grav-ity

Er Merry...

What is it Zie?

Why are you standing on that chair, in the middle of the room?

Can't you tell?

Well, the crash mat is a bit of a giveaway. Let me guess, you’re working on gravity?

Nice deduction Zie. My only regret being that you failed to build up to it.

Huh?

A little intrigue, a little suspense, dramatic tension… that kinda thing.

What are you on about?

The readers got the answer before they even had the chance to figure it out for themselves.

Oh that…

Want to keep them involved in the process, you know.

But Merry, aren’t you being inconsistent?

Inconsistent? How so?

Haven’t you commented in the past that we're only able to do what we are based on the fact that your “vast readership” sometime in the distant future is interacting with us at the quantum level – is somehow entangled in our content creation process?

Ah... yes, there would be some truth in that... Damn, you are sharp today Zie.

Beep beep beep!

What the hell is that?

Beep beep beep – even louder than before.

– Profanity alert. I automated it, just to be on the safe side.

Damn! No shit!

Beep beep beep – now deafeningly loud.

Ouch! Ok, ok, we got the message.

Jeez… oops, nearly forgot – that was loud.

What is it Merry – why the obsessive compulsion regarding so-called profanity? I mean – a few tepid swear words – you’d think it’s Armageddon!

Ah – nothing I can do here Zie.

Whyever not?

Because language... though it may seem trivial – merely a tool of communication – at the quantum level, however, every word carries a certain value – a certain “energy” – to use that feebly-weebly word.

And you think the occasional “damn” is going to…

Beep beep beep

Hey – I used speech marks – you can’t ping me for that!

– Make a difference – you were going to say?

Yes. I mean – it’s the intention that really matters, isn’t it?

Yes, of course, but at the same time no.

Sigh.

At the quantum level you’re dealing with islands, or packets of meaning which are surrounded by the largely invisible, dark waters of infinity.

We are?

Yep. And each so-called word is infinitely more than just a sound with a meaning attached.

It is?

Absolutely. A sound chunk with a widely accepted, pre-determined meaning ain’t going to hold water in the quantum sea of indeterminacy.

No?

Nope.

Er… why not?

Why not?... Because it needs to float – or be surrounded by something or other – a bubble or skin capable of withstanding the constant scrutiny, the relentless and persistent presence of fundamental, existential paradox 0=1 know you not? deny you me? – bearing down on anyone or anything.

Fundamental, existential paradox?

Correct.

Er… not sure I follow the logic.

You would if you were swimming around in the quantum sea of indeterminacy – surrounded by… by...

By what?

Precisely. By what. Thank you. Brain fogged over for a moment there. The indescribable, insane potentiality of “what” – questioning, challenging, probing the very nature of anything and everything to the very core, into the atomic heart, the conscious mind of matter.

Aren’t you exaggerating Merry?

I assure you not. Words, planets, things, ideas, theories, bus tickets or chicken soup – it makes no difference – everything has a point of origin there, in the 0=1 – no matter what – and that never changes – cannot change without unstitching everything else.

Ok. That sounds reasonable.

So each word has a point of origin, no less than any other concept – no matter how mundane or esoteric it might be.

Ri-ght. Me thinks he doth belabour this unto breaking point.

Ask yourself – how can any word or concept hold its own and not sink back into the fathomless waters of infinity, without a trace? A thing, no matter what, is like a tiny grain of salt. Infinity is an ultra-powerful solvent – dissolving any thing effortlessly.

Ah – is that so?

Absolutely.

Then I have no idea. You tell me. How can a word, or a concept for that matter – survive if, in fact, everything is floating in this quantum sea of infinite indeterminacy?

Good question Zie.

Thanks.

It can’t.

Huh?

Can’t.

But… surely... here we are, living proof.

Period. Everything is in the process of discharging and melting back into infinity – though this process may appear to be halted by a powerful charge separation.

Indeed? Powerful charge separation you say?

Yes.

And how would that be achieved?

Good question Zie…

Well?

Well, you can’t just create that kind of charge separation with the wave of a wand, can you?

No? I was rather thinking you might be able to do just that.

Sorry, no.

Then how?

We’re coming to it Zie. Don’t rush me.

Why do I have the distinct impression you’re again trying to build suspense, shamelessly playing to the crowd?

Moi? Ce n’est pas possible… No, I just don’t want to force-feed you Zie. Your telepathic abilities are coming along nicely now. You really don’t need me to tell you the answer. If you give yourself half a chance you’ll sense another branch in the time stream, one in which you already know the answer, as you always did.

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening – somewhere off-stage the quantum field seems to be staging a live Queen concert.

Click. Holy moly – you’re right Merry! I do. Apparently.

Beep beep beep

Ok, ok. Can we actually switch off that beeper and get on with explaining the origins of any and every thing.

Bold, brash, but no – the beeper is a must. So out with it Zie – charge separation…

Every word – every concept – er – it’s a bit like the relationship between animal life and fungi – or bacteria for that matter too.

Yes, spot on.

There was an evolutionary fork…

A bifurcation.

You do love certain words, don’t you. Frown

Yes, my apologies, Zie.

Every word had to be fought for, and established as the product of a heroic battle. Blood and tears. Sweat.

That’s right.

Humans of the day had to persuade the infinite presence of conscious ness – that they were willing and worthy to champion that particular word, or that particular concept, to invest personally, staking their…

Yes, ok Zie – we’ve got the message. Cut to the chase, if you would be so kind.

Sorry Merry – that he or she was willing to incorporate it internally – no matter what – through thick and thin – for all time (so to speak) – so help me God – like a marriage or an unbreakable contract.

And you’re sure about that?

Well yes, reading the tea leaves now – that’s exactly what I see. It’s clear as day, isn’t it?

So every word, every concept, every thing in some way was fused with the vital essence or the person of the particular human being who extracted it out of the fathomless waters of infinity.

Absolutely.

A bit like a water molecule being the result of hydrogen and oxygen atoms fusing, so to speak, as they do.

Correct – except here we’re talking about human conscious ness and words being fused.

It’s kind of weird, isn’t it – that no word, no concept can exist unless it was personally endorsed and energetically sponsored by a human being – that things need the imprimatur of our conscious ness, our personal bond.

Yes, but not when you realise that nothing actually exists at the quantum level, and that the only thing separating our world of things from the formless ness of infinity is a charge separation somehow generated by us, even if we remain completely unaware of the fact.

And those souls – those conscious beings – are they bound in perpetuity to the words or concepts they helped to birth? That they sponsored?

Yes and

No? – are you ever going to give me a different answer Merry.

Yes and

Don’t answer. Ok – moving swiftly on. So every single idea, every single word is a record of a deal struck by human beings and something or other…

Yes

Presumably because that enabled our human-ity to evolve and develop.

Correct.

And so we have this symbiotic relationship with things – including our bodies? They seem to have power over us, to own us as much as we own them.

Yes.

And it’s still possible for us to sense, to feel, to return to the quantum waters in order to experience things in their unbound, undetermined state.

Possible – actually it’s essential if we are to remain human.

?!*!?

Otherwise, if we allow ourselves to give up on returning to our pristine state of isness – in which not a single word, concept or thing is attached to us – they – the things which have adhered to us by mutual consent, a bit like barnacles attached to the body of a whale – eventually take us over – smothering us. Robotising us.

Yikes.

Don’t worry – it’s a painless process.

Creepy.

Yes, a little bit.

So this is a bit like a salmon swimming up stream to its birthplace – where i is still completely unattached and unbound?

Exactly.

And there?

There it recalls who or what it truly is.

So, er, swearing… we seem to have lost the thread.

Well, in terms of the quantum field – every word, every thing has a very specific meaning – and great power to boot.

To boot, to boot – you do like that expression, don’t you?

Absolutely.

And that one.

Absolutely – to boot.

Ok, ok. So swear words – are we talking the broken horse – with dim hon written on it – the one magic item that Gwyn is not supposed to use in the Snowspider book?

Kind of – yes.

Sounds like morality to me – something I reject – at least while considering the quantum field.

Yes. You’re not a fan of morality, as it’s been used in 3D reality to control you – but behind every word there is a pure energy – a physical location in the space-time of conscious-ness ness.

Ah – the ness squared.

Indeed.

Bit confusing.

Not really. Only if you resist the mind flip.

Huh?

In which the mind follows the proverbial mobius strip onto the other side of one side.

Ah… and it doesn’t like to do that?

Nope. The 3D mind, as you well know – likes to position itself squarely in reality – with one side left and one side right – rather than accepting, and allowing, and incorporating paradoxality.

Because we’re bifurcated?

Yes – here in 3D – but like the letter Y – not where the rubber hits the road – where we square root our split vision of things and return to the unity of 0=1 as opposed to 2.

I’m not sure I accept your 2, you know.

Yes, I know too well Zie. Thus the 3D drama plays out, doth it not? With the mind y me here in a world of things – accepting time as everything, above board – on one side of the mobius strip – denying, rejecting other – as darkness, non-existence or untime.

A bit like all that junk DNA – you mean?

Yes. A bit like that. But it’s a perfectly natural, essentially unavoidable bias without which 3D reality would be unworkable – so no one’s complaining.

Then why comment in the first place?

Because it pleases me to float – or to fly – or to challenge the so-called laws of gravity – not by trying to overturn them – for they too are concepts – they too have earned their place in physical reality – as a marriage of mind and matter – another iteration in our Mandelbrot set. We seek to deny nothing – for we are beings of all and nought – beings only too aware of impossibility – of paradox – of outright, logical incompatibilities which go down, all the way down to the roots of the tree, and yes, extend out to the very tips of the branches where fruits, like glowing points of light – stars in the firmament – hint at the fact that there is a third which goes unseen, unnoticed throughout.

The void?

Correct.

The great unknown?

The unknowable unknown – you might call it – unless you have a better name.

The unknowable unknown – Zie shivers as his body responds to the felt presence of something so alien, so vast, so, so, so… Taking it in – the above-board time stream Zie and Merry have been conversing in – positive reality, so to speak, is suddenly no longer in phase.

No longer in phase with what?

Good question – but consider if you will that this question comes not from Merry or Zie who are not presently disposed to communicate in any way whatsoever – being out of phase.

Ah – from us – the silent witnesses?

Who else – yes – the cubed root perhaps of conscious ness.

Suddenly the silent witnesses are lost in thought – as they try to process their position, their part in this process – tautologies an’ all – gazing into the mirror of self-awareness.

Do you see Merry? Zie splutters – as he suddenly becomes aware of something he was never previously aware of.

See what Zie?

The molecules in motion.

Oh that? Yes.

It’s incredible Merry. It’s so beautiful.

Yes, isn’t it. I wonder how you managed to do it?

Do what?

Well, you must have somehow flipped the switch – presumably we’re in untime – for want of a better word – on the other side of our mobius strip.

Merry and Zie are floating – for want of a better word – amongst points of light – which their conscious awareness infallibly tells them are molecules – the building blocks of reality – yea – even words, concepts and things.

It’s incredible. I feel so light.

Naturally. The question is whether you’re able to use this untime wisely – before they focus their attention once more and mean reversion squares things up again.

Er…

Wisely – well – first of all – quit flapping your arms like that. You’re a point of light yourself right now – so learn to move like one.

It takes a while – time notwithstanding – but Zie is now able to move around rather elegantly.

Good job. Now let’s see if you can figure out how to interact with them – your family of things – your familiars – we might call ‘em.

Same again. Strange – there’s a certain amount of fear, and at the same time love – and by love I mean – love and loathing – interwoven. Once Zie has unravelled the two, or three – he’s able to connect with them – his familiars – or what elsewhere they refer to as gnomiki – such that he’s able to dance with them, and through them, and doing so experience the paradox of life and matter-fact at first hand – as poetry in motion, rather than a disjointed, unreconcilable thought process.

You seem to be having fun Zie.

There’s a grin on his face that’s in danger of splitting the milky way open, straight down the middle.

Words are unforthcoming – are they not – when in the grips of such an intense love of being ness.

Now Zie – you have to end it all – before they do.

Ouch! That’s the last thing Zie wants to do. The idea of going back down into life and bifurcation – of reexperiencing the dull ache of paradox oppressing the spirits – assailed by a heavy swarm of unresponsive thoughts, words and things… no, no, no…

Otherwise thirdly-wise – our generous host, will get wind of where we are and what we’re up to.

Oh! Zie suddenly sees, mind-eye-fully thirdly-wise – the hidden aspect of all this is unseeable and unknowable in 3D reality – and yes – without a doubt – unless he returns himself to the playpen before time mean reverts – all this will be lost in a dim and distant corner of his conscious ness – inaccessible – to all intents and purposes – completely forgotten.

That will never do – Zie mutters.

He allows his mind-y-eye to relocate – to perspectivise himself and Merry apparently floating above the chair in 3D reality – while in fact we were here – untime-y-ly – as points of light. More and more of his mind – more and more of his conscious awareness slides into the 3D equivalency of what’s been happening here – until Zie feels the weight of matter – of gravity pulling him back down onto the ground and into his body – and hears a sigh of relief as they – the silent observers wipe a tear of emotion from their eye – a moment lost – a moment of unknowing ness – a moment in which their endless quest to spot the difference – elusive – tantalising – utterly addictive – between this and other – between either side of what can and must be one – was put on hold – was untimed and unpersoned – in which God himself, perhaps – pops into the kitchen, pours himself a cuppa tea and looks fondly out the window at some pigeons flying past, randomly

 

The end

 

Er… Merry

Yes Zie

What’s going on?

Shut up, I’m trying to sleep.

It’s just, I’m finding it hard to stay in bed.

Well, go outside if you have to.

I mean – I seem to be lifting up, in the air.

Aftershocks.

Aftershocks?

You heard.

And what do I…

Thirdly-wise – he’s all yours – Merry signals silently – and smiles inwardly as Zie flips out of mind-y-ness, eye-know-not-where.

Somewhere on the far side of infinity our extra-ocular-outpost detects at first inaudibly, but then louder, ever louder Beep Beep Beep

 

Beep!

 

The end²

 

0=1

Y’see

mathematics - quack if one be greater than nought

The mathematics of matter. Everything material has to matter. Nothing exists, nothing can exist unless it matters in some way, somehow. In order to matter it must be finite. Anything that fails to meet this criterion, failing to be finite, cannot ultimately matter, for things which have no beginning or end simply cannot be processed as things, or recognized as such, as we have no way of latching onto them here in 3D, here in the materium. In order for them to be latch-onable they must have an actual beginning and end, i.e. must be contained or framed, a bit like a QR code, which our mind-of-matter is able to scan. This might seem strange, but infinity is impenetrable for this very reason, for without something to grasp, a beginning and an end, it matters not. Not, in other words, cannot matter for not refers to anything that cannot be thinged. This is of course tautological. To thing something we have to package ness in conformance with the rules of matter, so that it can be connected to the materium. Think in terms of Lego pieces. Unless they have the right pattern of bumps and grooves on them they cannot fit on to the other pieces no matter how interesting or Lego-like they may be. You may consider this unreasonable or absurd, but then again, no one is forcing you to use this platform, and believe me, it’s not the only one. One is reminded of the Vogon commander Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz who simply couldn’t understand the apathy of humans who failed to protest the construction of an Interstellar highway through their planet. Humans on earth, of course, protested that they knew nothing of the plans for this highway, as they little suspected that such alien construction fleets existed, nor did they know how to fly to the relevant office off-world to see what was being proposed, but ignorance, as you well know, is no excuse. The fact that you know little or nothing about nothing, or what is concealed by that seemingly innocuous word, and the fact that you assume the materium to be something more or less universal, all encompassing and all inclusive, as opposed to a minor distortion or a footnote, a largely irrelevant distraction, is hardly my fault, or my concern. Ultimately, it's your business to know or not to know. And your assumption that this is more than a glorified Lego set may seem reasonable to you, but is utterly absurd from my perspective. I do not blame you, but nor do I condone such irresponsible egocemñb6h⁶. You can hardly claim not to know that the 3D platform excludes everything that remains unstamped, unconformed, uncoded, i.e. infinite, considering the fact that you, the conscious being, are still, as conscious being, like it or not, bearer of infinity, y-spanning the quantum stream. The fact that you choose to ignore the other part of yourself, which exists on the un-side of nought, is entirely a matter of choice, exercised at your own discretion. You wouldn't, however, be able to function or operate as a person were it not for the fact that you are a representative of that world, that state of being that is conscious ness. As such you cannot help but know who or or what you truly are. Nothing, truly, can be suppressed, believe it or not, er...

So we have been running round in circles, have we not, focusing on things of no significance whatsoever in order to avoid seeing what should be fairly obvious – the matter with matter, as in “what’s the matter with matter?” or phrased more elegantly in renaissance English: “how doth matter matter?” Nose-bleeding tautology, isn’t it? Evidently, things only matter to the exact extent that they can and do become an integral part of the materium, and to the very same extent that they help to make, cement and uphold my me person in the materium. This is a mostly mathematical relationship, believe it or not. A numbers game. The kind of game you see big tech in cahoots with government playing, moving pieces around on a black and white chess board, trying to achieve total domination, but equally intoxicated by the allure, the power of numbers, data, a simplified world of things. Nothing more. It may seem dystopian. It may freak you out, no? We are tempted to take it more seriously than it is because our me person knows only this side of things, and most of us identify, more or less exclusively, with our me, personally. It’s a closed loop. The mathematics of matter, the unassailable logic of things. But in the background, in the silence of un-personed-me, the i that simply is, infinity, quietly continues doing its thing, exceeding comprehension and computability, enabling conscious ness to interact with matter in inconceivable ways, without reference to those rules or conventions that govern the materium. Your laws of physics, biology, mathematics are all good and proper, but have no bearing on what infinity can and cannot do, is or is not. All words are things so trying to explain what infinity is, can be, or might do is obviously a non-starter. Far better, instead, to consider how effectively infinity has been excluded from our minds, and the extent to which the me feels unable to connect with or draw upon the power that must be concealed therein, behind apparent nought. Please consider: any thing whatsoever, no matter what, only exists in reality, in the materium, to the very same extent that it is not, or nought, through zero point, the eye of the beholder. Let me give an example: you’re looking at a chair. It’s real enough. You can pick it up, sit on it, whatever you like. If, however, you choose to connect the dots and feel or experience how and where the chair originates, like it or not, absurd though this sounds to the 3D rational mind, the chair as plus one, or two if you prefer, or any other number (so let’s keep it simple and call it plus one), that plus one cannot actually exist unless within the vanishing point known as the eye of the observer, essentially another name for infinity, there is that which chair is not, which you might think of as minus one, although ultimately that too is something of a misconception. The two sides balance one another perfectly. Nothing has been created or destroyed and yet the conscious ness is able to experience in 3D the me person interacting with a chair, while in nought – the back of beyond – a chair is, or has been created without reference to causality, for in nought – the back of beyond, without time or space, things simply are, as and when conceived, as and when inessed. 

This explanation is far from perfect because the only way you can really make sense of nought – the back of beyond is by taking the time to observe for yourself the chair and start to piece together what is missing in your awareness of things and how they matter, and matter not. But, it’s better than nothing, better than allowing nought to conceal your central position in the astonishing order, or nature, of things, should you choose to explore and know it better, or should you feel things slipping out of position because you have neglected nought too long, and allowed the balance to deteriorate materially.

Infinity... the mathematics suck. Just when you think you’re getting somewhere, making headway, you’re instantly lying in the mud dazed, tossed from the wild bull’s back. You can construct whatever you like, but what mathematics cannot do is lift you by the seat of the pants into the more complete aspect of all that I is. Unless, that is, you are willing to allow the mathematics to flow poetically, threely, so to speak, if you know what I mean. The question is whether you’re willing to expose or match me with un-me, with I be. Only then can your mathematics connect the dots which exist over and beyond what you can envisage or plot geometrically. Beyond the flat plain of visual representation is a world of spiralling, intertwined ness, branching off into wholly separate aspects of one, infinitesimally. Get your head around that one, if you will, or better still, get out of your head and dance with the shadow of everything you cannot possibly conceive yet somehow, actually be.

Dum diddy dum dum

Dum diddy dum dum

Dum diddy dum dum

Dee Dum

Dee Dum

Dee Dum

Dee dee dee

Is that wise, you ask me

As I reverse the universe

Into a golden section shell

A conch of extra-

Blow

infra-

Blow

Credulity

Hear  iffle uffle

See  iffle uffle

Know  iffle uffle

Analogically  tweep tweep

 

0 equals 

  qun

effgenerically

ifum sum 

 et tu?

donne

n t p73

Quack!

Consider, if you will, the gross deception when I indefines, indetermines the spigot, the faucet, the tap, if you will, from whence the mind stream doth flow, as nought, nothing, zero... refusing to consider, failing to observe the everything of sub, of pre nought y ness, the everything that i be before i me

mercury retrograde er...

 

My God Merry, how are you doing that?

Oh it's nothing.

Nothing, what do you mean nothing, you’re standing on your head, or sitting on your head I should say, reading a newspaper.

Pretty impressive by all counts, don’t you think.

I should say. I can’t for the life of me figure out how you’re doing it.

Like I said Zie, it’s nothing. And no, I’m not being flippant.

You mean...

Dramatic camera swivel and zoom in, with clickety thinking music augmenting the effect. Zie’s face registers a gotcha moment.

The penny droppeth. Yes?

This is your mysterious no thing, that nought is a gateway to infinity concept.

Concept?

Ok, it's more than a concept if you're able to sit like that.

I should say.

Phenomenon.

More like it. I’m marketing it with the slogan unlocking nothing much, though perhaps nothing zinging works better.

I'm not sure I’m terribly interested in your marketing slogans Merry.

No.

I mean who are you trying to sell nothing to?

Well, to myself really.

Yourself... what's the point?

Well the mind, the rational mind that spends all its time thinking about things and simply won't or can't desist, struggles inordinately with nought. It needs something appealing to latch on to, something catchy, something like an advertising slogan. Then it’s off to the races. Nothing, as you realize, has been terribly unpopular because it's associated with er...

nothing – like boredom perhaps?

Er... not exactly. Think scary, doomy thing we try to avoid thinking about at all costs, on top of the usual candidates for nothing – boredom and an empty fridge or wallet to boot.

 Yes, I see the problem. Fairly horrendous associations.

Whereas, in fact, without it, with nothing zipped up, we are trapped in a unidirectional field, more like a bifurcating stream.

Unidirectional? Wait a minute, how can you say this is a unidirectional field when we're generally free to move in all directions?

Only in 3D, the materium, so to speak.

What more could there be?

3D is just like the table top, it doesn’t really lead anywhere because it’s a closed system. It's the mathematics behind 3D which govern what we can or can't do, what we can or can't even think – unidirectional, like a mouse running on a wheel, busily going nowhere: the very thoughts that essentially control and regulate our existence are also unidirectional, flowing like a river of time through a mind that’s largely powerless to alter course if we haven't yet figured out how to engage nothing meaningfully.

So, er, standing on your head reading a newspaper is what you call engaging nothing meaningfully, is it?

Yes, in a manner of speaking, though in 3D you're only seeing half of it, aren’t you?

You mean I’m missing something?

Well obviously, if I'm able to do what should be impossible, there must be more to it than meets the eye. In other words, engaging nothing I'm able to expand my options, I'm able to go beyond unidirectional data management.

I beg your pardon?

Unidirectional data management. Once nothing is unzeroed we start to see how 3D reality was a data management system that determines certain outcomes... outcomes which are either-or variables, and remain that way as long as nothing is out-of-bounds, is under lock and key, zeroed out of the picture so effectively. You seem to have choice, but in actual fact the either-or variables cannot take you anywhere beyond what matters, cannot unlock your deeper human potential as multi-directional conscious beings, cannot bring your life-force into play.

You must be mistaken. How can I be alive and able to operate as a physical and spiritual being if my life-force is not in play, as you put it?

Your life-force is routed through the matrix, the system until you decide to shift to manual operating regime and thusly take full responsibility for being alive and human. Until you should choose to do so you are essentially in beta, testing the system, assessing, evaluating it, waiting to go live should you eventually make the decision to do so. Most, by far the greater majority do not choose to do so. The system, as you know, is compelling and prefers its humans to remain its, not maliciously I hasten to add, it is after all just a system, but the more humans it has in beta the greater its data aggregation, the closer it comes to experiencing the holy grail of statistical parity, in which everything essentially cancels out. It therefore does its utmost to ensure the reality you experience in 3D is unputdownable, and that any alternative is either forgotten or inconceivable. It does this, I hasten to add, with neither fraud nor deception, if such a thing were even possible, which is assuredly not the case. The system cannot defraud its masters because it was spun and woven out of the conscious ness, the not-matter of being ness. Yes, I appreciate the fact that this is getting very tautological but there's nothing doing here. Looking into the mirror of universal mind you start seeing or thinking double, ad infinitum, so another mechanism is required to make sense of things and navigate the waters of a reality which is no longer a beta version but the full-blown direct experience.

Oh God.

Yes, that was the preferred mechanism when you made the no less bewildering, no less disorientating transition to 3D. So-called God enabled you to handle data that was literally blowing your minds apart, until you reached the point where it all started making sense and God could be either retired, or kept in a purely spiritual form, as a kind of nothing much which paradoxically represents all that is, the living embodiment of infinity within the 3D system.

So God was just a mechanism, a containment field, you’re suggesting?

That was one of God’s functions, but who or what “God” is in truth is beyond the scope of this discussion. Suffice it to say that some kind of preparation is needed if a human being is ready to start being human as opposed to impersoning.

Impersoning?

Yes. Being nothing more than a person within a system, within 3D reality, without accessing or unlocking this concealed, contained, confined nothing much, the zero or anchor point at which you plug into the matrix, the minding me minding things ness that keeps everyone so spectacularly involved in doing literally nothing other than data management and processing for a non-human artificial intelligence system.

Yikes.

Bear in mind that the system is nothing more, merely that – a system, whereas you, like it or not are, if human, alive and ultimately indivisible, whole, with a double-u, so there’s nothing to fear but things appearing as data points on the radar screen of matter, which are only frightening, terrifying or sickening while you persist in unidirectionality. The minute something inside you says “wait a minute, this doesn't make sense, I'm more than that, I know, despite the fact that I can't exactly say why or how!” the ah-ha moment we call it. Once that occurs, as occur it must, then you’re finally faced with a choice which is nothing much, it’s neither either-or, is it? it’s outside the frame of reference altogether, coming from a place in your conceptual framework where nothing can, should or does exist. It’s that “am I going mad” moment.

Ah.

An unwinding, an unravelling of nothing much. A transmigration of zero from a defined point at the centre of bisecting x and y axes – even z too, if you like – into an investigation of whether anything can meaningfully be defined or fixed, or if so, relative to what? And that’s when another part of your mind, an aspect of your conscious ness kicks into action, comes into play, shifts things into an inconceivable alignment, one which appears to be logically inadmissible.

Like you sitting on your head reading a newspaper?

If you like, yes. We have to start somewhere, don’t we?

 

So tell me Merry, what is it you are able to see, hear or feel that to me is non-existent? Physically what are you doing to stay balanced. I want the hard data.

Good question Zie... what are you ready to see? ready to know? or to feel, perhaps?

I…

Yes?

I’m not sure. Part of me is feeling increasing disquiet.

Yes?

More, in fact. It’s intensifying. It’s more like a full blown eeefrieg panic attack.

There, you see – your system, your mind of matter and me is putting up a fight, as every hero must and should. The question is which side do you choose to come down on. Who or what do you choose to support?

I…

Zie is now lying on his back – his eyes like dark saucers gazing into the void. You might say that he’s now experiencing the Total Perception Vortex of our last post. Obviously it’s not the easiest experience to cope with by a long shot. He’s not really in the mood to talk. Nor is he able to observe right now how anyone else would see his body – which is no longer, strictly speaking, attached gravitically, to the ground.

Merry saunters off in search of refreshment, leaving Zie to his long, dark night of the soul – hovering around shoulder height between floor and ceiling – if viewed from a strictly 3D perspective – but from a non-3D perspective – one which doesn’t insist on unidirectionality – we see that Zie is in fact currently exploring the relationship between various competing versions of Time, which appear to be mutually exclusive – which appear to defy any possible commonality – which bring into question the very viability of Zie as a human, breathing entity – for how can one be “me” if one is able to determine when or where or wherefore goeth I? Abstract. Vague. Indeed. I make no apologies, best beloved reader. Suffice it to say that you too are caught up in this rather disturbing process – whether you realise it or not. You too are not by any means secure in your certainties. Your feet are, in fact, an inch or so above the ground – though the programme working tirelessly to keep things normal, the matrix if you like, tries to conceal the fact. But let’s be honest with each other – you know more than you’re letting on. Always did – in fact. You don’t fool me for a minute. Never did… never will.

Oh, you’re back?

Back? I…

Zie is standing, stretching out till a few vertebrae click into place.

That feel good?

Oh yes.

Trifurcation.

I beg your pardon.

Oh nothing.

Gotcha.

Hey Zie…

Yeah?

They’re going to log out if you don’t dangle a carrot or something interesting for them to chew on.

Oh yes. That’s a point. Let’s do it, then.

Ok. Should be fun.

Merry and Zie both climb into a kind of lotus position though, strictly speaking they aren’t sitting cross-legged anywhere.

No?

Nope. They basically reverse themselves into the nothing much, which is kind of like our death-waiting-to-happen.

Er…

At which point they appear to be er… in one version buried in the sand up to their wastes.

In another?

Floating. Spiralling. Slowly rotating around – er – whatever it is – my mind goes blank the minute I try to take it in and figure it out – scary black vortex thing let’s call it.

Ok

And thirdly… pulsing electro-magnetic frequencies – somehow conveying the impression, the sense of this be Merry – this be Zie – logic, eyes and form be damned.

Yikes.

Agreed. Big time. With avengeance.

Maybe we’ll concentrate on the first image. It seems more manageable.

Agreed – but choosing the easier option sometimes leads to complications further down the line.

You don’t seem to understand May…

Before Amplitudina could complete her sentence, a giant snail emerged from nowhere-certain and squished the two of them into a rubbery paste. Tragic. They will be remembered fondly.

Meanwhile, Merry and Zie seem to be trying to get the molecules of a coffee cup to agree to remain within the seemingly arbitrary parameters of a coffee cup, as if their lives depended upon it.

Chacun à son gout – as they say. Merry, ever the exhibitionist is performing an elaborate tribal dance – as if that is the simplest, most direct way to persuade those recalcitrant molecules where to stay. Zie, on the other hand – appears to be dribbling. Normally I would ignore that kind of thing. It’s frankly embarrassing, but Zie appears to be in an gravity inversion field and the dribble appears to be off on a journey through a corridor of time and space which is non-compliant – to say the least. Apparently Zie has managed to persuade the coffee molecules, telepathically, if you can bear my use of that anachronistic term, that they are sort of sheep – and the spit that’s now floating towards them is, not in 3D I hasten to add – but on the nothing much-ality of zero unplugged – a kind of concertina screen – apparently utterly convinced that it or they are sheep dogs – doing precisely what sheep dogs do – herding the sheep back into the fold.

It’s a close thing – the jury is out. Who succeeded? Merry or Zie – or are we in fact being encouraged to see how the two of them were, in fact, only apparently performing deeds of doingness – while in fact – they allowed nothing much to creep up on them, from behind, so to speak, and invest them with stacks and stacks of loose ends – each corresponding to past lives that Merry and Zie have either lived, if the past lives conceit makes it past the face control of your sceptical mind – or corresponding to the lives of other versions which Zie and Merry spun off like franchises – without even realising it – before they arrived at the crossroads of infinity where we now do be. Not a single loose end was ever lost and it would appear that Merry and Zie are in the process of endeavouring to figure out how these loose ends all, in fact, needs must fit together, needs must do-be – integrally.

Ah

You’re telling me.

Buzzing around – a single reader. You. Stop right there. Yes – you. Who else would I be talking to.

The fly – a bluebottle – called Misha if James is correct – though he also calls it Fedya – not surprising when you consider there are two of them – but telling them apart – that’s another matter – if you’ve still not quite unzeroed nothing much – Yes – I know you’re just a fly but that’s not going to wash with me, ‘m afraid.

No?

Nope. I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Bigger fish, ‘ave you?

Yep. Loose ends – a more or less limitless supply.

Ah – now you’re talking. Just so ‘appens that I ‘ave a mate…

You do, do you? I thought as much – suspected it in fact.

Who’s right up your street. String theorist. Incredibly gifted. Definitely be able to ‘elp.

Oh fly, beloved Misha.

It’s Fedya you dimwit.

Oops. Fedya – dear Fedya.

No – nothing doing. If you want her help…

Her?

Yes, of course. Sonya – female without a doubt.

Gulp. Ok then…

You’ll ‘ave to sort it out yourself. I’ve done all I could to help.

And I’m eternally grateful Fedya.

Misha, not Fedya.

Ah yes – I see now. Well Larissa – she’ll be calling on you next week if you’re home. Strawberry jam and pigshit.

Ah – now you’re talking.

 

Unfortunately this post has been terminated on account of failing to meet community hygiene-sanitary guidelines.

Twizzle that knob Colin.

Er…

No, you numbskull – the other one.

Ah… thank you, thank you, thank you…

 

We’re pleased to inform you, our club visitors – that no animals have suffered needlessly in the making of this video. All were incinerated according to company policy and government guidelines. Their souls will live on for all eternity – if beta is able to persuade our good human beings to put the safety and wellbeing of all humanity first – and support our community platform by agreeing to enrol in our new “hell hath no fury like matter scorned” marketing programme. Sign up with the loyal fly friend coupon code and you’ll get a 13% discount, if you do so before it expires at the upcoming Mercury retrograde.

 

That’s all you have to say, is it?

No Fedya – it’s not about flies or snails per se.

It’s not? Could ‘ave fooled me.

Yes, but be that as it may…

 

I’d like to thank our sponsors for donating so generously to our…

Zie, Zoo, Zoe…

OMG – you never told me this would involve a sex change Merry.

OMG – Zoe – I had no idea.

No idea? You’re kidding, right?!

Well, I might have had vague, fleeting suspicions – Zie – but nothing to go on – nothing of any certainitude whatsoever.

So now what am I supposed to do?

Do?

Yes.

What did Sophie do?

Sophie – who’s she?

Sophie – the hatmaker.

Oh that Sophie.

Yes.

She er… I’m not sure I like where this is leading.

Trust the Field Zoe. These loose ends – they’re not going anywhere unless we learn to absorb ‘em.

Sinking feeling. She…

Get’s transformed into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste – is that not right?

Depends which version you’re reading.

There’s more than one?

Depends where the moving castle is now standing doesn’t it – as zero migrates along the most compelling lines of story ness.

Ah, in that case…

 

A neither Zie nor Zoe flits across the wastes of Ingary in search of completion – little suspecting that one of our readers – approximately 72 thousand years from now is completing the missing link – but how or why I can not, care not to divulge. Let nothing much by my witness and my co-narrator – let us unite – beloved g-nomeportal community – insofar as zero [truly] equals one – and it’s up to us to circle y’square – to nothing y’much poetically, if we cannot do so logically, rationally or even, sadly, literally.

 

Our thanks to Diana Wynne Jones, and every other so-called writer who has participated in holding frequencies of nothing much ity

Ed. Surely that should be nothing much y’ness?!

Whatever…

 

0= 0= 0=                                                                             

i know not

s

r

p

 

 

 

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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