|
stefan
work in progress

Registered: 04/11/01
Posts: 8,932
Loc: The Netherlands
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
|
infinity and the mind
#5645063 - 05/18/06 02:59 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
It's funny how the mind works sometimes. There's something about infinity that is hard for the mind to grasp ("how can something be endless, there's an end to everything right?"). But on the other hand the majority of humans believe 'life' doesn't end when you die but goes on forever (infinite) in some kind of heaven/afterlife for example. notice the discrepancy
this splits infinity in two categories: infinity of time itself (mind can grasp the endlessness) infinity of space (the mind can't grasp the endlessness)
so far my early morning ramblings
|
Dfekt
Your mother wouldn't approve...


Registered: 02/27/05
Posts: 586
Loc: UK
Last seen: 7 months, 9 days
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
#5645139 - 05/18/06 03:28 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
Time in the linear form which we know is a human concept, one which we can calculate with great precision and familiarity through years and years of experience. We can manipulate mathematical formulas and calculate time for as long as we want, it's as endless as the number line.
The endlessness of space, on the other hand, is something with which we are quite unfamiliar. We're finite beings, confined to this miniscule pocket of the universe on a finite planet which does a big loop on itself. We've learned that there is limited space on the planet in which we live, and perhaps we automatically apply this assumption to the rest of the universe also? We're only humans after all...
Im thinking that perhaps we can't seem to grasp the concept of endless space very easily because this is something we have much greater difficulty calculating. Space makes its own rules. We didn't invent the universe, and so cannot master its properties as we can with the linear time concept we've created to keep out schedules in check.
Or something like that...
-------------------- "Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit." ~Oscar Wilde
|
Deviate
newbie
Registered: 04/20/03
Posts: 4,497
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
#5645140 - 05/18/06 03:28 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
i dont find infinity hard to grasp at all anymore to be honest, rather i feel as if i am ever gazing upon it.
Edited by Deviate (05/18/06 03:29 AM)
|
David_Scape
Anti Genius


Registered: 08/05/02
Posts: 878
Loc: U.S. of muthafuckin A.
Last seen: 14 years, 7 months
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
#5645158 - 05/18/06 03:37 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
The concept of absolute nothing is also a hard one to grasp. The idea that the big bang was the creation of spacetime, meaning that in the very begining, there was neither space nor time-- absolutely nothing. Or nothing with a capital 'N'.
I think that maybe the problem has to do with the fact that Infinity and Nothingness are abstractions that we have no concrete way of dealing with or experiencing. How can you instantiate Infinity? Where can you see it? Or, How can you experience Nothing? Our cognitive abilities were built inherently out of the fact that there is time and space. It takes complete advantage of its existence.
|
lIllIIIllIlIIlIlIIllIllIIl
Stranger

Registered: 12/16/04
Posts: 11,123
Loc: Texas
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
#5645186 - 05/18/06 03:56 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
One thing that really put infinity into perspective (for me anyways) was calculus, and especitally infinite series...
Kinda beyond the scope of a message board to convey either of those. But it was interesting how you can build finite out of infinite. This statement appears to make no sense (if you add up an infinite amount of things, how could the result be finite?)...
The answer has to do with something called a limit... all very interesting stuff that puts infinity into a bit more perspective.
|
Lord_Shiva
The Mahadeva


Registered: 05/15/06
Posts: 37
Last seen: 17 years, 1 month
|
|
I think we can imagine the infinity of time/our soul, but not the infinity of space, because:
-The infinity of time means that things will never end, that you have an eternal soul, that life goes on after death. A very pleasant thought we have always appreciated. When I think about the infinity of time, my mind seems kind of grateful to grasp it.
-The infinity of space in contrary means that we are irrelevant, tiny little dots in an endless universe, and that´s something our ego doesnt like, being a small and meaningless something. So it´s hard to grasp that thought, because your ego tries to protect itself by building up walls aganinst the outer world you can´t easily overcome. On the other hand, it favors thoughts about the infinity of the ego itself. It´s just a mechanism of self protection, I think.
-------------------- satyam shivam sundaram
|
Gomp
¡(Bound to·(O))be free!


Registered: 09/11/04
Posts: 10,888
Loc: I re·side [primarily] in...
Last seen: 10 months, 23 days
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: Lord_Shiva]
#5645892 - 05/18/06 11:17 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
"now, is forever.." -Unknown :P
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: Gomp]
#5645948 - 05/18/06 11:36 AM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
try to stick with space in any single moment - infinity this way is hard enough to look at without adding a few layers of moments of time or an infinite array of time or go for a mix of time and space, and just don't worry about it.
--------------------
_ 🧠 _
|
MarkostheGnostic
Elder


Registered: 12/09/99
Posts: 14,279
Loc: South Florida
Last seen: 3 years, 2 days
|
Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
#5646958 - 05/18/06 04:32 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
|
|
You are confusing ontological categories. Space-time are created, and exist with attributes such as extension and duration. Infinity/Eternity does not admit of extension-duration and are transcendental values which defy conceptualization. An infinite hall of mirrors may symbolize the concept of 'number' which ranges 'to' infinity, but this is not the same thing as the 'Experience' of The Infinite Itself which is THE Eternal Verity, sometimes called GOD in this context. Even space, which is not separate from time unless non-physical 'space' is indicated, which is a 'state of consciousness,' is bounded by the expanding 'edge' of the universe. It is critical to differentiate between physical dimensions, concepts and states of consciousness when discussing infinity-eternity. Physicality only admits of eternity-infinity insofar as a Transcendental Reality gives rise to it. All physicality is temporal in and of itself.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
Edited by MarkostheGnostic (05/18/06 10:07 PM)
|
Lakefingers

Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
Loc: mumuland
|
|
Sometimes people say they'd like to stop time, But in stopping time they don't want time to stop; They want to stop all time and space, and yet allow themselves to continue in time as if it didn't stop for them, as if they were not confined to the physical reality of space. To stop time would be to prevent anything from happening at all: no one wants this and that is why no one ever mentions it nor takes this contrived, and forced, pondering about stopping time seriously.
If I wanted to grasp the 'endlessness of time itself' (infinity) I'd have to have a few ideas: "time", "endlessness", "infinity", grammar that makes these concepts meaningful in a particular instance, etc. Just as in the thought/proposition "I wish to grasp the endlessness of time itself". My will to stop time is, as I said above a contrived and a forced response; it is an inactuality due to the theory-ladenness of my metaphysical-presupposition (i.e. "wish") to stop time.
But perhaps I succeed -- what criterion have I set? In that I can think this thought and put these concepts together it is a possibility and immanent, but don't confuse ideas that make nice metaphysical images in a proper grammatical way for TRUTHS.
The same for 'infinity of space'. Whether the mind can or cannot grasp the "endlessness" is regardless of whether or not we can through a priori means, empirical means, physical means, etc, "prove" this "endlessness", because ultimately, all of this I am proving and exploring, are concepts! Concepts that seem real, but are real only within the actuality of a grammatical framework, a worldview, and a few other people that make my pondering something more than an eccentricity or a psychotic delusion.
I hold these concepts to be true and correspond to "real", physical things, phenomena... that "really" occur within some other things I've got some arbitrary and contrived concepts for.
I'm never going to get away from these tricky concepts, and yet I'm running around trying to prove them, and even being so snide as to DOUBT them when I've found them to be "true"!
I can grasp and prove the infinity or finity of space that I have "proven" to be "true", but I will never prove that that infinity or finity correspond to space and vice versa, nor that my concepts and proofs correspond to any of the above.
This is an end of philosophy.
|
Lakefingers

Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
Loc: mumuland
|
|
Quote:
MarkostheGnostic said: You are confusing ontological categories. Space-time are created, and exist with attributes such as extension and duration. Infinity/Eternity does not admit of extension-duration and are transcendental values which defy conceptualization. An infinite hall of mirrors may symbolize the concept of 'number' which ranges 'to' infinity, but this is not the same thing as the 'Experience of The Infinite Itself which is THE Eternal Verity, sometimes called GOD in this context. Even space, which is not separate from time unless non-physical 'space' is indicated, which is a 'state of consciousness,' is bounded by the expanding 'edge' of the universe. It is critical to differentiate between physical dimensions, concepts and states of consciousness when discussing infinity-eternity. Physicality only admits of eternity-infinity insofar as a Transcendental Reality gives rise to it. All physicality is temporal in and of itself.
This is a very clever, scholastic differentiation of concepts. But yes, concepts!
Yes, categories, concepts, but not phenenoma. You'll never touch those -- that is, you'll never touch them being something other than only YOU, GOD, US.
|
|