Could everything have existed forever?
Posted: March 8th, 2019, 8:02 am
The conservation of energy suggests a model of the universe where time is infinite and energy/matter was never created but instead has always existed. Is that actually possible? Most of those who believe in infinity and presentism (belief in the existence of only ‘now’) say yes. They hold the view that matter/energy has existed ‘forever’ and was never created.
A thought experiment is to examine the characteristics of an infinite being to see if it’s viable being or not. If an infinite being is not viable then maybe the infinite existence matter/energy and the universe is not viable either?
Infinite Being
So some characteristics of an infinite being:
1. No birth/coming into being event (obviously).
2. An infinite personal history.
3. At birth certain innate attributes are established permanently (like eye colour). For an infinite being, there is no time at which these attributes could have been established (cannot have been established infinity long ago as all events effecting the being must of taken place at finite period of time ago to class as an event).
4. The being would never be young: going back a billion years is just an infinitesimally small period of time compared to its infinite life span. No matter what finite period we go back in time, the being is not young.
5. The being has always experienced events. No matter how far we go back in time, the being experienced events. So it must have experienced some events greater than any number of years ago. Which is a contradiction (can’t be a number* and greater than any number at the same time).
6. Everything it remembers would have happened a finite time ago (if it remembers an event, it would remember when the event occurred, IE some finite time ago). But some things are infinitely memorable (first sex etc…). Remembering the first of something would contradict its status as an infinite being - it would remember that it first had sex X years ago - meaning it must of had a finite life span after all.
7. In fact the first of everything is always memorable so its a general problem for an infinite being. More to the point, it would never have taken a first breath. Nor a second breath either, nor third, no breathing at all in fact.
*(Infinity is a concept not a number, proof: Infinity, if a number, would be a number X which is greater than all other numbers. But X+1>X).
By these considerations, infinite existence seems untenable.
Infinite Particle
The arguments given above hold for a particle with a memory. For a regular particle with no memory, most of the arguments still hold:
1. There is no coming into existence event for the particle; how can the particle exist if it never started existing?
3. There must be some event (=time) at which the innate attributes (like mass of the particle) are established else it is not a particle. But no such time exists with infinite time. Without innate attributes, a particle is just null and void. So its not a valid particle.
4. It’s a general contradiction of infinity that applies to equally to infinite particles: they experience time yet they do not have the concept of young or old… contradictory.
5. This point demonstrates that an infinite regression in time is impossible... infinite regresses are needed for infinite time… events like particle collisions form infinite regresses... but again it's impossible.
7. The argument can be applied to events effecting the particle like collisions… no first collision, no 2nd, no collisions at all… no particle at all.
Can Time Be Infinite?
If the arguments in the previous sections are accepted, then infinite existence of matter/energy is impossible. If time is to be infinite, then this leaves only one possibility: creation Ex nihilo (creation of matter/energy from nothing). But if the natural creation of matter/energy is possible, with infinite time, matter/energy density would be infinite by now, which is clearly not the case.
Another way of considering the same problem is the creation event itself; if it was natural and time was infinite, we would expect infinite instances of creation, but of course there is only one instance of the Big Bang. The Big Bang is a singleton; natural events always come in a plurality.
So we have ruled out infinite time in combination with natural creation events, what about an ‘unnatural’ creation event? There would be a barren, empty stretch of infinite time before the creation event with nothing to cause it, which is impossible.
So that establishes there is a start of time.
Eternalism
Eternalism is the opposite view of presentism. It is the belief that past, present and future are all equally real. A proof via contradiction that Eternalism is true:
Assume only now exists (presentism)
So before the start of time there was nothing *
But creation ex nihilo / without time is impossible
So more than only now exists **
* If there is more than one time, this proof refers to the first or top level time (base reality).
** We know now exists and more than now exists. So at least one moment other than now must exist. But all moments are identical so they all must exist.
A thought experiment is to examine the characteristics of an infinite being to see if it’s viable being or not. If an infinite being is not viable then maybe the infinite existence matter/energy and the universe is not viable either?
Infinite Being
So some characteristics of an infinite being:
1. No birth/coming into being event (obviously).
2. An infinite personal history.
3. At birth certain innate attributes are established permanently (like eye colour). For an infinite being, there is no time at which these attributes could have been established (cannot have been established infinity long ago as all events effecting the being must of taken place at finite period of time ago to class as an event).
4. The being would never be young: going back a billion years is just an infinitesimally small period of time compared to its infinite life span. No matter what finite period we go back in time, the being is not young.
5. The being has always experienced events. No matter how far we go back in time, the being experienced events. So it must have experienced some events greater than any number of years ago. Which is a contradiction (can’t be a number* and greater than any number at the same time).
6. Everything it remembers would have happened a finite time ago (if it remembers an event, it would remember when the event occurred, IE some finite time ago). But some things are infinitely memorable (first sex etc…). Remembering the first of something would contradict its status as an infinite being - it would remember that it first had sex X years ago - meaning it must of had a finite life span after all.
7. In fact the first of everything is always memorable so its a general problem for an infinite being. More to the point, it would never have taken a first breath. Nor a second breath either, nor third, no breathing at all in fact.
*(Infinity is a concept not a number, proof: Infinity, if a number, would be a number X which is greater than all other numbers. But X+1>X).
By these considerations, infinite existence seems untenable.
Infinite Particle
The arguments given above hold for a particle with a memory. For a regular particle with no memory, most of the arguments still hold:
1. There is no coming into existence event for the particle; how can the particle exist if it never started existing?
3. There must be some event (=time) at which the innate attributes (like mass of the particle) are established else it is not a particle. But no such time exists with infinite time. Without innate attributes, a particle is just null and void. So its not a valid particle.
4. It’s a general contradiction of infinity that applies to equally to infinite particles: they experience time yet they do not have the concept of young or old… contradictory.
5. This point demonstrates that an infinite regression in time is impossible... infinite regresses are needed for infinite time… events like particle collisions form infinite regresses... but again it's impossible.
7. The argument can be applied to events effecting the particle like collisions… no first collision, no 2nd, no collisions at all… no particle at all.
Can Time Be Infinite?
If the arguments in the previous sections are accepted, then infinite existence of matter/energy is impossible. If time is to be infinite, then this leaves only one possibility: creation Ex nihilo (creation of matter/energy from nothing). But if the natural creation of matter/energy is possible, with infinite time, matter/energy density would be infinite by now, which is clearly not the case.
Another way of considering the same problem is the creation event itself; if it was natural and time was infinite, we would expect infinite instances of creation, but of course there is only one instance of the Big Bang. The Big Bang is a singleton; natural events always come in a plurality.
So we have ruled out infinite time in combination with natural creation events, what about an ‘unnatural’ creation event? There would be a barren, empty stretch of infinite time before the creation event with nothing to cause it, which is impossible.
So that establishes there is a start of time.
Eternalism
Eternalism is the opposite view of presentism. It is the belief that past, present and future are all equally real. A proof via contradiction that Eternalism is true:
Assume only now exists (presentism)
So before the start of time there was nothing *
But creation ex nihilo / without time is impossible
So more than only now exists **
* If there is more than one time, this proof refers to the first or top level time (base reality).
** We know now exists and more than now exists. So at least one moment other than now must exist. But all moments are identical so they all must exist.