Ever think how lost you’d be if you really went inside one of these things? I can barely find my way out of a parking garage.
Just watched a cool documentary on Netflix, A Trip to Infinity, for a second time. I love it because it’s about my favorite subject: how little I know.
The more I learn, the more mysterious the world becomes. That thought gives me the same tingle I get when a song moves me or I really gazed into the sky?
Infinity is difficult for me to grasp – some infinities are bigger than others… Say what? I am attracted to the concept nevertheless. Rudy Rucker’s science fiction novel, White Light was a great exploration of the topic.
Rucker is mostly known for his Ware tetrology (which I loved), but if you’ve never read White Light, you’re missing out. It’s so fun.
White Light follows a man on a trip through infinity. Rucker is actually a mathematician, so he knows what he’s talking about. And I didn’t have to solve for X once.
They move me, those mysteries. And I get the suspicion that certain people touch it, just a little – poets, artists, astrophysicists, quantum physicists, mathematicians. When I think about these topics, feels like there’s a world beyond the world. It may be no more than a feeling, but it’s enough to give me that tingle.
As a young man I was extremely optimistic about what science could discover. I read a lot of sci fi and many of those crazy tales seemed truly possible – someday. Absolute Truth was out there and we’d find it eventually. I didn’t really think it through, I just kind of left it on the table.
Now I understand there are some things beyond the reach of science, where math fails, logic fails, and we’re left to guess, no way to verify. Some things are just unknowable and that’s that.
Conway’s Game of Life helped me to be OK with that. It’s a game with simple rules, that produce extremely complicated effects. If you want to experiment it, you can do it here: https://playgameoflife.com. (It works best on a PC or a laptop.)
You can do some pretty impressive stuff with it. There’s a whole community of hobbiests out there, exploring the possibilities. I’ve managed to create a few gliders by accident. I’ll never do anything on this level:
Hard as that was to grasp at first, the fact that some patterns that leave the screen could last infinitely while others may just last a very long time – but you cannot know.
I was in awe when it finally clicked. If some things are beyond scientists and mathematicians to solve – consciousness for example – there’s always room for a little spooky stuff.
I love pondering those spooky questions. Where is math located? Are there other dimensions of reality and if so can we touch them? Makes me wish I’d had better math teachers in 3rd grade.
That doesn’t mean I believe every tall tale I hear, or make up in my head. One of my most meaningful discoveries has been just how powerful and irrational the human mind can be. I suspect some pretty wild things, but I will never say I know.
However New Agey I might come across sometimes, I should mention that I don’t believe EVERYTHING is possible.
The ground exists, for us puny humans at least. I have to eat food and drink water. That’s why I’m very comfortable stating “I don’t know.”
Late Boomer's Den 
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