Recently I was was talking with someone and they said something that made me question my views on the nature of reality. As we were talking about various stars and constellations, the gentleman, who was six years old, (i was watching a friends kid for a few minutes) asked me what what beyond the stars, to which I replied that the stars just went on forever into infinity. He naturally asked what was after infinity, and rather than just blowing off his question I really thought about what I knew of the universe. Supposedly space was infinite, but that was just an assumption. There are a many scattered galaxies and they are slowly moving away from each other...in between and outside of each there is an infinite and ominous void of darkness. Then I began to think that maybe it only seems that way because of our prospective. By that I mean, maybe we cannot see whatever boundaries exist. For example, if space is an infinite void, why is the universe mathematically round? As are the galaxies (more or less) and the solar systems, and the planets. This universal roundness suggests two things. 1) that there are boundaries to celestial configuration and possibly the universe itself 2) that everything falls into a universal system of order governed by motion (round or elliptical paths) So could the universe also follow a round path with other similar entities that are too massive and distant for us to fathom? If so, what central body does the multiverse revolve around? And what greater system does it fit into?
If space is indeed infinite it must be so in all dimensions, including size. So just as our universe is a proton in a larger molecule, then we must also look at the micro perspective. In such an infinite universe there can be no smallest particle. So the search for the quark or the graviton or whatever the hypothetical smallest particle is this week, is pointless, because no such "smallest" entity exists. You can not mathematically divide something into nothing. 1 divided in half an infinite number of times, will never be zero...everything is made of something. So while it would be comforting to finalize that atoms are the smallest particle, we know that atoms...the physical walls of atoms are made of a material...last time I was in physics class they called that material quarks...but what are quarks made of? Keep dividing and you will never reach zero. Einstein speculated that matter is energy condensed to a slow vibration. That energy could be the life force and kinetic energy from the countless galaxies that would make up your cells. The very nature of reality shifts when you take this perspective. A week of binge drinking does more than just destroy your brain cells, you decimate billions of galaxies!
Then I my mind began drawing other associations like the yogi masters. They claim to astrally project their consciousness to different planes of existence, but what if these planes are just size increments? It would make sense that the beings encountered would be far superior to human beings, because they would have the power of all the multiverses within us and our universe and it's counter parts. The possibilities and implications are practically endless.
I know this seems a little strange, and I didn't answer the child with all of this non-sense ( i believe I said there was blackness, then more stars, then santa clause's stronghold.... ) But his questions did make me think about how little we really know about the nature of reality. Everything seems to fit into some greater system of organization, except human beings and cancer. Has anyone had similar thoughts or (hopefully) better ones?

There is nothing after infinity because there is no end to infinity and therefore nowhere for something else to start.


The shape of the universe hasn't been decided on though there are a number of different theories. I can't remember them very well but I don't think any were rounded. The reason we think of it as round is because if you were to draw a line around the edge of your perception, it would be a circle/sphere. I'm not sure if that makes sense....


Here's a poitn of view I read in A Brief History of Time (yes, I'm a geek ). If we are, in fact, part of a greater multiverse or whatever, those other universes have no effect on our ours therefore their existence is irrelevant because, even if they're there, we wouldn't be able to tell because they don't change anything. I'm not sure if that made sense either...


Couldn't agree more .



If you're right in saying there are an infinite number of galaxies within us as there are outside of us, then we are completely unaware of it (as in, we have no proof as of yet). Therefore, if we continued along the (improbable) possibility of this, why would whatever "contains" us know of our existence and the existence of what is within us? We don't know of what is in us, why would they know of what's inside of them?

Imagine a pot of water heating up to it's boiling point. Right before it reaches boiling it is at a state of high energy. Once it starts to bubble it quickly enters a lower energy state and the pot becomes full of bubbles. Now how can this relate to the universe?-- If a single bubble were inflated enough, it would eventually fill up the entire pot to create a uniform universe metaphorically speaking. In leyman's terms, our universe could be a single bubble that was inflated long enough.

Now imagine space, at random points in space and time, spontaneous breaking occurs. At each breaking a universe is created and inflates a little. Most of the time it's minor and doesn't expand into the type of universe that we know of. But with probability, there eventually will be a bubble where inflation occurs long enough to create our type of universe. This could mean that big bangs happen all the time and universes could 'bud' off of a pre-existing universe to create a multiverse. Of course there is no way to test this theory as of yet considering our known universe is so vast and we cannot probe the deepest points in space but it's something to consider.