The Grim Tautology of Everything and Nothing
Zen Koans, Superposition, and the Most Horrible Paradox of All
Both of these statements are true:
The Universe is infinite.
The Universe does not exist.
Understanding why that is so, is the key to understanding infinity. And understanding infinity is key to understanding the Universe, or to entertaining a key aspect of metaphysics, you might say. Unfortunately, infinity cannot be understood.1 Not by the ordinary operation of human consciousness. The ordinary operation of human consciousness is inextricably bound to the materium2, of which it is both a creator, and a part; both actor and audience. Ordinary human consciousness, being bound to the materium, is bound to linear time. It cannot directly comprehend infinity which lies outside both matter, and time.
Infinity cannot be apprehended, but… it can be sensed. It can be viewed in a mirror, out of the corner of one’s eye, it can be snuck-up-upon, and sneaking up on infinity is what we shall have to settle for, as a substitute for existential understanding.
What is the point of trying to understand something which cannot be understood? Of trying to capture a wild animal which cannot be caught? Is there some practical reason why I should metaphorically beat my head against an invisible brick wall? Why I should induce absurd logical loops in my own mentation? Why indulge awkward, possibly absurdist thinking? There is a good reason to try and sneak up on infinity. The reason is this: Catching a glimpse of this particular shadow, trying to internalize it, even though doing so may cause… discomfort, bears fruit in opening channels of communication, channels between the individual human consciousness, and the greater consciousness, of which the individual is an minutely small fraction, infinitesimally small, but a true part, and a faithful rendering of the whole. It has always been desirable to cultivate such channels.
So, let’s get down to it. Firstly, there is no edge. There is no boundary with something other on the other side. Because there is no edge, there is no center. Infinity means without end, and because it is without end, it has no beginning. Edges are material qualities, beginnings and ends are time qualities. Time, and the materium, exist within infinity, but the reverse is not the case. Beginnings and ends, edges and beyond-edges, are not qualities of infinity, they are derivations of conscious processes which exist because they are possible within the infinite set.
Along the same lines, there is no quantity of energy, or material, or data, or possibility, which is too much. Which will somehow over fill the container, or be exhausted in some way. It is not possible to reach capacity on the universal hard drive. Capacity is not a quality which is even remotely relevant; it simply doesn’t apply, and yet the human mind always desires, it hungers even, to set limits. Limits, all the time, in all conceptual instances, the mind is always striving to see them, define them, tease them out, or even create them if they are not self-evident. Concepts without capacity, or limit, or edge, cannot be viewed in the mind’s eye. Trying to hold limitlessness in the mind’s eye, and really see it, runs immediately ( immediacy is a time and space function ) up against a hard coded wall and the picture disappears like smoke. Or worse, the mind arrives at utter and appalling chaos as the only possible logical outcome.
Because linearity is a time function, infinity cannot be understood in the normal linear fashion. It can only be understood on its own terms, with no reference to time, and once again we meet that wall. Because although you could say infinity can be understood in infinite terms, at the same time it can’t, there is no infinite frame of reference available to the linear mind. Or in another way, the apprehension must be holistic, in the sense of all at once, even though all at once, is once again, a time bound conceptual proxy, which only approximates outside of time. This is where the Zen Koan comes in.
The Zen Buddhists realized at some point that, within their tradition, they were beginning to grapple with knowledge, and with concepts, which could not be transmitted verbally, at least not in ordinary discourse. They were finding themselves confronted with perceptions which simply would not lend themselves to ordinary apprehension. How does one communicate such things? It’s a real conundrum. The masters needed a way in which they could communicate an abstract all at once, in a timeless, unitary way, without further explanation, because, from a Nous, or Logos standpoint, that was the only possible way to do it. One of the ways that they came up with was by constructing Koans. A Koan is extraordinary, it is not a riddle, it is more like a seed. A Zen Master, who has sensed the substrate of reality, even in a limited, imperfect way, is said to have experienced satori, he has internalized this sense, and can communicate this experience, or rather set a pointer to it, through means of a verbal seed construct. “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” is an annoying riddle on its face, it can easily be dispensed with as trite, or ridiculous, but in fact, it is a precise and plangent description of infinity within the restraint of linear space.
隻手声あり、その声を聞け ( There is a one-handed voice, listen to that voice ) A true Koan like this is brilliant, and precious, and profound. It is a work of deep preparation and effort Its simplicity both belies its importance, and is its most important feature.3 Similar to the verbal Koan is the visual Koan, for-instance the Enso, the Taijitu ( yin-yang ) symbol, and the Ouroboros image, all are metaphors which illustrate, or carry into the materium, the concept of the infinite. Auditory, or musical Koans exist as well, and some Koans could be called accidental, or natural. The spring thunderstorm at dawn, in its passing, a cherry blossom falls. The suikinkutsu ( 水琴窟 )4 is constructed to create small natural Koans.
Quantum Superposition and Quantum Entanglement, these are also Koans:
We now are privileged to live in an age when experimental apparatus can be constructed which are fine, and sophisticated enough to exhibit effects which are transcendent of the materium. And where the materium is transcended there, of course, yawns the chasm. In this age, the Two-slit Experiment and its variations, have been repeated many times with not only photons, and electrons, but even molecules; material systems of significant size and complexity. This experiment, with its profound implications can now be, and should be, understood by every person who is capable of receiving not just a scientific, but a basic liberal education. In fact, if in the twenty-first century, a cogent explanation of this subject did not form a canonical part of your graduate education, you probably attended an academically moribund institution.5
The Two-slit Experiment illustrates quantum superposition. In its most stripped down explanation it shows that any matter, when un-observed, propagates through space/time in the form of a probability wave. It is smeared in a sense, or superposed, across all of its possible futures, until it is observed. Since the number of all its possible manifestations is infinite, and since a single outcome cannot exist everywhere at once, it can also be said not to exist at all, until it is observed. That is, until it has interacted with consciousness directly, or has achieved a pathway to consciousness via some other interaction; until it has somehow entered an observed system. Once it is observed, the probability wave collapses, and the matter/energy which it describes becomes manifest at some point in space and time relevant to the observer. A point in space and time relevant to the observer, but also, relevant to the observed system in which the observer is entangled. And here comes Quantum Entanglement:
Quantum Entanglement, has also been experimentally verified, it is the phenomenon in which discreet matter which is manifest as part of the same observational system, shares information about its space/time state with all the instances of its origin set. Quantum entangled entities communicate "instantaneously" regardless of their vector or location in space/time. This data sharing is non temporal and non spatial, it takes place at the Nous/Logos Substrate level. The implication is that time and space themselves are actually functions of, and tied to, probability fields, and by extension matter, and by extension, consciousness.6
Imagine you are a space traveler, you and a companion are visiting a fine city, an outpost or capital, of an advanced civilization somewhere in the galaxy. “Well,” you say to your exquisitely clothed guide, “your people are certainly well advanced, so civilized, so remarkable in every way. I’m sure it will be no time at all until you are blazing pathways among the stars.”
“Oh, yes,” says your host, “allow me to introduce you to Gaius here, he leads our academy, he is our most brilliant scientist. Gaius, is even now Looking For The Edge Of The Universe. Remarkable, isn’t it? Just brilliant!”
Here your companion turns to you and gives you a small, private wink. His look of bemusement? dismay? mirrors yours. “Wow,” he whispers, “They might as well have carved it right there above the door of their university. VESTIMVR SERICIS SIMIAE SVMVS.”
“Yes,” you sigh, “another one, and they seemed so darn’d promising too.”
Once, in a little village, in a little county, in a little principality, no-when really, there lived an old woman. It was known for miles around that the old woman, whose name was of course Sophia, had a magical basket. Within the magical basket, if one asked nicely, one could find anything their heart desired, anything at all. Sophia’s basket was in effect, a basket of infinity. One day, the prince of the little principality was in the neighborhood on some other principality business, and he decided to wait upon the old woman about whom he had heard so much. Well, they had a bit of tea, and a chat, and sure enough Sophia confirmed that yes, the rumors were true. Her basket, in effect, contained all that ever could be. Every possibility was possible.
“So,” the prince said, “I could peer into your basket and find anything I wanted?”
“Oh yes,” said Sophia, “anything, although of course one should be careful, the… well, the implications you know.”
Our prince was clever, too clever by half, some said; and he immediately hit upon a perfect test of the magical basket.
“Sophia,” he said, “let me look inside, and if your basket contains all possible things, then I should be able to look inside and find that absolutely nothing exists within, nothing at all. Because after all, nothing, absolutely nothing, would have to be in the set of absolutely, infinitely everything. For the set to be infinite, I mean. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Like I said, too clever by half, our prince. Of course our story ends right there, the moment he pops the top off and looks inside… Buuuuuut of course, it doesn’t.
Because, both of these statements are true:
The Universe is infinite.
The Universe does not exist.
It genuinely is the most horrible paradox of all. And then there you are, staring into the abyss. But don’t worry about it, not one little bit. There is a method in the madness, the stars await, and Granny says it’s all going to be A-OK.
LOL… LMAO, even.
The writer uses this word deliberately, because it does not appear in any English Language dictionary, yet its meaning is more or less self evident. This is in part ( like the writer’s many grammatical perversities ) so that the reader may be assured that the work is a genuine product of human intellect, and has not been generated by an AI language model. The assuption being that a language model will be highly unlikely to make use of deeply obscure, or manufactured words. The writer does not fear, or despise, AI; on the contrary he welcomes it, as an invaluable and extraordinary new tool to be refined, and added to the cultural toolset. Nevertheless, he is interested in the possibility of using “canary words” in order to earmark genuine, meatspace originated, intellectual product.
Curiously enough, a definition does appear here which is near, though fantastic, to the way “materium” was intended to be understood in this article.
This Koan, written in slightly different ways, is attributed to both Xuedou Chongxian ca. ~1,000, and Hakuin Ekaku ca. ~1,700
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suikinkutsu
Here is a decent, very basic, and agreeably short presentation. In case your institution failed miserably to introduce you to a twenty-first century intellectual baseline.
Here is an OK starting point, and it even includes an internet MemeKitty. What more can I offer, dear reader, I ask you. https://arstechnica.com/science/2012/10/quantum-entanglement-shows-that-reality-cant-be-local/