Brian Beesley wrote: > [Off topic, but seems to merit a reply] > > We are unable to track any events prior to the Big Bang (or the local Little > Bang, in the colliding brane model). So the time we are able to use up to the > present is indeed finite. > > It follows from this that the content of the universe we see is finite, [...]
Given a ray with a starting point and another point, is the ray finite or infinite? It's infinitely long. Same holds for time. > If the universe continues to expand (at an exponentially rapid rate, thanks > to > the cosmological constant) then as matter decays to naked baryons & tachyons, > black holes evaporate etc. there will come a point when time effectively > stops as there will be essentially no interactions. (The density of > fundamental particles will "soon" become rather less than one per a volume > equal to the current volume of our universe). This will make computing rather > awkward, combined with the maintenance of any organic life able to use the > results of any computation. Didn't that big paper in 1905 redefine time in terms of the speed of light in a roundabout fashion? Even without baryon interaction assuming no collapse photons will still travel ... oh, wait, you said, "... there will come a point when time effectively ..." Never mind. Is there a physical law which demands that time must stop in any universe? Depends on those initial conditions of total energy and fundamental constant values, they say. So, although time in this universe appears to have a beginning, we can't conclude that it's finite today. --jimbo _______________________________________________ Prime mailing list [email protected] http://hogranch.com/mailman/listinfo/prime
