Does the universe have an end? And what exactly is an "end"? I thought about it philosophically.

*This article uses affiliate advertising.

>

"Do you think the universe has an end?"

Actually, this is a question that was once asked in a middle school entrance interview.

Of course, they don't expect a correct answer from a sixth-grade elementary student.

In fact, I don't think the teacher who asked it fully understands it either.

It is simply a question to test interest, creativity, and understanding regarding science and the natural world.

So, what would be the correct way to answer?

"Since the universe is expanding at a speed faster than light, I think that even if the universe had an end, we wouldn't be able to observe it or reach it."

Something like that, perhaps?

By the way, the range of the observable universe is called the "cosmic horizon."

That's a phrase that really stirs the imagination.

We don't know what lies beyond the horizon.

Perhaps the same land stretches out beyond it, or...

perhaps it is actually a deep valley floor.

We can imagine all sorts of things, but there is no way to actually go and verify them.

Once upon a time, people thought there was a giant waterfall beyond the horizon...

No, someone started saying the Earth was round, built a ship, and set out on a journey to verify it...

That was the dawn of the Age of Discovery.

Today, it is common knowledge that the Earth is round, but in the past, there must have been many who doubted it.

After all, you can't actually see it.

Even if people say "mathematically..." or "theoretically...", I can't intuitively accept that the ground is round.

And so, I set out on a journey.

I wouldn't know if the world outside of Japan is really as I'd heard unless I went there myself.

Facts I have never actually seen or touched, and stories of fantasy.

Perhaps there isn't much of a difference between the two...

And so, the world outside of Japan that I traveled to certainly had various countries and various worlds...

But no matter how many different countries I travel to, of course I can't see them all...

Perhaps on the other side of that street, in that town, in that country that I feel I've come to know through my travels,

a completely different space might have been spreading out.

Thinking about it that way, it makes me doubt if I even really know my own neighborhood, let alone what's outside of Japan.

In fact, the range that a single person can actually see, hear, touch, and observe as definitely existing might be truly minuscule.

In the end, the range within my reach is the entirety of my world.

It's just like the monkey who thought he had flown to the ends of the heavens, but couldn't even escape the palm of the Buddha's hand.

Will humanity, having one day flown to the ends of the universe, be stunned to see that an even further world spreads out beyond what they thought was the end?

Or will they be crushed by despair, realizing that just as the round Earth had no end, they ultimately cannot escape this closed world?

In any case, I feel like there is no place that can clearly be called the end.

This is the end of the universe.

The place you decide is the end becomes the end of the universe at that moment.

Just as the monkey who rode a cloud and flew through the sky long ago decided.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

It feels as if I can hear such a voice from somewhere.