The ultimate topology of space is a posteriori – something that in principle must be observed – as there are no constraints that can simply be reasoned out (in other words there cannot be any a priori constraints) on how the space in which we live is connected or whether it wraps around on itself as a compact space. Though certain cosmological models such as Gödel's universe even permit bizarre worldlines that intersect with themselves, ultimately the question as to whether we are in something like a " Pac-Man universe", where if traveling far enough in one direction would allow one to simply end up back in the same place like going all the way around the surface of a balloon (or a planet like the Earth), is an observational question that is constrained as measurable or non-measurable by the universe's global geometry. At present, observations are consistent with the universe having infinite extent and being a simply connected space, though cosmological horizons limit our ability to distinguish between simple and more complicated proposals. The universe could be infinite in extent or it could be finite; but the evidence that leads to the inflationary model of the early universe also implies that the "total universe" is much larger than the observable universe. Thus any edges or exotic geometries or topologies would not be directly observable, since light has not reached scales on which such aspects of the universe, if they exist, are still allowed. For all intents and purposes, it is safe to assume that the universe is infinite in spatial extent, without edge or strange connectedness.