: )
When confronted with the fact that newer observations of the Universe didn't fit their 'theories' (Odd how neither one of them ever claimed, like you have, that they had PROOF), they made up new 'theories' and invented hypothetical (and still unproven) states of matter and energy to help support their 'paradigm' (model of inflation).
This is where the concepts of Dark Matter and Dark Energy came from. Superglue to try and put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Maybe you should read up on Steinhardt and Turok, as their 'theory' fits the latest observations of the Universe much better. It was 'announced' recently that our 'theories' on the amount of matter in the known Universe have changed . This was due to the continual advancement of detection technologies. Funny how as our ability to 'see' farther increases, our estimation of the 'size' of the Universe does too. At one time, in our history, scientific consensus was that the Milky Way Galaxy was the entire extent of the Universe. But we 'know better' now.
If our 'estimations' on the 'density' of the Universe are 'off' (and that has been proven, time and time again) then we just change our theories. We have not gotten to the point where we can be totally assured that our measurements are exactly correct, ergo we may yet again find we are 'wrong'. The only plausible 'conclusion' then, is that at this time, no one has been able to PROVE whether the Universe is finite or infinite, as our 'data' is incomplete, and often erroneous.
Gee, wasn't it just recently that we found out that protons were a little smaller than we 'thought' they were? Not that being off by 0.00000000000003 millimetres is really a big deal.
"The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. "It's a very serious discrepancy," says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements. "There is really something seriously wrong someplace."
The Proton shrinks in size (it just took a cold shower)
Back to the principals who were the basis (and a good one) of your education. Neither Guth nor Garnow were ever able to prove the Universe was finite, and much of their theories actually include the presumption that the Universe is infinite or exists within an unexplained and undefinable form (either of matter and energy or perhaps negative-matter and negative-energy, or perhaps non-matter and non-energy), that is infinite.
Even Alan admitted that he likes to keen an OPEN MIND on the subject.
"While I cannot see any viable alternative to the general idea of inflation, there is still much work to be done before a detailed picture is established. And I suspect that there is room for many new important ideas."
-Alan H. Guth
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Samtheman: "More power to you, literally and figuratively."
Awesome comeback.
