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Author Topic:   Is Infinity Real?
xongsmith
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Posts: 2587
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 7.0


Message 10 of 48 (598965)
01-04-2011 1:52 PM
Reply to: Message 9 by nwr
01-04-2011 12:51 PM


...but even more powerful than Infinity is NaN. Anything that comes into contact with a NaN becomes a NaN.
"Inside the museums Infinity goes up on trial.
Voices echo 'this is what...salvation must be like after a while'.
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues -
you can tell by the way she smiles...."

- xongsmith, 5.7d

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 Message 9 by nwr, posted 01-04-2011 12:51 PM nwr has replied

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 Message 11 by nwr, posted 01-04-2011 3:16 PM xongsmith has seen this message but not replied

  
xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2587
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 7.0


Message 32 of 48 (599501)
01-08-2011 12:13 AM
Reply to: Message 31 by Rrhain
01-07-2011 11:38 PM


Rrhain writes:
If there were an infinite past, then processes that would reach equilibrium after an infinite amount of time (or even a sufficiently large amount of time) would have done just that. Since they haven't, then there must not be an infinite past.
Wow...nice point. Very nice.
To adhere to the alternative would imply that equilibrium NEVER happens, things are in a constant chaotic systematic unpredictability. Something like the constant shaking of an Anti-Einstein's Godly dice on every particle pair creation with all of the subsequent Heisenbergian Chaos. Disney's mouse traps and ping pong balls indeed!
Yes.
Let us put away these foolish things and look forward to the inexorable heat-death of the Universe in an adult manner.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 31 by Rrhain, posted 01-07-2011 11:38 PM Rrhain has not replied

  
xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2587
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 7.0


Message 44 of 48 (600164)
01-12-2011 11:07 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by anselm
01-02-2011 1:24 PM


You could also ask "Is Reality infinite?" See cavediver for more.
But then you could also ask "Is Reality real?"
I got a chance to read this book, "The Illusion of Reality", which actually went into how we creatures sort of come up with ad hoc shortcuts to pave in rest of the work of sensing things. For example, you look at a piece of graph paper and, even taking in the well-known blindspot effect, even way out at the peripheral, your brain is saying "okay...i get it...its turtles all the way down from here - next?" so as to be able to move your head & process things fast enough to leap out of the way of a leopard and live to have children.
It's sort of like a compression algorithm.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
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