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This was a great read. Another way to appreciate the endless level of detail if you look hard enough is the Coastline Paradox[1], an idea expanded and articulat

This was a great read. Another way to appreciate the endless level of detail if you look hard enough is the Coastline Paradox[1], an idea expanded and articulated by Benoit Mandelbrot. Life has infinite levels of depth if you keep peeling back layers and look down a bit further. And when you think you know something, dig deeper and you realize you know less than you thought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox

adamrezich 5y ago
I have no formal education in physics or metaphysics or anything but it has long seemed obvious to me that reality is infinitely fractal in both the macro and micro. whenever a new particle or whatever is discovered, it seems like many people get excited that we're on the verge of understanding the elementary fundamental building blocks of reality or something, when I can't see any reason not to believe that reality will continue to be fractal infinitely when "zooming in." if one can accept this, then one can accept that any perceptions about reality he may have can only be at best a "useful model," and such models should be constantly updated in response to new data and observations. of course, this means that there is quite a bit of incentive in deliberately shaping the models people use to perceive reality...
- mersenne 5y ago
  If the universe is infinitely large (as we suspect it is), then it should also be infinitely small (even beyond our capacity to measure it). Otherwise, it's not really infinite.
  - avhon1 5y ago
    The matter of whether the universe is or isn't infinite is definitely not a settled matter. > Because we cannot observe space beyond the edge of the observable universe, it is unknown whether the size of the universe in its totality is finite or infinite. Estimates suggest that the whole universe, if finite, must be more than 250 times larger than the observable universe. Some disputed estimates for the total size of the universe, if finite, reach as high as 10^10^10^122 megaparsecs, as implied by a suggested resolution of the No-Boundary Proposal. [1] Secondly, rays (the geometric construct that have a point origin and extend infinitely in one direction) are infinitely long, but any point on them is finitely far away from the end. Why couldn't the universe be the same way -- unbounded in one direction (of scale), but bounded in the other? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size_and_regions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size_and_regions

adamrezich 5y ago

I have no formal education in physics or metaphysics or anything but it has long seemed obvious to me that reality is infinitely fractal in both the macro and micro. whenever a new particle or whatever is discovered, it seems like many people get excited that we're on the verge of understanding the elementary fundamental building blocks of reality or something, when I can't see any reason not to believe that reality will continue to be fractal infinitely when "zooming in." if one can accept this, then one can accept that any perceptions about reality he may have can only be at best a "useful model," and such models should be constantly updated in response to new data and observations. of course, this means that there is quite a bit of incentive in deliberately shaping the models people use to perceive reality...

mersenne 5y ago
If the universe is infinitely large (as we suspect it is), then it should also be infinitely small (even beyond our capacity to measure it). Otherwise, it's not really infinite.
- avhon1 5y ago
  The matter of whether the universe is or isn't infinite is definitely not a settled matter. > Because we cannot observe space beyond the edge of the observable universe, it is unknown whether the size of the universe in its totality is finite or infinite. Estimates suggest that the whole universe, if finite, must be more than 250 times larger than the observable universe. Some disputed estimates for the total size of the universe, if finite, reach as high as 10^10^10^122 megaparsecs, as implied by a suggested resolution of the No-Boundary Proposal. [1] Secondly, rays (the geometric construct that have a point origin and extend infinitely in one direction) are infinitely long, but any point on them is finitely far away from the end. Why couldn't the universe be the same way -- unbounded in one direction (of scale), but bounded in the other? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size_and_regions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size_and_regions