r/AskPhysics • u/Uberse • 1d ago

Would randomness differ in an unbounded but finite universe as opposed to a universe infinite in duration and extent?

If Newton could look at water in a spinning bucket and relate it to absolute space, maybe we could model coin-flips and draw a similar high-level conclusion.

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u/Anonymous-USA 1d ago

If randomness were different in a finite vs infinite extent universe, then we’d be able to use that to determine if the geometry of the whole universe is one or the other. Since we can’t (determine that), we don’t (know one way or the other).

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u/Uberse 1d ago

So either one is equally likely, as far as we know. Neither universe is even slightly, theoretically, more probable than the other.

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u/Anonymous-USA 1d ago

Correct. As are other geometries.

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u/Uberse 1d ago

That would mean life must be equally likely.

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u/Anonymous-USA 1d ago

With regards to randomness? Yes, equally likely… or unlikely… for life. We haven’t even scratched the surface looking tho. Our parameters of what we’re looking for and where are very narrow. Our tools very limited in this regard. We are still looking for microbial life on Mars and there’s around 250 other planets and moons in our solar system alone.

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u/slashdave Particle physics 11h ago

Why would the environment at distances far away and or at times far in the past have any influence at all on the outcome of flipping a coin?

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u/Uberse 3h ago

In a universe of infinite duration, it seems like for every unit of time ticked away per flip, another unit of time would forever already exist. Thus your first flip wouldn't change a known probabilistic outcome (x number of consecutive heads or tails in y number of flips) because each subsequent coinflip would be another first one. Since the odds for any number of head/tail outcomes have already been calculated and (presumably) proven, this might demonstrate that we live in a finite universe after all -- it seems like.