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From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.physics
Subject: Time
Message-ID: <221@spar.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 12:07:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: spar.221
Posted: Tue Apr 30 12:07:36 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 2-May-85 01:26:41 EDT
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Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
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Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
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Xref: watmath net.philosophy:1733 net.physics:2450

>>> This would leave me with one of two conclusions; either
>>> 1- the universe is infinitely  old, or
>>> 2- there was a cause which is not of this universe that started
>>> the whole thing.

     Why not the third possibility:

    3- the universe has finite age, but no first moment. 

    It may be distasteful to some, but need not contradict the assumption
    that each moment has a predecessor. It's extremely difficult for 
    the vast majority of humans (me included) to hypothesize the
    difficulties of such problems. Anyone who's ever checked out
    texts on general relativity is aware of how bizarre and unintuitive
    regions near black (or white, I suppose, in this case) holes can be.

    Following a timelike path backwards towards the initial discontinuity
    would be analogous to asymptotically approaching an unreachable point,
    assuming you could go backwards thru time in the first place.

    Can anyone out there who understands general relativity comment?

    Is there such a thing as a person who understands general relativity?

-michael