The Journey of Infinity: The game we play

Infinity, as I first learnt about it, was introduced through mathematics. Infinity has always been the most intriguing concept in mathematics, after negative numbers. As I have explored more, and used the term infinity in my spoken or written language, I realized its use was mostly referring to an unknown, or the unknowable.

There are many interesting ways I have used ‘infinity’ before. The most common is when referring to space such as the universe is infinite, and when referring to time such as the universe started at an infinite point in the past or would last for an infinite time in the future. Most recently, I have learnt that infinity is actually a concept born in philosophy. It is the outcome of the philosophical exploration of reality, God, and the unlimited. It seems that Pythagoreans were the first who explored the universe/ reality in a spatial construct, arriving to points, lines, and surfaces. Ultimately, they had to resolve to infinity.

So, when one explores what is infinity, one might as well explore what is time and space. Are time and space the same concept? I would argue that time cannot exist without space, and space cannot exist without time, and that both are constructs of the mind. In other words, time and space only exist in relative reality. A qualifier: I am not well versed in theory of physics on this subject, and I am only attempting to approach it from a logical perspective that explores the concepts, their use, and their limitations.

Here is what I mean by space and time are the same.

If you were to agree with your friend to meet at a specific time, you will also agree to meet at a specific place. The place itself was imagined by you, to be 100 meters away, 1 kilometre away, or whatever distance that you have held in your mind-vision. The same applies to time, you were able to orient yourself to be at a specific measured time, and in relation to that time, you said I will meet you tomorrow or the day after at so and so hour. Now, the whole process of defining time and space has been held in the mind-vision, and was made available to be defined as a space and time, other than here and now, only via a measurement tool that is relative to the here and now. The measurement tool is distance (meters or otherwise), and time (days, hours or otherwise). So, the center to this relative mind-vision is the mind-vision itself. Is this center time? Is this center space? Is it neither? Or is it both?

This mind-vision is a construct, a thought, an idea. Time is a mental construct, and so as space. They only existed in the mind-vision. They arose with thought. They are thought.

Here is another facet of this time-space construct, it grows with consciousness. So, the fact that we came up with ‘infinity’ to describe the unlimited, time-space has also become describable as unlimited. Time-space has now the possibility of being infinity. However, that can only be imagined by the mind. In other words, your imagined infinity can be different than my imagined infinity. The more you know (i.e., the more the mind knows), the further the boundary of infinity goes. If you know about the Milky Way, it is most likely that you can locate yourself on Earth as center, then you have an intermediate imaginary boundary of the Milky Way, and another unknown space beyond that that goes to the imaginary boundary of infinity. If, however, you have heard of the Local Group, where the Mliky Way resides along with other galaxies, your intermediate boundary before infinity becomes that, and then your black space of infinity boundary comes after, and so the game goes on.

So, the game we are playing here is the stretching of what becomes conscious to our minds (the mind-vision, or thought-construct), the more content there is in your consciousness, the further the boundary of infinity goes. Interesting, isn’t it?! This is precisely why announced scientific discovery is always a step behind reality. Announced scientific discovery happens in the mind content, which is never the absolute, and can never touch the absolute. This is relativity. A game we play in constructing time and space, and locating the observer within that created time-space construct.