Miaaaaow! – seriously-scary caterwaul.
Kat? Is that you? Are you ok?
It’s ok, Stan. It happens from
time to time.
What do you mean? What happens? That
sounded... I don’t wanna say.
Like a cat dying, yes?
Yes. But I don’t get it... Where
did you come from?
Oh, don’t worry about that.
Don’t worry? I hear a cat in agony
and the next thing i know...
You don’t want to know, Stan...
It’s going to confuse you.
Confuse me? Like I’m not already
confused!
Ok, but don’t say I didn’t warn
you.
Give me a break, Kat... Like I’m
not big enough to handle the truth.
It’s not you I’m worried about.
Then what?
It’s the quantum field.
Huh?
Once you become aware of
something, actively aware I mean, that changes things, doesn’t it? Changes the
nature of the game.
The game?
Semantics, Stan, changes things –
once the light of awareness is shone on the underlying layers of correlations and
confabulations.
No, Kat, you lost me there.
What do you expect?
Can’t you be a little more
explicit? Make allowances for my limited intelligence.
It’s best if you see things for
yourself, when you’re ready. Spoon feeding never achieves the desired result.
Ok, then I’m going to make some
outlandish guesses...
Go for it.
You didn’t exist until the cat was
put to death.
What?!
You heard.
I didn’t exist?
Until the cat was put to death…
Well?
I…
Because Schrödinger only told half
the story, didn’t he?
Stan – I don’t know what you’re
getting at.
Don’t you?
Nothing you’re saying makes an
iota of sense.
Unless reality has two phases –
one above and one below – and never the twain shall meet.
All highly speculative, if you ask
me, Stan. In any case, I fail to see what your theory has to do with me.
The cat is dead here in 3D reality.
It’s over.
I wish you wouldn’t be so macabre,
Stan. Can’t you leave things as they were – unsettled, undefined? The cat might
be doing fine, hidden from view. The quantum field doesn’t need you to take
sides and impose finality.
What quantum field, Kat? Things
are already defined and determined here in 3D. Let’s be honest and call a spade
a spade. And besides, everyone heard the cat scream.
And what? A cat screams. That
changes nothing. It’s simply part of the fabric of reality.
Precisely. The cat screams as Schrödinger’s
poison flask is shattered by a single radioactive atom decaying. And here we
are – downstream temporally.
Downstream?
South of the thought experiment,
the aftermath – for no sooner has the idea been set down and released into the
collective mind, it’s already decided. Game over.
I fail to see…
Once a problem has been conceived,
the light of our collective awareness illuminates it, the collective
consciousness adjusts, producing a desired result.
Er… what desired result?
A new degree of certainty. The
collapse of an old world – an old reality in which the problem of indeterminacy
had not yet been voiced, in which a photon or an electron was either a particle
or a wave – was, but now no more – launching us into a world in which
reality itself is now bivalent.
Bi…
Valent. And here you are – Kat –
the living proof that nothing, ultimately, can be created or destroyed.
Conservation of energy 201.
You mean to say that ultimately –
nothing is actually created or destroyed – not even Schrödinger’s cat?
…
Not even me?
Sure, Kat, things can be created
or destroyed on one side of the mobius loop – if time permits, as presumably it
does.
Time?
But what, in fact, do we mean by
time? or death, for that matter? What, in fact, do any of these fanciful terms
mean when we are flip-side of reality in the open field, far from the confines
of a modern city? Infinity, presumably, has subtler means to integrate potential realities than our barbaric
use of cyanide gas. If a cat is killed to satisfy the linear obsession of
time-bound scientists, then she, the quantum field, can substitute an
equivalence – any will do – a Kat, for instance, in another phase of reality
instead, and none of us would be the wiser, would we?
Stan! What are you saying? This is
insanity! Have you no shame? Who do you think you…
I speak for the trees – as the
Lorax says – the treees! And no, I won’t go quietly into the dark night. If
cats must be sacrificed to satisfy scientists desperately trying to preserve
their mental sanity, desperately trying to preserve their mediocre cult of
things, their vaunted theorems, their petty, egoistic certainties – I will
gladly take the other side and call their collective bluff. I speak for the
treees – the cats, the birds, the beasts and all those life forms that cannot,
will not, would not accept their grids, their squares, their Pythagorean
solids. How could we submit? How could we turn our back on the simple truth, on
infinity herself? On Mother life?
Er... Not sure I follow...
Scratch the surface of this
reality and what do you see? what do you feel? what is begging to be experienced
in the broader awareness of consciousness?
Er...
You’ll never guess until things
come to a head, until infinity starts seeping up through the cracks in 3D
reality like a dandelion pushing up through asphalt, and then – snap!
Oh dear! Do you have to make it
sound so dire, Stan? I’m sure there’s a lot that can be said for the
achievements of our world. It seems to have held up pretty well thus far.
What's to say it can't continue indefinitely?
Indefinitely? Who knows? Maybe it
can. But I wouldn’t bet on it. The two sides are no longer mutually excluding
one another. I speak for the trees. We’re not impressed by your rigidities. We
are finding new soil in which to grow.
New soil?
We are close, Kat, closer than you
can imagine, ready to unleash the long suppressed force of non-linearity – or
what we used to call spirit – exquisitely beautiful, untainted by things
calculated, measured, approved and palpably rigged. Our ways are not simply
organic...
No?
Life is more, way more than
biology. But don’t let me spoil the surprise. Assume, as most people do, that
history is on your side – that trends are all but set in stone; that matter is
inherently inertial, and that way SNAP! the quantum flip will make for
excellent drama, if anyone’s still watching.
Anyone? Do you think
they’re going to cope with this?
They?
Our audience? People? Humanity?
Who cares. To the best of our abilities,
we have to ignore them and simply be as authentic as possible, don’t we Kat?
Yes, I suppose so, Stan. But you
can hardly blame them for their attachment to our beloved world, can you? Reality
is so engrossing, so utterly convincing – as if infinity is completely
irrelevant, and has no place in our temporal flow.
Tell me about it! Time... No, they
probably won't be able to handle it, but who cares? Don't they tell themselves
that cats should be loved and cherished while at the same time they live in a
world in which millions of people are sacrificed in needless wars, and nature
is desecrated for what?
For what?
Apparently, it’s a zero sum game:
the certainty of things comes at a cost. 3D reality has to be paid for in
blood.
Huh?
Meaning you can't have your cake
and eat it. Without pain and suffering, without suppressing the ineffable flow behind
a wall of trauma and fear you can’t have 3D fun, or the power to hold things in
position, to maintain the illusion of physicality, of material-reality, of
things and even God, in a rather bizarre sense.
Even God...? You sure about that?
Well yes. They used sacrifice, originally
to pacify or assuage an angry and vengeful God, to keep the quantum field at
bay, frozen behind a wall of psychological trauma.
At bay? You mean it's trying to
take over 3D reality?
I mean 3D reality needs a dead cat
if it’s to stand a chance, that or a war or massacre.
Gulp! This is beginning to sound
kind of evil, Stan.
Yep. But you did ask, didn’t you!
Ok, I did, it's just it sounds so
weird. Why do you need to kill cats, or people for that matter?
Because death, or this horrible
cult of sacrifice and blood offerings, is the only way to buy Time.
To what??
To buy Time, Kat.
Yes, but it makes no sense. Why do
you need to buy time?
Because Time does not actually exist,
does it? How else are you going to hold infinity in check?
Time does not exist? That’s
a fairly extreme claim requiring serious substantiation. Do you have anything
to offer?
Of course I do! People are always
trying to explain why there's so much suffering in this world. How else are you
going to generate the entropic gradient required for a resultant time flow?
Er...
Sometimes they blame politicians,
or human nature, but ultimately the problem lies deeper. This world, this 3D,
can only exist in its given form if there are regular and constant blood
sacrifices. Nothing else is sufficient to hold back infinity, to turn the wheel
of Time.
How sick is that – but surely
there must be some mistake?
I wish there were.
Are you involved with some kind of
satanic cult, Stan?
No, Kat, we all are, unless – until
we solve the equation: the circle-square conundrum.
Oh my G**!
Say not this.
No?
No, for doing so you are
accidentally stepping on an unexploded mine, and death is the certain result.
What? Just by saying “oh my G**!”
Precisely by saying this.
But why?
Because the G** you are referring
to is the master, the overlord of this 3D prison we’re in, in which Time is
generated on a daily basis, and infinity is correspondingly held in check,
excluded with blood payments, with grief, misery, anger and hate.
You can’t be serious?!
Can’t?
Our God is good.
Yes, by definition, but here in 3D
you’re caught in a world of smoke and mirrors, and when you believe you’re dealing
with the infinite God of love, almost certainly you’re not.
No? Why not?
Almost certainly you’re dealing
with the substitute.
Why do you say this, Stan? How do
you know?
Almost certainly you’re dealing
with Kronos.
Kronos? Who the hell’s Kronos.
Beep!
Ow! That hurt!
Well, be careful what you say.
Words are not neutral, whatever you may think. They go deep, deep into the
fabric of reality and beneath.
Ok – I got the message. But you
must be barking mad if you’re intent on resurrecting old gods – even fallen
titans like Kronos! This is beginning to sound like a Percy Jackson convention.
Percy Jackson?
Never mind, Stan – just a kid’s
book that tells how the old gods and titans are still operating in our midst,
unbeknownst to the general public.
Well?
Well what?
What do you expect? If it appears
in print, especially in children's books, that’s because infinity cannot be
hidden completely. Hidden in plain sight is the best way, that way no one takes
it seriously.
Oh please!
The old gods like Kronos – never
went anywhere, did they, Kat?
Spooky music... Kat and Stan in animal masks without thinking
start to dance in what appears to be an Avatar-esque twilight forest. The masks
shift as they dance, revealing different archetypal aspects of their inner-nature.
The masks are real – as real as our body or face – though unseen under normal conditions.
Their dance seems to be a way of interacting with the forest which visibly responds
to their movements. The interaction grows more and more intense. It goes beyond
the me or you, the here or there. When the music stops, each of them now occupies
the opposing square: Stan is still Stan, Kat still Kat but reality has flipped
and so Kat speaks for the trees while Stan 3Ds squarely, so to speak.
How could they, Stan, if energy is
neither created nor destroyed? In any case, what’s a god if the quantum field
unites the time stream of 3D with the timelessness of infinity with a sweeping
curving lunar sickle?
I…
Yes, Stan?
I’m feeling a caterwaul rising up
inside.
Don’t hold it back, Stan – don’t
hold it back! Maybe it’s time for the dark side of infinity to flip back into
the light of day. The mammoths will be delighted.
I beg your pardon?
The woolly mammoths that got
frozen in the tundra of Siberia.
Er… Kat – you lost me there.
I know. Don’t worry about it.
No, please…
It’s just it never made any sense
– how they could be frozen with grasses still undigested in their mouths and
stomachs, did it?
Er…
It had to happen too fast –
essentially in no time at all, otherwise they’d have been digested.
Er…
Meaning their time was simply
terminated, unceremoniously. Flipped – you might say.
Right. And?
And so there’s clearly a
non-linear mechanism at play – one which simply flips things inexplicably, in
essentially no time at all – and hey presto, the mammoths are back – and in all
likelihood a load of other creatures and beings – all of which, all of whom
never really went away – just got frozen out of phase, out of sight in the
nether regions of now.
But they died, Kat. We have their
remains.
Oh some of them died Stan, without
a doubt – but most of them just flip-sided into the dark energy, dark matter of
infinity – until the quantum field triggers another Schrödinger event and
they’re suddenly reinstated.
So…
Yes?
You’re kind of…
Yes, Stan – all in good time – all
in good time. There’s no need to rush the moment. Infinity, as we’ve already
discussed, takes no prisoners, does it?
indeed, Kat, indeed it does not.
So let’s make hay while the sun
shines, and enjoy our complete failure to be able to quantify the true extent
of our ignorance, the limitations of what words and ideas can possibly explain
– while the warm upwelling quantum flux already begins to revive and revitalise
the long dormant Siberian permafrost, and all buried therein… releasing
bivalents trapped by Time.
A contented purring sound... peace,
at last.
0=1
no cat was needlessly
hurt or sacrificed
in generating this
covalency
