The observable universe is 900 million light-centuries wide. Light travels at 671 million miles per hour. The observable universe is either nearly or exactly 0% of the actual universe. It is postulated that there are 10 raised to the power of 500 universes. And you thought your commute to work was long.
People don’t seem to care much about the question, is space infinite or merely mind-bogglingly large? If space is infinitely large, then you can take the largest volume of space you could ever conceive of—say, four hundred nonillion times the size of the observable universe—and it will always be, by definition, precisely 0% of what’s out there. A finite and an infinite universe are such radically different scenarios. Yet the public’s thirst to know whether space has boundaries is… shall we say, bounded.
Even all the most cutting-edge research into this particular line of inquiry comes to the same, startling conclusion, “Fuck if I know.” But I must know. I demand to know. Is every person I’ve known, every sight I’ve seen, every bit of knowledge I possess some of what is out there? Or is it all a big, fat zero in the scheme of it all?
