"Is an infinite number of things possible?"

I begin this thread tentatively. Initially, I considered adding to an existing thread, to wit: “What about a self-caused universe?”. Instead, I decided to open a new thread, … this one,–for the moment, at least–to ask the question in the thread title above: “Is an infinite number of things possible?”

That issue came up previously, elsewhere, specifically, if I remember correctly in another thread that I started called: The Problem of The Now. [Feel to Correct and/or amend my memory.] It (i.e. “the issue”) has generated several bumper-car events since the issue first came up. I suspect that more events will occur shortly, How long interest in the issue persists remains to be seen. Personally, it’s entirely possible that I’ll “fall off my horse”, … sooner than later: a possibility that tempers my interest. [BTW, … don’t intend to wait with bated breath for anyone else to play in this sandbox.

At this point, I am moved to share a link to a Youtube that I have seen which I think is relevant in this thread: Infinite Worlds: A Journey through Parallel Universes. Unfortunately, the video is 1:43:57, which will discourage almost anyone but the most interested from watching it. Even sadder is that, the subtitles and the transcript of the program are in Serbian, and I don’t know Serbian. If any one knows how to translate the transcript into English, speak up. Fortunately, however, there are some timestamps:

  • Introduction with Brian Greene 00:00
  • Musical interlude 25:15
  • Participant Introductions 33:49
  • How do we know there was a Big Bang 35:50
  • How do we get from a single universe to a multiverse. 47:14
  • Is the universe expanding and how fast? 01:00:25
  • What does six dimensional space look like? 01:08:00
  • How do we know there is a multiverse? 01:13:48
  • Bryce DeWitt on the multiverse concept 01:24:40
  • What if we assume the universe is the simulation hypothesis? 01:37:14

Hmmm, I seem to have exhausted myself at the moment. So, I’m going to take a break, and plan on returning to this thread sometime today. Before I go, I’ll state my own brief response to the question in this thread’s title, for the record.

  • My answer is: "I say “Yes, an infinite number of things are possible”. That’s a position which I’m pretty sure that I have stated somewhere in this forum, several times.

Edit: the language of the subtitles and transcript is Serbian, not Polish.***

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  • Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
    • a number of , meaning `several’, is plural: A number of boys are absent today .
    • the number of , meaning `the total quantity of’ is singular: The number of girls in the class is small.
  • So what is my topic? #1.“The number of things” or #2.“the number of things”?
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An infinite being is singular, an infinite number of things is a myth of the imagination, and therefore singular.

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An infinite number of things is a fact.

If the probability of something occurring is 1 over the number of possible outcomes would this mean that nothing should happen since 1/infinity is 0?

#2, because you can’t have an infinite number of things. XD

A lover of cats with fleas. :grin: (And it’s an imaginary concept, not a fact of reality.)

So is a cosmos, infinite in volume and duration.

I’m sure you believe that, and suspect that’s why you thought MarkD’s statement was agreement. But … if the cosmos is the set of all sets, how many sets do you suppose there are in that set? If you deny that the cosmos is the set of all sets, then how many cosmoses do you suppose there are?

Just because I can’t, don’t mean there aren’t.

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Perhaps it would help to say what we mean by infinite. I’d assume it at least means “large but indeterminant” and always “more than how many can be counted”. It isn’t “a” number so much as it is always an unreachable upper limit.

So the question is really asking…

-not if there is a particular number-

…but simply is the quantity unspecifiably large?

To which I would answer yes the exact number of atoms, stars and galaxies in the cosmos is an unknown but enormous quantity. The exact number of singularity events associated with a universe like the only one we can know is simply unknowable. It could be anywhere from one to an infinite number.

On your authority and by the power of your word alone. Neat trick. Kinda like Allah in the Qur’an:

  • She said, “My Lord, how shall I have a child
    while no human being has touched me?” He said, “Thus
    does God create whatsoever He will.” When He decrees a
    thing, He only says to it, “Be!” and it is.

I doubt it, but here goes anyway:




In a word: unbounded (or boundless).

Hmmm, … sure sounds precise and actual to me. :rofl:

I’m undecided on whether space is infinitely divisible, which if it is, then outer space is presumably infinite in volume. Same with time and duration.

This absolute or meta space is what makes possible for the number of things to progress to infinity, but the number or quantity of things that exist cannot be infinite.

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For example, there is no possible world where there exists an infinite number of hotel rooms.

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They could be progressively infinitely smaller? XD Or the world progressively larger. Those fit reality! :roll_eyes:

Define away. It’s STILL merely an imaginary idea when it comes to an actual quantity of real things.

It’s an illusion of the mind, wherein the collection of objects literally trails off the horizon in the imagination, and the mind identifies it as being actually infinite.

A collection of objects may trail off a physical horizon due to limitations of sight, but in reality, they do not trail off the existential plane and still count.

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Good description.