Infinity and eternity

Blog 20161012 Infinity and eternity

Ed says:

“When I read your closing "infinity for eternity", I liked it. Then I started thinking... I may be getting the concepts mixed here but it seems like infinity refers to a space or volume. But it can't, because by definition it is boundless. Eternity is based on time. Essentially it is infinite time. But if time doesn't exist then eternity can't either. Hmmm. I might be tossing all night over this one... Is our language inadequate to accurately describe either of these terms or are my wires completely crossed here?”

[GB: Thanks Ed for the interesting question. I used to close with “Infinity forever,” but was persuaded to change it by Nick. Now, I might change back again. Actually, infinity is difficult for most folks to imagine. In Infinite Universe Theory we assume that the universe consists of an infinite number of microcosms in motion. There can be no end to the universe, either macrocosmically or microcosmically. In particular, there is one “thing” that the universe cannot produce: perfectly empty space. Universal time is the motion of each of these microcosms with respect to all the others. Per conservation (Matter and the motion of matter can be neither created nor destroyed), each of these microcosms (xyz portions of the universe) is continually changing. These changes are motions and, as you mention, motion does not exist. If motion does not exist, then neither does eternity.

You are correct in implying that our use of the word “eternity” is an objectification of motion, which was Einstein’s most important philosophical error.[1] Of course, that happens whenever we use time as a noun. I wish there were more appropriate words for describing motion, but we just need to keep in mind that those are descriptions, not of xyz things, but of what those xyz things do.

Ed, you are correct that eternity cannot exist, for only things can exist. There certainly is no such thing as “an eternity.” Nonetheless, we are part of an unbounded Infinite Universe in which innumerable things are moving in all directions without cease. Back to “infinity forever,” which seems to involve just a little less objectification.]

   

[1] Borchardt, Glenn, 2011, Einstein's most important philosophical error, in Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, 18th Conference of the NPA, 6-9 July, 2011, College Park, MD, Natural Philosophy Alliance, Mt. Airy, MD, p. 64-68 [10.13140/RG.2.1.3436.0407].