ono you don't

Coding infinity, bringing it into bite-sized utility

Aye, there’s the rub

There’s the “this is me/that is that”

Let’s run it through the linear interlocking wheel set

Known as time

Bringing things into a semblance of cause and effect

Timefully

That was the plan – was it not

A plan we adhered to religiously

As lives and millennia washed by

As the boat we’re on sloshed through the choppy stream

Getting nowhere fast

Tied to the marker buoy

Treading time

Imagining we could outrun our shadow

past the setting sun

Er… Merry.

Yes?

I’m not a great fan of poetry, you know.

Yes.

Especially when it doesn’t rhyme.

I’m not surprised. Me too. If it don’t rhyme it ain’t sublime.

Well, you seem to be…

Oh – that’s not poetry. God forbid.

No?

No, of course not. In any case, it doesn’t rhyme.

So, what’s it meant to be then?

Oh, nothing much.

Nothing much?

Precisely.

Er… how much – I mean – why bother writing all that nothing much?

Just thinking aloud really.

Thinking aloud – about infinity?

Yep.

And?

What?

What did you decide?

My dear Zie, one doesn’t decide things when thinking aloud. God forbid. That would be terribly vulgar.

Then what?

It’s a process, really, isn’t it?

I don’t know. I’ve never really engaged in it.

No? You should.

Uh?

You should. How else are you going to stir things up? How else are you gonna martial your resources and grab a piece of cake.

Cake? What cake?

Whatever’s out there. Surely you’re not going to turn down the opportunity to get a good piece of cake?

I can’t quite fathom what you mean.

Well, we’re floating amid stream – are we not?

Not that I’ve noticed.

It was more a rhetorical question. Just agree – it’ll be infinitely wiser.

Oh, ok.

Apart from everything we think we can see – which has all be parcelled up very badly, I might say, there’s a little slither of everything else known as “infinity”.

Little? How can you call it little?

Well, I call it that because there’s no point getting overexcited about it – is there? What will that achieve? It may have enormous allure and untold potential, but grabbing a slice of infinity, or rather, fixing it, weaving it into the fabric of reality – there’s the rub, there’s the play that minds greater than yours and mine simply cannot comprehend.

So we may as well give up then – if they couldn’t figure it out.

On the contrary my dear Watson…

Uh?

On the contrary – they couldn’t figure it out precisely because their minds were far too great. Infinity is far too slippery for great minds. It’s much more accessible to small children or simple folk living far from the madding crowd.

Oh. You think so?

Think? What has thinking got to do with this? I don’t think any of this.

I thought you were encouraging me to think about things. Isn’t that where all this started?

Yes – apparently I’ve contradicted myself yet again – but there’s thinking and there’s thinking, after all.

Uh…

One is the thinking beloved of professors and clever folk – who tend to live in cities. It’s a grid matrix way of thinking – joining dots, processing, linearalising infinity.

Linearalising?

As in using lines – which are generally ridiculously straight.

Of which you don’t approve, if I’m not mistaken?

Zie, you surprise me. It’s not a matter of approving or disapproving.

No?

Of course not – it’s about harnessing the thought fallacy to great effect.

The thought fallacy?

Yes – precisely.

But I have no idea what this “thought fallacy” is supposed to be.

Of course not – I haven’t explained it yet.

Oh.

But you might try to guess.

Oh it’s bound to be something big, and incredibly complex.

On the contrary – like all fundamental paradoxes – it’s incredibly simple – once you wrap your mind around it.

Exactly. How on earth am I supposed to “wrap my mind around” a cosmological paradox – when all I’ve ever seen, experienced or know is/was finite?

Ah ha – but is that really so? After all, the person who is doing the thinking right now exists outside time.

Outside time? You’re kidding!

In time as the body/mind thing that is me, but outside time as the human being, the con-sciousness, c3.

Oh – theoretically, perhaps, but all very abstract and highly conditional.

On what?

On me being able to access the human being, or the pure con-sciousness c3 which, I’ll be honest, eludes me to this day.

Only because you’ve never bothered to think the right way.

Huh?

You’ve always been thinking things, have you not?

Well what else am I supposed to think – if not things?

Er… isn’t it rather obvious?

To you perhaps, my extra-dimensional reality coach, but to mere mortals such as myself…

Tut tut Zie – I won’t hear another word of this. Your field is yelling fake when you pronounce such nonsense.

My field? Don’t tell me you can hear what my field is saying!

Of course I can – we all can, it’s just we tend not to be very aware of the fact.

If you say so.

I do.

But you still haven’t answered the question…

Which is problematic, is it not, if you’re unwilling to draw breath.

Oh, ok.

Thinking things you’ll only ever output more things – makes sense really, doesn’t it?

I suppose so.

If, on the other hand, you wish to output something of a thingless nature – something pertaining to the quantum field, something slippery as hell, an emblem of infinity…

An “emblem of infinity”? What on earth do you mean?

Well, infinity is all about uncertainty and immeasurability – is it not – otherwise it’d be finite.

Er… I suppose so.

So we can’t really talk about things, can we, in the same way we tend not to talk about things when referring to space. You hear the so called scientists talking about “the vacuum of space” – though it seems to be filled with trillions of stars, planets, electrical fields, plasma and various kinds of radiation at the very least.

What – and you think it’s full of more stuff?

Of course it is – it’s just it’s more spread out than stuff here on earth, and not immediately visible or accessible.

Or maybe it just doesn’t really exist?

Maybe – but how likely is that?

Well – I’m no expert but I’d say very likely. Your imagining space full of invisible creatures, or vague plasma entities… you just don’t seem to want to accept the unwelcome truth that things only really exist here on earth – notwithstanding planets, stars and galaxies.

Or gravitational fields, or cosmic radiation, or…

Look Merry – there’s no point arguing about what can’t be seen.

Who’s arguing. I propose we start seeing what can be seen, as opposed to not seeing what can’t.

Well how am I supposed to see something that either doesn’t exist, or if it does, is inaccessible to normal, human vision.

Well, let’s start by thinking infinity as opposed to thinking things.

Thinking infinity – is that what you said?

Yes, loud and clear.

But how are we supposed to think infinity? You yourself admitted it’s infinitely slippery.

That’s only as long as you insist on thinking things – because at that point you’re operating at the wrong frequency.

Wrong frequency? You make me sound like a radio set.

Which is more or less what you are, in this capacity. The physical, mechanical part of you has all the attributes of a machine, with other, no machine aspects operating on top or in parallel.

Oh. So you think I can tune into infinity?

No, I don’t think it – I know it.

How?

Mathematically and empirically.

Er… whatever. Sometimes I feel that you’re just trying to confuse me with your nonsensical answers.

You may be right – I’m not averse to sowing little seeds of confusion – just to give the rational mind a run for its money – but in all seriousness…

Come on Merry – you can’t say “in all seriousness” – flip upside down and stand on the ceiling.

Can’t.

Well – obviously you can – but it’s highly provocative of you – scarcely decent, in fact.

I had no intention to offend your rational sensibilities Zie, but how else are we going to grasp the gordion knot of infinity – if you’re hell bent on being a…

Sorry – I missed what you were saying. You’re cutting out Merry. Perhaps you could revert to the mean and stand right ways up. Damn – where’s he gone now?

Behind you Zie.

Uh? Zie turns around but can’t see Merry.

I said behind you.

No matter how fast Zie turns, Merry is always behind him.

Here I am, here I am.

Would you quit messing around Merry. You’re being infantile again.

Ok – if I can’t get you up to speed this way, then perhaps I can toss you a bomb.

No, not again. I’ve had enough of your bombs.

This is just really a little bubble.

Just a bubble? You sure?

Absolutely. It’s a little bubble of infinity.

A bubble of infinity? Sounds a little too good to be true. Are you sure it isn’t dangerous?

That depends on your definition of dangerous.

Oh Christ Merry – stop playing around with definitions.

Look Zie, so much in fact depends upon your perception that it’s really almost impossible for me to say what is what. As far as I’m concerned the bomb is not dangerous. It won’t kill you. It won’t even hurt you, though it will temporarily…

What?

Er… paralyse your rational mind – the part of your mind that thinks things.

Oh sh**

Try not to use unseemly language Zie. Some of our readers are highly sensitive to words that smell too earthy.

Sorry… What am I saying sorry for – you’re trying to kill me with your infinity bomb.

Look – I promise you’ll enjoy it – if not at first, then in an hour or two when you reatomise.

Holy cow!

1

No, stop!

2

I mean it, Merry. Don’t you dare!

3

A beautiful iridescent bubble of nought that is one, and no less one that is nought – hovers intelligently ahead of Zie – just around head height – maybe a little higher.

You’ll observe that nothing bad has happened – because believe it or not – you’re in control. Infinity cannot, will not impose itself upon you.

You mean it’s conscious? 

There’s only one way to find out.

Ah – Zie falls for it – perhaps it was meant to be. No sooner does Zie address the bubbly blob of infinity floating ahead of him than something happens in the field of consciousness – or perhaps in the quantum field – I hardly know which – and the blob is suddenly invited into a kind of fusion experience with Zie. As Merry so faithfully indicated a moment earlier – this kind of encounter is not really possible in 3D space – or in a physical body for that matter – so Zie is now completely, utterly deatomised. A ticklish feeling. Yet it happens so fast, I can’t even use the past tense. It just happens, in an agonising moment of ticklishness – or even the feeling of wanting to sneeze or wanting to yawn – if you can imagine feeling that gripping you at the cellular and atomic level. It’s a bit of a primal scream – to say the least – but no scream is heard because no body exists. Instead – there is an engagement in thought no longer constrained by physical things – a different kind of thought – in which Zie finds himself thinking infinity – and the bubbly blob of infinity, conversely, finds itself thinking something infinitely strange from its perspective – thinking things – and never the twain shall meet.

You mean to say that at this moment – you are effectively me? Zie asks the blob.

More than that – the blob replies.

Huh?

I mean to say that at this moment I have access to all your form fields – so I’m able to experience any/ every aspect of who or what you may be – and as time isn’t a limiting factor – guess what?

What?

I flip across.

Huh?

I become you – for an entire lifetime – more in fact.

Hey! You can’t just take me over. That’s my body.

Oh – rest assured – your body is your own – my you exists in a multiverse – whereas your you exists – or did, at least, in a universe.

Er…

The minute we separate – you’ll be back in your usual self – in your universe – but guess what?

What?

Guess.

Er…

Feel me – feel my conscious-ness. Guess.

Oh – I see – I can feel your mind – your – God – it beggars belief – it…

Yes

You mean to say that everything I experience, everything I do in my life from now on will be an interaction with multiverse me – that is you?

Is that what you felt?

Yes.

Then it is so.

Oh.

Except this happens outside time – does it not – so you can roll that back into the past, if you don’t mind.

You mean to say…

I don’t mean anything.

It’s just a figure of speech – sorry.

No worries.

You mean that I’ve only ever been experiencing things as a kind of shadow, a pixilation, a physical representation of your…

Tricky, isn’t it – putting it into words.

You’re telling me.

But the answer is yes. How could you possibly exist without me or conversely…

But you’re infinite – surely you could exist without me?

Is that what you think?

Oh – sorry – just a habit of thought – no, I feel the absurdity of what I was trying to think.

Good.

So – are you really alive? Are you really me?

Feel your way through these question thoughts Zie. Feel the universe expand and contract as you let these question thoughts carry you to the edge and back, as you become increasingly aware of the multiverse, as you sense…

There, there… don’t be sad, Zie.

Sad? Am I sad?

You’ve been weeping tissue loads of tears for at least four hours now.

I have?

You want proof?

My God – all those tissues?!

Yes.

But I feel so…

Light?

Yes. And – happy. My God – I was… have I been back for four hours already? I never even noticed.

It takes a little time for the mind to adjust. And some emotional release too.

You’re telling me. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh…

Ok, Ok, I got the message. So no regrets. You were happy to experience the mad blob from beyond?

Camera zooms back – leaving Merry and Zie chatting in their 3D droplet space of thingfulness.

Somewhere deep inside – at the back of Zie’s mind – as he continues talking with Merry – the thought quietly lurks – am i really back? – am i really me? – or merely experiencing the flip side of my other-ness? – the many me-s outside time – criss-crossing the multiverse somehow in sync with whatever i’m feeling, experiencing, thinking here in so-called 3D? You see – a shade – a shadow of infinity now permeates, now pervades – now informs the mind that hitherto knew only the closed box, the contained world of things. Imperceptibly, imperceptibly Zie has accepted zero equals one – has allowed that thinking has an otherness – utterly strange to the rational mind – yet no less real – and thinking infinity is the only thing keeping Zie alive – holding his atoms aligned in the newly birthed universe – for the old one is no more, Ono saw to that.