i can think of no way that our universe is able to be infinite, because it cant go on forever. forever is an abstraction, a word with with no real meaning. if the universe is expanding, then it must be expanding within and into somewhere, or it would'nt be able to expand at all. if its creating itself, making space in front of it as it goes along, then it still must be creating itself within somewhere. so wether its expanding, or even if it actually wraps around itself and is curved, then where is beyond it? and to say nowhere is beyond it, makes no sense whatsoever, nowhere is also an abstract word whos definition has no real meaning. somewhere must be there on the otherside of its edge, if it has an edge. even if there are multiple universes surrounding eachother, they cannot go on forever either. there still must be somewhere beyond them as well...

so all that i am left with is the feeling i get whenever i look out into space. its a holographic illusion, it only appears to go on forever, because i can only see it, only perceive it, with my limited senses and even looking at it and thinking about the universe this way, as an illusion, still brings us right back to the same mysterious question. what is on the other side of this illusion? and wherever that is must also itself be somewhere and where is beyond there? even if there are other dimensions, invisible and surrounding our universe, there must be somewhere beyond them as well...

my mind is spinning and reality starts to blurr at the thought of not being able to come up with a valid answer to this perplexing mystery, where is the otherside of a universe that never ends? this answer, whatever it is, means everything, its where we are...

I am not sure that anyone will truly be able to answer that one. You have just made me dizzy, simple trying to visualise infinity. Beyond our universe? There are limitless possible answers.

I mean, what is nothing?

I too have pondered this question many times. My understanding very few people have the ability to even contemplate this. This topic which is another way of theorizing on infinity shows that we are nothing on the grand scheme of things. And it is also a proof of physical magic because it is right in your eyes. I do wonder if this is not even more mysterious than "God". We have proof that the universe is unending but God is actually a human invention, that which is thought to create the universe.

There is no way to rationalize this concept since if it is possible to travel 1000 trillion miles to get to a point in the universe, that is just another starting point. My other thought on this is that where the physical universe ends is the beginning of the spiritual world. What the whole thing implies is that there must be other means of mobility to get to the end of the universe quite distinct to what we have now, like jumping dimensions or star gates. The truism of multi verse is not far-fetched here. The question you raised clearly shows people who believe in an entity, "God" and the earth being special, as humans who are hallucinating in their ignorance.

Suppose a possible answer could be the creator/creators. Maybe its not expanding or contracting, possibly its doing both at once. If there is an ultimate question then you just posed it dude! I see it like the old "What came first the Chicken or Egg?" question. Were in the same verse as both the Chicken and the Egg so we cannot perceive/conceive a conclusive answer one way or the other. Cant wait to read others take on this!

What a brilliant question!! I will look forward to reading the replies later!! If we say space is just a black vaccum that never ends, is impossible. There must be somewhere after space, we wouldn't hit a brick wall and say, 'right this is the end'... what's over the brick wall?! It defies everything we know! I have often wondered what would happen if we just had some machine that was light speed that simply just went up and up and up... where would it go up to! Where is beyond up!

Is there such a think as constant? suppose we have Phi(Golden Ratio) and Pi but its all about perspective. I mean in another dimension where different mathematical rules apply 1+1 might =3. I think the way we quantify things/numbers is wrong/misunderstood.

Things like this just hurt my head to the point I want to take it out and run away from it.

The absolute frustration that it is something you can never know. Ever.

I can't even handle it when I see a pet moggie on the telly and it's an old tv show, I go mad wondering how old the moggie got, what happened to it etc.. drives me insane if I don't let it go lol..

So an ever expanding self perpetuating limitless cosmos that has no beginning and no end, but is at least in part defined by the laws of physics that DO tend to follow logical rules which state half these things are impossible, DOES MY HEAD IN.

It's like my brain goes into an internal loop... I once started looking up all the addresses in an episode of the Rockford Files on google earth just to street view the bars and stuff, thinking 30-40 years ago all those funky cheesy dudes in tight jeans and flannel shirts, who never shoot guns but love punch ups, don't even know what the internet IS in this episode, and here I am looking at satellite images of the sets. more or less...

Never mind..

Perhaps the universe is like a mirror... it doesn't expand outwards, but inwards from any viewpoint; as long as there is any of it, there is an infinity of it.

I have this idea that the universe is doughnut shaped wherein the material universe we know travels along the surface of this doughnut, expanding away from the central 'hole', reaching an optimum at the outer edge and then receding towards the 'hole' on the flip-side of the doughnut.

In this scenario, the central hole could be some kind of super black hole, or constant big bang, and the universe is perpetually recycling itself. Also in this scenario, the universe is both expanding and contracting simultaneously at different positions of the doughnut according to the flow direction.

I don't have any ideas of what lies beyond, I'm guessing dimensions that our puny minds are unable to comprehend.

We don't even know what a universe IS, any answer is mear speculation, nothing more.

There are many theories out there, big bang singluar universe, expanding, contracting, multiverses, holographic and more.

Pick one, each give a different answer.

Your theory is as good as anybody elses.

Originally posted by andy06shake
Suppose a possible answer could be the creator/creators. Maybe its not expanding or contracting, possibly its doing both at once. If there is an ultimate question then you just posed it dude! I see it like the old "What came first the Chicken or Egg?" question. Were in the same verse as both the Chicken and the Egg so we cannot perceive/conceive a conclusive answer one way or the other. Cant wait to read others take on this!

edit on 5-9-2011 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

edit on 5-9-2011 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

hi...neither the chicken or the egg came first because the chicken evolved from something else...

There cant be an "otherside" if it never ends. There can be I believe an "Underside", and perhaps a "farside"...but as stated. Without an end...it couldnt be a form of "backside".

Originally posted by blocula

Originally posted by andy06shake
Suppose a possible answer could be the creator/creators. Maybe its not expanding or contracting, possibly its doing both at once. If there is an ultimate question then you just posed it dude! I see it like the old "What came first the Chicken or Egg?" question. Were in the same verse as both the Chicken and the Egg so we cannot perceive/conceive a conclusive answer one way or the other. Cant wait to read others take on this!

edit on 5-9-2011 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

edit on 5-9-2011 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

hi...neither the chicken or the egg came first because the chicken evolved from something else...

edit on 5-9-2011 by blocula because: (no reason given)

Exactly, it evolved from an asexual creature most likely.

even if our universe is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, miles across!!! there must still be somewhere on the otherside! and if that somewhere is another universe or dimension that is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles across...THERE STILL "MUST BE" SOMEWHERE ELSE BEYOND IT !!! and the answer,whatever it is,is WHERE WE REALLY ARE !!!