Hi Gary,
Thanks for your response on my post. You said, "I think the universe is finite. I cannot say anything about whether or not it is discrete. I'm not even sure how the word "discrete" would be applied to the universe. Is the universe a discrete solution to a massive system of wave equations? Some people argue that the wave equation for a Bose-Einstein condensate at 2.7 K describes the universe."
Here are my thoughts:
I'm not sure if you could actually have a continuous universe that was finite. I assume you are imaging a continuous universe that is bounded by something, say the observable universe or something like that. Here's a math analogy that might illustrate my point: You might say that the interval of real numbers between 0 and 1 is continuous and finite, but I would say that you have the infinite in the form of the infinitesimal because you implicitly believe in infinite precision non-computable real numbers when you believe in the continuum. Infinite precision non-computable real numbers are what make up the continuum in a mathematical sense. Computable reals which include numbers like pi and e (as well as fractions) have a measure 0.
A discrete universe would rule out a continuous wave, just like a computer couldn't actually contain the infinite amount of information needed to represent every point on a curve, although a computer could contain a finite algorithm (e.g. a wave equation) to generate the wave to any desired level of accuracy... It just can't contain the non-compuable, which is what makes the continuum the continuum.
I'm interest to hear your thoughts on this perspective. If you could post a notice in my forum when you respond so I know when to check back that would be helpful.
Jon