You mean that literally nothing
can happen by chance?!
Crazy, isn’t it!
But that would mean that
everything’s pre-determined!
Yes, or if not pre-determined,
that someone or something is steering the ship.
Steering the ship? Who could be
doing that?
Who or what? I have no idea, Alf.
But if you have no idea then how
can you expect me or anyone to take you seriously?
I can't and I don't, Alf. I’m
merely sharing what I think or know, not in order to convince you, more as a
kind of disclosure so you can't accuse me of keeping things secret.
Oh. But how can you expect me to
believe that everything is pre-determined? That would mean I have no agency, no
free will!
Again, I don't expect you to
believe anything, and it wouldn't necessarily mean you have no agency or free
will.
It certainly looks that way to me.
Yes, but it's similar to the old
traditional Christian view that God knows everything, including everything
you're going to do and when you're going to die. Does that deprive you of
agency or free will?
No, not exactly but many people
don't really believe in God, partly because it makes no sense. How can I be
free to live my life if God already knows everything I'm going to say, do or
even think.
It's a huge problem, I agree.
It's not such a big problem if you
have a special category called “God”, where basically anything is possible
simply because it's God. We can shrug our metaphorical shoulders and accept the
fact that there's no way we can understand what He is.
Right. Well, that solves the
problem then doesn't it?
Not exactly. Not rationally. It's
just like terra incognito on one of the old maps where it's written “here be
dragons”! An event horizon beyond which we cannot really know or understand
what's going on.
Right. Well, God is the name we
give to the being or the thing which cannot be known or explained, so God is a
very useful concept regardless of whether you are religious and choose to
believe and worship him.
Useful? That sounds rather
cynical.
Well not exactly. There's the God
of religion to whom people pray devoutly, but then there's... the equivalent.
What equivalent?
A necessary being or thing that
fulfills the function of God.
What function?
Well, if you don't have this
neutral God, let’s call him Bob to avoid ruffling too many feathers, then you
find yourself in a universe or a reality where things are just things, and
where there is no overarching time, rhyme or reason.
How so?
How can there be any overarching
rhyme or reason if everything’s just haphazard, if everything’s up for grabs? if there was no purposeful creation or no greater plan?
I really couldn’t say, Mark.
So, regardless of whether or not
you believe in God, we seem to require a place filler, a quasi God, whom we may
as well call Bob, otherwise our reality degenerates to the lowest common
denominator, which is one in which things just seem to happen without rhyme or
reason, where God is substituted by good or bad luck, or Darwinistic
opportunism.
Er...
Darwinistic opportunism, or we
could call that the law of the jungle, where I constantly struggle to maximize
my position at the expense of others, a zero sum game in which either I get
ahead and take from others, or they get ahead by taking from me. There may be
some truth in that, but looking at the beauty of nature and the complexity of
myriad interconnecting ecosystems, it's hard to believe that is the driving
force behind our reality.
I see what you mean, but I still
don't see why I have to believe in pre-determinism!
You don't have to believe in it,
but excluding it is tantamount to excluding infinity. Exclude infinity and
you're in a world where things I just things, resources to be used and
exploited in a dog eats dog battle for survival and dominance, in which we
would be hard for us to explain the beauty of butterflies, orchids and tropical
fish, not to mention Shakespeare and classical music.
Oh.
So, reason compels us to accept
that infinity cannot be excluded even if it cannot be understood or, to use
your expression, “believed in”. We don't believe in it because we like it, or
because it makes sense, on the contrary, we believe in it because the failure
to do so makes a nonsense of existence, of life itself. Accepting infinity,
however, is not without mental difficulties, as our mind is clearly not
designed to handle it in any shape or form, other than assuming simplistically
that it is something too big to describe. Infinity seems to be what the rational
thinking mind is compelled to exclude, and therefore we can become aware of it
by observing everything our mind is trying to ignore and exclude.
Such as pre-determinism?
Precisely. Predeterminism is
basically impossible to accept rationally without making a nonsense of my
experience as a thinking independent human being, and yet if infinity is in
play then it makes perfect sense.
It does? How?
If infinity is in play then
infinity operates between the lines, outside time or space, in non-time and
non-space, so to speak.
Non-time?
Yes, rather like the concept of
traveling at the speed of light.
Oh, and time stops?
Yes.
But light travel is impossible for
humans.
So they say, but that's because
all of our science is based upon the exclusion of infinity and so at present we
are unable to harness its enormous potential.
And you think we can harness the
potential of infinity?
I don't see why not if we stop
ignoring it and denying it, if we start to look for how it is already a part of
our life in many different ways, at the quantum level and not necessarily
limited to sub-atomic particles.
You mean to say that the craziness
of quantum mechanics could apply to us at the human level, or to matter in
general?
I don't see how this can be excluded if we
cannot and do not deny, ignore, exclude infinity.
But then...
Yes, it baffles the mind which is
why generally speaking infinity is approached and handled within a religious
framework, or a quasi religious framework such as meditation and the business
of consciousness.
I don't, Alf.
It sounds like it.
Yes, but in truth I want to explore
the fact that reality is not simply linear, leading from a to b, but is also
circular in which a and b meet, and furthermore it's musical in which rising up
you shift into the next octave but are still basically where you were.
But in practice what does this
mean?
It's like the pictures Margo sent me a few weeks ago.
The dragon emperor and the monkey counsellor?
That’s right.
What of them?
Well, on the one hand it's just something she did for no good reason…
And?
Just because she felt like it.
Well?
But if infinity is not automatically excluded – if infinity is allowed to be
a factor in its own right…
Then what?
Then all bets are off.
They are?
Absolutely. We no longer no what part infinity had to play in this.
How do you mean?
Well, the chicken and egg once again upturns the comfy complacent
assumption we generally make, either because we're too lazy, or because we're
daunted by infinity.
What assumption Stan?
That infinity has essentially no part to play in whatever we're doing.
Ok, sodding supposing you're right
and infinity is active and involved… what then?
Then we're basically swimming in a quantum field where causation is our way
of protecting our rationalism from something else, an other that is most definitely
beyond our ken.
But the illustrations changed nothing! It's not like infinity stepped into
the ring and suddenly inverted gravity or caused fish to sing, is it?
No, you're right, infinity doesn't generally seem to like being too
obvious.
Probably because infinity doesn't exist in the way you're suggesting, or if
it does, probably because it can't be bothered with our trivial affairs - I
mean, Stan, two illustrations! They're utterly insignificant.
Ah, but not if they exist outside the usual chain of causation, where
things are generally done for good reason, for utility, profit or a quid pro
quo.
Ok, Stan, she was being creative and did a couple of pictures.
Yes Alf, but if Bob was involved…
If… if! All you have are empty suppositions – pure speculation of no
substance whatsoever.
Yes Alf, such as the nature of infinity unless there is rhyme or reason to
it.
And if there is?
Then infinity penetrate some permeates our 3D reality in ways unnoticed and
largely unsuspected.
Well that's, if you don't mind me saying, underwhelming. The might and
immensity of infinity and you tell me it's present but largely invisible, to
the extent that we can perfectly satisfactually explain everything happening in
our world without reference to it, and doing so we get by perfectly well, manage
to build computers, fly to the moon, organize concerts and place and live happy
fulfilled lives, or without reference to your beloved infinity thing. Now
perhaps we could terminate this meaningless debate?
Absolutely. But in case you haven't noticed this debate is also part and
parcel of Bob's behind the scenes machinations.
It is? What on earth makes you think that?
Your very existence is predicated on it.
Nonsense. How dare you talk about me like that!
Well think about it, Alf.
I will not and I would kindly ask you to stop using your stalking horse of “infinity” to undermine my credibility as an independent…
What?
That's it, Stan, I've had it with you. Just because you can't win the
debate about infinity you cast aspersions on my very existence.
Of course you exist, Alf, as do we all. You may not have a body as such,
not in the traditional sense, but what of it? Here in this blog, in g-nomeportal
you're as real as anything can be. Mark my word!
Your word?! You have no...
Yes, I have no leg to stand on,
Alf, as I'm in exactly the same boat as you. We’re all just flotsam and jetsam floating
on the flood tide of infinity.
Very poetic, I’m sure, but don’t
think you can get away with...
How do you think I’m able to carry
on talking when you were yelling at me and foaming at the mouth?
I...
I never raised my voice.
You’re just a domineering person.
No, Alf. That's not true.
Then what?
I'm not trying to defend the
indefensible. I'm simply facing the facts as they are.
You’re attacking the very
institution of personhood, of the human being, the self-identity by suggesting
that we are merely emanations or puppets created by your all-powerful infinity.
Perhaps we are, I couldn't say for
sure because infinity is beyond my comprehension, but I certainly wouldn't use
the word “merely”. We’re not merely anything.
Now you're just quibbling. You
have nothing more than semantics to defend yourself.
Is there anything to defend? We
both appear as if from nowhere in this so-called blog, and then seem to melt
back into the darkness of unpresence, the yin of not-me, to be replaced by
other characters who seem little or no different to us. We're part of something
much bigger, a body of work in which the names are constantly changing but the
dialogue with infinity does not. What is there to defend when neither of us is more than a fig leaf – you
could just as easily be Zie, the dragon emperor and I – Merry, his monkey
counsellor.
Could be, Stan, except we are not.
Each of us has a reason to exist; each of us has a name, I just happen to be
Alf while you, like it or not, are Stan.
Mark.
I beg your pardon?
Mark. I just happen to be Mark.
Mark?! Don't be ridiculous, Stan!
Don't you think I'd know if you were Mark?
Oh, but there's the rub, Alf.
What d’you mean?
I mean you’re limited to knowing
things that fit into your current frame of reference, your current identity.
But I’ve always known you Stan.
You’ve always been my buddy.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean
and yet, as far as infinity is concerned there are other lines, other frames of
reference parallel to this or layered one upon the other, like an onion, if you
like.
Poppycock!
Well yes, poppycock to the
rational mind that can’t or won’t accept or permit infinity to reveal itself in
any way, shape or form.
Reveal itself? How on earth could
infinity reveal itself without melting the entire structure of reality?
Good point, bro.
How, Go’dammit!
Beep!
How about that?
What, you mean the beep we just
heard?
Yes, how else would you explain
it?
Oh, it’s just a mild form of
government control – censorship.
Ok. But since when was the
government in our day and age in the business of trying to regulate mild
cursing?
Ok, Stan, you’ve got a point, but
I can hardly believe that infinity itself, you are so-called Bob has nothing
better to do then regulate my expletives.
Good, we've established the fact
that you find this hard to believe and I cannot fault you for that.
No?
Absolutely not. It's hard to the
point of impossible to believe infinity can or does have a role to play in our
day-to-day existence, or in our experience of reality itself, when we're
utterly convinced that reality is by definition “normal” as opposed to
supernatural or preternatural.
Er... Stan, I can’t say I really
know what preternatural means.
Outside ordinary nature, so
anything pertaining to the quantum field we could define as preternatural.
Ok. So you're saying I have a
complete mental block on anything preternatural?
Yes, that is one of the basic necessities to
prevent you or anyone else from sliding out of regular 3D reality.
So it's kind of structural or
architectural, is that what you're saying?
Yes, that’s right.
Then why would I want to mess with
the structure or architecture of reality?
Good question, Alf.
Well? Time is finite, you know.
Yes, indeed. Messing or tinkering with the fabric of reality is not in all likelihood a good idea, but when did I ever advise you to do so, my Dragon Emperor?
Ha ha, very funny! That seem to be
what you were implying.
On the contrary, I implied nothing
of the sort.
Then what, my Monkey Counsellor?
There's a huge difference between
affirmative action setting out and striving to do something, on the one hand,
and on the other consciously becoming more aware of what you have been ignoring
or denying, in spite of a wealth of evidence rebutting these denials.
Ah! So you think I've been aware
of infinity for some time but choosing to ignore it.
You could say.
And that this is a failure on my
part?
You could say.
I could, yes, but what do you?
As Merry Monkey Counselor I am
loath to do anything so overtly affirmative.
Hedging, are you?
No, Huangshang.
Oh! I haven’t heard that for
aeons. Indeed, your Imperial Majesty? Me thinks you are being disingenuous –
what else could anyone here call you.
Disingenuous, am I? I could have
you roasted alive for saying as much.
You see, Huangshang, how quickly
you adapt to the new frame of reference and become the part you’re now
embodying.
Yes, I see what you mean, MC. It
feels, almost impossible to resist the imperatives of the present frame, even
if I wanted to, which apparently I don’t.
Unless you start stalking the
attributes of reality – the tell-tale signs or signatures which indicate all is
not as it seems, that infinity is not in fact far-removed, but lurking in the
shadows of everything under the sun, no matter how inconsequential, even in our
own mind’s intransigent refusal to see the obvious incongruities of this 3D intraface.
Oh! And that’s actually possible,
in your opinion?
It's not only possible, in my
opinion, it's the only way to avoid becoming the plaything of forces which
control and regulate the finite side of things down in 3D.
Er... now we're getting into the
realm of conspiracy theory, MC. What forces are you referring to?
Well clearly there's some kind of
structure – there are quanta: energy doesn't just flow willy-nilly back and
forth, but seems to move from one level or orbit to another.
Are you referring to electrons around
an atomic nucleus and the emission of photons?
That too.
And how is that relevant to me or
us?
Only insofar as we are both matter
and mind, both thing and consciousness.
And what? Am I supposed to read
your mind, Monkey Counselor?
No Zie, you’re not. At the
non-physical level of existence you and I are neither here nor there, though
certainly we are most assuredly “here” or “there” in 3D. The difficulty being
that we are blissfully unaware of the very existence of anything other than
what seems to matter – what seems
to make me “me”, what seems to make “it”, as in any thing, “it”.
Seems very practical and sensible
to me, MC. Why would we care about things that don’t actually matter? How much
do I pay you for such utterly useless counsel?
You pay me, Huangshang, by
admitting me into your majestic presence and by not having me executed
summarily. That is more than sufficient.
Ah, very liberal of me. I must be
a wise emperor to tolerate such a one as
you.
Indeed, Huangshang, but then
again, it's not by chance that you are the Dragon Emperor, is it?
Chance?! Who would dare suggest
that I reign supreme by chance? Who would dare suggest that I am not chosen by
heaven itself to rule over this great Empire.
Who would dare, Huangshang, who
would dare, and yet there are those who are deeply unhappy and curse your very
name.
What did you say, Merry MC?
You heard, Zie, they curse your
very name.
And do they get beeped?
Not in the least.
How very fickle of infinity, to
beep Alf’s imprecations of God but not those of me.
Yes, fickle your Imperialness, or perhaps
instructive.
How so, Merry?
I hardly know, Zie, yet methinks
infinity takes no prisoners, and Bob is certainly not impressed by your status
or titles. If you as Dragon Emperor can ride and travel the S curve between yin
and yang, if you’re able to experience and become aware of your totality – which
constantly challenges and undermines the assumptions and beliefs which are part
and parcel of being the Me you’re currently being then – as Rudyard Kipling puts it so
eloquently in his poem If –
Yours is the Earth and
everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a
Man, my son!
Er... And that’s going to help me
with infinity, Monkey Counsellor?
Not exactly, Huangshang, yet one
cannot run before one can walk.
And what's that supposed to mean?
Well, in order to face reality and
begin to become aware of the gaps and dark matter therein, one first has to
learn to face the music of this world unswervingly, undaunted, without submitting
to self-pity or greed or the expectation that I am entitled to or owed anything
whatsoever.
This is beginning to sound
well-nigh impossible.
As indeed it is, your Imperial
Majesty Zie, or would be were not the dice loaded.
I beg your pardon?
Imagine how dull it would be for
Bob sitting in infinity were you never able to make headway, to exceed your
realistic capabilities.
Oh
Because realistically you would
never ever be able to escape the gravitational field, the pull of your self-regard
and blind faith in things, or what seems to be Me, the limiting factor.
Oh, Monkey Counsellor – you sure
know how to make me feel utterly inconsequential.
Such is not my intention,
Huangshang.
Then you have surpassed yourself,
MMC.
That will be true only if you and
I are able to climb onto this little cloud that Bob has lent me and ascend to
first or perhaps second heaven.
Oh! You mean to say we can use
that cloud of yours? I would willingly give my Empire for such an opportunity.
Ding!
Infinity gate number one now opening.
Step aboard, Alf, you can bring
Huangshang too if you like.
Oh, I say... I hardly know... what
about Zie?
Why not, the more the merrier.
Ah, Captain Merry, I do admire
your cloud ship. Let us be off and away!
Ay ay, my Dragonny Zie. Yours to
serve!
And
off they go, into the photon belt of infinity, or thereabouts, on what appears
to be a white cloud of hyper-condensed improbability.
0=1
ascentially
