A comforting cosmic thought.

I've been thinking about n-dimensional space (again!) -- and realised something, although it may be obvious to some.

The universe might not be expanding infinitely.

I've always had a problem with the idea of the universe expanding infinitely. First of all, there are no local examples of infinity in nature. Second, I don't like the idea of everything winding up as bits of cosmic dust.

So it occurred to me that the universe might simply be rotating on the surface of an n-dimensional sphere.

We know it's not a 3D-sphere because we'd detect it, but in the same way that someone sitting on Pangea -- thinking the Earth is flat -- would think that the continental drift meant that the land was expanding in infinite sea (this would be a very old person). So might we perceive the universe expanding into infinite space when, really we can't see over the n-dimensional horizon.

I find that a comforting thought.