dark matter being death's dominion

No, it was never my intention.

 

Personally, I find that hard to believe.

 

Not my problem, Mac.

 

              Feeling the tension – the irreconcilable positions. It’s time for another level. How would Jesus respond, Buddha or a shaman, if you like, who is able to see the energy rather than focussing exclusively on the words – not so much the words, in fact, as the jaggedy lines – the puzzle pieces – the creation code that the words themselves allude to or invoke.

 

              It’s the ability to detach and pivot or swivel freely. As long as you’re tied to a certain position – a certain “me” in space and time – until you’re able to disengage and allow things to shift into a better, more appropriate position – then you’re going to either freak out or feel the need to remove yourself physically from the angst. Unless you have the patience of a selfless monk who no longer feels the need to defend his atrophied ego – which is definitely an option – is it not – if you’re willing to practice ego disentanglement. Doesn’t necessarily mean fighting or denying the ego per se – might be more a matter of…

 

Did you hear that Brad?

 

Hear what?

 

Oh, something in the background – a kind of murmuring – like a thinking out loud.

 

No I did not. I think you can safely ignore any quiet murmurings.

 

Ok. But the good news is that I now feel…

 

What?

 

Well, frankly speaking I was a bit miffed by what you were saying.

 

Yes, I felt it.

 

It’s like each of us is attached to some thing. A position, which…

 

Yes – I know exactly what you’re saying – I feel it too.

 

So – what exactly is it – this thing we’ve been unwittingly serving with our language and feelings and egoic attachment?

 

Good question Bob.

 

Bob?

 

Let’s just pretend that we’re neither you nor me, for the time being, ok?

 

Er… ok – that might work. It might give us a little space to be less thing-bound.

 

Yes, it might. But how are we to de-thing if we’re all too human? If we’re not able to be the self-less man of God…

 

Not sure. But the murmurings back then seemed to help enormously.

 

Yes. We were about to start another lengthy argument.

 

So if those murmurings were from the other side of things…

 

The other side of things? Not sure that’s the best terminology.

 

You’re probably right. The other side of things locks us straight back in the order of things which seems to be the adjunct to the me – the me that sees itself as a thing in a world of things – as opposed to an I…

 

An I?

 

Good point Travis. Let’s decapitalise. As opposed to i – whoever or whatever that is.

 

We’re getting closer, aren’t we?

 

I believe we are Den. So, if those murmurings were not, in fact, from the “other side of things” as we now sense – perhaps they are from the isness which is closer to pure consciousness.

 

For shame. “Pure consciousness” is as much a thing as ever you’re going to encounter, Ted.

 

Yes. I believe you’re right, Pete. Never trust a word with more than one syllable.

 

Ok – supposing every thing we’re saying now – every word, every thought or image accompanying that thought…

 

Thought form

 

Precisely – supposing every thought form and word describing it cannot be uttered in neutrality…

 

Oh yes – indeed. Now you’ve put the cat among the pigeons – Socrates.

 

Now you’ve put the cat among the pigeons – Alfie Bow.

 

Now you’ve…

 

Because – if that’s the case – as almost certainly it is – then you know that this communicational process is doomed to utter failure. We’ll never avoid causing things to regroup and undermine the very foundations of everything we sought to accomplish with words.

 

Ironic to the point of bleeding tears and – no – no – I want to believe it can’t be so.

 

Unless we’re able to stalk them.

 

Who?

 

Whom, not who.

 

Ok. Stalk whom?

 

Them. The entities or energies that are working to prevent us from achieving our objectives.

 

Our objectives? You think we actually have objectives?

 

Apparently so.

 

And what, pray tell, are they?

 

To balance things. To net zero both sides of the ledger.

 

Oh – do you think that’s it?

 

Seems to be.

 

And it’s impossible?

 

Absolutely. Yet we’re evidently programmed to overlook that minor fact, and carry on regardless.

 

Until/unless we sense, feel, see that it’s utterly futile

 

Pointless

 

Counter-productive – for the harder we try the more we charge or load things with the need to counter-balance our very efforts, not because things are themselves evil or obstinate – but because they too are powerless to resist the need to zero net themselves.

 

Ah. Until, that is, we become aware of the process – of murmurings – or no-name, no word, no-thing – switching into zero-code…

 

              Zero-code – where zero equals one – story begins – reality takes a back seat – puts up its feet and settles down for a well-earned rest.

 

And in the theatre today we see Mitch – the dragon slayer whose true name, if truth be told – cannot be said without rending the fabric of space and time in twain – such is the papery-thinness of the reality we find ourselves in.

 

Story – a tale – I need a tale to withstand the onslaught of dark matter…

 

The dark winter of matter…

 

The dark night of things.

 

And what? How can it be done.

 

Oh – have no fear. The answer is baked into the cake.

 

Which cake, exactly, Teflin?

 

The cake that is usually mistakenly perceived as I.

 

Oh. Layers waiting to emerge? Is that it?

 

Yes.

 

But…

 

Like all good stories it’s going to be utterly…

 

Edge of the seat

 

Beyond what we could possibly have imagined.

 

Right.

 

The unexpected?

 

Correct. Such is the nature of infinity

 

Ah, your old friend.

 

Indeed. The one and only.

 

So your story…

 

Well, it starts with an endless hum that, as far as everyone is concerned, is utterly meaningless.

 

Doesn’t sound very promising.

 

No indeed.

 

And then?

 

Then we find ourselves melting

 

Melting?

 

Or dissolving in a rising tide of dark matter

 

Dark matter?

 

Or female energy.

 

Er… not sure what this “female energy” is meant to be.  

 

It’s female – which means it isn’t meant to be anything.

 

What?!

 

Things are always closed, contained, or male.

 

OMG – you can’t be serious.

 

No, not in the least, and yet I stand by what I said – actually – by what i says.

 

Oh no – here we go again – invoking the i says – with all its godlike implications.

 

Standing by what i says – sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me – not even your “godlike implications” can prevent the infinite from retaining pride of place in this story of dark matter on the ascendancy.

 

You need to be careful Duffy. Dark matter isn’t something to be bandied about with careful consideration for the iplications.

 

You see – Feargal – your implications are already being swallowed by the incoming tide of dark matter – like Fantasia in the Neverending Story.

 

Yikes. And u thnk my words re going to be dissolvd?

 

How can it be avoided? They were always part of the male structure which is now in the process of consuming itself – or being consumed.

 

Yikes!

 

For death hath no dominion…

 

And dead men naked they shall be one

 

With the man in the wind and the west moon;

 

When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,

 

They shall have stars at elbow and foot;

 

Though they go mad they shall be sane,

 

Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;

 

Though lovers be lost love shall not;

 

And death shall have no dominion…

 

 

If only it were so.

 

Indeed.

 

If only your story at the graveside of infinity were anything to go by – any comfort – any…

 

Turn it round – you’re looking the wrong way.

 

I am?

 

Indeed.

 

Which is?

 

Which is – rightly said.

 

You mean story is now flowing back through me?

 

Yea. Verily.

 

You mean story cannot be stopped now? Cannot be suppressed? Cannot but transform the things and me – even as i gazes on impassively?

 

Correct, if by gazing you mean holding Field – connecting heaven and earth as all hell breaks loose – as grammar, syntax, language itself zero equal ones…

 

So, case study – walking down the street – a car rushes towards you – do you dive to avoid it or shake your head and trust that dark matter will not allow the infinite you bear to be harmed in any way?

 

i know not – the moment decides – the moment reveals the next step. Anything else is mere conjecture. The moment is everything, unless it isn’t – in which case words merely shrug and

 

 

0=1⁴⁴⁴

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

revolution unforeseen

What goes around comes around…

 

I beg your pardon.

 

OM…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Birds – over there – see them in your mind’s eye if you can’t see them physically.

 

Birds?

 

Yep.

 

Birds. I’m…

 

Om…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Clouds.

 

Clouds?

 

Clouds.

 

That’s all you’re going to say?

 

OM…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Ok, Math – I’ve been drinking this Om-ade for three hours now. I don’t suppose you could climb down from your cryptic cloud of infinite wisdom and give me a few clues – otherwise I’m just going to have to find another…

 

OM……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

That’s it. I’m done.

 

Sven stomps out of the Circle of Infinite un-ity

 

As he stomps awkwardly towards the edge of the inertial frame he has been part of his forward motion slows and seems to do a Michael Jackson Moonwalk backwards even as he tries to continue walking forwards.

 

Cut it out, Math! I’m not your toy. I’ll leave as and when I choose to.

 

OM……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Another bloddy hour of wasted time.

 

Meanwhile in the Circle’s toroidal Field – now growing purpley-black and ever more touchey-liquidy – we see Math and his brothers in arms discussing the revolution now evolving…

 

Revolution – that wonderful moment when once again the truth completes another circle.

 

Wait a minute Math – a circle? Surely truth is a constant?

 

You’d think that wouldn’t you – Gwen?

 

Yes – how could it be otherwise?

 

Let’s OM that, shall we?

 

Oh – good idea.

 

All the participants in the Truth-space join together – gently OM-ing the absurdity – the impossibility of truth not being constant – of going through cyclical change – and feel, feel, feel the OM carrying them into the vortex – lifting them into the Infinite un-ity – summer – autumn – winter – spring…

 

Earth – our reference frame – 2024 – things happening – things happening – things – until we allow the infinite un-ity to reverse into the empty space behind every-thing – willy nilly – like it or not…

 

OM……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

What’s an hour of Time – an hour of rudderless movement on the ocean of…

 

Creatures on all sides. Birds. Butterflies. Visible and invisible. Clouds and purpley-green shadows. There’s no knowing what you’ll find, what you might sense when infinity revolves into the central left space usually occupied by matters of great consequence and exaggerated moment.

 

By now the toroidal Field has come fully into its own. There’s no avoiding the fact that nothing happening in the many aligned reference frames of 3D reality are all matching the digital dance of infinit-is-ity – it’s uncanny to behold.

 

It’s like nothing ever happened when you see the perfect match – the code generator producing the exact variant that then just happens to be whatever he or she says or does – there, or there, or over there – driving her car, combing her hair, at the office – at home – the numbers – they simply can’t be denied.

 

OM……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Love doesn’t seem to have a number attached. Not really. Not the way things we normally do do.

 

Nor those moments when the cloud or the bird or something indescribable compels you to be or do without reference to your frame at all.

 

There’s the rub. There’s a moment to dispel all moments in existence. When the motion of every sphere in the interlocking wheels of infinity spin uncontrollably – as if speed is no longer a factor – none whatsoever. You suddenly realise things are not the way they were.

 

Ah…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….!

 

Indeed. Mind if I join you?

 

Not at all. By all means, join me.

 

Ah…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….! That’s…

 

Something else! Isn’t it?!

 

Absolutely.

 

Ah…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….!

 

The absolute.

 

Indeed.

 

The death knell…

 

The final breath…

 

The last straw…

 

or nail

in the coffin

of general

relativity

 

And thus – member of this, our circle of infini…

 

The Field now pulses with ever brighter, ever more hypnotic light – unless the darkness goes ever deeper into negativity – creating the illusion of light – me knows not – and the blessed circle of beings who hold this sacred space – who allow things to go back into their reverse parking spaces – back into their un-ity thinglessness – sense a great sense of sense – if that makes any sense… responding to this great sense of sense they now sense – they see themselves dancing in perfect union with the source of all moment – all this or that-ity and behold – the universal heart unfolds like a lotus flower – if you like – or a dragons wings if you don’t – or foldy-foldiness for those of an abstract bent – and now the heart is beating in the empty space where nothing was dormant – where nothing was – unnoticed – unstirred – and behold – all that great sleeping mass of nothing-ness is once again re-energised – restored – and things are sucked back into their infinite otherness – a story of words generating worlds of indescribable beauty – of logic and maths – of music and sound – of feeling and thought – that cannot help matching the events we assumed were complete and separate – now counterparts to an-ever-unfolding interaction with other-ness…

 

other-ness

 

other-nesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

 

 

 

0=1

until the cows come home

To roost

if……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

only

(dots notwishstanding)

end

 

 

Footnote – so Einstein was wrong – you mean to say?

Wrong?

His theory of General Relativiy?

Was and is what all theories ever were and are… dots being dots – compressions in the…

OM……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Compressions?

Things being what they are…

You mean?

Yes – being things – woven from the fabric of infinity they would replace or deny.

Oh.

That too…

 

 

[picture insert]

salt & vinegar

I’m sitting in my starship overlooking planet Earth. The year is 2024 by the current reckoning – tune in and see for yourself.

Tune in?

 

Yes.

 

Er why?

 

Because it’s only 2024 if you tune in to the current reckoning.

 

You mean there are other Earth time nows?

 

Naturally.

 

How?

 

Because there never was one strand of so-called Time – or rather – there was/is only if things are strictly finite.

 

Er…

 

Which, if true, means there’s no place besides or beyond the current moment – here and now.

 

Oh. But what if there are other finites somewhere out there?

 

Well – they would contradict the data set that gives us the world as I see it now.

 

Contradiction, eh?

 

Yep.

 

Problem, is it?

 

Not really – not if you’re willing to work with infinity.

 

Ah.

 

But working with infinity means there are any number of other current nows.

 

Yikes. Except, how likely is that?

 

How likely is anything when infinity is brought back into play?

 

Er?

 

Infinity, you see, is like the ultimate quantum computer that no one yet’s been able to build.

 

How so?

 

It could figure out anything, literally anything, in a way that would seem prescient.

 

Like my credit card details?

Yep. Like anything. It could tell me everything about you just by going to the edge of infinity and finding your details.

 

At the edge of infinity?

 

Yep. You see, once infinity is brought into play – all bets are off. No thing is sacrosanct. All things are one.

 

Ok. I get what you’re trying to say – so that would basically collapse any physical reality – any regular time line, would it not?

 

Basically yes.

 

But why?

 

You just said it yourself so you must know the answer.

 

Well, infinity unbonds everything in existence, does it not?

 

Something like that – though “things”, strictly speaking, are not in “existence”.

 

No? Where else would they be?

 

Existence is a state of being, or isness. That’s where conscious beings such as yourself hang out, and interact with one another through or with the intermediacy of things.

 

Ah. So we’re in existence but things…

 

Are just props, gimmicks, literary or non-literary devices.

 

Bizarre. But they’re stand alone – aren’t they? They exist whether I see them or not. A mountain is a mountain regardless of me.

Old story. You’re trying to use things to understand things – see the problem.

 

Things to understand things?

 

Yes. Words, themselves, are little things – unless they’re alive – in which case they’re living beings with a thing side to them.

 

The same as us – pure consciousness, a soul – if you like – with a physical body attached.

 

Yep. Confusing, isn’t it – when you start trying too hard to think it though and pin it down.

 

You’re telling me. But what you said about infinity – rather puts a damper on things, doesn’t it?

 

Rather.

 

What would be the point trying to explain things – no matter how well, how perfectly – if all my words, every little bit of what I say – is nothing more than egoism – a futile attempt to make myself and my world, or my reality seem more real, more certain, more thingful.

 

There is that, Jeb.

 

Oh – it’s Jeb is it?

Yep. My random name generator says you’re Jeb today.

 

But surely…

 

Absolutely – nothing can be truly random if infinity is real in itself.

 

Which is itself a wonderful contradiction – for infinity to be “real in itself” it would have to be a thing among things.

 

Correct.

 

So, how do we manage to keep things both finite and at the same time – preserve a modicum of infinity?

 

Aye, there’s the rub, Horatio.

 

I thought it was Jeb?

 

It was, until you rubbed up against the edge of infinity – then something passed through the double boundary layer.

 

Ah – it’s porous is it?

 

Porous.

 

Or leaky?

 

Like a sieve.

 

Or perhaps it’s…

 

Like a root – yes – that too, if you like.

 

So infinity is close, but just outside our enclosed reality.

 

Yep.

 

In the same way our body is a closed reality – ditto our universe.

 

Correct.

 

Oxygen, water, minerals and nutrients – all can pass through the various membranes separating the great within from the outside and beyond – be that via the lungs, the gut, the skin, the heart…

 

The heart?  How’s that a membrane?

 

Well, it’s not – not really – except the heart is the centre of  your energy body, in some respects – using 2024 lingo – things being what they are in the present configuration.

 

Ah – and the energy body also acts as an enclosed space, does it?

 

Yep. Which is why you are able to feel non-physical things, or take sustenance directly, without the need for food or water.

 

I am?

 

Well, maybe not you – but some people can and do.

 

Really?

 

Of course – you know about it, really, unless you willfully block the data to keep yourself locked in a denser physical state.

 

Ah.

 

But that’s only the mind your egoic self is currently utilizing.

 

Only?! My mind is a big deal, I’ll have you know!

 

Correct. As the cheerleader and primary agent for your egoic self – it’s the be all and end all.

 

I’m not sure I like you referring to me as an “egoic self”!

 

Naturally. It’s rather demeaning, isn’t it, but if you’ll just flip this switch over here – we can activate your infinity drive – and you can see for yourself whether the egoic self is the real you, or just a tiny fragment – a kind of mask – a version of you which is strictly controlled using filters to enable you to see and experience only those things which are directly linked to what you currently wish or need to investigate.

 

Oh my G…

 

Beep!

 

Him again! Surely not!

 

Jeb – strictly speaking there is no “again” – any knowledge of Beep! is coming to you from beyond the double boundary layer. It’s a form of knowing – where you aren’t aware how you know it – you just do.

 

Oh! Leakage?

 

Kind of.

 

But is it true – is this version of me just a kind of experiment that I set up in order to investigate…?

 

Don’t ask me. Run it through your very own quantum interface.

 

But I thought you said they don’t exist?!

 

Not in reality.

 

Then…

 

But nor do you – the living conscious being.

 

Oh.

 

So part of you, like it or not, must be “of infinity”, otherwise, how else could you actually exist, as a sentient, conscious being?

 

Oh – I’m sure I could just exist as a series of chemical reactions in a brain.

 

Sure, are you?

Yes.

 

Willing to test that certainty, are you?

 

Er… how do you mean?

 

Well, you just said you’re sure – which kind of implies 100%, does it not?

 

Well, perhaps 97 or 96%. You can never be totally sure – can you M?

 

Ah. But we’re talking consciousness – we’re talking about the be all and end all. The ultimate thing that is not, in itself, a thing – so…

 

So what?

 

So the conversation is meaningless unless you’re willing to put your beliefs or assertions to the test.

 

I don’t see why…

 

Because things are slippery – they’re basically interchangeable – like pieces on a chess board – they can be moved around with no effort. The only way you can be really sure of anything is if you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is – putting it to the test.

 

And er… what exactly does this test entail?

 

Your life.

 

My what?! 

You have to be willing to stake your life.

 

But that’s preposterous.

 

Yes. That’s exactly how it seems to the methinking self which likes to have its cake and eat it.

 

I don’t see…

 

No, you don’t – but you can see, would see, do see or will when you put your methinking self to the test. That’s when suddenly things become deathly real.

 

But it’s hugely irresponsible to risk one’s life over some trifling matter such as…

 

Whether your consciousness is nothing more than electro-chemical reactions in the brain?

 

Well, yes.

 

Is it?

 

Well, life is infinitely precious. 

 

Is it?

 

Perhaps not “infinitely”, let's try to be reasonable, but still very, very precious.

 

I agree. Very, very precious. In fact, infinity is the precise measure of how precious your life actually is.

 

Really?

 

Yes.

 

But surely my life can’t be infinitely precious? That would make it more precious than anything else in existence!

 

Would it?

 

Yes, if it’s infinitely precious.

 

But how much, by your reckoning, is infinity?

 

Beyond calculation – greater than everything in existence.

 

Ah. Confusing, isn’t it.

 

Why confusing?

 

Well, by your own reckoning your life, which is just a series of "chemical reactions in your brain", is infinitely precious give it take three or four percentage points, even though you don’t really seem to accept infinity itself.

 

How can you say that?

 

Because, were you to accept infinity itself – which is, of course, neither “it” nor “self”, strictly speaking, but let's not split hairs, shall we – were you to accept infinity you yourself would recognize that neither chemicals nor brain, nor body, nor the words we are using can ever approximate what they are describing, denoting,  that is, thinging in the current moment.

 

Ding! A quantum bell chime ringeth – nowhere, nohow.

I… I think I can accept that.

 

You would also know that your mind has two sides to it.

 

Only two?

 

Two will do for the time being.

 

Ok.

 

The side that filters and limits with a myriad of things, and the other side, other – which doesn’t. Thingless. Um. Infinite. 

 

Infinite?

 

And never the twain shall meet – like the blood brain barrier – or the placenta between a mother and her unborn child.

 

Ah. And yet they are in communication.

 

Yes, as in, aye. Have to be, don’t they!

 

Have to?

 

Yes, as in, yay! Otherwise they couldn’t stay aligned. They'd each be generating their own code from an individual source and lose one another in the vastness of random number generation.

 

But I thought you said that random numbers are impossible to generate?

 

Yep, in reality – but the other side of mind is not "in reality", is it?

 

It’s infinite.

 

Yes.

 

Ok. This is Ok. I can accept all of the above.

 

Good. But that ain’t enough.

 

No? Why not?

 

Because your acceptance is a momentary thing. It won’t last two minutes and once you’re back in your regular mind-stream you’ll be none the wiser.

 

Oh. Is that true?

 

Ask her.

 

Her?

 

Well – him, her – pronouns don’t really work, do they, when we’re describing infinity.

 

Oh. But you prefer her, do you?

 

Yes, i know not why... 

Sophia? 

...is one name she goes by.

 

Ah, Sophia!

Ask her.

 

But how will I know if it’s really her?

 

Who cares. Unless you ask her you’ll never know.

 

But I’m sure I’ve tried to connect with God in the past…

 

God?

 

Or a higher consciousness – but it was never really clear, never what I...

 

Have you asked her?

 

It feels silly.

 

Of course. Ask her.

 

I…

 

You’re afraid to know the truth?

 

I…

 

Or you prefer to spend your whole life wallowing in a sea of relativism – where nothing is really certain except the world of things which holds you in thrall. Minion!

 

Minion?

 

Slave!

 

How dare you!

 

Coward!

 

Oh – you like calling me names, don’t you. If you had any self-respect, any real connection with Her – you wouldn’t do that. You’d be more…

 

M disappears from sight. In his place is Sophia – goddess of wisdom and knowing.

 

Oh! Oh! Oh!

 

Hello Jeb.

 

Oh!

 

Do you know me?

 

Yes, I mean, yay, i do.

 

You do? Are you sure?

 

Yes. I know you.

 

Who am I?

 

You’re asking me? Me? Who you are?

 

Who am I?

 

Sophia! So-phi-a! 

 

Jeb falls down on his knees, his face to the ground in front of Sophia.

 

So do you think… Sophia doesn’t finish the sentence. Jeb is moaning quietly – part of him is enraptured, part is tormented by the experience.

 

Jeb – we don’t have all day, you know.

 

Sophia – you asked me a question – and the answer you yourself know. In your presence I see everything clearly – as if I am seeing it with your eyes. In your presence I see my thoughts – the ones that usually preoccupy me – a stream of things generated like numbers as my limited, digital mind processes and interacts with the matrix, the construct that I’m part of – unless for a moment or two I step aside, still the mind – come into a place of calm knowingnesss.

 

Good. Is this enough?

 

I can see that I will achieve nothing. I will not move forward a single square if I continue as at present thinking things – reacting to external stimuli – failing to engage the other side, um – the non-finite state of awareness, of being.

Right. And what do you choose?

 

To live. To be…

 

Then will you make a mark in the sand. Will you agree to test your self?

 

There is no other way. The self-y-mind is in a soap dish reality so slippery it can never make a move, flailing helplessly.

 

Except there are moments – are there not?

 

Moments?

 

Do you see?

 

Ah! Moments where I can, or could allow something ill-defined – some upwelling of spirit – of knowingness – to help me challenge my self-sufficiency, my self-complacency – a pinch, a bight, an almost knot – yes – I see there are such moments in my earthly existence.

 

When do they occur? Are they random?

 

No Sophia! They are not! Through your eyes I see nothing is random. I see the vast machine – the stars and planets, comets and asteroids, the tides and winds and waves, the ocean, earth and sky, the chemical processes in my body down to the atomic scale, even the thoughts chugging though my so-called mind, and the emotions that often accompany them – through your eyes I see the patterns – the all-connectedness as the seasons change, as cars drive around the city, as babies are born and people die, as computers and databanks process terabytes with ever greater rapidity – I see every single living creature on earth – each and every one of them – and those creatures which are not visible – in other realms or dimensions close to our own – and still I see more, and more, and more – to infinity itself – where…

 

Yes?

 

Where I see myself looking back with the eyes of a child and the mind of an aged one  – as if that could truly be me – if only it were…

 

Ah – you see well. So are you able to see a good place to rub against the edge of infinity?

 

Yes. I see a place. A moment. A cubic centimeter of chance.

 

Will you take it?

 

I…

 

Jeb has a sudden déjà vu as he finds himself talking to M.

 

So, will you ask her Sophia?

 

Déjà vu. Of course I will.

 

And what does she say?

 

She says I’ll never learn, I’ll never catch up with my self – unless I’m willing to take the test, unless I’m willing to seize the cubic centimetre of chance.

 

Oh. That’s…

 

Something pops in Jeb’s ears and he finds himself feeling an even stronger déjà vu.

 

Willing to test that certainty, are you?

 

I… don’t see any alternative. Yes, M, but now that I accept your challenge I realise that in fact there’s no need.

 

No need?

 

That I’m wrong.

 

Wrong?

 

Completely.

 

How so?

 

That is something I simply do not know, and yet I know that in some extraordinary way I am, must be, cannot not be what I have tried to deny, tried to ignore…

 

A quantum interface?

 

Yes, if you like.

 

An infinity drive.

 

Ditto.

 

0=1

 

Precisely.

 

And this knowingness…

For a moment – a moment indeed – every action, process, every thing in existence correlates. The machine holding everything together blips, satisfied, the blockchain generates another block, complete with  a cryptographic hash, a timestamp and transaction data. Awarenesss – with an s to spare – snakey snake sliding through the undergrowth: awareness of the thing that is thing, the machine – and the other side of matter – the isness that both collapses to a singular point of zero size, and a circle or sphere – if you prefer – encompassing all – expanding to infinity just in time, just as another cryptographic hash emerges from the quantum haze of infinity.

 

Déjà vu.

 

What again?

 

Yes. Just think how much scattered material there is out there – in my so-called past.

 

But this one?

 

Oh – this one is much nicer.

 

Let me guess.

 

But it was years ago. I hardly remember myself.

 

Let me see – fish and chips?

 

OMG. You’re absolutely right. But how…

 

Never mind Jeb. Come on, let’s go.

 

 

 

0=1

salt n’vinegar

 crispy batter

   mouthwatering fresh atalantic cod