not exist, because it causes far too many paradoxes.

Still, space is cool enough already. Cracked came out with quite an interesting article, if anyone wants to read it.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

According to Metaphysics if it exists in ones mind then yes it exists.
And since practically anything can exist in your head I would have to say, yes. Anything is possible.

what goes on in your head is an idealized, simplified version of physics that connects all the ideas you have with what you believe are their logical outcomes

if you 'believe' something happens, your brain can paint you a picture of it
but last time i checked, having a picture of something did not make it fact

and if a mathematician said this, hes bloody stupid.
stand back from the equations once in a while and smell the roses.

Space is infinite, therefore everything you can think of is out their somewhere.

It like the infinate amount of monkeys typing on an infinate amount of keyboards will at some point get you a complete library of all the books ever written.

Do you agree with this?

actually 'infinite monkeys' don't really work someone tested how random a monkey was capable of being, and it mostly just tapped all the keys that were easy to reach by laying it's hands on the keyboard and ignored some near the edges
which is rather amusing, considering all force in the universe follows the easiest route, it happens to be a microcosm for the entire universe

anything very different from us would likely be extremely rare
( unless we're the rarity, you always have to count that possibility )

personally in a universe where everything decays, everything looses energy i would say intelligent life with the ability to generate order from chaos would be the most rare thing there is

i would say we are the /*/*/*/*..66`¬
combination from the keyboard, amidst the qwidvoksdvdv,ca/'[kcjscjmma 's that prevail amidst the chaos of the stars and planets
if you want to equate the comparisons

of-course, i could be wrong but it fits nicely for now

Yea its a really broad stroked version of metaphysics. It was just the only thing I could think of that would support the argument.

 

[silvermorning624]

There's more reason to believe that there are infinite universes than believe than our current universe is infinite.

Our universe started from a quantum fluctuation and expanded from that. And there are naturally limits to the expansion of it. Limits to not only space, but time. It could not only be expending, but it could hit a physical limit and contract. Even contracting to the point it would cause a universal crunch.

However, it is still possible that everything exists, with the multiverse theory. There could be many and even infinite universes.

The best case scenario we can hope for is multiple, instead of infinite universes, ethically. And that we are not heading to either a heat death or a universal crunch.

I agree that the multiverse theory makes much more sense then everything existing in one universe. Where I must disagree, however, is on the point of limits to space and time. The current thought on the "end" of the universe has more to do with the end of energy(at least in the form that we know). What will most likely happen is that the universe will continue to expand while stars and planets get farther and farther from each other. Eventually, all the stars will use up their fuel and die(creating either white dwarfs, super nova, neutron stars, or black holes). All of these will also one day evaporate, leaving nothing but void. The reason the crunch theory is no longer used(that is what I was taught in school) is because they have discovered that the universe's rate of expansion has actually increased. It was once thought that gravity would slow this rate down just enough that it would, with time, pull everything back into a singularity. There is a great speech on youtube called "A Universe from nothing" that was given by Lawrence Krauss. He gives a really good explanation on the theories of how the universe began and how it will end. He also, at the end, talks about the concept of the infinite. Very much worth a look.

 

[ultimateownage]

If space is infinite than space being finite is impossible. No, it is impossible for space to be infinite. Infinity is just a concept, it is only infinitely expanding (we assume).

If you accept the infinite universe theory on the other hand it could be true, but the infinite universe theory is a bit of a stupid one.

 

[Glass Joe]

Maybe everything is the same thing? Lets just see if we can hit every metaphysical hypothesis in one thread.

 

[gigastrike]

Even if space is infinite, all space has the same rules. You're not going to find a planet anywhere in the universe where everything is anime.

 

[Foxbat Flyer]

Yes, Everything is possible, maybe not in our time space, but deffinately in the infinate universe's there can be anything to cover all possibilities (That is, if you believe the Infinate universe's theory...) otherwise, no, not at all possible...

 

[honestdiscussioner]

You need to remove logical impossibilities from the equation.

For example, you cannot have a square circle.

 

[ParadoxHunter]

To put things philosophically, not scientifically, things exist in two states; physical and abstract. Physical things are things that we can exist, or can be proven to exist, and abstract things are things that either cannot exist, or cannot be proven to exist.

We all know about physical things; tables, chairs and the like. Abstract things are ideas, emotions, and gods. Some people disagree with me on this point, but there is no proof for the existence of a god yet, so I'm retaining this perspective for now.

This means that anything can exist, at least on an abstract level. Whether or not something can exist physically depends on the laws of physics. Think of it like the abstract level is everything, and only a select few things get the chance to become more than just ideas.

 

[thirion1850]

Everything is possible, nothing exists.

 

[socialmenace42]

No. If space is continually expanding then surely it has a limitation, it just increases real fast.

Kind of reminds me of Olber's paradox. (I think it's Olber's??)

Actually, that is a common misnoma: Space is not continally expanding, the volume of the finite mass in the universe is (that is to say everythig which ensued from the big bang is still speeding away from everything else at a steadily decreasing rate, but in an area surrounded by infinite nothingness, or 'space') The space surrounding that mass, or matter, is generally accepted to be infinite.

However, I certainly agree with you that certain things are so implausible that they are impossible. For example (taking what I said above) there is finite matter in an infinite space so it is by definition impossible to have infinite matter, since matter can be neither created nor destroyed, only converted to and from various forms of energy.

Actually my favourite illustration of the fact: 'There is such a thing as impossible... It's impossible to eat the Himalayas' -Eddie Izzard: Stripped-

 

[Ledan]

To the naysayers out there:
Our bubble of matter (usually called the universe) is expanding out into space, and there doesn't seem to be any boundaries to this space. Thus infinite space. Infinite space. And we know that our bubble originated from a big bang (probably). What are the odds, that this is the ONLY big bang in this infinite space? I would say.... 0.
So, with infinite space, and a (possible) infinite amount of "universes"(or big bangs) then anything and everything is possible .


Short comment: there are many big bangs out there. so anything is possible.

No no no, the universe is not expanding into anything. It's an intrinsic expansion, relative by the separation of the parts of the universe.

Okay..... but there must still be more than just this one big bang. I refuse to believe that this is the only bubble of matter.

Well, I refuse to be broke and not-having-an-audi-R8-Spider, but that doesn't make it any more real

Touche Mr.Kataksopo... touche.... BUT the cheescake! It is MINE!

 

[Womplord]

Actually you only need one monkey and one typewriter...
Infinity of both would mean instant creation of the library, or creating it in the shortest amount of time that it can be typed.
However, I guess everything is 'possible'. In any case, even if everything is "possible", it doesn't mean everything exists. Also, the size of the universe is not known, and could actually be infinite, just sayin'.

 

[Sethzard]

Space in our universe isn't infinite. But I'm sure that anything is possible in some parallel universe if they exist, other than an omnipotent being as it would have to be possible for it not to exist in one universe and therefore wouldn't be omnipotent.

 

[chadachada123]

Everything is possible, so long as it obeys the laws of physics.

However, because of quantum mechanics, it is possible to obey the laws of physics and still spontaneously pop into existence, the odds are simply near-infinitesimally-small.

 

[chadachada123]

Actually you only need one monkey and one typewriter...
Infinity of both would mean instant creation of the library, or creating it in the shortest amount of time that it can be typed.
However, I guess everything is 'possible'. In any case, even if everything is "possible", it doesn't mean everything exists. Also, the size of the universe is not known, and could actually be infinite, just sayin'.

Our universe has a particular size, or at least, is finite. It is possible that other "universes" (if our universe is simply a false-vacuum) exist, but ours would never intersect them. Ever.

Depending on your view on the end fate of the universe, however, the vacuum energy in our universe could eventually create a singularity, in the form of another Big Bang.

Metaphysics, meh.

The universe is (almost definitely) not infinite, just freaking huge.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

I used to think this when I was little.

Like if you go far enough you'll find Super Saiyans.

 

[Jun_Jun]

Nothing is impossible, it's just not very likely.
For example Half-Life 3 being released in our lifetime.

 

[Indeterminacy]

If it's not possible, it's not a thing. Therefore, every thing is possible.

 

[hiks89]

if you had infinite monkeys with infinite keyboards, they would all need to first read and memorise every work of fiction, as well as learn proper use of a keyboard, computer and the word processor of your choice. you'd also have to teach them proper grammar and syntax, as well as to read. given the commonality of grammatical and spelling mistakes by humans, this would be a near impossible task, as monkey childhood is too short to develop a brain close to ours, and reading a lot of texts, tweets and forum posts you can see that not every human can do that. not to mention the cost of not only the keyboards, but towers, mice and monitors and power. if you use the original typewriter (the phrase is basically 1000 monkeys+1000 typewriters=complete works of Shakespeare) then you need paper and ink, not to mention maintenance because typewriters are shit. plus, if Shakespeare alone requires 1000 monkeys, then think about all the other playwrights, and film adaptations, shorthand versions, Cliff notes and technically school notebooks and essays. you'd need infinite space to store all this, and a beast of a cooling system. monkeys would also fall victim to primal urges and nature, so you'd need cleaners to get rid of infinite amounts of monkey-shit and keep the babies out of there. then of course PETA would picket you for this.
So we come to the conclusion: why not let the machines do it.

if you had an infinite number of monkeys and keyboards you wouldnt have to teach them anything. thats the point