India on Mars

Whilst I am a great supporter and advocate of space exploration, I do not understand why India is even thinking of spending billions of rupees on sending a probe to Mars to study no doubt what the Americans have already done anyway, while they have untold millions living in absolute squalor and poverty.

Seems to me a reality check and a radical review of priorities is in order.

Infinity again

Sorry about this, but I am still trying to get my head around infinity. As I stated in a recent posting, I have come to the conclusion that the universe has to be infinite. However, there is a twist to this when considering the beginning, namely the "Big Bang"; the moment it all sprang into being (I was tempted to use the word "creation" for a moment there, but decided against it in case anyone thought I was a religious nutter "creationist", the moment in which in the eyes of the more switched on reader I lose all credibility!!!!!). It is this. I stated that the distance between two objects can only ever be finite, then if we except that the universe started very small, and then expanded to its current infinite size, then it cannot be infinite, because it takes an infinite amount of time to reach an infinite size. However, I also stated that because the universe itself is everything there is (in this universe at least) including time and space, there can be no boundaries as beyond the universe there is not even nothing, and you cannot have a boundary with something which is so nothing it isn't even that!

Are you still awake? Good, then I'll continue........

My logic now leads me to conclude that although you often read that the universe was incredibly small (the "cosmic atom") at the moment of the Big Bang, for the reasons I have already stated, it still had to be infinite! Scientists talk about a period of mind blowingly rapid expansion called "inflation" which proceeded at an even faster rate than prices go up in our wonderful economy. Could it be that it was this "inflation" that brought time and space into being, and that before that in the quantum phase state of the universe space and time did not exist? During this "inflation" I can only conclude that at that instant (no time at all) the expansion of the universe began but within an infinite frame of reference. So what has been changing since then? Well, clearly not the the size of the universe as "the infinite" is infinite. I conclude that what changed was the density of the universe as everything spread out.

From whence did this spreading out proceed? Well actually, scientists say there is no central point in the universe from where it is spreading, but is actually spreading from all points in all directions. For this reason, no matter where you are in the universe, the rest of the universe will always appear to be moving away from you more or less equally in all directions, and your view of the universe will be more or less similar to our own at all observable distances. Now apply a little imagination to this scenario, it becomes apparent (to me, at least) that for this to be the case, then the universe has to be infinite. Think about it.  Also, with entropy, the universe began its eventual "wind-down" to its eventual demise where all its energy has been expended and darkness rules the face of the deep.

Edge of forever

I have come to the conclusion that the Universe is infinite. My reasoning is that outside of spacetime there is an absence of absolutely everything, including empty space itself. Clearly, this is very difficult to get your head around, a bit like infinity.

It would seem to me that assuming the above to be the case, there can be no boundary or edge to the universe as you have to have something to have a boundary with, and as there is nothing, there is therefore no boundary. However, for the universe to be truly infinite in every sense of the word, then it's geometry has to be open whereby an object travelling through space and not in an orbital trajectory would never return to the start position, or cross it's previous path. The Universe may be curved , but not necessarily curved back upon itself, in other words closed.

If we take the view that the universe is infinite, then it is no surprise that life exists and I am here to write this. In an infinite universe there are infinite possibilities. The fact that life has arisen here means that it is not only likely, but a certainty that it has arisen an infinite number of times in an infinite number of places.