More about the universal hierarchy notion (philosophical spec)

[Cuetek]

What is wrong with the idea that the Big Bang could be a finite structure (say a million times the visible universe) and the part of it we can see just looks homogeneous due to being a very small section of a very large structure?

 

-Cuetek

[Vexer]

Er, nothing.

[ajb]

Isn't that almost how we view it anyway?

 

You should look up the idea of inflation.

[thedarkshade]

Ever heard of parallel universes? This idea lives among physicist today, and it's been for a while, and I think it is mainly considered serious enough.

 

But this also might sound a little pessimistic because this would widen things too much. I mean, it is on the human nature to always try to create a rational understanding of the world around, and this is what we have been doing for thousands of years, and if our universe (which is huge enough for us) is just a fragment and there are lots more like this out there, then our efforts of understanding everything would just never be enough. It's like you giving anything you can, and going to the furthest point possible to understand why everything is the way it is, but it turns our that this "everything" is just way way too much to be understood.

[Cuetek]

It's like you giving anything you can, and going to the furthest point possible to understand why everything is the way it is, but it turns our that this "everything" is just way way too much to be understood.

 

Actually, I think this is the case. And resistance to the idea that the universe is totally open-ended and infinite in information content is what makes each of our cosmologies fail. That is, the extent to which we try and make our model into complete and sufficient descriptions of "everything" is precisely where those models will ultimately be found weakest. The extent to which we understand that all rational knowledge is the set of local relationships in an infinite, hierarchical continuum, the more accurately we see the universe.

 

It's the difference between solving everything and job security. I'd be more depressed if someone discovered the final answer and there was nothing but details left to fill in, than I would be knowing that our task is eternal and that we are making a hell of a good progress.

 

-Cue