RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,109
(a long strange read, but worth the trek, though
though you best be sitting down when reading it)
It has taken me, truly, a long
time to realize the difference
between two worlds: my present,
'elder' by contrast, world, and
the actual 'present' world that
the mass of other people live in.
There's no apologizing for it,
and it's not a problem. It's just
something to be realized and
acknowledged and, frankly,
thanked. I wouldn't have it
any other way. (I'll get to the
rest of this in a few moments,
but for now hear me out).
-
I have a braggart, correspondent
friend with whom contact is
maintained - though sometimes
badly and sometimes quite barely.
There's nothing really 'wrong' with
it, except that he consistently does
assume that, for whatever reason,
we share the same worlds. We do
not. And I'll repeat that : We do not.
Convection ovens? Rolls Royces?
Businesses on three continents?
The ear of the Postmaster General?
Yachts, boats, the finest of shirts and
foods, illusionary accolades, high
contacts (and contracts) within such
things as The New York Times. The
strong and the powerful a phone call
away. I think something's baked, far
too long, in some sort of oven; and
perhaps to be called some expensive
version of California brain-stew. It's
not everyone who can, upon having
a tardy package not arriving, pick up
the phone and call the Postmaster
General, (apparently a guy named
Louis De Joy), speak, and have
that package promptly located
and delivered. Some reality!
-
The world is a confusing place, I
grant, and, yes, sadly, we don't all
make it through the same. I admit to
many failures, little achievement, no
riches, and worries by the bushel. But,
I speak the truth. Not MY truth,
necessarily, but THE truth. Now, such
a concept as Truth can be argued all
day [see Pilate, Pontius], but at some
high-level rendering it does 'exist'
and mostly as a simple either/or
acknowledgement. Just because one
'says' something, does not make it
true. We all have wishes and urges.
Acted out, versus perfectly described
in fantasy-land; that's another matter.
This all reminds me of walking the
old, nearly moribund, streets of Red
Hook, Brooklyn. The sense I always
got out of that was that there was
some sort of life-force there, but it
was all wasted and tired, composed
of fractured remnants of, perhaps,
what once was. Harbor, boats, old
sea craft, shops, bars and restaurants,
mixed and (slowly) mingled with,
on the one hand the raggedy hulks
of old buildings (for which time had
stopped), and, on the other hand, the
speeding, swift, evidences of the
modern - noisy, chrome-shiny
taverns and eateries ringed with
hipster youth, pleasurable party-goers,
and those others who ride the more
agile asteroids of the new and the
present. Difficult to just stand in
place and stare at something old
and fixed, while the world speeds
and spins within a velocity that alters
and re-reckons everything else. No
sense in even talking; certainly
not worth bragging. Illusion.
-
I've found the most startlingly serious
matter about life at present, to be Physics.
The subject matter of Physics. It kind
of now overlaps with Philosophy too,
in that they both, as two hands on one
body, facilitate and make possible the
handling of objects - boxes tied within
concepts and overlapped with denser
realities. I walk amongst this, wallowing
sometimes in the most severe confusion,
and at other times suddenly claiming a
perfect clarity. All because of some
current, descriptive, state of 'Physics,'
by and about our 'illusionary' world.
Enough said on my part. I'm here just
going to put down three or four rough
facsimiles as quoted, to what I mean,
to show it. I place it here because it's
meaningful, important, eye-opening,
and momentous:
-
'A small part of the revolution that is
currently overtaking cosmology is that
the omega-point models have been
ruled out by observation. Evidence -
including a remarkable series of studies
of supernovae in distant galaxies - has
forced cosmologists to the unexpected
conclusion that the universe not only
will expand forever but has been
expanding at an accelerating rate.
Something has been counteracting its
gravity. We do not know what. Pending
the discovery of a good explanation,
the unknown cause has been named
'dark energy.' There are several
proposals for what it might be,
including effects that merely give
the appearance of acceleration. But
the best working hypothesis is that
in the equations for gravity there is
an additional term (first mooted by
Einstein in 1915, and then dropped
because he realized that his explanation
for it was bad). It reappeared again in
the 1980's as a possible effect of quantum
field theory, but again there was no
theory of the physical meaning of such
a term good enough for its magnitude.
The problem of the nature and effects
of dark energy is no minor detail...so
much for cosmology being a fundamentally
completed science.' To wit, we know little.
-
Another one: 'When the total volume of
what we can see [as the Big Bang' continues
expanding, the finite portion of infinite
space that we can see, as a portion, will
continue to grow], ever more unlikely
phenomena will come into view. When
that total volume of what we see is a
million times larger than it is now, we
shall see things with that probability of
'one in a million' a lot more. Everything
physically possible will be revealed.
According to prevailing theory, those
things exist already, but many times too
far away for light from them to have
reached us: Watches that came into
being spontaneously; asteroids that
look like William Paley [an old-era
corporate head of CBS].' What they
are saying is that, within this 'expansion,'
we will realize that every thought we
have creates a reality, and that each
of those parallel realities exist
concurrently, with us - psyche,
oversoul - working them through.
Constant expansion. Total immersion.
Point of fact : No difference exists
between fact and fantasy, because
the imagining is all. And everything
just is!!
-
Physicists even have a take on lotteries!
'This issue has an even wider scope. For
example, there is the so-called 'quantum
suicide argument' in regard to this
multiverse. Suppose you want to win
the lottery. You buy a ticket and set up
a machine that will automatically kill
you in your sleep if you lose. Then, in
all the histories in which you do wake
up, you are a winner. If you do not
have loved ones to mourn you, or
other reasons to prefer that most
histories not be affected by your
premature death, you have arranged
to get something for nothing with what
proponents of this theory call 'subjective
certainty.' Once again, my own life, by
these tenets, is circumscribed by infinite
possibilities....and infinite doubts. What,
after all, is really going on? Fact? Fallacy?
Illusion? Reality.
-
I'll continue this (fascinating) stuff in
the next chapter too, but for now I wish
to conclude this one with this last and
quite incredible, further premise: 'Imagine
that physicists discover that space is
actually many-layered like puff-pastry;
the number of layers varies from place
tp place; the layers split in some places,
and their contents split with them. Every
layer has identical contents though. Hence,
although we do not feel it, the instances
around us (fact/fantasy/illusions), split
and merge as we move around. All things
can be, and nothing has to be, though
nothing is 'not.' In quantum theory the laws
of physics tell us how to count histories
by measure. But, counting the number
of instances of oneself is no guide to
the probabilities one ought to use in
determining what is or is not. Repeating
the same simulations of self a million
times would make no more sense for it
being more or less likely of one being a
'simulation' instead of a 'Reality' as we
claim to know it, nor that one is or is
not a 'simulation rather than the original.
Will then the future universe, simulated,
even be moral? The world as it exists
today contains an enormous amount of
suffering and whoever ran such a simulation
would be responsible for recreating it. Or
would they?'
-
Fie then! Get thee to a nunnery!
Seek thee certainty where ye
may find it!
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