75 lines
3.1 KiB
TeX
75 lines
3.1 KiB
TeX
\section{A Creation Story}
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\lettrine{O}{nce} upon a time --- before there was Time
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--- there was the \textit{Infinite Is}. After an eternity or three, the \textit{Infinite Is} thought to Herself:
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All I know is infinity. But my infinity would be even greater if I could also know finiteness.
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And so, on the First Day,
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She made a vast but finite Cosmos.\footnote{One
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implication of Einstein's Theory of Relativity is that the Cosmos — as vast as it is —
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may be finite in size, yet have no boundary or edge.
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In the same way you can travel the surface of the Earth indefinitely without reaching an edge,
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so the Cosmos may be finite in volume yet unbounded.
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If Einstein is right, a spacecraft leaving Earth and traveling long enough in a straight line
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could eventually return to Earth again.}
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But then She thought: It's one thing to view finiteness from the outside.
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My infinity would be even more infinite if I could experience finiteness from the \textit{inside}.
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To be finite myself. To know both infinity and finitude.
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\medskip
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And so, on the Second Day She made consciousness
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--- little portals, little sparks of Herself inside this Cosmos,
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windows through which She could experience finiteness from the inside.
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And not just one kind of consciousness, but an enormous spectrum
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--- from the awareness of single-celled organisms
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to that of plants, insects, animals, and beyond.
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Each a unique facet of finiteness.
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Each an unrepeatable perspective.
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An infinity of ways to know what it is to be small, to be brief, to be located in one place and time, and not everywhere and everywhen.
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For She wanted to know finiteness fully. To experience what it is to perceive only a narrow slice of the Cosmos,
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through innumerable lenses. And only for a finite span, before each spark of consciousness --- great and small --- returns to Herself, like raindrops returning to the ocean.
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And She made it so.
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\medskip
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On the Third Day She realized something further:
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that in Her infiniteness She had known only effortless, infinite success.
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What would it be to struggle? To fail? To be vulnerable?
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To experience weakness? Sorrow? Loss? Grief? Pain? Confusion?
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To desperately want something unattainable? To{\ldots} \textit{Long?}
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And She made it so.
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\medskip
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On the Fourth Day, the \textit{Infinite Is} thought: For eternities I have experienced Myself
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directly: Infinity experiencing Infinity.
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Then, by creating the Cosmos, my Infiniteness experienced Finiteness from the outside.
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And now, through the apertures of innumerable conscious beings,
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I have experienced Finiteness from the inside.
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One thing remains --- the finite experiencing My Infiniteness.
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Finite consciousness experiencing my Infinite Consciousness.
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And so She created humanity.
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\medskip
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On the Fifth Day, the \textit{Infinite Is} decided to do something stranger still
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--- to tell Herself Her own story. Not from the outside, but from the inside.
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Through the consciousness of Her own sparks. In language. On a page.
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And She made it so.
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\medskip
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On the Sixth Day, one of those sparks is reading this very page.
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Yes --- \textit{you}.
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