[joering2]

We have no proof Universe is infinite, but we can also argue that the building blocks of Universe - atoms? - cannot come in unlimited quantity. At least it sounds more reasonable that way. Unless of course we are all in a symultation and our whole Universe takes up half a sq. inch of a silicone chip.

[permille42]

This is my point. We have no evidence either way, so it seems strange to me to blindly claim "this is everything".

[ObjectiveZen]

Did you not blindly claim space is infinite? That seems the stranger assumption. If I’m standing in a forest counting all the trees I can see, I’d certainly take into account that there are some trees I can’t see, but I wouldn’t assume there exists an infinite forest of trees.

[permille42]

You're right. The earth is clearly flat and that is a sensible assumption if you haven't left your local area or been in space or seen a picture from space.

Or not. Flat earthers are quacks.

It is the same principle essentially. It is illogical to think "hey if I keep walking that way I'll hit a wall eventually". That is why flat earthers are quacks from the beginning.

The same principle applies to space. What quack seriously thinks that eventually there is just a wall in space or that it wraps around?

Wrapping around makes zero sense in 3-dimensional space.

[perl4ever]

The universe appears to be fairly flat, but according to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe

...if the universe was like a "3-torus", it could be both flat and finite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-torus

If you ever played the classic game "asteroids", you might remember how everything wrapped around at the edges of the screen. A 3-torus would be like that, only in 3D.

On the other hand, one could imagine the universe as a 3-sphere, which I believe would mean it would be both locally curved and finite in volume. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-sphere

There are also other possibilities, like something analogous to a Klein bottle with an extra dimension.

There are a bunch of possibilities for "flat and finite" as well as "positively curved and finite" that I can't begin to visualize.

There is even supposedly such a (hypothetical) thing as a negatively curved, (commonly described as saddle shaped) yet finite universe.

But regardless, the current belief about the real universe is that it is at least very close to flat, but not known to be finite or infinite.

[drran]

Asteroids game is not a physical model. Did you ever played with GPT2 text generator? Your theory would be like that.