Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by hndamien on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:46PM
(#18454924)
The universe and the observable universe are different things. As far as we can measure, the universe appears to be flat (by measuring the observable universe). With finite mass, but expanding space, how is it not infinite?
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Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by bduerst on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @06:49PM
(#18455429)
You just said it yourself - infinite space but finite mass. "Life" by most definitions is made of mass, not space.
Claiming infinite space has infinite possibilities for life is quite literally a Celestial Teapot argument.
Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by hndamien on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @10:32PM
(#18456663)
I didn't make any claim about life. I just wanted to challenge the statement about the universe being finite. I also agree with the other commenter that I'm not sure we can even be sure the mass is finite, but also happy to be enlightened.
Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by bduerst on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @11:13PM
(#18456806)
The context of this conversation is probability of generating life. Debating theories on dark energy isn't relevant since it's not dense enough to generate life.
Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by hndamien on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:10PM
(#18463940)
The context isn't relevant when I'm correcting a fact, at least as we/I currently understand it - the universe is infinite. I'm wasn't making a statement about dark energy, or life.
Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by bduerst on Friday November 16, 2018 @12:01AM
(#18466554)
You're misinterpreting the semantics of finite mass in this conversation about abiogenesis by taking it out of context of conversation.
Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by hndamien on Sunday November 18, 2018 @01:05AM
(#18479091)
You are ignoring the spacetime part of the universe, which in definitions of the universe being finite or not, is probably far more relevant than the mass.
Re:Astronomers discover super-Earth around Barnard's star
by eloff on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @08:16PM
(#18456032)
Is it that simple? Empty space has energy (dark energy) and E=MC^2 means energy and mass are interchangeable. Hence infinite space does imply infinite mass.
Not a physicist, so I'm probably dead wrong. But I would like to be enlightened.