Literally Everything is Infinite

post by Spiral · 2024-01-31T18:31:48.664Z · LW · GW · 8 comments

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Hi all,

I was on a walk, digesting a lot of "Western" and "Eastern" philosophy I have been reading over the last couple months, and a mental paradigm emerged for me. Not in blaze of light or spiritual experience kind of way, but more in a small thought that grew larger the more I questioned it. I am not claiming to be the first to suggest this, though I haven't personally heard it explored further before.

The thought is "Everything is Infinite. Literally everything."
This will probably sound stupidly simple, pointlessly vague - but give it a shot - I believe the consequences of this have practical ramifications.
The underlying logic is that while beginnings, endings, and limits are very helpful conceptual tools for humans, they don't actually exist in reality.
Take this assumption seriously, draw out the consequences, and see where it takes you. Please critique anything here obviously, because this is only useful a paradigm if it holds up.

Here are some examples. Each one builds on the previous one, so I would recommend deciding if you agree with one before moving on to the next:

"Zoom" is Infinite
By Zoom I mean zooming into the micro level, and zooming out the macro. We haven't been able to find the smallest building blocks of the universe, nor the largest. Even if we did find the smallest - what is genuinely stopping us from zooming in further?

Objects are Boundless
The paradigm in a number of Eastern philosophies, along with what appears more evident as we are able to see further into the micro is that the "hard edges" we assumed defined objects, are actually quite blurred. Following on from the previous point, if we can never reach the smallest building block, then how can we define the edges of an object, lined with those smallest building blocks? Again, while being able to isolate "objects" as objects through language and concepts has incredible utility for us, it is not actually the true reality. Don't worry, I know you've heard these ideas a thousand times, but keep taking it further.

Time is Infinite
What we perceive as time never had a beginning and will never have an end. You may argue that there must be beginnings and ends, because our experience begins at birth and ends at death. Though the key here is that, while the states of things transform (which conceptually seem like a beginning and end), the things themselves never do. Before you were born, you were a foetus, you were sperm and an egg, and we can regress infinitely. After you die, your body remains but gets turned into a thousand different things for a thousand different microbes. Nothing is ever truly generated or destroyed. Nothing too mind-blowing - thankyou high school physics. But if nothing we observe truly has a beginning or end, how can we assume that the universe had a beginning, or will have an end? That is actually a counter-assumption to our empirical observation of things. This is where it may start affecting how we choose to live our lives.

The Cosmos is Boundless
Just as we observed with the illusion of boundaries of "objects," the idea that our universe or cosmos has spatial edges is an assumption without evidence. Following the pattern we've established so far, this means you could travel in any direction - infinitely.

Everything will Exist
If it is true that time and space are both infinite, then we have two options. Option 1 is that everything is more of the same in all directions, and has been in a perfect cycle of composition and decomposition and will repeat the exact same way endlessly through time. Option 2 is that even if there is the slightest variation over time and/or over space - stretch that over infinite time and infinite space - then you consequently end up with every possible situation and object existing. You may have to travel very far in space or time, but it would have to be there.

--note: from this point on, we move from what I suspect is very likely the case into a space where it is only most likely the case, based on previous patterns we've established--

The Laws of Reality are Relative to our Local Relative Universe
We are talking the Laws of Physics, Geology, Biology, Neuroscience, Engineering, whatever field you want to pick. This one may seem like a leap initially, but take some time on it.
If it is true that every possible situation and object exists (as above) - truly in the infinite sense - then the idea that all those infinite possibilities fit within the same physical mechanics frameworks, across infinite space and infinite time, is unlikely. What is more likely is that these Laws we have discovered and tested serve an incredible utility purpose for what I'll call our Local Relative Universe.
Think of our Local Relative Universe as everything around us, both in our current space and current time, within a certain "radius." The key here is to remember that there are no hard bounds on any of this, so you can never really cross over the "border" from our relative universe to the next. It is more like "things gradually transform the further away you get from us." This is purely a conceptual framework that places us, spatially and temporally, at the center so we can make relative judgements (we, of course, are not at the center, because there is no center).
If true, an example of this could be that as you move very far away from us, the Gravitational Constant will change. The makeup of atoms will change. The speed of light will likely also change.
Try imagining reality that distant from us, where the fundamental laws of reality are different.

What Practical Difference Does this Make?
If you agree the above is actually the most likely situation we live among, you may find it changes things. It will likely be very different for different people. For me personally, I went through a few stages:

First was a sense of peace. This kind of paradigm can be applied to all situations. One of the current fears in our current climate is that of human extinction via either AI or climate catastrophe. I find this infinite kind of mindset helps challenge that all-or-nothing thinking. Even if there is a catastrophe, what is the likelihood that it will wipe out every single human, so that humanity can never recover? Even if that were to happen, how can we be certain that humans won't emerge again? Even if all life on Earth was wiped out, if space and time are infinite, then not only is the emergence of life again probable - I struggle to see how it wouldn't be inevitable.

The second was a sense of horror. If all possible situations exist, then the most horrifying situations we can imagine exist. This is truly horrific. The comfort I gained for this was through the identification of our Local Relative Universe. It is truly horrific when compared to our local situation, based on our local values. We cannot make accurate value judgements for situations out of our Local Relative Universe. The value judgement would need to be made from "their" point of view.

The third was peace again. For this, I draw from my current interpretation of Daoism. If all is relative, then the greatest way we can live is in harmony with our Local Relative Universe. Our scientific laws and engineering give us greater utility, but we should know that there is no end to the searches. This means there is no end to the utility we can achieve. Realizing this prompts us to focus less on the end goal of finding the "ultimate reality," and focus more on the way we do the journey. If every possibility will already exist regardless of what we do in our Local Relative Universe, then it means this is not the universe's only chance for "success." However, we are here, and we do value things like truth, love and beauty - so why not live artfully and exude them?

If you do want to play with the idea that Literally Everything is Infinite, I'd love to hear how you take it even further.

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