Originally Posted By: Orac

Incorrect turn it to a simple physical test.

Make a hole in a bucket allow water to flow out faster than you are filling it ergo you can never fill the bucket ... QED

Your brain memory works like that in this mode ... in the bucket you can have mini containers which remember things you choose (our permanent memory).

Thats the key point we haven't stated you have to remember permanetly said thought ... see context.


BS has already pointed out the difference. The context you refer is 'the process of thought', I think. In that case, theoretically it is infinite. But as a physical entity, you cannot exist for an infinite time; so there is a finite end to your thoughts (physically). Here is, what I think, the difference between a mathematical and physical infinity, a case put forth by BS. The 'thought process' and 'the filling of the bucket having holes' are mathematical concepts, like the number system, and so are infinite.

Originally Posted By: Orac
Give me context and I can give you what I would call a reasonable answer. Sure I can't be absolutely certain but I can give you an answer consistant with observations and really thats all that matters. Anything beyond that is philosophical or religious not scientific.


I agree that it will be possible for you to give reasonable answers for nearly all. But regarding the rest, there is ambiguity. For example, consider the questions: Can the curvature of space-time become infinite? Can the universe remain infinitely hot? Will the process of expansion continue for an infinite period? If the field can create particle pairs from nowhere, will the energy of the universe be infinite? Is the universe itself is infinite in space? These remain unanswered, and there are differences in opinion among the physicists. It is this situation that I referred to as 'ambiguity'. The metaphysical or philosophical part (why and from where all these came)comes only after that; the physical part of it (the part that should be explained by science) is not 'fully explained'.