total perspective vortex

Yes, it’s nice to make contact – to approximate the business of reaching out to infinity by having so many people on board, so many people following your pronouncements that you can be sure that the universe has heard.

 

I’d say.

 

But no.

No?

 

No.

 

Er…

 

Not always.

 

No?

 

No, not in my case.

 

Er… why not?

 

Because from a 3D, human perspective infinity is reached in one of two ways – or approximated conceptually in two ways, you might say.

 

Yes?

 

Mostly people assume, without giving it much thought, that the number, for example, has to be vast if it’s referred to as "infinite".

 

Yes. That makes sense.

 

So, whatever infinity is or might be – we nearly always assume it to be immeasurable in size – i.e. bigger than anything we can possibly imagine.

 

Makes sense.

 

But there’s the other side, isn’t there.

There is?

 

Yes, absolutely, the other end of the infinity spectrum.

 

You mean the infinitely small?

 

Yes.

 

As in your readership?

 

Well, yes, for example – though a few thousand years from now the opposite is true.

 

You really are desperate Merry, to cushion your ego, aren’t you?

 

Absolutely not. My ego, of course, likes the idea of popularity and public acclaim, but ego matters very, very little where the quantum field is concerned.

 

If you say so.

 

It’s in the nature of the material we’ve been discussing…

 

Yes? Go on then.

 

Well, we couldn’t really do it if we didn’t have a huge, dispersed audience… if we hadn't achieved infinity somewhere, in order get the mandate, the contract...

 

?

 

But as the audience today is largely unable to countenance such matters, focussing instead on thinkable things, and almost always making the erroneous assumption that infinity has to be bloody big...

 

Tsk tsk!

 

Ok, thought police – how about bloomin’ big?

 

It will pass.

 

Whereas, it’s in fact a reference to the quantum state of uncertainty in which outcome is either unknown or unknowable - Schrödinger's cat eat your heart out - and can be just as easily the homeopathic side of infinity, where something is so watered down it's no longer there except an infinitesimal trace, or a memory perhaps.

 

But then why do people always assume infinity's a synonym for immeasurably big?

 

Good question. Presumably because we can generally measure stuff if it’s small enough to be countable, but not if it’s too big to be. And zero is generally assumed to be something, a definitive not, is it not, in the current paradigm. Confirmation bias, if you ask me. But conversely, when you’re dealing with statistics the opposite is true, a very small, countable sample can become infinite, or near enough not to matter.

 

Really? How so?

 

If you have a huge number of measurements – like a trillion coin flips or raindrops falling or anything you like – you come closer and closer to achieving the perfect statistical average – don’t you – which is 50% heads and 50% tails, for example.

 

Whereas if you flip a coin once…

Or possibly even not at all – then there’s no knowing what you’ll get, or whether you’ll even be able to calculate an average.

 

Seems a rather facile argument, if you ask me.

 

Yes. I agree. It seems very unconvincing, which is why it’s generally overlooked – but then we’re always looking at infinity, like life itself, from one perspective – which just happens to be massively ego- or humancentric.

 

And you think we can avoid that?

 

No, I don’t.

 

Then what on earth are you complaining about?

 

I’m not. But as we shift more fully into the quantum age and our consciousness continues to adjust to the realities of uncertainty dynamics – the true nature of infinity – we begin, or will begin at some point – to allow consciousness out of the bag, or perhaps I should say “off the leash”.

 

And what?

 

Consciousness is, like the cat, somewhat curious.

 

It is?

 

Not in a needy or greedy way – but yes – it likes to expand – it likes to take in more than a strictly 3D diet of things-in-hand permits.

 

So what exactly can it do, when off the leash, as you put it?

 

It can take in a wider perspective of so-called “time”, for instance – feeling or sensing what we might vaguely and somewhat inaccurately refer to as “the future”, peeking over the fence into the next garden.

 

You mean we can see into the future?

 

No, not exactly – but the future is only a meaningful concept in a finite space-time reality as long as we're unaware of the uncertainties inherent to any inertial or space-time frame. As soon as you realise that all roads lead to Rome – that every “time” and “place” is somehow connected at the nexus, the hotspot that is either me – or somehow connected to the vortex I seem to be part of – then yes, in a manner of speaking – the future does become accessible, we might choose to dive down and swim into an adjoining cave.

 

Wow. That would be truly amazing, if it were true.

 

But more than that…

 

What?

 

We can project or reach far beyond. It’s like being able to detach from one spot and skim across the surface upstream or downstream – I would be able to impact or affect what we refer to somewhat vaguely, or ambiguously, or misleadingly as the future.

 

You mean we will be able to affect the future?

 

Yes – in the same way you can if you’re all heading one way and someone throws or fires a projectile into the future, so to speak, i.e. ahead of your position – knowing you’ll arrive there in a minute or two.

 

So… but that’s not really affecting “the future” is it?

 

How not? If I fire a capsule of superglue up the track and we are all marching that way – not only do I know we’re all about to get stuck, but I also know how I might be able to avoid it, and I might know exactly where it will be.

 

Ok – but that’s not exactly “the future” is it? It’s just really ahead.

 

True – but once you start engaging the quantum field, working with “infinity” you’re no longer bound to stay on your square – no longer to be locked to a specific space-time configuration or space-time peg. You can pull it up and hop through the fabric of consciousness into another configuration – another peg – which will look and act like you’ve moved through time or space miraculously – won’t it – unless your viewers are able to detach their peg and skip through the fabric of consciousness without passing out – without slipping back to the old default central point where you hitherto spent your whole existence.

 

Er… all this is fascinating Merry – but frankly – it’s all talk and as you know – I’m a sceptical thinker.

 

Yes, whatever.

 

And frankly – I think infinity is much better off being left to the expanding circle side of immeasurability, rather than the Mandelbrot zoom – ever further, ever deeper shrinking into a fictional zero point.

 

Ah ha – so you realised that the zero point is a fiction, no less fictional than 1 – the numeric representation of completeness, of wholeness, of all that is?

 

Well yes – I did – but it isn’t exactly contentious, is it, or particularly difficult to grasp, for that matter.

 

Most people assume zero is a given – the absence of something and therefore finite – but the absence of something can never be finite, can it – not when you start to investigate more closely.

 

Oh dear. Here we go again.

 

Look – I don’t wish to pursue that line of inquiry any further.

 

What a relief.

 

Instead, I simply wish you to consider the case of balance.

 

Balance?

 

The balance between the infinite within – ever “smaller”, spiralling down deeper and deeper – into the atom and beyond, or else the no-time –  the insufficient time to make measurements or calculations – to allow statistical certainties to arise, on the one hand…

 

And?

 

And the infinite that we see all around us in our 3D reality – the infinity of billions of people living their lives, all apparently independently of one another, in a universe that is said to be almost infinitely large and still, apparently, expanding, and so on, and so on…

 

You want me to think about all this? Seems a tall order, if you ask me.

 

No. Thinking? What could that possibly achieve.

 

Precisely. End of story.

 

I want you to breathe it.

 

Breathe it?

 

Yep. I’ve set up the livestream, so to speak. You’re going to find it not impossibly difficult to now connect with a conscious state – a conscious awareness in which infinity is the prime condition of your own existence, your own being – in which – dare I say it – you are sandwiched or suspended between a rock and a hard place – between the fire and ice of utter chaos and utter entropy.

 

*****! You basically want me to experience the total perspective vortex.

 

More or less. A little information for our audience would be helpful Zie.

 

Ok – let me see what I can find… Click-click-click. Ah, here we are:

The Total Perspective Vortex was a machine built with the intention of showing beings the infinity of creation, which became used as a method of torture. It first appeared in the Secondary Phase of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, when Zaphod Beeblebrox was subjected to the vortex and became the first person to survive it. The Vortex is a device that was built as a practical application of the theory of atomic interactivity. The idea is that, if every atom of the universe is affected by every other atom of the universe, then it is theoretically possible to extrapolate a model of the entire universe using any single piece of matter as a starting point. The Vortex does this employing a piece of fairy cake as its base of extrapolation. [source: the Hitchhiker’s guide to the universe wiki]

 

Excellent – what a wonderful invention.

 

Except that it killed everyone by overloading the circuitry of minds that are not designed to handle contemplating infinity.

 

Naturally – except for…

 

Zaphod Beeblebrox – presumably because he was infinitely irrational.

 

Perhaps – or a mathematical certainty – sooner or later there’s always going to be one, isn’t there – who bucks the trend – who all-the-world’s-a-stage detaches from the matter in hand – the business of being thingfully – and allows things to float unconditionally, without the least concern –

 

Well I’m hardly Zaphod Beeblebrox, am I? Getting me to contemplate infinity from both ends, whether using a piece of fairy cake as the trigger, or getting my mind to swim upstream-downstream at the same time – is a no-brainer – isn’t it? Something’s gonna snap.

 

Yes. I think you’re right.

 

And you’re happy about that?

 

Well, I try to stay detached.

 

Indeed? So, if you’re so sure you have millions of people reading this in the “future”.

 

Millions?

 

Ok, billions. Happy now?

 

Billions?

 

Jeez…

 

Tsk tsk!

 

For crying out loud Merry – who cares? Trillions, quadrillions – they’re just numbers aren’t they? Endless iterations, endless variations of the zero one theme – in which your zero or your one is a slightly paler shade of white…

 

Funny the way that song keeps coming back to the blog every year or so.

 

What blog?

 

Oh, nothing. Yes. Sorry. You’re absolutely right. Numbers are just numbers. They are meaningless, aren’t they, and yet tuning into the infinite where our ideas and story culminate in a complete shift in the awareness of this world – tuning into that moment which originates here in this discussion between the two of us – that’s a powerful mind-matter bridge. That’s what’s going to sustain you when you take the plunge and experience our Total Perspective Vortex.

 

You mean I’m going to be cushioned, or protected in some way by the minds of all those imaginary people in the future who for some bizarre reason swallowed your pseudo-science hook-line-and-sinker?

 

Yes. I guess that’s what I mean – if you want to put it that way. Of course, where infinity is concerned, every possible eventuality, every conceivable outcome somewhere becomes a given, an absolute certainty – doesn’t it – if infinity is to be credited with the full faith and trust in its unlimitedness.

 

I suppose so, theoretically at least – but not sure I want to put my life in the hands of such an unproven hypothesis.

 

You don’t really have much choice Zie – at the end of the day – do you?

 

I don’t?

 

No. Not really.

 

How do you mean?

 

Well – the Total Perspective Vortex was the one certainty in all this, right from the start.

 

Right from the start of this conversation today?

 

Nope.

 

Right from the start of our friendship?

 

Yes, but then again no.

 

Right from the start of everything – the universe and all?

 

Yes – honestly Zie – stop trying to pin things down. Just trust the rhetoric. Trust the sales pitch. Trust the marketing logo. The…

 

He’s insane. He’s as bad as Zaphod Beeblebrox. Come to think of it – Merry – are you somehow related to him?

 

Do I have two heads?

Not exactly, no – but sometimes I wonder.

 

It’s a lot simpler than all that Zie.

 

What is?

 

The hypothesis has to be tested – constantly – otherwise we don’t know anything.

 

What bloody hypothesis?

 

Tsk tsk…

 

Ok, you're sorely trying my patience Merrimus Infantilissimus.

 

Yes – infinity always takes us to the point of personal aggravation and then beyond – to a factor of 798 billion – or thereabouts.

 

So why do it? Why not just give your blasted infinity a blessed break – let it go catch some fish or collect mushrooms – really whatever it likes…

 

I do, all the time – but infinity has this astonishing knack of being able to do everything and anything in almost no time at all – so we’re back where we started – testing the hypothesis of whether you, I, or any of this is ultimately real.

 

And the only way to do that is to lock me into the Total Perspective Vortex – risking my life, my mind, my sanity?

 

Well yes – I guess so – otherwise – how are we going to prove my audience numbers are actually real?

 

You mean…

 

No, I…

 

You mean to say this is all just to check your viewer stats?

 

No, of course not – but that’s an added bonus – I have to admit.

 

My life – my precious existence – just to satisfy the idlest urgings of your incontinent ego – that you’re actually someone important – and not just a pathetic loser.

 

Ouch. I was hoping you weren’t going to have to point things out quite so brutally Zie – but of course, in a manner of speaking you're completely right – but only if we focus on the inflationary side of infinity.

 

Oh for God’s sake – not again!!!

 

Tsk Tsk… please, leave God out of this. He’s doing the best he can.

 

Ok, ok. I get you.

 

But if we give infinity its due – allowing that it’s a zero affair just as much as it’s a one, or paler shade of one with many, many digits attached affair – then no – my egoism is merely a distraction, and Zaphod Beeblebrox was in fact a saint.

 

Ok, ok.

 

You get it?

 

No. I realise you’re going to have your way – and that it’s probably better to face the vastness of infinity and die an excruciating death than to listen to any more of this self-serving, hypocritical, logically offensive mindless distr…

 

I’m just going to change the settings – I don’t seem to be getting the result I require.

 

Huh? What settings? Hey – you can’t do that! I’m not a bloody machine you know. You can’t just play around with my mind.

I agree. You’re not just a machine – so there’s no way I can or could play around with your mind – but – here goes for nothing. CRACK.

 

Ah. That’s better! Funny the way I start splitting blood every time you take me to the edge of infinity Merry, isn’t it.

 

Yes, Zie. I was hoping, of course, I could persuade you to stroll across of your own volition.

 

Fat chance of that. It’s not exactly the most attractive proposition to the 3D mind.

 

True.

 

If only I had some awareness of the other side – what you’ve been referring to as our audience, who are evidently participating in this process, albeit silently.

 

Ah – that’s it. Good thinking Zie. Let me put you back in your angry state… GZUM.

 

And I think it behoves you Merry – to allow me to choose what goes in and comes out of my mind.

 

Precisely Zie – which is why I’ve decided to present you with the ability to choose to download this app – if you want to.

 

Huh?

 

Which will enable you to… [Merry seems to be very small – shouting across a raging torrent at Zie]

 

Can’t hear you Merry.

[Merry pops back again] ...which, this app – it’ll enable you to… [same again – very small – raging torrent – but Zie, as he tries to make out what Merry is saying – leans forward and catches a glimpse, something – others there with Merry – like a huge stadium – supporters…

 

[Merry’s back] It’s no good Zie – I can’t say it – quantum interference again – not allowed to collapse the sublime state of absolute uncertainty.

 

Did I…

 

[Nonchalantly] Huh?

 

Was I imagining something Merry?

 

Imagining what Zie?

 

Were there other people with you on the other side of the torrent – where you seemed so small.

 

Oh. Did you notice?

 

I… [the thought – the recollection – the mental connection is enough. A single strand – a single tentacle, if you like, hooks Zie’s consciousness and he’s aware of a huge, vast assembly of, for want of a better word, consciousness. Suddenly he can hear them loud and clear – Zie – we’re here – you can do it – you can do it – and Zie to his intense embarrassment – starts dancing – showing off like a little boy – so pleased with himself – so delighted that this huge crowd are evidently so delighted to see him on this side of the river – where things are approximating down to zero – where the future is already in full swing – doing whatever the future does best – gently trying to guide the benighted past into a golden age of love and understanding – if only those barbaric Neanderthals that we appear to be would heed those future followers on t’other side of stream.]

 

What a shameless show off you are Zie! – Merry splashes a bucket of water on Zie bringing him back to his senses. /On the one hand Zie is aware that he made an ass of himself – behaving the way he did. On the other – who cares – he’s ecstatic – he just traversed the quantum stream autonomously – without being pushed. The dumbest dance was the most direct way to fix his awareness on t’other side.

 

I’m er… beginning to think that Zaphod Beeblorox wasn’t such an idiot after all.

 

Yes Zie – I can see. I think you’re just about ready for the Total Perspective Vortex – but not today – not now. I need to…

 

Suddenly a kind of booming sound as the vastly, inconceivably huge data stream of a universe compressed into one word, presents an alternative that has Zie quaking in his boots – and me too – quite frankly – but I’m not going to say another word more until you complete your personal liability form, signing it at the bottom, yes, that's right – have to cover myself legally before proceeding any further.

 

)=1

 

uf

 

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