IS THE GLASS COMPLETELY EMPTY - OR IS THE GLASS COMPLETELY FULL?

by Arafinwe

Do you believe that everything is true? Everything? Say, for the instance of this writing, that everything Tolkien wrote is true just as he described it, that it is, in fact, not fiction at all, but gospel truth. Do you believe this? Or,…….do you believe that this very world we live in is fiction to the point of being completely untrue? Do you believe that this world does not exist? There is proof for the realizing that both cases are so. Do you believe that the universe is infinite?

Imagine, just for the sake of this writing, that you are immortal. Also imagine, if you will, that you have a space ship that is very, very fast. Now imagine that you travel in your ship in a straight line away from Earth at very high speed,…say one billion times the speed of light, and due to your immortality, you can do so forever. I will ask that for the time being you forget Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity so that the friends and loved ones you leave behind on Earth do not age much more rapidly than you do.

Traveling in a straight line at one billion times the speed of light, you eventually come to a star. There are no planets orbiting around this star and you travel on. Eventually you do come to a star around which orbit some planets, …but none of them resemble Earth in any way. On you go. Remember, you are immortal and your ship is very fast. You go faster now, eventually coming to a star around which orbits a planet about the size of Earth, but which has no atmosphere or water. Time to travel onwards again.

Because the Universe is infinite, eventually you come to a planet which has an atmosphere and water, and eventually to a planet which has air, water, and life. The life is just some algae, …not very interesting, …so you speed up your flight in a straight line. Now you come to a planet with air, water, and life SOMETHING like what you were used to back on Earth, although it is more different than similar. Now you put your foot to the floor in your spaceship and after many, many years of travel you finally come to a planet with life quite similar to Earth. It has taken a long time to get here, and you have traveled a very great distance, but you have found it. Congratulations! They will name something in your honor back home.

Travel on now, faster still, encountering not one, but many planets, some of which have life, and a few of which have life similar to Earth. Because the Universe is infinite, you must encounter these planets if you travel in a straight line. After what seems like an eternity, you come to a planet EXACTLY like Earth, with a me writing to a you, …and exact copy in every way. Because the Universe is infinite, there is not only this one exact copy of Earth, but an infinite number of them. Because the Universe is infinite, there are also an infinite number of variations of Earth,……..and an infinite number or each of these variations. All this in a straight line.

Now think about it,…….if there is all this infinity in a straight line, then there MUST be a world out here somewhere in this straight line EXACTLY as Tolkien described in his writings about Middle Earth. Of course, there are an infinite number of these Middle Earths, an infinite number of variations of Middle Earth, and an infinite number of each of these variations. All in a straight line.

Because the Universe is infinite, not only do infinite numbers of infinite variations exist in a straight line, they exist EVERYWHERE, and because they exist everywhere, all infinity is full of them. If all infinity is full of an infinite number of infinite variations, then Middle Earth exists everywhere,…….including right back on the Earth you left so long ago in your very fast spaceship. All this everywhere. It seems that you didn’t need to leave after all.

So, if everything exists everywhere, then it not only exists in the infinite, but in the infinitesimal as well. Everything in every infinitesimal point. Because everything exists in the infinite as well as in the infinitesimal, and because all possibilities are thus true, then there also exists everywhere the case that none of it exists at all. Emptiness in all the infinite Universe and all the infinitesimal Universe. Not only are there no Middle Earths, there are no home Earths either, including the one you came from. Are you dreaming? WHO is dreaming?

Oh, by the way, …….because every possibility exists, (and doesn’t), then all possibilities exist, (or don’t), into the infinite past as well as into the infinite future. Everything everywhere all the time. Nothing anywhere ever. So,…….due to the infinity of possibilities and the emptiness of those possibilities, everything and nothing exist in the infinitesimally present point of NOW. Sorry, but it looks as if you won’t be getting something named in your honor after all. Or will you?