Why is the Universe so big?

“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space. ”

—Douglas Adams

Nature’s way of keeping humans from fucking it all up.

It’s big because it’s old, and its expanding at an accelerated rate.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=44DlSj6bnn4

@Rarebear that was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the question as well followed by this :P

It’s big because that’s the size necessary for the scientists to see it as a particle in the large hadron collider. Yep, when we finally get to the edge of space, we’ll find a cross-eyed earth scientist looking in on us.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

It’s expanding.

Hey is that a universe in your pocket… or are you just glad to see me?

It’s like how the fuck did Arnie win all those Mr. Universe titles back in the seventies…just ruled out any muscle bound alien freaks didn’t they?

Compared to what?

I’m old and expanding at an accelerated rate, too.

Well, Bookish…compared to anything else!

The universe is not empty neither contain a collection of cold random useless things.
To think so would be a misrepresentation of the Universe.

It cannot be represented in size nor age, nor any measurements whatsoever….
Because to do so would be an expression of its limitation
To say it is expanding would mean the same,
for it is then natural to assume that that which encloses it is greater than the universe.

The Universe is a singular collective of all things seamlessly united….

Thus it reigns supreme without any limitations whatsoever.

The Universe is big and just about everything in it is entirely useless. It is expanding, but not into anything else because there isn’t anything else. But why so much of it? It seems beyond all reason.

But…it’s not as big as the stuff it’s expanding into.

There is no “reasoning” behind it @flutherother. It’s not like an engineer said, “Let’s do this because we have an unlimited budget.”

It isn’t expanding in to anything, it is just getting bigger of itself. It doesn’t have a frontier or an edge. If there is no reasoning behind it why does it work so well? Why is there so much of it and not just enough, just the Earth and a few stars in the sky. Why a billion galaxies which are probably all empty anyway.

“The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”
—Carl Sagan (in Contact)

How can it not be expanding in to anything?
Because there was no rhyme or reason to it @flutherother. There is no purpose. It just is.

To infinity & beyo…owwww!! Which clever twat put a roof on space then, eh?

Space isn’t big. You’re just very small.

“It seems beyond all reason”

That’s what my dog thinks when I pick up his poo. He literally doesn’t have the ability to understand, even if I spoke perfectly good K9.

I don’t suppose that I’d be able to understand why the universe is so big either. Unless Frank Zappa wrote a song about it.

Something to challenge a civilization to grow… A guarantee of new content always.

Because we are mind boggingly small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
It really is all a dream.

Size is relative. Big compared to what?

Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), from Annie Hall

Doctor in Brooklyn: Why are you depressed, Alvy?

Alvy’s Mom: Tell Dr. Flicker.

[Young Alvy sits, his head down – his mother answers for him]

Alvy’s Mom: It’s something he read.

Doctor in Brooklyn: Something he read, huh?

Alvy at 9: [his head still down] The universe is expanding.

Doctor in Brooklyn: The universe is expanding?

Alvy at 9: Well, the universe is everything, and if it’s expanding, someday it will break apart and that would be the end of everything!

Alvy’s Mom: What is that your business?

[she turns back to the doctor]

Alvy’s Mom: He stopped doing his homework!

Alvy at 9: What’s the point?

Alvy’s Mom: What has the universe got to do with it? You’re here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not expanding!

Doctor in Brooklyn: It won’t be expanding for billions of years yet, Alvy. And we’ve gotta try to enjoy ourselves while we’re here!

http://www.astronomycast.com/2007/03/episode-28-what-is-the-universe-expanding-into/

There’s nothing to it.

See, all the nothing outside of the Universe is far, far bigger than the Universe inside all that nothingness. And if you’ve ever expected to get something but gotten nothing, you know nothing really sucks. The Universe keeps expanding trying to find something, but all it gets is nothing, and that sucks, so it pulls the Universe further into the nothing it can never fill up.

The Universe is trying to fill the nothing, but it’s nothing compared to the infinity of nothing it sits in, so it just keeps getting sucked further into nothing. And believe me, Alvy shouldn’t worry, @Pachyderm_In_The_Room, Nothing will come of it the expansion.

@ETpro Something like this then?

If it were any smaller then there wouldn’t be enough room for All The Things.

@uberbatman Nah. Preston’s stuck on the idea that something is bigger than nothing. He’s got it bass-ackwards.

Terrence McKenna says we aren’t moving away from a singularity.

He thinks we’re being pulled towards a singularity.

@flutherother “The Universe is big and just about everything in it is entirely useless.”

To a spider, a Wallmart is useless.

It’s all perspective my friend. This thread is within the universe. I don’t believe it, or others pondering upon it, is entirely useless. I believe it is productive, creative, and liberating.

To a spider the asteroids and the comets whizzing around the sun are useless but these things have no use from any perspective. They are just dead lumps of arbitrary matter drifting through eternity. Most of the universe is like this. Millions and billions and gazillions of miles of utter uselessness as far, or further, than the eye can see.

@flutherother “They are just dead lumps of arbitrary matter drifting through eternity”

My home was made with dead lumps of arbitrary matter. I have no problem with unlimited resources (from our perspective). It’s not as though someone could claim that untapped space is a waste, as if it could have been better utilized for some other purpose. Rather than wondering why the universe is not smaller, I’m more surprised that the universe is not absolutely infinite.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies That’s true but the Earth is the exception. It’s as if a landscape gardener brought in a trillion tons of rock and then created just one small garden in the corner of it all. It just seems unreasonable and a waste. And it might be even worse because the Universe may be infinite. If God created it you have to doubt his sanity.

I question anyone’s sanity who doubts God’s sanity… especially since we’re here in a successfully working universe that allows us to doubt God’s sanity.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I love your tautologies.

Because it isn’t obese enough.

Mebe we should get internet service for the universe.