RobertR
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 1998
- Messages
- 10,675
The universe is finite," he said, "but there's no boundary to it," implying that there is no beyond, or that if there is, then its nature is left to your imagination and is outside the closed system that astronomers can ever hope to see.This is exactly why I have so much trouble with the "finite, unbounded" 3D speherical (or multihedron) analogy. Every time we picture it, it's from the viewpoint of an observer who is external to it. It's a given that there is existence external to the object. So when we apply the analogy to the Universe, it seems to me that it's clearly implied that the Universe is contained within still HIGHER, external dimensions.
And that tells me that, therefore, we aren't really talking about the Universe, as in "the sum total of everything that exists".
We're only talking about an infinitely small part of it that our minds can cope with having knowledge of.