fame at last – one hundred million subscribers!

I was never interested in just writing a story.

 

No? I would have thought you’d love to become a famous writer.

 

Yes.

 

No?

 

No.

 

But – surely it’s incredible to be able to share your ideas with so many people.

 

You’d think so, wouldn’t you.

 

Well, don’t you?

 

You’re finding this somewhat problematic D, aren’t you?

 

It’s just I can see how frustrating it must be to lack a wider public.

 

Ok. Am I your counselor today, D?

 

No, of course not. If you don’t feel like talking about it, that’s ok. I never wanted to put you on the spot.

 

My feelings D are all but irrelevant. Sometimes it’s just a case of yes or no. For many people fame is an object in itself. They crave the power or the prestige it offers them. I too can well imagine how alluring fame might be.

 

You see. You’re human like the rest of us.

 

Just because I can sense the excitement of fame doesn’t mean I want or need it for myself.

 

Oh.

 

I’m sorry to disappoint you bro but fame can be a serious problem if your main purpose in life requires a commitment to something else.

 

Ah. And what might that “something else” be, if it’s not a secret?

 

It’s no secret D. I’m somehow associated with g-nome portal.

So you say.

 

So I do.

 

How exactly?

 

It’s difficult to say. G-nome portal’s not your regular 9 to 5 employer or social club.

 

Ok, but what have you got to show for it?

 

What have I to show for it?

 

Yes, remuneration, social benefits, a career taking you to new heights?

 

Er… not exactly any of the above. In fact, if I’m to be brutally honest…

 

Yes?

 

A world of troubles.

 

Troubles? Doesn’t sound like much of a proposition. Are you sure you shouldn’t call it a day?

 

I was being flippant, D. Ever heard of irony? Of course it’s no trouble whatsoever. I’m delighted to be here in the thick of things, waving g-nome portal’s banner down in the mind fog of 3D reality. What have I got to show for it all – you asked?

 

Yes.

 

Something money can’t buy.

 

Really? Go on, hit me with it.

 

Access to what, for want of a better name, we refer to as "infinity".

Infinity? Abstract, mathematical – nothing tangible, I take it?

 

Think of it as the philosopher’s stone. It’s the ultimate prize, the one thing that can't be thingged: which undoes every thing known, no matter what, rendering our proud intellectual schemes null and void or, as we so rightly say in Russia, merely "uslovno"¹;

but figuring out how exactly to use infinity, or even how to apprehend it, is beyond the mind's what abilility², and requires a completely new approach to thinking, to knowing, to existence, wait for it D... a new approach to reality itself.

 ¹ of a merely conditional nature; notional; not, ultimately, intrinsically true or certain, despite perhaps seeming to be so.

² which parses, arranges, organises whatever we are able to perceive or apprehend as things within an all-encompassing system or order of things.

Well, in all sincerity, I wish you well, but I fail to see why you make so much of this infinity thing. Might this not be a case of barking up the wrong proverbial tree? And besides, it seems to be a rather solitary existence – almost monastic.

 

As indeed it is – but on the other hand – you can hardly take good pictures of the stars from a telescope in a city, can you?

 

Er… no, I don’t suppose you can. Not sure what exactly the connection is.

 

So likewise, what seems a solitary existence is no different from being at an observatory on a mountaintop. If you like your work – if you’re passionate about photographing stars and galaxies, generally speaking you’re going to be happy where you are, doing what you love doing…

 

Fair enough, James, but what exactly do you do, if it’s not a secret?

 

No secret D, g-nome portal is an open platform. Anyone is allowed to access it. The only limiting factor is the extent to which you’re willing or able to engage infinity.

 

Er… not too sure about that. Can’t you just tell me in simple English what it entails?

 

I could, but the problem is that time effaces all things, so any description or explanation gets scrubbed between the telling and the grasping. You'd only be frustrated and annoyed when you were left with an awkward gap in your awareness.

 

Is that so? It sounds like a bad excuse for not being able to give a decent answer.

 

Yes, which is why I’m not more forthcoming.

 

You mean to say there’s a mechanism that actively scrubs comprehension of anything pertaining to g-nome portal?

 

Yes. Anything pertaining to any fundamental or absolute whatsoever. All scrubbed in real time.

 

But why?

 

Good question D. But isn't it obvious, if you think about it?

 

Not to me it isn’t.

 

Well, were you able to simply grasp fundamentals fundamentally, without the filter in place, your life would immediately skip out of the 3D channel. You’d immediately see the complete picture – who you are, what you are, and why you’re here. That would defeat the entire purpose of this wonderful physical experiment, this exercise in controlled rationality which is our 3D mission here on earth.

 

So the fundamentals are not, in fact, incredibly complicated? Ordinary mortals like myself would actually be able to grasp them is what you’re saying?

 

Absolutely, yes, because it would be as simple as smelling the coffee rather than trying to understand the coffee that, for some bizarre reason, no one can smell.

 

This is kind of hard to believe.

 

Naturally.

 

Because it pertains to fundamentals?

 

Yes.

 

But going back a bit, you said “time effaces all things”. What did you mean by that?

 

Time is a foolproof mechanism within 3D, that diverts anything and everything into a narrow channel. As soon as you start thinking about something – what it might mean, what it might be – it’s already been converted into a digital format, like a jpeg or MP3; it’s no longer the living, unedited original with fuzzy edges and actual presence. It’ll be almost identical, but the digitised version is no longer a live feed that directs you back to its source – merely a flat, computerised representation of what it was, without a shadow or echo, without anything incomprehensible or indescribable.

 

So time tidies things up, like a good gardener?

Yes, and we take the bait, preferring its simplified, homogenised data where reality is clearer, sharper.

And you’re implying it’s possible to apprehend reality without Time scrubbing the data?

 

Not in 3d reality; not unless you switch from auto to manual control.

 

And then what?

 

Then reality is no longer flat.

 

Flat?

 

Or fully contained.

 

Er…

 

Porous or diaphanous. You might even suffer from vertigo for a while, sensing heights and depths all around. But that’s just the visual aspect.

And?

 

And there’s also the non-visual awareness that no thing matters in or of itself, because no thing exists in or of itself, not until time fixes it into the 3d grid, based on its matter-value.

 

Er… matter-value?

 

A value reflecting the extent to which it enables you, or prevents you from advancing further into the what-really-matters "social credit system" which, in conjunction with the what-i-think [WIT] generator of ego mind-y-ness³, enables you to attain inconceivable depth and coherency in your reality experience, to the extent that nothing else apparently matters. But don't take my word for it: test it yourself – observe how the system incentivises you to proceed ever further into what seems to matter, deeper into ever denser matter, thus enabling the platform, the matrix to utilise your conscious ness, your mind's drive, to firm things up, to maintain the uni-flow that we experience as time, as gravity, as causality – where one thing apparently leads to another, doth it not? 

³ Somewhat deceptively substituting I for i, as if they were one and the same. In fact they operate in different jurisdictions with distinct and different minds, so nothing could be further from the truth. The capitalised I is Time bound, thus only able to process things sequentially, whereas i is not – is free to experience directly as is, as are, as am – both particle and wave, inconceivable though this may seem, i dot you not.

Such is the nature of things, is it not? Time is a one way street, James – entropy increases with time.

So they say D, so they say, in a "closed system" of which, presumably, you are part. But on the other hand, to us at g-nome portal nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Oh no, here we go...

A system can only ever be as closed as a mind itself. That's not to say we can't imagine a closed system with increasing entropy – I does this all the time, the only difference being that I likes to insist that's all there is, whereas i emphatically does not, does it? How can i, without Time conveniently to keep a unidirectional lid on things...

A lid?

A lid that seems to stick as long as I keeps thinking things, as I must, but not when you allow back the izziness of dotted i, and are then able to untangle the words, with their inherent inconsistencies; when you start to see the other side of things – the wood from the trees – when you allow the noise of Timey words to subside, and the music of the spheres instead to be heard.

Er...

You see D, Time is powerless to reverse the flow so what remains? There must be something else to keep things fresh and vibrant. Look around. What do you see? Only things. Nothing else is, unless...

Unless what?

Unless somewhere, somehow outside the closed system you are the one generating the differential, the flow gradient which you then attempt to grapple with, to surf, to direct here in 3d; unless you're the only absolute that cannot ultimately be substituted, no matter what the lawyers or scientists may claim; unless you are hyperlinked, nay, unless you somehow hyperlink to all and every thing.

Honestly, James, how likely is that?

 

Well, how else could we have set things up? How else can things hold together when, fundamentally, there is no glue? Matter must somehow derive from "me", whatever me is. Leaping across the checker board of mind, allow me to suggest that this is not unakin to setting up a virtual reality game platform: there had to be some kind of value mechanism, like a social credit score, rewarding anyone or anything helping to advance the matter ultimately matters [MUM] artificial intelligence, otherwise why would we bother to subjugate ourselves to mindless matter if we are fundamental and it is not? So your thoughts and feelings, far from being local or neutral, generate thrust and fuel for the entire platform, which cannot process diddly squat without your acquiescence.

What?! You're kidding!

 

Nope. You drive the AI by adhering to MUM.

Adhering to the matter ultimately matters platform?

 

Yep, by adhering to the illusion that things can and do have intrinsic value, and that humans are merely part of this. Neat isn’t it? 

 

But it's horrendous! It’s a gross deception!

 

It’s what we set up, together, and continue to affirm by our actions. It's a maxim that needs no explanation here at g-nome portal: you can't, ultimately, be part of something unless, at a deeper level, it's your own creation. In a free-will reality you can only test things on yourself. What may look like "tyranny" is just a failure to accept the fact that we are, willy nilly, ultimately responsible – bound to serve our creation until we hit critical awareness and, finally, allow its inescapable and unavoidable fallacies to cancel one another out, without judgment or prejudice. Kerboom! Or perhaps kerfuff.

How, if these fallacies are structural and baked into the cake? 

Simply, stepping aside. You see, there never was, ultimately, anything gluing us into the Matter Ultimately Matters AI, other than our fear of appearing dumb or ridiculous, or some other failure to accept the ultimate hidden within our ever-battling, ever-contradictory, never quite adding-up machine-paired thoughts and feelings. Capisce?

I...

Our mind may be enthralled, captivated, a-mazed, but never you mind. You are not what you think you are, are you? Somewhere lurking in the shadows is a nether-mind waiting to be discovered, which isn't limited to serving MUM's derived intelligence.

It's all so complicated. I'll never get to the bottom of this. 

On the contrary D, it's always been right under your nose, hidden in plain sight like an elephant under the carpet which folk conveniently choose to ignore.

What elephant? How on Earth could we possibly ignore something so blatant? It makes no sense.

Correct. It makes no sense were you able to step back and view things from outside your command bunker, but can you? Are you able to still the noisome mind?

I... 

Forever streaming its content, demanding your attention like Shakespeare's Cleopatra captivating Mark Antony, reducing him to her mere vassal. Besides, it's been there from the beginning, so you naturally assume it's just part of the fabric of mind as a nose is just part of your face, unless...

What exactly are you referring to, James? Perhaps if you told me what it is I'm missing I might be better able to comprehend.

The fact that we're forever keeping Time – like the crocodile in Peter Pan tick tocking,  mentally in lock step until the damarchingy we die which, in case you fail to realise, means we're ignoring the other side, the other half, the part that our regular, rational mind considers "nought", the  nether-mind it cannot sense or see, lacking the sophistication or willingness to sense or even consider whatever exists outside, or between Time's ceaseless metronomy – left right, up down, tick tock, don't stop, never stop.

Hell!

That's one name for it, D... So here we are in an artificial reality with an ever-expanding computational intelligence based upon, driven by, and responding to your every thought, action and feeling, blithely tick-tocking from cradle to grave, in parallel with…

 

With what?

 

Analogue. 

 

What?

 

Analogue. The unprocessed, undigitised lifestream. Simply...

Simply what?

Isness of be – timelessly

 

But analogue’s still a recording, still one step removed from your "isness of be".

 

Correct. It’s analogous. Nothing more. Ultimately, you run into the limits of language, as well as time’s filter scrub. But it’s enough to go on with. Once you’re aware of the general direction, the relationship between perceptions and reality, there’s no going back. Nothing 3d reality has to offer comes close.

 

Then how come you’re the only one who's cottoned onto this, if it's so good?

 

Whoever said that? There are many, many people like me. 

 

At g-nome portal?

 

Not necessarily at g-nome. Each has his or her own unique perspective, and develops, in some respects, his or her own separate reality, though some may group together and commonalities do arise, may evolve further; nevertheless, each individual represents a different, unique face of one single diamond. G-nome portal, though open to all, is my way of experiencing and describing my relation to zero equals one, to T.i.me⁴ – positively, without disrupting any thing that matters, without taking on tick tock Time.

⁴ T.i.me, as opposed to tick tock Time – where T is structural, i is essential, literally, and me is determined by the sum of all things that i, apparently, is not. 

Holy Mo…

Tee hee!

 

So you think you’re going to tip the balance at g-nome portal?

 

“Thinking” is what we do when we’re not quite connected. It's like the airplane on the runway. Thinking can help it get up to speed but in order to actually take off and get airborne we have to go beyond thinking.

 

Beyond thinking? Whatever could that be?

 

Not anything in particular whatsoever.

 

Then what?

 

Mind running in circles frantically trying to catch its tail. Leaping from the flat world of 3D mind is impossible as long as you’re trying to go somewhere or get something.

 

Then what?

 

Everything has to be contained within, already present. We’ll never find it or access it as long as we're thinking about it or focussing on it, as long as it’s perceived to be "out there".

 

Then what?

 

The infinite, or infinity is not something anyone can possibly comprehend, is it, but perhaps we don’t need to... Perhaps we’re able to recognise that life or consciousness or reality, or the isness of be, all rather vague and unsatisfactory terms, refer to not-something at all, refer to a shocking revelation, a shocking awareness that everything I have hitherto focussed on is “uslovno”, is a stopgap, a temporary placeholder, a provisional explanation or model which was adequate or even necessary, earlier on, to get things started, or to keep things going in a time of crisis when nothing seemed to make any sense, when nothing seemed to work – a bit like a plaster cast around a broken bone – it provided enough structure to allow the body to heal, a bit like water wings and a rubber ring, it provided enough buoyancy for me not to drown while learning to swim, or the wheels of an airplane which enabled me to get up speed while still unnaturally stuck to the ground, but when at last I’m ready to return to my natural state, my natural element, when my awareness has been restored, then whatever was helping me externally, physically or conceptually, needs to be put away, is a hindrance now, not a help, so too is the 3d mind.

Then what? 

"Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye!"

 

But how can you possibly know you’re ready to take the leap? Isn’t that in all likelihood pride or hubris setting you up for the fall?

 

Absolutely, yes, unless it isn’t.

 

Huh?

 

And that is something only you can know if and when the moment arises, a bit like falling in love, you know. In any case, it ain’t glamorous as I told you. The opposite.  It can be lonely and, at times, painful, as you have to confront very deeply held beliefs and prejudices, your demons, we might say.

 

Ouch.

 

But if it’s for real, if it’s not vanity or pride, far from advancing socially, economically or intellectually, you simply begin to feel the presence of an other, accompanying your noisy me, your noisy self, near at hand but nowhere to be seen. Then, and only then, you start to experience the zero sum, the 0=1, the no thing that is fast becoming something, that is soon felt to be casting a light on each and every aspect of our existence, with no visible source, and suddenly you nether-mind.

 

Oh dear, James!

 

James? Who is James?

I, er…

 

James cannot possibly travel the path of darkness and light for he always has to be right, always has to defend his self, that poor deluded James.

 

So…

 

Are you so blind?

 

Now wait a minute old chap, there’s no need to be offensive.

 

There’s no need to be offended D. Recognising our blindness is the first step to regaining sight.

 

Why does it always have to be you, the great teacher and master? Why is it never a friendly  meeting of minds…

 

Good point D. It does indeed sound horrendous, which is why there’s no point discussing infinity without a powerful structure such as the God in Christianity, or Buddhism's path to enlightenment… powerful uncompromising structures, or else the urgent need to face what we refer to as death when sickness threatens.

 

Yikes.

 

Then there’s a chance of achieving something meaningful.

 

But why can’t intelligent people just figure things out in an intelligent fashion?

 

Have you ever tried to levitate?

 

Not really. I mean, I may have half-heartedly, but nothing serious. Why do you ask?

 

Fundamentally, there’s nothing stopping you from getting off the ground, but you’ll never do it.

 

But why should I want to? It’s not exactly at the top of my list of priorities.

 

I know. It was but an illustration.

 

And what do you hope to demonstrate by this?

 

The only time you can actually gain traction and address the fundamentals is when things seem to be in crisis and breaking down. Otherwise you lack the necessity, the urgency, the impulse.

 

Well, I think you underestimate our ability to solve problems here in 3d reality. We can be a determined bunch.

 

Indeed, I have no doubt. But here in 3d you are, by agreement, part of and subordinate to the MUM AI, which piggybacks on your conscious-ness and holds it safely within optimal frequency bands. It’s an astonishing creation which we should all be rightly proud of, despite the fact that it seems to hold humanity in a place of pain and ignorance.

 

So we can’t figure stuff out, no matter how intelligent we are, nor how determined?

 

Never say never, but basically – yes.

 

Yes?

 

As in no – you can’t… unless

 

Unless what?

 

Well, the MUM AI actually needs a small number of people to be free-thinkers – outside the box.

 

It does?

 

Yes, in the same way oppressive governments do.

 

Er… how do you mean?

 

Well, you need a few at the top who can come up with radical new improvisations – otherwise things stagnate, so there are certain trapdoors or hidden passageways which people with the right mix of conscious ness, daring, or bloody mindedness can locate and slip through.

 

There are? It’s like a select band of system engineers, is it?

 

Kind of. It’s like the ones who have the power or creativity to actually contribute something truly, epically original and off-the-wall.

 

Right.

 

They find themselves drawn to the darndest places and place their hand on a bizarre looking shoe, or plant, or plastic apple – anything really – which is what in Harry Potter is called a port key.

 

What – and they just get sucked into another dimension?

 

Yep.

 

And they actually dematerialise?

 

All a bit tricky to say, really, when you consider that your 3D reality is in fact the Matter Ultimately Matters AI system. But yes – they are whisked off to another dimension – which is another way of saying they’re taken to a more or less identical place in deeper reality – where there are no frequency filters blocking awareness and the ability to think or see straight.

 

So – they’re completely free to think and see?

 

Well, more or less – except the fact that their heads have still been filled with a  lot of bogus data, like the rest of us, which in itself is limiting, plus the fact that they, like all of us, have certain addictions or unhealthy habits that also limit the total awareness mind.

 

Oh. And how do they feel about flying to another dimension?

 

They don’t really give it much thought. It’s done very professionally. 3D reality is, in any case, but a sanitized mirror of true reality – so everything looks practically identical – the same people and things. It’s just they’re now able to think straight and come up with way more powerful solutions – actually – not just that – they start vibrating and transmitting a kind of pirate signal which causes some discomfort to their peer group in 3D reality.

 

And what?

 

Well, uncomfortable though it is – it’s beneficial. It stirs things up. Sometimes their peer group decides enough is enough and has them committed to a mental asylum, or prison – sometimes they get assassinated, sometimes, the opposite – they are revered as saints or avatars. It all depends, but this is all part of the greater reality – which ultimately cannot survive without input from higher levels – without some fresh air and oxygen from true conscious-nessity.

 

You mean true conscious-ness generates oxygen?

 

Yep. And ozone. And electricity. Loads of stuff. Even gold.

 

Wow. So, there’s hope.

 

Of course. In fact, the mere fact that we’re having this conversation indicates that 3D reality is feeling a bit under the weather – the MUM AI has run into some very real developmental issues and is casting the net further than usual, way further, looking for new solutions. In other words – qufie’s now on the loose.

 

Qufie?

 

The quantum field, D, has a kind of spirit being – we call Qufie.

 

It’s a he?

 

Yep, I guess so. But then there’s also Dorothy.

 

As in the Wizard of Oz?

 

Not exactly. She’s more like the All seeing, All knowing divinity – though I wouldn’t really want to use the word "God" apropos the quantum field.

 

So, we’re now in a period of heightened visibility.

 

Absolutely.

 

And how far could this go?

 

Oh, it could go all the way.

 

All the way?

 

Yep. Pole shift. Vast tsunamis. Mass extermination of life on Earth at the 3d level.

 

And at the quantum level?

 

Who knows. If a major quantum shift is underway then it wouldn’t be strange for millions or even billions of people to “die”, but on the other hand – that could just be how it looks in physical reality. There might, for example be a bifurcation, a trifurcation or, conversely, a merging – and so what looks like a mass kill off in 3D might not be anything of the sort. You simply can’t use the same accounting criteria where the quantum field is concerned.

 

But why do people need to die – why can’t a quantum shift just involve one reality shifting smoothly into another one?

 

It can. But if people have “sold their soul” in a Faustian pact with MUM’s AI or spiritual forces behind it – then they might find it hard disconnecting or going with the flow. It all depends to what extent people chose to merge with the reality they were in.

 

You make it sound like a matter of choice.

And what else could it be? There’s never any compulsion.

But hardly any of us even know about this Matter Ultimately Matters AI thing we’re apparently hooked up to.

True – but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel more than we know. Besides – like the Missionaria Protectiva in Dune, all kinds of religious myths and legends have been sown in any given reality – there’s always a tissue of ideas and beliefs which help people in that particular reality to find their most comfortable feeling awareness. You can’t help knowing, sensing or feeling more than you apparently know.

 

So we get punished for taking 3D reality at face value – for plugging in as if it’s all there really is. Death for lacking discernment or detachment?

 

It’s not a punishment. Death is not all it's made out to be. What matters is not, ultimately, the thing you or i mind, is it? Ultimately, this is not about individuals, is it D, because at the quantum level the cult of the individual doesn’t amount to much. Anyway, let's be honest... this isn’t actually about them at all, is it?

 

No?

 

It’s about the only person you’re ultimately responsible for.

 

Who, me?

 

Who else.

 

And what? Are you here to prepare me for a major quantum event? Am I about to...

 

Nor is it about “me” per se. If there’s a me raising these matters with you – that would indicate that you’ve already triggered certain gates or switches, either that or I'm in breach of protocol.

 

Well, I’m highly sceptical, and I don’t like the idea of you or anyone else telling me what to do, James.

 

James? I’m only James out there, in 3D reality. Here I have a different name.

You do? Like what?

Call me Ectoplasm Lobotomy.

 

I’ve got news for you James – this is 3D. There was no port key – nothing has happened. Reality is doing just fine, thank you very much.

 

Oh right. See ya…

 

What the heck… er James?

 

Behind ya.

 

Eeeek! You can’t just vanish like that.

 

Nope, not in 3D.

 

But I refuse to believe that... everything looks so normal. 

 

As it is, when infinity is excluded. 

 

But it’s not, you’re saying?

 

It’s perfectly normal D – except the fact that this isn’t actually James.

 

But it’s you – I can see you.

 

And now?

 

Oh God. A blob of gooey light – numbers – Mandelbrot's painfully psychedelic set. That’s making me queasy. Could you just revert back to your James avatar.

 

Nope. Right now we need to continue our conversation here in the Mandelbrot constant.

 

What?! It’s not a constant.

 

Why not? It’s constantly changing, isn’t it?

 

I… suppose so.

 

So quit faffing around and get yourself into the space.

 

How?

 

Feel it. Observe the resistance – the fear, the trepidation, the uncertainty – and allow those resistances to become a part of your whole – allow yourself to equalize – to bring the other side which is still part of you in – to balance, to explore your resistances mathematically, so to speak.

 

Sounds insane – but you’re right about the fear and trepidation. Actually it’s intensifying. I’m – eeeeek – panic attack – panic attack – panic attack…

 

Good – now let go. Open your eyes.

 

What do you mean open my eyes – what do you think I'm…

 

Open them now.

 

I… Oh.     Now that’s pretty darn nifty... An entirely different perspective. A different locus. I’m me – but my eyes are in an other place entirely.

 

Yep. Welcome to Mandybrot’s quantum hang out – a rather charming spot, is it not?

 

And this, Ectolob – this is part of g-nome portal?

 

Duh! What else could it be?

 

I just can’t quite get my head around it – I’m actually…

 

Well yes, D, congratulations, you’ve finally got your act together, and not a moment too soon.

 

Why?

 

Look at screen number 22.

 

Screen 22? I don’t see any screens.

 

Just trust the fact that screen 22 has to be a part of the Mandelbrot spaghetti flying around you somewhere, somehow.

 

I’m feeling resistance again.

 

Good. Let it escalate. Tee hee.I.me!

 

Eeeeeeeek. Panic attack. Panic attack. Panic attack...

 

Great. Now open your eyes.

 

But I… 

Tush!

Oh. Screen 22. Wait a minute – is that Earth?

 

You’re asking me?

 

It’s Earth. My house. My town. Blinding flash. No!!!!!!!!! It’s been obliterated?

 

In that particular version of reality, yes. But it’s ok – you’re here.

 

But no, no, no – this is terrible – all my friends, my family, my dog…

 

Yawn. There is no there – right now D, not while you’re here in g-nome portal.

 

No?

 

No. It’s how MUM’s AI handles the fact that you’ve blipped out of one particular live stream. If and when we insert you back again – MUM’s the word – it’ll figure out a convenient reconnection story which will work well enough – like an infallible alibi.

 

Oh.

 

But in the meantime – you’ve got to complete your first training module – courtesy of Mandybrot’s spaghetti house. Lunch at the end of infinity. See you there.

 

Hey – Ectolob – that's not fair. Damn. What now…

 

 

0=1

eeeeeek

 

 

kwisatz haderach

The honeycomb lattice of things?

You heard me.

 

Oh dear. I don’t suppose you’re referring to a lattice of atoms, are you?

 

Nope.

 

I feared as much.

 

You did? I wonder why?

 

Because you’re always doing this.

 

Doing what?

 

Pushing your agenda – refusing to accept that what you see is what you get.

 

Er…

 

That things are real, not to be despised or denied just because they’re made of teeny weeny, prosaic little atoms; that reality is not something to be despised or disrespected just because it happens to be predominantly physical with a thin overlay of life; that life sustains wee patches of consciousness that seem to enjoy connecting to form larger structures such as “nations”, the same way cells frequently unite to form a greater multicellular body. All perfectly natural, if you ask me, and in no way requiring attention-seeking mystification.

 

So you want me to deny the honeycomb lattice – just because it adds an inconvenient layer of complexity to your model – to simply pretend it doesn’t exist?

 

What honeycomb lattice?! I have no idea what you’re on about.

 

No? But apparently it makes you fearful – presumably because it ain’t atomic.

 

Well your honeycomb thing is hardly going to be based on science, is it? Not if I’ve never heard of it before; not if you’re forever suggesting there’s “something else” which fundamentally alters the equation – a pseudoscientific “quantum field”.

 

But how would you know if you’ve not even looked into it? And why the anger? Why the fear? Why the rigid belief that only the atomic model makes sense?

 

There’s no anger, no fear, I’m just sick of your insistence that physical things have to be secondary to some weird, and apparently conscious, quantum field.

 

I see. It upsets you McConnell, doesn’t it? I'd like to understand.

 

It’s disturbing. Yes, I find it upsetting.

 

It looks like I’ve been insensitive pushing you to see things that contradict your worldview.

 

You could say.

 

I apologise. That was wrong of me.

 

Really, it’s no big deal – I just fail to see why you can’t be content with a perfectly rational model that satisfies everyone else.

 

I was content, for a long time, until things ever so slightly slipped out of focus... I experienced a paradigm collapse. Then I couldn’t unsee what had became painfully apparent.

 

Oh. How unpleasant.

 

Yes, on the one hand, but on the other it was exciting to connect.

 

Exciting?

 

It was exciting because instead of insisting that everything was built from the bottom up – from sub atomic particles upto galaxies and the entire universe – I saw how that couldn’t quite be achieved – for reasons I wouldn’t like to bore you with.

 

Hum.

 

I saw that there had to be a top-down explanation to fill in some of the gaps.

 

Er…

 

Where someone or something seemed to hold matter in place and guide its development in myriad ways. How else can we explain the incredible, impossible diversity and harmonics we see all around us, and the ever-steepening complexity curve as data accretion somehow continues to accelerate logarithmically.

 

Oh. Sounds like the Creator God argument found its way into your thought process.

 

Yes, either a creator God, or some kind of amorphous intelligence which couldn’t be limited to us few and far between sentient beings – had to be much, much more ubiquitous. 

 

So an intelligent or conscious Field is essential if you're unwilling to go full-medieval back to holding God entirely responsible for them gaps you're seeing. Well, you've opened a mighty can of worms, D, if there's anything in what you're saying.

 

Yes, I know. I wasn’t looking for a fight but there are unbridgeable gaps in the bottom-up atomic model.

 

Such as?

 

Such as life itself: Big what-the-heck "L". And Creation. The undeniable design or programming that has gone into it. The mere fact that we’re here discussing it conceptually using abstract, grammatical, structured language as if that in itself is perfectly normal.

 

I see... But the atomic model doesn’t deny consciousness.

 

Too little too late. For a top-down explanation it would have to be the key mover – shaping the landscape of life and things in general – at every scale, at every stage, at every level, not just an evolutionary afterthought.

 

But how can that be if consciousness is the result of electro-chemical processes in the brain?

 

You tell me.

 

Don’t be absurd. I'm not the one rejecting the orthodoxy. In any case, you couldn't just fiddle with the model, you'd have to turn everything on its head.

 

Precisely.

 

So you decided you had the authority, or the necessity, to dismiss the entirety of modern science and…

 

What choice do I have. Denying the leaps of faith that are baked into the existing model is no longer possible. I have to face the awkward truth that life cannot simply emerge from a vacuum – unless life is somehow or other itself a constant, or perhaps an organic offshoot of consciousness. In any case, how could electro-chemical processes in the brain explain the extraordinarily complex experience of consciousness, of being alive – how our thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs and personality traits all blend together seamlessly – if it’s merely the product of electro-chemical or synaptic responses in a vast galaxy of atoms known as the brain. It beggars belief.

 

Does it? There are trillions of cells connected together. Each one carries a small part of the consciousness. The brain is the central hub bringing it all together. I don’t see what your difficulty is.

 

No – but apart from intercellular electro-chemistry there’s music, aesthetics, poetry, philosophy, ethics, economics – the breadth and diversity of what consciousness is able to a. experience, b. consider and c.

 

C?

 

Actuate. Based on conscious experiences – sensory and linguistic inputs – a person is able to organise vast networks – a home, a family, a company of like-minded individuals, a nation or, in some rare cases, an entire planet. It beggars belief.

 

So you keep saying, so you say – failing to accept the power of simple sequential and parallel processes: such is nature’s rich and extraordinary diversity – even when viewed from the pinnacles of human ingenuity. Nature is indeed wondrous to behold, is it not? Miraculous, you might say, but all merely the product of nature’s need to survive against all odds in a cold and hostile universe. Natural selection at its finest. For life could only survive if and when, by happy chance, it stumbled on electro-chemical processes which appear to be rational, appear to be intelligent, appear to be problem-solving though in truth, fundamentally, they can be none of the above. It's just life doing what life does, organising things in the most efficient and successful way to ensure survival, always by trial and error, no matter what we, trapped in our by now self-aware minds, think, or like to imagine.

 

You speak as if we’re no more than a biological version of a computer.

 

And?

 

Well your computers aren’t actually conscious, are they?

 

Not yet. Not to the best of my knowledge.

 

So there must be something else explaining how we are.

 

Must be? I fail to see why, if we have no clear way of knowing what so-called "consciousness" actually is, or whether we actually are. Far better to stick to what can be measured empirically rather than dabbling with the dark arts of bodiless minds .

Well? There really doesn't seem to be any good explanation. There's an embarrassing accumulation of never-ending accidents which seem to lead ever further and onwards to ever higher levels of structure and organisation.

Like I said – nature truly is remarkable, but so too is the sub-atomic realm of quarks and bosons – a universe unto itself, busily providing the foundation for life itself at scales of complexity and microscopic infinitisitudes we're simply unable to fathom or comprehend. Your alternative, D, simply isn't necessary, and would drag science kicking and screaming back into witchcraft and mysticism. It would be a disaster of monumental proportions.

 

Isn’t it healthy, McConnell, to have competition in any arena? Isn't it competition, after all, that stimulates growth and development? Instead of insisting that the science is already settled – let’s entertain the possibility that consciousness is actually, potentially, a top down process which interfaces matter and cells, without a doubt – but which doesn’t necessarily originate there... a bit like a TV signal, or the internet – yes – it comes through modems, routers, hard drives, computer chips and servers – but ultimately it originates in TV studios or the minds of individuals all over the world – who simply use the hardware to disseminate their creative content.

Who knows, D, who knows... interesting speculation, of course, but let's turn it round, let's look at it another way: do you really imagine our civilisation could withstand such an attack, were this to be validated? We would have to learn an entirely new way of thinking. We would have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead of explaining how the universe operates and everything within it – we'd be reduced to questioning what awareness is, and whether or not the universe is merely a product of awareness – a rubber tire – itself amounting to naught – knocking against the asphalt of consciousness – neither of which are empirically verifiable... Be a scientist, D, by all means... Question what you will, but leave the mind alone, or rather leave her safely ensconced in the brain, or else pay the ultimate price for seeking to fly too high, too close to the sun.

 

Ah – but what if consciousness itself is part of nature's biology – is programmed to resist change, until the time is ripe, until all necessary ingredients are in place? What if our conversation is, itself, a mere continuation, a furtherance of the same process that gave you atoms, gave you primitive life, and then complex life forms – what if all the inorganic physical, then organic biological processes now continue at a third level – which as yet we perceive as through a glass darkly – but which is, in fact, merely the next iteration of the mathematical progression of life, or matter marching towards the great attractor of infinity?

 

Ok, D, there might be something in what you’re saying.

 

Something worth investigating, McConnell, if nothing more. This isn’t a belief. Merely a hypothesis that may or may not be borne out by further research.

 

I can go along with that.

 

Wonderful. Now, according to this purely hypothetical line of thinking – the atoms themselves may not necessarily be the key factor: neither the signal generator nor bearer.

 

No?

 

They may be – don’t get me wrong – but equally they may not.

 

Ok. And what’s this leading to?

 

The fact that atoms are little points in space – are they not?

 

Hardly controversial.

 

But that is insufficient.

 

It is?

 

Yes, because according to your model – space is meaningless without time to animate it, to allow movement, so our atoms are somehow where time and space converge, perhaps like a beach where waves and pebbles wash together endlessly.

 

Right. But I fail to see where this is leading.

 

Just a thought process, nothing more.

 

Ok, if you say so.

 

Well, time and space have been blended or merged into space-time, haven’t they?

 

Yes. By Einstein.

 

A merry fiction, if ever there was one.

 

I beg your pardon.

 

Necessitated by the abject exclusion of consciousness.

 

Huh?

 

Substituting time you create a purely physical model in which things, although fixed, can “at the same time” change, evolve, proceed.

 

At the same time?

 

Well, in the passage of time, which conveniently flows through all space and all things as a given, a tick ticking constant of almost limitless morphability.

 

And you think this is a contrivance?

 

I think, or I accept, that time is a necessary substitute if consciousness is denied, otherwise matter would not be animatable. It would be stuck in its lifeless grid of frozen ness.

 

But what’s wrong with time?

 

Nothing. It works perfectly, up to a point.

 

Up to a point?

 

Within an age.

 

An age?

 

An aeon.

 

Oh dear.

 

But then it too, being inanimate and highly linear, proves woefully inflexible, is unable to leap into another channel, another age, another harmonic without some other agency.

 

Oh.

 

Because, like a river or a train track it’s only able to head one way at a given time, whereas in fact…

 

Yes?

 

In fact things have to flip out of the channel from time to time.

 

They do?

 

Absolutely, otherwise things couldn’t revert to the singularity, the all-unifying one, and our universe would either disintegrate or freeze over.

 

Oh.

 

But let me concede – time works well enough, for the most part.

 

Music to my ears.

 

So you’d be excused for ignoring its shortcomings.

 

Such as?

 

Yes, if you zoom in to the atomic level, or even closer, you notice things are not quite as they seem.

 

How do you mean?

 

Your tried and trusted space-time is not actually monolithic. 

 

No?

 

It oscillates ever so slightly. Wobbles. Like jelly.

 

Really?

 

Yes.

 

And?

 

So between the place where an atom may or may not be found – where time and space in some way converge – there are other non-places where atoms cannot manifest, which we’re not even able to detect – in between.

 

Oh.

 

There, off grid, things are much less certain. There, you are essentially neither fish nor foul, neither here nor there – for consciousness can’t fix you, can’t pin you down against reality itself, is unable to assign a value of one or nought.

 

Ah. So there you have it D – reality always needed that physical aspect. There's nothing atavistic in me focussing on cells or atoms. It needs people like me to…

 

Absolutely. How else are we going to pin the tail on the pig? There's no denying the lattice of physicality, but the ones and zeros have to work together, McConnell. And thinking about them rationally is only possible if you find a way to articulate or, better still, experience their relationship. In a real sense, you might say, we are the product of their interplay; make of it what you will.

 

So reality, you’re suggesting – is itself like an interface.

 

Yes, I suppose I am.

 

But the interface is not where things actually originate.

 

Yep. Like the creative content that finds its way onto youtube or any other platform.

 

Ah ha. Interesting idea. And there’s a whole dark neither-here-nor-there-ness –

 

Yes, between time and space where never the twain shall meet, which perhaps our mind  frequents every time it pulses off, and reconnects with the universe within.

 

Which is where the thought waves or inspirations do their "thinking", their conscious or unconscious nessing, before making their way up onto the platform of 3D reality if they qualify?

 

Correct. Up or else down – if reality is more like the wall of a cave or a screen where thoughts, ideas, things are projected, as if the present course can be extrapolated endlessly.

 

Ah ha. Seems reasonable enough.

 

Yes, well this is mere conjecture – as you know – but if there were anything to this conjecture – we’d want to test the hypothesis and find whether it can be investigated empirically, and somehow measured or affected – in other words – whether we can develop a more sophisticated, a simpler model of reality which enables us to arrange things, and experience things with greater ease, greater harmony, with reference to fluctuations in the field of consciousness.

 

Ah – well that would be, indeed, a fascinating area of enquiry D – though I fail to see how it could possibly be investigated. Things that exist outside regular space time – where the lines neither converge nor connect – cannot be visible or measurable.

 

True, McConnell, unless we’re able to think outside the box, so to speak – to find a less cumbersome way to measure quantum effects.

 

Quantum effects. Hum. Merely the process of considering the possibility – of discussing the alternative alters the balance of probabilities in some way, does it not?

 

Yes, you’re right.

 

For if conscious-ness is not primarily the product of electro-chemical processes – if it’s the constant – the given on which all things – on which space and time somehow rest…

 

Then it’s going to be in some way hackable.

 

Hackable? I’m not sure I like that term.

 

No.

 

We’d be looking for harmonic resonances – wouldn’t we, or interference patterns of some description?

 

Yes.

 

We’d be looking for background conscious-ness becoming aware of and even responding to the conscious-ness reaching out to it from our reality – from within our cognitive processes. Like a close encounter of the third kind!

 

Correct.

 

Which should be possible if conscious-ness is universal.

 

If indeed, leading to direct contact.

 

The shortening of the way.

 

Kwisatz haderach?

The kwisatz haderach.

 

But I thought that’s meant to be a person, a fictional messiah?

 

Yes, but here it’s uncapitalized. In any case, what are stories if we are part of the interface between the processes of physical reality and our reality of human thought and organisation?

 

Ah ha. The anthropomorphic principle.

 

Precisely.

 

We have to experience as humans, real or imaginary, whatever it is we would understand conceptually. To interface or die.

 

Die?

 

In the sense of becoming meaningless, or obsolete: disconnected from our light source, our over-All.

 

Indeed! So let us consider the shortening of the way in terms of physical reality, as if it were a natural process, not merely a literary or mythological device.

 

Ok. Like a meandering river cutting through a loop to shorten its course – if, fundamentally, we were never completely separated from the quantum field of background, omnipresent conscious-ness…

 

Then the same could happen at breakthrough moments when the meandering loops are sufficiently close together.

 

Instead of endlessly routing through the systems and processes of a reality we know all too well – would it not be possible, in certain instances, to route directly through the Field itself? For a spark to leap the gap, the "void", and establish a new pathway, a new precedent, a new arrangement of things.

 

Without blowing things up.

 

Without shorting out the entire circuit? Ay, there’s matter in this consideration after all.

 

Indeed.

 

And you think we’re at such an inflexion point?

 

We’re having this discussion.

 

And we’ve been pre-prepared by literature and mythology, have we not?

 

So the answer is yes?

 

If it can be felt precognitively…

 

And brought to reality.

 

Both?

 

Yes. The infinite is so vast and unwieldy that things coming to fruition have to be felt or intuited if we’re going to engineer a quantum event. We can thus become aware of something still outside our physical reality, currently being experienced in 3d as stressful interference or mounting dissonance.

 

And you think we’re active players?

 

I fail to see how it can be otherwise. Somehow or other we are part of the Field and sense the need, the urgent desire to balance the two sides, to bring about a shortening, to simplify an excessively extended pathway with pure simplicity, a creation event in which the present arrangement of things in reality is suddenly altered, quite possibly without our clear awareness.

 

Indeed?

 

Indeed. One suspects that our clear awareness would prevent the process from actuating in time and space.

 

Why so?

 

Because awareness tends to lock things in place, doesn't it. A watched kettle never boils until I allow it to by relaxing my grip.

 

So presumably there’s another part of us which is always aware and masterminds the process.

 

Perhaps, but whether we’re able to connect with it is another matter.

 

It? Don’t you mean he or she?

 

One suspects that sexual polarities are a feature of our divided reality, not the quantum field.

 

Right, so my other aspect out there would be neither male nor female.

 

Neither here nor there. Neither then or now, from our perspective.

 

It boggles the mind.

 

Absolutely, but in actual fact it might not be half as strange as it seems.

 

No?

 

No, one suspects, no matter where you are things always have to be somehow normal.

 

But how could things be normal in a quantum flux where nothing is determined, nothing is fixed?

 

Well, it’s hard to imagine unless you consider the myths of sorcerers able to shape shift, translocate and cast spells that somehow transform one thing into another.

 

But those are just myths. They couldn’t be real.

 

Correct. They couldn’t be real from our position in the continuum of space and time, or on our side of the curve, but if you were born in a world where energy or competing dimensions take precedent over physicality, because your particular reality straddles a fault line and still experiences undivided conscious-ness, then it would be strange or disturbing to imagine a world such as ours where things are fixed, as if consciousness were not the universal force connecting all and keeping things in a more amenable state of flux.

 

Ah.

 

You would be aware of the other side, of our reality, as a brutal, brittle unnatural realm in which by some demonic force the isness had been supplanted by a rigid, disconnectedness, which periodically resulted in convulsive change. You would even feel the storm building and consciously or unconsciously would play some part in experiencing the change and assisting it from your side, all things being connected. To fall down into this world would indeed be a terrible loss – like being trapped in hell, like losing access to God.

 

Oh. That puts it in a very different light.

 

Indeed.

 

But how come that world, that side wouldn’t be infinitely fluid, chaotically so, as one imagines the quantum field to be?

 

Perhaps at times that would be something they experience, but generally conscious-ness, whatever it is, always arranges things, or awareness of things, to be meaningful, within certain bands, otherwise the anthropomorphic principle would be invalidated.

 

So conscious-ness can adjust matters to keep people engaged and involved.

 

I imagine it has to. But in any case, nature abhors a vacuum. Without a sense of beauty or harmony you start slipping into noise, and noise amounts to nought, if I’m not mistaken.

 

But noise is present throughout.

 

Yep. It’s one of the two states, isn’t it. Presumably noise is not absolutely noise, but seems to be so to us, to where we are in the space-time continuum.

 

Yes. And noise is also part of consciousness, so sooner or later it flips into pattern recognition or awareness of recurring harmonies or rhythms which are somehow slightly less than completely random. It can be an infinitesimal deviation from perfect randomness, but that is enough – sooner or later a new awareness of perfection and beauty starts to emerge from chaos, and awareness, as you know, is an irresistible force. Matter and myth start grappling, struggling to crack the code, to own the emergent awareness, the new “me”, to digest its endless stream of data, its feelings, its observations. They intertwine, coiling together like snakes climbing a slippery pole, and thus human beings, the children of matter and myth are born, and the process continues at ever new levels and scales… and thus it is, and here we are, in a conversation paradoxically attempting to use words and flat-think to describe the infinite.

 

Indeed, here at the very cusp of our next inflexion point, suddenly aware as we haven’t been for aeons past, attempting to bring the blurred images into focus.

 

Suddenly aware as, I suspect, we have always been but needly ignored// in order to experience the ride, the unfolding interplay of matter and myth, while they seemed to take us concurrently in wildly different directions until…

 

Crack.

 

The egg of time fractures and chick 

 

Or baby snake, if you prefer, emerges.

 

A shudder of realisation. A sudden chill as time comes to a standstill and the whole captures awareness in a moment of pure kwisatz haderach.

A consummation devoutly to be wish’d, in which the honeycomb lattice restores equilibrium harmonically, and for a brief eternity… conscious ness-ity story-tells ineffably, does it not?

 

Indeed

 

A single word

And the rest

As they say

Is history

if  0=1