Hi Gary,

Thanks for the brain exercise....

By defining infinity one already is forced to draw parameters within which to comprehend it and it always limits it. Defining infinity within merely spatial or temporal bounds makes it finite again.

My speculations here are both wrong and/or incomplete and I have the benefit of knowing this going in. However I'll share some of the many directions I have pursued in contemplating a truly infinite universe. Many avenues of thought end up as dead-end brain twisters, but they do spur neuron activity and are fun to toy with.

;-)

In your model of the hypersphere you have an outermost layer--and it is adjoining Chaos. Here we have to try and define chaos. Does chaos consist of something and if so, what?

Chaos defined as nothing is incomprehensible to me. How can nothing be chaotic? We are immediately forced to redefine Chaos as something and something always possesses energy and is part of a larger energy system.

Where you envision Chaos and an outermost layer I imagine still an infinite number of layers and each layer itself is infinite within its parameters.

I see the universe as a completely infinite construct. Infinite in all ways and all forms. A universe wherein everything that can happen, has happened. Where everything that can exist, does exist. And time only exists when you compare some relative part with another relative part. So we sense time - but the infinite universe does not. Yes, I know, it's a wild assumption.

Imagine an infinite ball of energy going off into all directions and all vectors simultaneously and also infinitely inward from your frame of reference as well. Imagine your hypersphere couched in this energy 'plasma' and that all of those hyper-onion layers divide energy into varying rates/scales/expressions. (many of which we can't begin to conceive) Imagine every possible rate of vibration and wave shape you can imagine exist somewhere in one of these layers and each layer of energy forms its own "reality" based on these spectral parameters. What's more, imagine within these infinite layers is every possible type of interaction that can occur between all this energy.

Our third dimensional matter spectra would be just one layer wherein all this interconnected energy manifests as atoms with nuclei and particles--starting with the simple hydrogen atom. All the infinite number of things that nuclei and particles can construct would exist at some point in this infinite loop/layer of the hypersphere. In that sense even this conversation was a "byproduct" of some possible combination of atoms and had to exist somewhere in the layer.

Time would have to be redefined. With no moment of origin and everything already in existence somewhere in this hypersphere there would only be frames of reference to this infinite energy and "everything" as it is shaped by these motions of energy.

Everyone would be a part of this hypersphere and every possible type of person that could/would exist - does exists somewhere within these layers. An infinite number of parallel universes would have to be included into each of these layers to accomadate such infinite diversity. (That's a simultaneously horrifying and fascinating thought ;-)

Each person's life/lives would already exist as far as the hyper-sphere is concerned.

From our limited perspective we would be learning of the rest of the sphere however as we interfaced with ever larger parts of it and developed our own energy structures. It's not fate-because we are still making our decisions and thoughts--but the infinite universe already has it recorded because it was one of the infinite number of "possible combinations" mapped within the infinite hyper-sphere. (For that matter every possible way our lives could turn out is mapped and existing in one of an infinite number of parallel universes. (Grist for a thousand sci-fi plots)

We would have to be immortal because somewhere in this layer would have to exist the "combination" of atoms and molecules which was unique to us. Like a hard drive that can't be erased, this layer would hold the collective records of every being, animal or what-have-you. This combination would constantly be exposed to this stream of energy/data.

Each of the hypersphere's layers would have to be expanding and contracting simultaneously at varying points at all levels as energy transferred between these different layers, though from ever more infinite perspectives this motion would seem to be progressively minimized almost into a state appearing static.

Such energy would fuel our observed expansion and acceleration. Inputs for such energy transfers could be galactic centers and might be the source of endless GRB events. But this acceleration/expansion ratio would vary and would exist differently from certain reference points

Naturally if the "upper" layer can transfer energy to our layer - our layer must be transferring energy to the layer "below" us. Here black holes and other compressing forces might feed this lower layer.

Even our own layer would have progressively more complex structures lurking somewhere on the loop. Our own atomic elements might be mirrored by new isotopes with increasing atomic weight and complexity. As an example, uranium as it exists here might seem like a lightweight in comparison to the way uranium exists in another galaxy or even on planets in our own galaxy closer to the core.

As we get closer to these cores where this energy transfer between spectra occurs - we might find that all the atomic structures formed in these regions are more complex--because they are fed more energy and exist in an environment where various interactions occur that do not way out here.

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But that's far more than enough speculation for now. It makes the parts of one's brain one leaves dormant start to itch. ;-)

The relative perspective thing always make it hard to convey and share views. Like the three blind men describing their encounter with an elephant, they each report something different. One says it had a rough skin. The other describes a muscular, flexible snout--and the third reported that it stank something awful.

The deeper one gets into it the more questions/conflicts it brings up - it's infinitely frustrating!

The curse of a truly infinite universe is that it can never be contained accurately in description, formula or a white paper. It not only holds it's secrets--it must necessarily hold an infinite number of them.

That's the biggest royal pain...but on the plus side it will provide job stability for cosmologists, theorists, modelers and theologians for eons to come.

;-)