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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

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infinity and the mind
    #5645063 -

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 :goodmorning:

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
    #5645139 -

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

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
    #5645140 -

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)

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
    #5645158 -

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.


--------------------
focusing
Flow
The Enneagram

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
    #5645186 -

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.

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: lIllIIIllIlIIlIlIIllIllIIl]
    #5645356 -

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.


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satyam shivam sundaram

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: Lord_Shiva]
    #5645892 -

"now, is forever.."
-Unknown :P

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: Gomp]
    #5645948 -

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.


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:brainfart: _ :finger:

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Re: infinity and the mind [Re: stefan]
    #5646958 -

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.


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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself

Edited by MarkostheGnostic (05/18/06 10:07 PM)

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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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