Suppose you are standing in the middle of the Great Sahara desert. You can only see sand; there’s nothing else. People will claim this desert is infinite, while scientists claim it’s expanding. Both views (ie, infinite vs expanding) do not reconcile. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Something similar is happening regarding the Universe. In my view, the Universe cannot be infinite and expanding. The 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope resulted in new insights and in confusion (eg, Reuters-2023). Even the SpaceTime dimension is up for debate again (eg, Quanta-2013, Phys-2022).
We have several human concepts that are ultimately misleading because there always (sic!) exceptions: absolute, always, empty, everything, infinite, never, nothing. Clearly, infinite is also on that list because we cannot even explain what infinite is. Infinite is beyond human comprehension.
I suppose that infinite is (“just”) our human way of exaggeration (eg, Great Sahara desert versus Universe). In my view, infinite will never (sic!) be a theoretical concept.
A finite Universe creates many new challenges: how does it look like, what is at the other side, where does it end, when was it created, by whom and why. An infinite Universe “stops” many of such questions.
Many of our ancestors believed in a collection of finite universes (eg, Nautilus-2017, Nine Realms of Norse Cosmology, Tree of Life, Greek Reporter-2022). Nowadays, we call those concepts either a multiverse or an omniverse. The word metaverse is quite misleading as it refers to a company.
In the (continued) absence of faster-than-light (FLT) technology, the accelerating expansion of the Universe will prevent us from reaching the objects that are still visible today. Hence, the Universe seems infinite to us given our limitations, both physiological (eg, cryonics) and technological.
The best way to understand a collection of finite universes is make a comparison with something that is locked inside our brain, which is (thus) incapable of viewing the rest of our body.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe!”
An alleged quote by Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
TREE OF LIFE (2022) by Pandora Journey a.k.a. Scott Buckley
artist, video, no Wiki
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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