"Within the finite time to singularity, an infinite number of events can take place, an infinity of thoughts can be thought and dreams can be dreamed." (p. 546)
Is this true? Can it be?
"...[intelligence's] heed will have departed from the matter-energy chrysalis." (ibid.)
Intelligence will have become immaterial? Or it will merely have directed its attention, "heed," beyond matter?
"By its nature, the cybercosm must seek for absolute knowledge; but this required absolute control, no wild contingencies, nothing unforeseeable except the flowerings of its intellect. The cybercosm was totalitarian." (46, p. 553)
Absolute knowledge? What is that? Inquirers, including scientists, seek whatever knowledge is possible. If some aspects of reality are wild, contingent, uncontrollable and unforeseesable, then that is what can be known about them. If we know that part of reality is as it is only because we have controlled it to be that way, then we have not learned but decreed.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I question whether it is logically possible for there to be an infinite number of thoughts within a finite amount of time.
Sean
Sean,
Apparently, this is argued in one of PA's sources.
At time t1, a series of experiences would begin. After the later time, t2, that series would no longer exist. Yet there would have been no last experience before t2.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I don't see that. There was a finite period of time called t1, but t1 had to END before t2 could begin. That means was a last experience or thought before t2 began.
Sean
Sean,
Numbers are infinitely divisible. Between 1 and 2, there is 1.5. Between 1.5 and 2, there is 1.75 etc.
Paul.
Sean,
Maybe, if experiences seem long to their experiencer but increasingly short to an external observer, then an infinity of experiences can fit into a finite time?
Spatially, imagine a spherical universe where, as you approach the center, you and everything around you shrinks so that you travel through an infinite universe and never reach the center.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot how NUMBERS are infinitely divisible. So, theoretically, there could be an infinitely divisible number of thoughts within a finite amount of time, odd as that seems to me. That seems more "graspable" than an infinitely spherical universe.
Sean
Sean,
But spatial distances are as infinitely divisible as temporal intervals.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True, when thought of as an infinitely divisible quantity.
Sean
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