Astronomers just discovered the farthest object in the known universe

Re:Astronomers just discovered the farthest object in the kn... by imoverclocked on Saturday April 09, 2022 @01:04AM (#30965392)

As soon as you can imagine and reason about infinity, you might be able to reason about our universe. “Center” makes sense for most bounded things but might be completely meaningless in an unbounded universe.

Example: the number line. You might be tempted to say 0 is at the center but… there are an infinite number of things on either side of any number you choose.

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Re:Astronomers just discovered the farthest object in the kn... by deltaonefour on Saturday April 09, 2022 @10:19AM (#30968276)

0 is the center of an infinite number line.

Additionally nobody knows if the universe is infinite.

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Re:Astronomers just discovered the farthest object in the kn... by alexanderdmitri on Saturday April 09, 2022 @02:48AM (#30965763)

Does that mean nothing is the center of the number line?

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Re:Astronomers just discovered the farthest object in the kn... by imoverclocked on Saturday April 09, 2022 @01:03PM (#30969741)

Or everywhere is the center of the number line. Some people argue 0 is the center based on symmetry. My original point is that it is non-trivial to reason about infinite spaces. Since we do not know if we live in a bounded space or not, we can’t assume there is one center. Furthermore, even if we do live in a bounded space, there are different ways of measuring center. Eg: center of mass vs geometric center of a volume. Knowing both and comparing them would be pretty interesting!

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