# Are you the universe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243 "2019-06-29T00:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/1 "2019-06-29T00:04:36Z")
I see this line tossed around a lot and to me there just doesn’t seem to be evidence that we are nothing but a body. Yet does the law of conservation of matter factor into this? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/2 "2019-06-29T00:25:28Z")
No. When I pass gas, no stars are formed. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/3 "2019-06-29T00:35:54Z")
I’m not. Are you? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/4 "2019-06-29T00:52:37Z")
Yeah. I’m a really terrific and great guy. Hey, is that really a piece of fairy cake?’ ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/5 "2019-06-29T00:53:33Z")
Well I just heard it used a lot and wondered if they meant it literally or figuratively. Or if it is true. They said that before you there was the universe, but the atoms that make up my body didn’t always exist (the Big Bang was mostly hydrogen and helium). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/6 "2019-06-29T01:00:31Z")
Fuck if I know. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/7 "2019-06-29T01:05:34Z")
I am, but you’re not. There can be only one. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/8 "2019-06-29T01:12:20Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I am, but you’re not. There can be only one. Nah, haven’t you ever heard of the multiverse? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/9 "2019-06-29T01:15:42Z")
I’m wondering–did you get any splinters in your fingers ripping through the bottom of the barrel to reach this question? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/10 "2019-06-29T01:28:03Z")
Yes. Well, technically, no. The pronoun “you” in English is used for both second-person singular and second-person plural, but there’s no real established use of “you” as second-person superplural. The sense in which my answer to “who are you” is “the universe” is at the superplural level, the all-encompassing sense of self. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/11 "2019-06-29T01:41:23Z")
I am the walrus Goo goo g’joob ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/12 "2019-06-29T01:49:27Z")
No. You are, physically, an infinitisimally small speck in the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/13 "2019-06-29T01:57:26Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Yes. > > Well, technically, no. The pronoun “you” in English is used for both second-person singular and second-person plural, but there’s no real established use of “you” as second-person superplural. The sense in which my answer to “who are you” is “the universe” is at the superplural level, the all-encompassing sense of self. That made no sense to me at all. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/14 "2019-06-29T02:19:14Z")
Are you really looking for sensible answers to a nonsensical question? ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/15 "2019-06-29T02:31:08Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Are you really looking for sensible answers to a nonsensical question? How do you know it’s nonsense? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/16 "2019-06-29T02:37:28Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > That made no sense to me at all. Then you’re in the same boat as most of us in one of your threads. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/17 "2019-06-29T02:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > How do you know it’s nonsense? The universe is an area of space at least tens of billions of light-years across populated by many trillions of trillions of stars and probably a similar number of planets. If you think that there is a chance that you are an area of space at least tens of billions of light-years across populated by many trillions of trillions of stars and probably a similar number of planets then your mind is further gone than it already seemed. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/18 "2019-06-29T02:42:42Z")
I’m not the universe. I’m the \*center \*of the universe. Everywhere else, that’s where I keep my stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/19 "2019-06-29T03:33:18Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Yes. > > Well, technically, no. The pronoun “you” in English is used for both second-person singular and second-person plural, but there’s no real established use of “you” as second-person superplural. The sense in which my answer to “who are you” is “the universe” is at the superplural level, the all-encompassing sense of self. This is brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/20 "2019-06-29T04:47:09Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > This is brilliant. Is it? Because it makes no sense. AS for the rest, my guess is that it’s looking at the universe as some kind of super organism. Or not. It’s usually followed by there being no birth or death, that what looks like birth is just rearranging matter and that there is nothing new it’s all just one thing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243.md?page=2)