Finity

So when you look at the above word does it mess with your idea of proper English? Lets discuss that for a minute. The prefix (a word affixed to the front of a word which alters its meaning) in- means basically the same thing as un-. It is anti something. Therefore, since we are using this Latinized version of the Queen’s English when we pit in- in front of the word finity it means something that is never-ending, immeasurable, or boundless. Therefore if we remove the, in this case, objectionable prefix we have finity (which my word processor says is misspelled.)

So what is finite (the word processor likes that one better.) Life, the Earth, our Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy, The Universe. The Universe? Is the universe really finite? Well, some people seem to think that it is. There is evidence, most notably drawn from the supposed echo of cosmic background radiation, that we live in a finite, soccer ball shaped universe. If this is true then the next question is, “What exists beyond our universe? Is that where Spock lives?” Okay so you may not ask the second question, but it does seem that he was just too ordered for our crazy universe. Anyway, what if it is actually infinite.

I have to admit a bias in favor of infinity. A finite universe contains too many questions about the outside of the bounds. But, how can I state that the universe is, in fact, finite while all around me people are decrying it’s finity.

Think about the supposed age of the universe and the speed of light. If we suppose some random numbers and say that the universe is 5 billion years old and that light can travel at 186,000 mile per second then we can give bounds to what we can see. We can say that the universe is only so large because that is as far as light has traveled since the inception of the universe. However, that is just our perception. Someone on the outer bounds of what we know thinks that we are the outer boundary of the universe, and he can see just as far in the opposite direction. Therefore if we station a post on the outer bounds of what we can see, and then another post on the outer bounds of what that post can see, couldn’t we then stretch the seeable universe on forever? And as far as waves of cosmic radiation bouncing back to us, any large body would cause that reaction.

So, all one can say is that we really have no idea, and we can fit any theory to match our presuppositions.