Poll: Everything Exists.

[Naeo]

To start with, space is not infinite.

However, let's assume that it is. Let's assume an infinite expanse, and infinite amount of matter, and an infinite amount of energy. Even then, not everything needs to exist. For one there are limitations (because of physics and chemistry and such) that prohibit certain things/combinations from existing anywhere. Even that aside, there is no necessity that in an infinite sample pool, every possible option will be represented. It absolutely possible to have a sample size of, say, 10^1000 integers, randomly selected from the numbers zero through nine. You do not HAVE to have every number represented. It is incredibly unlikely that you will not get at least one of each number, but it is entirely possible. It is also entirely possible to draw only one number for every iteration of picking a number--you could end up with 10^1000 sixes.

It's not a particularly complex idea, but it's not immediately apparent. As you consider more and more arbitrary things, the chance that any one particular thing fall into that pool approached 1, but does not need to reach it if there is no limit to the number of things you can pick from to arbitrarily observe.

So, the monkey and typewriter thought experiment. You can in theory have an infinite number of monkeys typing on infinite typewriters forever. They may never produce any sort of sentence at all. The likelihood that they will produce any arbitrarily chosen string of text does approach 1, though, but it does not ever need to reach that.

A better example. If you have a coin and you flip it, you have a 1/2 chance of getting heads. If you flip it again, you still have a 1/2 chance of getting heads, and so on and so on. It is completely possible to get heads every time for 100 flips, and then for 1000 flips, and then 10000 flips, and so on and so on for any arbitrarily large number of flips. As you approach infinity, your likelihood of getting heads remains at 1/2 on any given flip, so you are no less likely to get heads than before, so you could go on never getting heads forever.

So in short: just because you have an infinite number of things, there is absolutely no way to argue that any given thing HAS to exist within that set of things. Therefore, the assertion that "the universe is infinite, therefore everything has to exist" is fundamentally flawed above and beyond the assumption of an infinite universe.

 

[kurokotetsu]

As noted above, ohysical laws work equally in all the Universe

Please remind me, when was the last time we proved that ANY of our physical laws work inside of Black Hole ?

OK, not all, but all the observable universe (inside a black hole is not observable). Still, some laws like the speed of light being the limit speed in the universe (lets ingnore the CERN results for a moment), seem to work, as nothing seems to come out of a black hole, which if said law was broken, coudl happen, as some particules would have enough speed to escape the black hole (and gravity in it's relativistic conception seems to work for the same motives as it keeps atracting mater).

 

[Robert Sanders]

You seem to be under the impression that space is infinite. This is a plausibly false assumption.

You're thinking of the universe, which encompasses stars, planets, cosmic dust, etc. There is a finite amount of that, but the actual empty space around and in between everything would appear to be infinite.

 

[garjian]

if everything is possible, then a possibility that everything is impossible must be possible.
the only plausible truth is that everything is impossible.

 

[Davey Woo]

I don't think that everything exists, especially in terms of evolution/animals etc. I mean sure I can think of a rhino with wings and rainbow-coloured skin. But in terms of evolution, that's completely impractical and so probably won't exist.

Also, about the monkeys/keyboards thing, scientists set up a computer (or possibly a load of computers) to choose random letters (emulating a monkey hitting a keyboard randomly) and it's been running for several years (I think) the furthest they managed so far was 12 words in a row that were correct.

 

[INeedAName]

How about a round square? Don't know how one would look like, but I know I would be mightily impressed did I ever see one.

 

[JesterRaiin]

As noted above, ohysical laws work equally in all the Universe

Please remind me, when was the last time we proved that ANY of our physical laws work inside of Black Hole ?

OK, not all

Exactly.

[ but all the observable universe (inside a black hole is not observable).

I'm not exactly sure when whole scientific world united and announced that it's impossible to observe interior of Black Hole and noone ever, to the end of time will try to accomplish this task ?
Could you kindly provide me with a citation ?

 

[Garrsus]

If space was infinite, then everything and everything would be happening at the same time, therefore there would be a counter-effect to every effect, therefore nothing would be happening.

Logic debunks your theory.

what? this logic seems broken to me, why would infinite space make everything happen?
infinite nothing wouldn't do anything other than be there.
it isn't a physical thing.

 

[go-10]

so a planet full of humanoid females that are somehow able to reproduce through tribadism is possible?

 

[Denamic]

The impossible is impossible by definition, hence not everything is possible.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

"Nothing is impossible." --Master Oogway

[http://photobucket.com/images/master%20oogway]

 

[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.

EDIT: don't know enough physics, so I don't know how we are expanding. But I still believe that there are several big bangs out there, an infinite amount of them.

 

[Kataskopo]

As noted above, ohysical laws work equally in all the Universe

Please remind me, when was the last time we proved that ANY of our physical laws work inside of Black Hole ?

From wikipedia:

"Work by James Bardeen, Jacob Bekenstein, Carter, and Hawking in the early 1970s led to the formulation of black hole thermodynamics.[28] These laws describe the behaviour of a black hole in close analogy to the laws of thermodynamics by relating mass to energy, area to entropy, and surface gravity to temperature. The analogy was completed when Hawking, in 1974, showed that quantum field theory predicts that black holes should radiate like a black body with a temperature proportional to the surface gravity of the black hole."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

Took me 10 seconds.

 

[Lukeje]

You seem to be under the impression that space is infinite. This is a plausibly false assumption.

You're thinking of the universe, which encompasses stars, planets, cosmic dust, etc. There is a finite amount of that, but the actual empty space around and in between everything would appear to be infinite.

Not really. There's no real reason to believe that empty space can't be quantized at a small enough length scale.

 

[Kataskopo]

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.

 

[NerdElf]

So, in theory, there can exist Cthulhu, flying camel spiders crossed with scorpions and a planet dominated by a humanoid race with their genitalia reversed between genders?
Also, planets with ghosts, planets with one thousand Hitlers, planets with Daleks.
I'd rather live on a planet filled with trees that grow hookers and plains filled with cocaine.
Anyway, godwin's law applied succesfully.

 

[Costia]

if everything is possible, then it would be impossible for something to be impossible to exist.

 

[The Lugz]

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

 

[Doclector]

Anything is possible because the bounds of possibility have not been set by a cosmic deity, or written in stone and handed down from the ruler of reality, they were set by us humans. As much as we like to think so, we don't know everything, and there's always the possibility that we're wrong, no matter how slight. Things can be unlikely, but never impossible, as even the word itself was invented by imperfect beings.

 

[sinterklaas]

We don't know whether space is infinite or not. But yes, if space were infinite everything within the physical laws of our universe has happened, is happening or will happen.

We can ever further extend the concept to an infinite amount of universes, all with different physical laws. Every videogame you ever played has it's own universe. Every movie does, every cartoon does. Every bit of fantasy that ever crossed your mind does. With an infinite amount of universes, everything exists.

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. The universe doesn't need to be expanding into empty space.