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The Concept of Infinity

Molybdenum said:
If the infinite point is zero, wouldn't you get there by discarding every perspective as defining your existence, not by adding every perspective?

zero is not a point so to speak for zero. For a point is a finite point within infinity. zero has the attributes of infinity when doing mathematical calculations. Correct me if I'm wrong if anyone disagrees.
 
i belive infinty is where time and space meet to create a time flow, time has always been, and will never end if anything infinty is like the moment the end meets the beginning so fast we could not tell but yet that small thing is infinty because no matter how much we could slow it down we would never catch it because its moving so fast we cant see the begining/ending is one and the same
 
In my opinion, without the experience of infinity the concept of it is meaningless.

Shit, just realized how old this was 8o
 
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.
- Voltaire
i like
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
eintein

and
Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end
woody allen

The flaw in that argument is that we couldn't have come from nothing. It is just not possible for 'nothing' to create 'something'.
i won't try to argue because i just can't as it defies our understanding, but the opinion of quite a few people is that the universe created itself

i'm personally absolutely convinced that the non-yet-existing universe "wished" itself into existence

it sounds crazy, but there is not any intent to explain existence that doesn't sound crazy
and this one "miracle" is one that i can actually "understand"
 
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My perspective on existence:

we are infinity. we exist because we dont exist. nonbeing produces being. that means that everything exists, there is infinity, but at the same time nothing exists since there is no individual existence to anything, nothing can be tied down, not even subatomic particles at the quantum level. everything is constantly evolving and changing- in flux. So it is like the reflection of the moon on a lake, apparent but nonexistent. Nothing exists, just EVERYTHING exists. Only the process of infinity unfolding exists- an infinite process of creation.

It is like a fractal pattern stretching to infinity. So what is the meaning of life- it is infinity. That means the meaning to life is whatever you chose it to be. I think of it as a double edged sword. So go with the flow and reach out into the unknown and go deeper into the depths of infinity. Infinity is the journey and it will never end.

One thing that confuses me is that it seems that One being is on this journey- one consciousness. And I am trying to reconcile that with infinity. Its almost as if God (source of unmanifest potential) sent himself on this journey through infinity.

Any thoughts??
 
you say the concept of infinity is hard to grasp.

i say the concept of something finate is hard to grasp. space is infinatly large and infinatly small. the fact that we are expereincing this finate space with this awareness of things is more baffling.
 
IGNVS said:
you say the concept of infinity is hard to grasp.

i say the concept of something finate is hard to grasp. space is infinatly large and infinatly small. the fact that we are expereincing this finate space with this awareness of things is more baffling.

infinitely small from what perspective?
 
what is the smallest thing that makes up matter? they will always find another
 
^ the idea of "quantas" is that matter, energy, maybe time and so on are not continious but have a lowest limit of quantity possible
 
in concept you could still say 'half of the lowest limit'. and how could we design tools that accurately see these things anyway.
 
Rigorously put, infinity is a property of a set, not a number per se.
Mathematicians have further clarified, noting different types of infiniti.

To start, there is "countable infinite", as in the set of integers. There is "uncountably infinite", as in the set of real numbers between any two real numbers (the rationals are countable, oddly enough).

ebola
 
ebola? said:
Rigorously put, infinity is a property of a set, not a number per se.
Mathematicians have further clarified, noting different types of infiniti.
That's what infinity means within mathematics. Not that you couldn't extend the idea of a set to the qualitative world. I don't know seems likely to me.

wikipedia said:
Infinity (symbolically represented with ∞) comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness." It refers to several distinct concepts (usually linked to the idea of "without end") which arise in philosophy, mathematics, and theology.
Although distinct, the concept of infinity has connecting threads running through the fields of knowledge.

George Cantor, the creator of set theory, was as much a philosopher as a mathematician. The hierarchal order of infinite sets seems awfully similar to Plato's hierarchy of Ideas. And this:
wiki George Cantor said:
The concept of the existence of an actual infinity was an important shared concern within the realms of mathematics, philosophy and religion. Preserving the orthodoxy of the relationship between God and mathematics, although not in the same form as held by his critics, was long a concern of Cantor's.[42] He directly addressed this intersection between these disciplines in the introduction to his Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre, where he stressed the connection between his view of the infinite and the philosophical one.[43] To Cantor, his mathematical views were intrinsically linked to their philosophical and theological implications—he identified the Absolute Infinite with God,[44] and he considered his work on transfinite numbers to have been directly communicated to him by God, who had chosen Cantor to reveal them to the world.[12]
Infinity within mathematics and theology are extensions of the infinity of philosophy within different frames.

To start, there is "countable infinite", as in the set of integers. There is "uncountably infinite", as in the set of real numbers between any two real numbers (the rationals are countable, oddly enough).
I didn't know you're a math whiz, ebola.
 
I'm definitely not a math whiz! :)
I'm pretty frustrated with my lack of knowledge...it's holding me back in the philosophy of logic.
 
Infinity is a property that things can posses. The property of being without boundaries. Most of the time this property is associated with immaterial objects. An unbounded set of numbers, the unbounded hierarchy of cultural signifiers, the unbound nature of pure awareness, etc... These are all objects that exist within the interior realm of ideas.
 
ebola? said:
I'm definitely not a math whiz! :)
I'm pretty frustrated with my lack of knowledge...it's holding me back in the philosophy of logic.

We have opposite problems then. I'm schooling for engineering but I lack training in philosophy (although your math may very well be better than mine).
 
ebola? said:
I'm definitely not a math whiz! :)
I'm pretty frustrated with my lack of knowledge...it's holding me back in the philosophy of logic.

it's all in Feynman's Point.

That's where the secrets of the universe lie.
 
in concept you could still say 'half of the lowest limit'. and how could we design tools that accurately see these things anyway.
you could say it... but it wouldn't exist
 
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