REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (07/22/83)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> Don't be so sure we can't expand exponentially. In fixed coordinates indeed we can expand at most cubically at speed of light, that is VOLUME = (TIME-Starttime)^3*Constant. But the apparent expansion in the local coordinate systems of the travelers could possibly make it seem like exponential expansion, that is there mmay be no limits to growth until the whole Universe is filled. Remember the calculation that at constant one-gee the whole Universe can be circumnaigated in a few hundred years ship-time (assuming 18-billion-light-year diameter; with factor of 10^80 thrown in due to inflationary Universe it may take a little longer, perhaps close to a thousand years). (Perhaps HPM can give us more accurate figures for normal and inflationary Universe?)