@Khethil,
Okay, I'm not sure if anybody has done this yet, but as far as reality goes
infinity is mathematically impossible. Working within certain restrictions, mathematicians can work with infinite values in the conceptual realm, but to assert that in reality time is infinite is a gross admission of ignorance.
Allow me to explain.
Let's say I have an infinite amount of marbles in my possession, and I wanted to give you some. One way I could do it is by giving you all of the marbles, in which case I would be left with zero marbles.
However, another way to do it would be to give you all of the odd numbered marbles. Then I would still have an infinity left over for myself, and you would have infinity too. You'd have just as many as would, and in fact, each of us would have just as many as I originally had before we divided into odd and even!
Yet another approach would be to give you all the marbles numbered four and higher. That way, you would have an infinity of marbles, but I would have only three marbles left.
Now look at what these illustrations demonstrate: the notion of an actual infinite number of things leads to contradictory results. Allow me to juxtapose these case-by-case.
Case 1: Infinity - Infinity = 0
Case 2: Infinity - Infinity = Infinity
Case 3: Infinity - Infinity = 3
In each of these cases, we've subtracted the identical number from the identical number, but we have come up with non-identical results. Given certain conditions, you can deal with infinite quantities of infinite numbers in the conceptual realm. However, in transfinite arithmetic, it leads to the contradictions highlighted in the earlier examples. All you have to do when thinking about infinity regarding time is substitute "past events" for "marbles," and it quickly becomes apparent how ridiculous the concept of infinite time is.
Khethil;24615 wrote:Haha, nice thread. Lemme chime in if I dare...
Time is a concept we invented; we measure it by *other things*, but Time is a term only, invented by humans, to describe the frequency of events or intervals (regularity). Its just a word...
Here's what I say to that assertion, hoping you can convince me that time truly is a "concept" we invented. Here's how I've always seen the issue. The method of chronology we've developed to measure the passing of time is invented. But we are constantly witnessing various moments move from future to past, which indicates the passage of time. The fact that the universe is dynamic necessitates the existence time. If time didn't exist, then objects in space would remain fixed, and existence would be completely static, as objects must move within space AND time to be dynamic. The same thing is true of space. the reason we created numbers for various forms of math like arithmetic, geometry, and calculus are because we wanted to work within space, and therefore needed a system of measuring it to do just that. That doesn't mean time and space itself are inventions of man. The systems we use to measure them are what are invented.