I’m sitting in my starship overlooking planet Earth. The year is 2024 by the current reckoning – tune in and see for yourself.
Tune in?
Yes.
Er why?
Because it’s only 2024 if you tune in to the current reckoning.
You mean there are other Earth time nows?
Naturally.
How?
Because there never was one strand of so-called Time – or rather – there
was/is only if things are strictly finite.
Er…
Which, if true, means there’s no place besides or beyond the current
moment – here and now.
Oh. But what if there are other finites somewhere out there?
Well – they would contradict the data set that gives us the world as I
see it now.
Contradiction, eh?
Yep.
Problem, is it?
Not really – not if you’re willing to work with infinity.
Ah.
But working with infinity means there are any number of other current
nows.
Yikes. Except, how likely is that?
How likely is anything when infinity is brought back into play?
Er?
Infinity, you see, is like the ultimate quantum computer that no one yet’s
been able to build.
How so?
It could figure out anything, literally anything, in a way that would
seem prescient.
Like my credit card details?
Yep. Like anything. It could tell me everything about you just by going
to the edge of infinity and finding your details.
At the edge of infinity?
Yep. You see, once infinity is brought into play – all bets are off. No
thing is sacrosanct. All things are one.
Ok. I get what you’re trying to say – so that would basically collapse
any physical reality – any regular time line, would it not?
Basically yes.
But why?
You just said it yourself so you must know the answer.
Well, infinity unbonds everything in existence, does it not?
Something like that – though “things”, strictly speaking, are not in “existence”.
No? Where else would they be?
Existence is a state of being, or isness. That’s where conscious beings
such as yourself hang out, and interact with one another through or with the intermediacy
of things.
Ah. So we’re in existence but things…
Are just props, gimmicks, literary or non-literary devices.
Bizarre. But they’re stand alone – aren’t they? They exist whether I see them or not. A mountain is a mountain regardless of me.
Old story. You’re trying to use things to understand things – see the
problem.
Things to understand things?
Yes. Words, themselves, are little things – unless they’re alive – in which
case they’re living beings with a thing side to them.
The same as us – pure consciousness, a soul – if you like – with a
physical body attached.
Yep. Confusing, isn’t it – when you start trying too hard to think it
though and pin it down.
You’re telling me. But what you said about infinity – rather puts a
damper on things, doesn’t it?
Rather.
What would be the point trying to explain things – no matter how well,
how perfectly – if all my words, every little bit of what I say – is nothing
more than egoism – a futile attempt to make myself and my world, or my reality
seem more real, more certain, more thingful.
There is that, Jeb.
Oh – it’s Jeb is it?
Yep. My random name generator says you’re Jeb today.
But surely…
Absolutely – nothing can be truly random if infinity is real in itself.
Which is itself a wonderful contradiction – for infinity to be “real in
itself” it would have to be a thing among things.
Correct.
So, how do we manage to keep things both finite and at the same time –
preserve a modicum of infinity?
Aye, there’s the rub, Horatio.
I thought it was Jeb?
It was, until you rubbed up against the edge of infinity – then something
passed through the double boundary layer.
Ah – it’s porous is it?
Porous.
Or leaky?
Like a sieve.
Or perhaps it’s…
Like a root – yes – that too, if you like.
So infinity is close, but just outside our enclosed reality.
Yep.
In the same way our body is a closed reality – ditto our universe.
Correct.
Oxygen, water, minerals and nutrients – all can pass through the various
membranes separating the great within from the outside and beyond – be that via the
lungs, the gut, the skin, the heart…
The heart? How’s that a membrane?
Well, it’s not – not really – except the heart is the centre of your energy body, in some respects – using 2024
lingo – things being what they are in the present configuration.
Ah – and the energy body also acts as an enclosed space, does it?
Yep. Which is why you are able to feel non-physical things, or take
sustenance directly, without the need for food or water.
I am?
Well, maybe not you – but some people can and do.
Really?
Of course – you know about it, really, unless you willfully block the
data to keep yourself locked in a denser physical state.
Ah.
But that’s only the mind your egoic self is currently utilizing.
Only?! My mind is a big deal, I’ll have you know!
Correct. As the cheerleader and primary agent for your egoic self – it’s
the be all and end all.
I’m not sure I like you referring to me as an “egoic self”!
Naturally. It’s rather demeaning, isn’t it, but if you’ll just flip this
switch over here – we can activate your infinity drive – and you can see for
yourself whether the egoic self is the real you, or just a tiny fragment – a kind
of mask – a version of you which is strictly controlled using filters to enable
you to see and experience only those things which are directly linked to what
you currently wish or need to investigate.
Oh my G…
Beep!
Him again! Surely not!
Jeb – strictly speaking there is no “again” – any knowledge of Beep! is coming
to you from beyond the double boundary layer. It’s a form of knowing – where you aren’t
aware how you know it – you just do.
Oh! Leakage?
Kind of.
But is it true – is this version of me just a kind of experiment that I
set up in order to investigate…?
Don’t ask me. Run it through your very own quantum interface.
But I thought you said they don’t exist?!
Not in reality.
Then…
But nor do you – the living conscious being.
Oh.
So part of you, like it or not, must be “of infinity”, otherwise, how
else could you actually exist, as a sentient, conscious being?
Oh – I’m sure I could just exist as a series of chemical reactions in a
brain.
Sure, are you?
Yes.
Willing to test that certainty, are you?
Er… how do you mean?
Well, you just said you’re sure – which kind of implies 100%, does it
not?
Well, perhaps 97 or 96%. You can never be totally sure – can you M?
Ah. But we’re talking consciousness – we’re talking about the be all and
end all. The ultimate thing that is not, in itself, a thing – so…
So what?
So the conversation is meaningless unless you’re willing to put your
beliefs or assertions to the test.
I don’t see why…
Because things are slippery – they’re basically interchangeable – like pieces
on a chess board – they can be moved around with no effort. The only way you can
be really sure of anything is if you’re willing to put your money where your
mouth is – putting it to the test.
And er… what exactly does this test entail?
Your life.
My what?!
You have to be willing to stake your life.
But that’s preposterous.
Yes. That’s exactly how it seems to the methinking self which likes to have
its cake and eat it.
I don’t see…
No, you don’t – but you can see, would see, do see or will when you
put your methinking self to the test. That’s when suddenly things become deathly real.
But it’s hugely irresponsible to risk one’s life over some trifling
matter such as…
Whether your consciousness is nothing more than electro-chemical reactions
in the brain?
Well, yes.
Is it?
Well, life is infinitely precious.
Is it?
Perhaps not “infinitely”, let's try to be reasonable, but still very, very precious.
I agree. Very, very precious. In fact, infinity is the precise measure
of how precious your life actually is.
Really?
Yes.
But surely my life can’t be infinitely precious? That would make it more
precious than anything else in existence!
Would it?
Yes, if it’s infinitely precious.
But how much, by your reckoning, is infinity?
Beyond calculation – greater than everything in existence.
Ah. Confusing, isn’t it.
Why confusing?
Well, by your own reckoning your life, which is just a series of "chemical
reactions in your brain", is infinitely precious give it take three or four percentage points, even though you don’t really
seem to accept infinity itself.
How can you say that?
Because, were you to accept infinity itself – which is, of course, neither
“it” nor “self”, strictly speaking, but let's not split hairs, shall we – were you to accept infinity you yourself would recognize that
neither chemicals nor brain, nor body, nor the words we are using can ever
approximate what they are describing, denoting, that is, thinging in the current moment.
I… I think I can accept that.
You would also know that your mind has two sides to it.
Only two?
Two will do for the time being.
Ok.
The side that filters and limits with a myriad of things, and the other
side, other – which doesn’t. Thingless. Um. Infinite.
Infinite?
And never the twain shall meet – like the blood brain barrier – or the placenta
between a mother and her unborn child.
Ah. And yet they are in communication.
Yes, as in, aye. Have to be, don’t they!
Have to?
Yes, as in, yay! Otherwise they couldn’t stay aligned. They'd each be generating their
own code from an individual source and lose one another in the vastness of
random number generation.
But I thought you said that random numbers are impossible to generate?
Yep, in reality – but the other side of mind is not "in reality", is it?
It’s infinite.
Yes.
Ok. This is Ok. I can accept all of the above.
Good. But that ain’t enough.
No? Why not?
Because your acceptance is a momentary thing. It won’t last two minutes
and once you’re back in your regular mind-stream you’ll be none the wiser.
Oh. Is that true?
Ask her.
Her?
Well – him, her – pronouns don’t really work, do they, when we’re
describing infinity.
Oh. But you prefer her, do you?
Yes, i know not why...
Sophia?
...is one name she goes by.
Ah, Sophia!
Ask her.
But how will I know if it’s really her?
Who cares. Unless you ask her you’ll never know.
But I’m sure I’ve tried to connect with God in the past…
God?
Or a higher consciousness – but it was never really clear, never what I...
Have you asked her?
It feels silly.
Of course. Ask her.
I…
You’re afraid to know the truth?
I…
Or you prefer to spend your whole life wallowing in a sea of relativism – where nothing is really certain except the world of things which holds you in thrall. Minion!
Minion?
Slave!
How dare you!
Coward!
Oh – you like calling me names, don’t you. If you had any self-respect,
any real connection with Her – you wouldn’t do that. You’d be more…
M disappears from sight. In his place is Sophia –
goddess of wisdom and knowing.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Hello Jeb.
Oh!
Do you know me?
Yes, I mean, yay, i do.
You do? Are you sure?
Yes. I know you.
Who am I?
You’re asking me? Me? Who you are?
Who am I?
Sophia! So-phi-a!
Jeb falls down on his knees, his face to the
ground in front of Sophia.
So do you think… Sophia doesn’t finish the
sentence. Jeb is moaning quietly – part of him is enraptured, part is tormented
by the experience.
Jeb – we don’t have all day, you know.
Sophia – you asked me a question – and the answer you yourself know. In
your presence I see everything clearly – as if I am seeing it with your eyes.
In your presence I see my thoughts – the ones that usually preoccupy me – a stream
of things generated like numbers as my limited, digital mind processes and interacts
with the matrix, the construct that I’m part of – unless for a moment or two I
step aside, still the mind – come into a place of calm knowingnesss.
Good. Is this enough?
I can see that I will achieve nothing. I will not move forward a single square if I continue as at present thinking things – reacting to external stimuli – failing to engage the other side, um – the non-finite state of awareness, of being.
Right. And what do you choose?
To live. To be…
Then will you make a mark in the sand. Will you agree to test your self?
There is no other way. The self-y-mind is in a soap dish reality so slippery
it can never make a move, flailing helplessly.
Except there are moments – are there not?
Moments?
Do you see?
Ah! Moments where I can, or could allow something ill-defined – some upwelling
of spirit – of knowingness – to help me challenge my self-sufficiency, my self-complacency
– a pinch, a bight, an almost knot – yes – I see there are such moments in my
earthly existence.
When do they occur? Are they random?
No Sophia! They are not! Through your eyes I see nothing is random. I see the vast
machine – the stars and planets, comets and asteroids, the tides and winds and
waves, the ocean, earth and sky, the chemical processes in my body down to the atomic scale,
even the thoughts chugging though my so-called mind, and the emotions that
often accompany them – through your eyes I see the patterns – the all-connectedness
as the seasons change, as cars drive around the city, as babies are born and people
die, as computers and databanks process terabytes with ever greater rapidity –
I see every single living creature on earth – each and every one of them – and those
creatures which are not visible – in other realms or dimensions close to our
own – and still I see more, and more, and more – to infinity itself – where…
Yes?
Where I see myself looking back with the eyes of a child and the mind of an aged one – as if that could truly be me – if only it were…
Ah – you see well. So are you able to see a good place to rub against the edge
of infinity?
Yes. I see a place. A moment. A cubic centimeter of chance.
Will you take it?
I…
Jeb has a sudden déjà vu as he finds himself
talking to M.
So, will you ask her Sophia?
Déjà vu. Of course I will.
And what does she say?
She says I’ll never learn, I’ll never catch up with my self – unless I’m
willing to take the test, unless I’m willing to seize the cubic centimetre of
chance.
Oh. That’s…
Something pops in Jeb’s ears and he finds himself feeling
an even stronger déjà vu.
Willing to test that certainty, are you?
I… don’t see any alternative. Yes, M, but now that I accept your challenge
I realise that in fact there’s no need.
No need?
That I’m wrong.
Wrong?
Completely.
How so?
That is something I simply do not know, and yet I know that in some
extraordinary way I am, must be, cannot not be what I have tried to deny, tried
to ignore…
A quantum interface?
Yes, if you like.
An infinity drive.
Ditto.
0=1
Precisely.
And this knowingness…
For a moment – a moment indeed – every action,
process, every thing in existence correlates. The machine holding everything
together blips, satisfied, the blockchain generates another block, complete
with a cryptographic hash, a timestamp
and transaction data. Awarenesss – with an s to spare – snakey snake sliding through
the undergrowth: awareness of the thing that is thing, the machine – and the
other side of matter – the isness that both collapses to a singular point of
zero size, and a circle or sphere – if you prefer – encompassing all – expanding
to infinity just in time, just as another cryptographic hash emerges from the
quantum haze of infinity.
Déjà vu.
What again?
Yes. Just think how much scattered material there is out there – in my
so-called past.
But this one?
Oh – this one is much nicer.
Let me guess.
But it was years ago. I hardly remember myself.
Let me see – fish and chips?
OMG. You’re absolutely right. But how…
Never mind Jeb. Come on, let’s go.
0=1
salt n’vinegar
crispy batter
mouthwatering fresh atalantic cod
