How big is the Universe?
very big..
with mobius strip blueprints.
People who think about such stuff, other than those trying to perfect techniques of delayed ejaculation and have already mastered their times tables, generally fall into one of three groups..
each one of which has its own Quantum Demon to wrestle with.
The first bunch, the Old School, like their Universe all squared away, limited in space and time. The second lot, Hawking’s Hotspurs, are a bit more mystical and have their Universe expanding. The third, mostly consisting of undergraduates in possession of their first ever quarter of skunk,
say its infinite and goes on forever, dude.
The Quantum Demons that preside over each mob have the rational mind by the hip. The First confonts the Old School with what might lie beyond their sign in the verge..
‘No Parking, Universe non-existent beyond this point”.
The second, the Big Bang Demon, feasts on the arguement that the Universe expands at such tearing speed we cannot creep up on it fast enough with a tape measure. Even the speed of light has a number and the fact that you can’t sharpen your pencil quickly enough, or live long enough to chase after all the zeros involved, doesn’t mean that the number, though unimaaaaginably big, isn’t out there and therefor the question, ‘What is supposed to lie beyond?”, still remains. Put more simply, ‘What are we supposed to be expanding into?’
The third Demon takes a large toke himself and asks, ‘If the Universe is three dimensional, twiddly warps in time and space not withstanding, how can it contain that which is infinite?
Err..
The Universe cannot go on forever and yet it must. You can appreciate why the story of a minor god, Ialdabaoth also known as Yahweh, creating it All out of pique at his Mum, who’d sent him to his luminous cloud for bad behaviour..
should become so popular.
It by-passed the paradox.
God made it.
Problem solved.
I like the idea of Autogenesis, that which makes itself. Somehow, something that comes into existence because It Wants To dwarfs the question of it’s inside leg measurement, however mighty.
At the micro cosmic end of the scale you find a similar paradox. It also has to do with time and space doing what they shouldn’t.
Matter is and is not.
Fortunately, these things are supposed to be a mystery.
‘I am the utterance of my name.” Thunder, Perfect Mind.
Hoping for redemption at some point in the future on the basis of being sorry for something you did in the past is not only designed to rip you out of the present. It gives you the idea that everything can be understood. And that’s why there is no real wonder anymore.
because you have to be able to acknowledge that you haven’t actually got a fucking clue, not even if you are awake or asleep, to find wonder in any one moment.
I knew a Professor of Comparative Religion from Oregon who approached his work in a very rational and academic way. Eventually the mysteries of all these religions began to plague him and he got really obsessed by that-which-could-not be-spoken. In particular he was tormented by the Buddhist concept of Desirelessness.
He heard there was a great Buddhist master visiting in the next state and drove all night to meet him. When question time arose he jumped up and said,
‘but how can you desire desirelessness?’
The master shrugged and said, ‘It just doesn’t bother me.’
At some point contradiction collapses into paradox and rather than confuse and agitate it soothes and nourishes.
‘We are all alone, together.’ Buddhist proverb.
Its supposed to be a mystery.
