Where does our reality come from? Imagine a cake in front of you; we’ll use a stereotypical one made of flour, milk, eggs and sugar- we know that’s what it’s made from. But- where do those ingredients come from? Well, the flour comes from a plant, the milk comes from a cow, the eggs from a chicken and the sugar from another plant. But- where do those things come from?
The further we look back, the more difficult it is to see the preceding thing. The egg comes from a chicken which came from another egg- and then further back, a dinosaur. Further back from that, a microorganism. All the way back, the Big Bang.
But how can we trace it back further than that?
Imagine you have a blank piece of paper in front of you- or find one, if you like, and a pencil. Then, stare at it.
Now, a question- is that paper actually, truly blank? There might be no pencil markings there, but is it really nothing?
When that thought comes, put a single mark on that paper- one dot, it doesn’t matter how big or small.
But is there really only one thing you can notice on that piece of paper? When you think that, add another dot.
Keep doing this for as long as you can manage until you get bored. If you continued like that long enough, the whole page would be completely covered by the dots- one block of one colour.
But here’s the next question: is that piece of paper full up- or is it blank?
Have you ever tried to divide an ordinary number, like 1, by 0?
Maybe you’ve thought that if you don’t divide 1 by anything, then the answer is still one.
But, on the other hand, how many times does 0 fit in 1? Well, infinite times.
Let’s apply this sort of maths to our thought experiment.
First we look at the blank piece of paper, seeing nothing. That operation is infinity times zero- we see a full space of nothing, yielding the result infinite zeroes.
But then, if there is an infinity of zeroes, then there is clearly a conflict- how can nothing and everything exist at the same time? They must be separated, starting with the zero which is the current result.
The operation zero divided by infinity is performed. How many times does infinity fit into nothing? Well, it has to be done, and has now been done once (and only once so far) so the answer is one.
So now we have the first dot. But, aside from that first dot, there is still nothingness and infinity. So, the operation is repeated, altered by how many dots are there, adding one each time because now, infinity needs to be fitted into nothing twice, and so on.
Eventually, the paper will be full up.
Let’s stay with the filled canvas. So how do we define what’s there? We have to think of it as full up of individual dots- 1s. But what happens when we try to divide infinity by 1?
Well, if you divide infinity by 1 (or any other ordinary number) then it’s still infinity, because any number can fit into infinity infinite times. But what if you try to fit infinity into 1?
If you try to fit infinity into something you can observe, then you can conclude that nothing can do that- giving an answer of 0.
This is what happens when you try to think of a full, one-colour canvas as one cohesive thing. By trying to fit an infinite space into the idea of one thing being there, you come to the inevitable conclusion that nothing is there.
And then you begin again.
Let’s talk about space. We think of a vacuum as being nothing. Yet, space allows things to happen in it. We can measure the amount of it between planets, and energy and matter can move through it.
And then, there are black holes, potentially the final state of matter in the universe. What if space is the previous layer of the canvas, and the center of the eventual universal black hole is the start of the next?
There can be thought of as two forces at work in the sedimentary accumulation of reality that has been discussed in this series so far. One of them is a zeroing force. The other is an infinitising force.
The infinitising force activates as it encounters nothingness and merges with it to create something substantial, or noticeable.
The zeroing force activates as it encounters infinity and merges with it to create nothingness, or a new blank slate that can be built on.
Going back to space and black holes- we can think of space as, to our perspective, the presence of nothing. The infinitising force then initiated the first big bang and sent matter into space- the first dots on the canvas.
What happens when the infinitising force and the zeroing force interact? The infinitising force creates substance, and the zeroing force creates a new baseline. So, when both are acting, they consolidate substance into new forms, but that inevitably brings that substance closer to nothingness.
We start with nebulae, and if the conditions are right we end up with black holes. If not, the alternatives can be absorbed by one.
This pattern can be seen in the development of life, from growth, death and evolution.
This model indicates that as we can characterise space as infinite, it must have been built up over time until it became complete, and then the spontaneous creation of matter happened within it- a system always creates a result, and enough results create a system.
The reason we cannot find the preceding system is because we cannot personally experience it as it does not hold the rules for our existence- we can remove the atmosphere from a space to create a vacuum, but we cannot remove the vacuum.
Imagine the paper filled up again with grey dots. What if we rubbed out the black layer completely, and there was just one solitary grey dot surrounded by the white paper?
Then, the grey dot would still stand on top of a black dot, which it needs to warrant that it exists in the first place.
If it were capable of perception, it would experience a lack of reality around it and see only itself.
This is as far as I will delve into the model in this episode, and I hope it stimulates new thought in the observer.
Whatever we might be currently thinking, let us hope it drives us towards a brighter world. That is all we can really hope for.
