the size of the universe

Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Mon, 3 Nov 1997 18:22:07 -0800 (PST)

: Tony also wrote:
: >Logical positivism said: "You cannot disuss a universe you cannot
: >observe. Thus, the univere is _defined_ as that which you can see
: >-- i.e. a titchy one, around 5 000 light-years across."

Nick Bostrom writes
: I have never heard or read any logical positivist claiming this.
: And I can't guess where the figure 5000 lyrs comes from: if we
: can be said to see stars that are 5000 lyrs away, we can surely
: be said so see galaxies that are many millions of lyrs away also.

Until surprisingly recently, the universe was believed to be
only about so big. That changed when somebody resolved stars
in some of the bigger spiral "nebulae".

Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com