# Prove the universe hasn´t ended **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 13, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710 "2002-08-13T16:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chavardz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@Chavardz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chavardz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/1 "2002-08-13T16:28:21Z")
So the story goes a philosophy teacher posts on his final exam only the following question: Prove the chair on my table doesn´t exist. Though everyone wrote up pages of proofs, ones studen got it right. His answer: What chair? Jokes aside, can anyone think of a way to prove that the universe has NOT ended? All I could get is: I am. I must be somewhere. Somwhere has to exist in order for me to be there. This somewhere constitutes the univers. I know, lame, can anyone find something better? ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/2 "2002-08-13T16:38:45Z")
You are not. I am. ---
**Author:** ![David\_God\_of\_Frogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@David\_God\_of\_Frogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_God_of_Frogs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/3 "2002-08-13T16:42:04Z")
what makes you think the universe hasn’t, in fact, ended? ---
**Author:** ![Sephic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Sephic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sephic)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/4 "2002-08-13T16:44:08Z")
The fact that he/she is posting on a message board? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/5 "2002-08-13T17:00:57Z")
But I might be imagining that you are posting on a message board. Only the mass delusion we call reality actually tells me so. I mght be insane. I know that I exist. Nothing else can be absolutely proven to me. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/6 "2002-08-13T17:06:21Z")
What difference does it make? The universe _seems_ real, and that’s all that really counts. All that’s left for us (or just me, if it is just me) is to play the game by the rules, and hope for the best. ---
**Author:** ![Nitro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@Nitro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nitro)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/7 "2002-08-13T17:09:51Z")
and so I say…“Welcome to the Matrix.” ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/8 "2002-08-13T17:12:23Z")
For almost every sort of discussion one has, you can underline with the statement “If the universe exists…” and then we go from there. Proving it is sort of beside the point in most discussions (indeed, pretty much every discussion OTHER than this one), because everyone already agrees to hold the premise that it exists as true. Proving it true? I have no idea. But the opposite premise: that it doesn’t exist, seems incoherent and self-defeating. ---
**Author:** ![coax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@coax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coax)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/9 "2002-08-13T17:13:24Z")
we are all figments of eachothers imagination. the universe doesn’t exist. it did. but now it’s just memories floating in nothingness. we are nothing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/10 "2002-08-13T17:41:07Z")
Well if it’s just memories then on some level it exists. I still stick to my original statement. You are not. I am. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/11 "2002-08-13T17:44:36Z")
Isn’t this pretty much a duplicate of Eris’s Wittgenstein thread? ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/12 "2002-08-13T17:50:16Z")
Does Eris Wittgenstein exist?? ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/13 "2002-08-13T17:54:30Z")
Oh it ended alright, blew up from the center out. Luckily it was so far away we won’t know for years. Then again maybe not… Does it matter? If this is some fake reality I’ll accept it as real… after all its not that bad a universe. It makes pretty sahpes in the sky when you connect them twinkley dots… ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/14 "2002-08-13T17:57:08Z")
it really says shapes you only think I made spelling errors. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/15 "2002-08-13T18:01:57Z")
How is a fake reality possible? ---
**Author:** ![tulley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@tulley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tulley)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/16 "2002-08-13T18:13:54Z")
[Man who rules the universe] I have my universe of my eyes and my ears. Everything else is hearsay. [/Man who rules the universe] ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/17 "2002-08-13T18:23:34Z")
[the tick]Well, it’s still here, isn’t it?[/the tick] ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/18 "2002-08-13T18:31:33Z")
You can’t blow up the universe: that’s where I keep all my stuff! (altered Tick, again) ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/19 "2002-08-13T18:36:56Z")
Tulley-Not to nitpick but shouldn’t you have included the brain inbetween! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710/20 "2002-08-13T18:39:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kingpengvin \* > **Oh it ended alright, blew up from the center out. Luckily it was so far away we won’t know for years.** The universe has no center… not in the same way that you or I have a navel. If you must define a center, it will have to be for the observable universe and then the center is right where you are standing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prove-the-universe-hasn-t-ended/123710.md?page=2)