What Would an Infinite Cosmos Mean? | Episode 1107 | Closer To Truth
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Is the cosmos infinite? Do stars and spaces go on forever? Do the numbers of galaxies, and even of universes, have no end? Here's how infinity enriches appreciation of reality. Featuring interviews with Martin Rees, Anthony Aguirre, Raphael Bousso, Sean Carroll, and Joshua Knobe.
Season 11, Episode 7 - #CloserToTruth
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Closer To Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn takes viewers on an intriguing global journey into cutting-edge labs, magnificent libraries, hidden gardens, and revered sanctuaries in order to discover state-of-the-art ideas and make them real and relevant.
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Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
#Universe #Infinity
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man... this channel is like having a detox from all the garbage media we're bombarded with.
Lol
You have a choice.. you choose to bombard yourself with garbage...you have no one else to blame but yourself.
@@b3at2 was just about to say the same thing
Grayson
No isn't
You're not scientist but learning better be good to know . haha
I always love Closer to Truth. One of the best and most accessible science and philosophy presentations around!
Or THE best
The best
Ditto
Closer to Truth: my gratitude is infinite. I’ve watched hours and hours of your episodes. I’ve read all of Sean’s books. Thank you, truly and deeply. This work is meaningful, wonderful and profound.
Sean Carroll? I'm sorry.
@@bradwalker7025 yup. I'm sure that's who he means.
The idea of a never ending universe is more palatable to my mind than a finite one.
I agree, because if the universe is finite then there must be an end, but if there's an end there must be something past it which is even more terrifying
Could be finite and unbounded
"I speak with Sean Carroll." Its already a classic in this universe😀
The sheer wonder and questions posed somehow grabbed me in ways no other program has. I've watched EVERY video on astronomy, and space and time (get the joke?). This guy's voice, style of interaction, content......I f*'ing love this. And no editing with clips never longer than 5 seconds that EVERY youtube uploader does in order to keep attention in a subliminal way. This is so amazing, thank you, and for the first time ever, I would donate to keep you producing!! Let us know when/where/how please sir, and keep up the great work!!
I am not sure if it is the interesting information, or just the sound of his voice. But I find myself very relaxed while listening.
CTTT is the show that doesn't just blast out the current accepted explanation promoting the scientist that is presently popular. Bob Kuhn has questions that we all want to ask but don't have access to the many learned people he has. Many of the shows required me to watch two or three times just to make sure I wasn't hearing things. That's because many postulated ideas are right out there on the most insightful leading edges. He's not confined to one mindset or topic having a wide variety of disciplines discussed. Thanks Robert!
4:55
Great answer
This is what science is all about. Knowing or not knowing. Never guessing or wanting.
A lot of guessing and estimating in science, to try to make some sort of sense of the things that, a human mind, can't grasp!
Of all your episodes Robert, this may be to most profound. Especially for those of us who have a broad understanding of concepts, if not the math or an anything close to an Ed Witten intellect. This program is a conduit to a layperson, such as myself, to wade deeper into contemplation and across the biggest questions and subjects including most importantly, the Hard problem of our consciousness. Thank you Robert. You need to begin your own AMA! I'll gladly add a subscription.
The music at 6:00 is absolutely beautiful ! Well done, brilliant productions. Thank You all
The camera and lighting on this series has gotten so much better!
It's sort of spooky like an old show called 'strange but true'
yeah you should see the earlier interviews... why the camera people thought it would be an awesome idea to put their cameras on sliders and move them back and forth like a ship in a typhoon will always be a mystery... it's gotten a lot less distracting but you are right, there are still occasional WTF settings and lighting rigs
The most interesting playground we will never fully explore. I’m bummed
Wow!! What a tremendous program. Very instructive, despite the implications of the difficult topics dealt in this lecture. These concepts of space- time and many others, are not easy to assimilate in normal minds. They are so complex to digest honestly. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I like option #4. Time and space are infinite - the universe has always existed and is infinitely large. Perhaps the Big Bang is just something that happened in our observable region of the universe.
big bang was a local event. the universe is infinite and it has always been infinite.
The thought of something finite becoming infinite is a very difficult concept. The thought of the universe being infinite in time and space is equally as mind boggling.
Infinity can’t have a start because before the start it would never have been infinite to begin with. It’s thought that maybe our Big Bang happened inside an already infinite universe.
like the universe, my curiosity continues to grow with each episode. thank you
If I'm never going to reach the end of it, and I'm never going to live long enough to see it end, then to me it _is_ infinite and will remain forever.
So, there's a copy of Robert L Kuhn that doesn't wear turtlenecks?, unbelievable.
haha word
the man has swaeg
There are infinite copies of Robert L Kuhn that don't wear turtlenecks
Infinity is turtlenecks all the way...
I religiously watch / listen to your show, thank you for producing it… regardless of how depressing I find the intro music.
Just found and subbed. Very excellent Channel! I love the concept of Infinity. If I think about it hard enough, my brain feels like it's going to explode and I like that feeling.
Yeah, for me best sub ever. Sometimes Internet can be good lol
I agree with Sean Carroll's position. That we just don't know yet and we prefer that space and time are infinite. Love CTT.
Time and space are illusions
@@mysticwine I don't think they are illusions. However, I do think that our minds relate to these by using models(mental constructs).
For a reputational atheist, I found myself enjoying and agreeing with this points which surprised me.
I believe when you come to the conclusion of an infinity, that shows there is something wrong with the theory, or an equation. It's a kind of mental game that doesn't exist in reality.
*It’s obvious that it’s infinite. That’s not a matter of preference. The mere fact that something can’t come from nothing makes it infinite.*
Infinite gratitude where it is due. Thank you for quite possibly the most intriguing infodoc I've ever seen.
To me the infinity makes the here and now and you more special then ever. If the universe is infinite, and there is an infinite number of me and you, and there is nothing you can do to change the total amount of goodness, then doesn't it make us, here and now the more special and important? This though just puts me right in my own shoes and helps me realize how important you are ❤️
An infinite cosmos means you are at its center.
As well as everything else.
Why is that, there's no center inside of infinity, unless you can make it finite, relevant to something somehow.
I agree I think the center of infinities, every point holds some sort of key to solving things. In a weird way it’s like I had moment of clarity that existence is mandated by this line infinity center points must exist as a law of physics.
There is no such thing as actual infinity. There is eternity-the “nothing.”
@@xspotbox4400 because you will only able to see in a finite bubble around you as light takes time to travel. And you will be in the centre of that bubble as you see just as far in every direction. So wherever you are in the universe you will seem to be in the middle
@@Makabert.Abylon So if diameter of the universe change slightly, surface of a sphere will increase buy a huge amount. But diameter is multiplied by Pi number, how can we know surface area if Pi is getting larger with expansion of space inside?
Question is, can we still talk about a sphere in that case, when diameter of a circle is not in ratio with it's outer perimeter.
One more thing, human stupidity is not infinite, substance of a sphere of knowledge doesn't change if surface area of ignirance became larger.
In our universe Robert is still trying to get "closer to truth," but in the infinite cosmos many "Roberts" have found the truth.
No, infinite Roberts. (lol)
In fact all of those infinite Roberts, if they believe to have found the truth, are just deluded.
There would be infinite Roberts and infinite Robots so many Roberts would be unemployed.
@@TheWorldTeacher nope
But which one is the Robertest Robert?
Thanks for the documentaries!
A discussion of infinity - and yet it's over after less than 30 mins! Mindboggling :)
To my mind both an infinite cosmos and a finite cosmos are utterly incomprehensible. I think I'll have a beer.
My favorite episode so far!!
This the best one yet..all my heroes!!! And the king of em all..sean carroll!!:)
The implications of infinity are simply unfathomable
This video is inc... Really incredible.
Wow! We really are closer to truth... knowledge is power!!!
"What do I mean by mean?" This is such an interesting remark, and it highlights an idea. Is language a limiting factor in our scientific endeavor to understand the Cosmos? If we had a vocabulary of 100 words in the English language, we would be able to communicate, but it would be very limited. It would mean that we had only identified 100 things to put words to, and there are many more than 100 things in the Cosmos, let alone the need for words that aren't nouns, but are critical to language. We certainly wouldn't be able to do science with only a 100 words. If we had a 1,000 words in the English language, then the same would apply. We might not even yet have the word 'infinity', so how could we even conceptualize 'infinity'. There are an estimated 170,000 words in the English language, but who's to say that this is even enough. Do we, for example, have enough words to describe, and understand, all the different types of snow. Other languages have more, so maybe we don't. Robert later says... "Perhaps, the universe was always infinite, whatever that may mean, or perhaps the universe became infinite over time, but could something finite become infinite?". This again, 'might' suggest that our words are letting us down. We have a specific definition for the words 'finite' and 'infinite', but maybe the Cosmos doesn't abide by the lexical rules of our language, and for words that were coined long before we had truly come to understand the enormity of what we might one day need to apply them to, scientific exactness. Interestingly, a synonym for 'infinite', is 'cosmos', one definition being 'inconceivably vast'. Other related synonyms are 'impenetrable' and 'unfathomable'. These all highlight, not necessarily a limit in understanding, but rather that we simply don't have the correct words to conceptualize the nature of the universe. The words 'finite' and 'infinite' are simply not precise enough, not good enough, not scientific enough, to describe what it is that we are trying to understand. Just thoughts...
The wonderful thing is that we can combine a select few "words" (sounds) to express just about anything. This is called double articulation.
🤔…….you asked, “Is language a limiting factor in our scientific endeavor to understand the cosmos?”
Well…..that depends on what your definition of “is” is.
Beautifully put
@@juanmiranda8390 Thank you...
i love this chanel, especially with a lack of mobility and on my sleepless nights
Same!
Great Content
Awesome! ✨
Keep going and stay with us to memorize the endless hidden arts.....!!!
A fractal when viewed externally has a defined edge but from the inside it is infinite. We're on the inside.
There are no natural outside edges of fractals either. There's no inside or outside.
E8
@@bozo5632 Not necessarily; the Mandelbrot set has an edge, and there is a definite inside to it. It is just an infinitely convoluted (but proven to be continuous) edge.
Infinity within infinities makes me happy. I love it ! Life is merely a dream within a dream. Reminds me of Poe.
Did you read his book EUREKA , Especially the last chapter?
Or Chuang-tzu.
Each one was worse than the last, culminating in an absurd moral argument. The star of the show is Kuhn.. 1/ for asking intelligent questions to which he receives no intelligent answers; and 2/ for refraining from laughter. They tie themselves in knots with the terms 'infinity' and 'probability'. Carroll came closest to an honest answer... "We don't really know what we are doing". To which I would add... nor do they know what they are talking about.
Amazing vid. Left me with some thoughts/questions. Aguirre's infinity was the divisible infinity, something Caroll mentioned too, where you can divide and divide forever. So as Aguirre says if we look at it that way then this 'bubble' universe is already infinite. My question then: In my hand exists infinity. Is it safe for me to assume there are no copies of me in the infinite space inside my hand? I would say yes, as a copy of me would need to be my size at least, and therefore any copy (even if it did exist) would be disqualified from being my copy. We can then say there are different kinds of infinity, many of which do not contain all possibilities. Atoms would also need to rearrange themselves to be my copy, on the smallest of scales we would have no atoms to form copies.
So we can indeed conceive of an infinity (space and even time) where just because we have an infinity does not mean every possibility could/SHOULD occur, there are indeed limitations.
If this is the case then, how do we reconcile this with a universe infinite in an outward sense? I think the concept of a 'boundary' in time/space is a human notion. And as much as I hate the idea, I think that the Universe is indeed infinte, but as with the infinity of my hand - somehow, infinite spacetime does not necessarily have everything - everything in this case being exact copies of entitities/instances. I think that's more easily digestable than infinite copies of me, that sounds ridiculous, that's even before we deal with the 'measure problem'.
Only Eternity can fully embrace Infinity.
Infinity is very large, especially towards the end
I dunno.....I'm making no progress and remain stuck in the middle of my infinity.
and just think ∞ + 1 is also possible.
most underrated comment
I really liked this episode! I’ve often thought about the connection between infinity and morality. If everything that CAN happen DOES happen, then there’s nothing you can do to prevent any evil. Let’s say you see someone about to kill someone else. Do you stop them? If you do, then there’s an alternative universe where you don’t. If you don’t, then there’s an alternative universe where you do. Your choice will never change any outcome; it will only change which universe it happens in.
Yes, but we live in the best universe and we want to keep it that way.
Make the right choice and don't let me down. We're #1!
While it may be true that your actions/choices can have zero effect upon infinity...
Your actions/choices can have infinite effect upon you personally, and upon those around you...
For me... that’s enough of a reason to retain and maintain my morality.
There is no benefit to “worsening” anyone’s experience...
You can argue that there is also no benefit to “improving” anyone’s experience...
However... you must remember that you are a participant within any experience over which you can possibly have any influence...
Universal Law Number One:
“Don’t be a dick.”
There goes free will again....
That is just a proof that there is no evil
Even if there’s an exact replica of you in the far off reaches of infinity, it isn’t “you” (the sentient entity that is experiencing the world from your personal perspective). What that other guy who looks just like you does shouldn’t affect how you behave in our corner of the cosmos.
My head hurts. In a good way. I love this channel 😁
Many world's interpretation should have it's place in this topic.
To see the world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is - infinite.
William Blake.
You know the day destroys the night; night divides the day; tried to run; tried to hide; break on through to the other side; break on through to the other side.
WOW! An infinite number of everything! I like it.
A definite meaning would be difficult to produce for an indefinite cosmos!
Love this channel when I'm high.
You don't seem to be the only one - but at least you are honest enough to admit it. Enjoy, and be careful
Thanks for so many great interviews. You ponder the questions many of us have. It's disturbing to think slightly different versions of ourselves might commit atrocities. To be known that way isn't good. Oh, to be "God" for a day. To know. But maybe all-knowing grows old. No more surprises? No more newness. Could this be the Bane of existence? When there's nothing new under the sun... existence fades away.
i love this channel it’s a hit
Way understated channel
Infinite possibilities!
If a finite cosmos then you can always ask 'what's beyond that? And then, what's beyond that?' Positing an infinite cosmos takes care of that problem.
Great episode!… But missed some big possibilities entirely.
There was no discussion of Douglas Hofstadter’s, “ Strange Loop”. (The Morbius Strip, the Klein Bottle,… Godel’s theorem .
No contemplation of Penrose’s , infinite regression and/or progression.
What is now see from my human perspective and all of the incredible interactions the make my human life so unique and peculiar… Exist ONLY due to my unique perspective as a human entity in a limited time and space.
However, the gut microbes in my GI tract are dealing with an entirely different realty. And of course, we can continue down all the way to the Plank Constant(Lol), but we can also imagine that vast structures of our observable are simply parts of a comprehensive structure taking place at an entirely different cosmological perspective. We see ourselves as part of the fundamental building blocks of reality. But we are only fundamental to the building block we perceive. And this includes in an infinite regression and infinite progression that can be perceived by the open eye of humans or the experiences of those entities experiencing those micro or macro perspectives .
- [ ] A organism exists within our gastric fauna to execute a specific function.
- [ ] I hold that every observable galaxy, planet, black hole, pulsar, supernova are all totally normal function is different aspects of reality not observable for our perspective .
I was enthralled
The _vampire_ cosmologist at the begging of the documentary really knows his stuff.
Very interesting
"I'M ALREADY...GETTING...DIZZAY"
Thanks Robert it’s mind boggling .
It seems the big questions are unanswerable at least until we humans have complete unification and have the entire population asking the same question all at the same time .
Solutions will appear and then work on the next big question
Because of this channel, it's make me see and think outside of my bilieve
The perception of it being infinite in the universe but finite outside the universe blew me away but actually makes perfect sense
if it is infinite how are you outside of it and looking at it? Seems that would prove it is not infinite.
@@90volts expanding
This question to me was always infinitely more troubling than the question of why there is something rather than nothing, which has an anthropic interpretation.
Wowwww 11:16 I love you Rob !
It looks to me that when people start talking (philosophying) like this they are getting farther from the truth, not closer.
Here is my take on it as I contemplated the universe as a teenager. By its very nature space is infinite, because it is nothing. Nothing goes on forever. It can never end. If it does end at a wall, well that wall is encroaching in space. There will be nothing on the other side. Mater, by its very nature, is finite. It cannot exist without empty space to be in. Mater needs empty space, which is nothing so to speak, where it exists. There cannot be mater without space, or nothing. Mater needs space but nothing does not need mater. Space cannot be destroyed because it is nothing. It is also infinite. Nothing cannot be destroyed because there is nothing there to be destroyed. You can also call it ether or time as cosmologists have done. They have also speculated that ultimate power dwells in it. It is eternal and infinite. Cannot be destroyed. Has not been created. Can withdraw itself to create mater. Some have called nothing God. What do you think?
Liked the thought. But, space confuses/disturbs me. How is it, that space exists - even if it is nothing? Nothingness seems easier to deal with - in the sense that there should be nothing at all; than the fact that I can move, walk, through space, which is 'made of nothing'. Well, it is like considering our own existence, it is almost painful to think about it. Wasting time with a game, or concentrating on everyday tasks as doing the dishes, or pretending to find meaning in things as 'pursuing good', alleviates the pressure. Maybe it is still out of reach and we need another 10 thousand years of brain improvement, maybe it is under the nose, or those who really know cannot point to it in any viable way. Endless questions, again nice reading your text, time for Netflix to cool down a bit.
You're on the right track. I have a similar story and reached a similar conclusion as you. It makes way more sense than some of the stories they spin about infinity and infinite number of versions of me. Sometimes philosophy goes down a rabbit hole trying to explain things and gets lost.
I love Sean.
11:07
A very important lesson to learn.
The universe is not intuitive. Intuition has evolved and was trained to understand our everyday environment (at most). But there is no reason to believe it is reliable beyond that.
thx for this episode ... gave me more insight to this infinity issue but one infinity was omitted
the 3 infinities of our universe are
1) space
2) time
3) and energy
and all these combined is the source of "infinite possibility"
i consider these the fundamental source of all that is
and coincidently... God too is trinity.
last guy was like a weird science willy wonka XD
This maybe the best concept of infinity Ive heard (also it Independently coincides with what I believe although stated much better). 8:34
Compared to nowadays science, religion sounds rational and is a true haven for one's peace of mind LOL.
Love the series.
Trying to understand eternity whether it's time or space is a fools errand. I believe there's an end to matter but no end to nothingness.
im pissed that no one mentioned Roger Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmos Theory
I enjoyed the conversation between Kuhn and Rees - especially when the latter said "whatever our preferences are we should accept that we just don't know" .... "remember that our preferences count for nothing and we must accept the universe as it is" - I became concerned when Kuhn was interviewing Aguirre and the latter said "you will agree" (why ? - this cannot be matter of fact) and "but its true" (when there is no evidence to support what he speaks about)
that was good
7:44
“The way it works in some sense is that suppose I take some nugget of stuff and it starts growing and I let it grow for an infinite amount of time; OK. Then you’ll agree that this thing has grown into something with infinite space-time volume." Sure, I’ll agree to that. However when will that actually happen? Answer: never.
Look at it from the perspective of a photon. No time ever passes, so infinity is achieved immediately
Time doesn't physically exist.
We are not sure if it's passing.
We have just assumed it to be moving forward, maybe it's moving backwards and the big bang was actually a big crunch.
I think our existence and the universe's reason is the field I would love to work upon.
*ITS AMAZING* 😵😵
Regarding the segment at the end about morals; you can have different sizes of infinities. So if we start with 50/50 on good/bad choices morally, but progress to 60/40, that would be a bigger infinity for good. The goal would be to keep progressing and creating a bigger difference in the ratios.
I am wondering: if we think of space and time as coordinates then it would be easy to imagine that both could be infinite. No boundary to space or time. But surely that does not suggest there is an infinite amount of stuff within these endless parameters i.e. multiple selves to which some speakers eluded! Or does it?
The final words... And how he put the question... "am I any.. Closer to the truth"
Between now and one second from now, there is an infinite set of instants. If you consider a tiny portion of that second, you can always divide it in half, and that will never end. It's infinite but... it's already gone. We can't perceive infinity adequately, it doesn't make sense in our minds, but it's there nonetheless. And if infinity exists, the universe doesn't need a beginning. Its existence can go back to infinity.
Very interesting topic and waaaaaaayy too short a discussion!! Or...the complete interviews are only available through a subscription, eh??
Space & Time; like everything else inside the universe, they grow
Finite or infinite, both are equally impossible to imagine.
I can show you both in one if you want?
I will open your mind like you did with me with time!
something his coming and I need to understand!
An infinite universe. It sure puts things in perspective.
Perhaps Socrates, was correct, when he humbly admitted; ' I only know, that I don't know'.
After you put so many zeros before or after the decimal point, my puny human brain can't handle it.
Another simpler way to deal with infinity, is to say that you do have a beginning, which would be 1 reference point but have never reached the other reference point, which would be the end. Infinity refers to an incomplete process, but by no means, means there isn't an end. Infinity simply cannot exist. If anything has a beginning, it must have an end, or the beginning itself doesn't exist. One cannot exist without the other. Likewise if something has an end, it has to have a beginning, or else the end by itself makes no sense at all, and that's simply because both of them define each other and makes it possible that they exist. Something viewed as infinite really means that the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning, which is a situation that cannot exist, or if it did nothing would exist. The same thing applies to eternity. Also numbers. When they say there cannot exist a largest number simply from fact that if you add 1 to it, it no longer is the largest number, means that there is no infinitely large number and one cannot exist is because at the very minimum, the only largest number that exists is the number 1. Every other number is a multiple of 1,and as long as 1 exists, no other number can be larger than it is, since it is itself repeated over and over
Mr.Kuhn standing by a giant telescope: "I want to know now how to deep dive into reality of space and time".
He goes into some hotel, full of weird people drinking wine and talking about stuff.
Closer to Truth is the true spiritual successor to Cosmos by Carl Sagan
I like the last guy and how this knowledge can affect morality.
"... but I cannot fathom it." Is that not just within the definition of "infinite"? If something has no boundaries, how to grip it? There is no way to come closer to infinity, we're all in it, in all directions, then. I think the idea to create or increase the total amount of happiness in the universe is hubris. To not harm and to do what one can in what reality we can grasp, on the other hand, is a moral obligation, because we can foresee consequences of our actions, here.
I sincerely thank you for posing these thought-provoking and important questions.
With a finite number of symbols, we can create infinity. ;)
I think what Robert is trying to convey is that he (and the rest of us) can conceptually conceive of infinity, but cannot really comprehend it or its implications. Which, being finite beings, is probably the best we can hope for.
On the moral argument - I don't see it as hubristic; it's simply impossible if the universe is in any way infinite. We don't know whether the universe is infinite, so "your" moral imperative translates into the same if the universe is finite, and is the best solution even if it is infinite. So I prefer it as a formulation of a moral imperative; it does ruin the paradox a bit, though. ;-)
Nothing like trying to count the shadows on the wall in Plato's cave.
By definition, if there is no finality, there can be no beginning
Finite is simply a definition of confinement
Surely, if there are an infinite number of infinite universes, unicorns must exist.
Even pink ones
@@elijahfluw4347 Meranus
They do. Britain is full of them since 26 June 2016.