To zero and beyond

I find it incredibly ironic that nothing is infinite. That the abundance of everything is the presence of nothing and that zero is an infinite quantity of nothing. 

It's a strange realization, but you've never actually seen 'nothing'. And you can't possibly imagine what 'everything' looks like. Because everything should be quantifiable - It is, quite literally, every thing, and because we know things, from worms to pineapples to grains of sand and electrons, can be quantified, every thing must be quantifiable. But that's simply not true, not nearly because we don't know every single 'thing' in existence, but because every thing cannot exist. Every thing is not a constant because things are constantly beginning their existences. And if this is true, 'nothing' as a figment must not exist. And if it's not true, nothing must still not exist because to quantify nothing is to make it something. And something is a thing and things exist. 

(Takes a sip of water, takes a short walk and falls over because of the dizziness)

 

The human mind was not hardwired to imagine things on such a grand scale. Our minds consider things in terms of spectra - 7 billion, the number of people currently living on planet earth, must be somewhere between 0 and infinity, if infinity were a finite quantity. 7 billion is certainly less than half of infinity. It is also certainly less than a quarter, an eighth, a sixteenth, a third-second, ad infinitum, of infinity. 7 billion is closer to 0 than it is to infinity and that's where our minds call it quits. 

 

But maybe 7 billion, 7 with 9 zeroes, is too close to 0. 

 

Let's make it larger. 

 

There are 10⁸¹ atoms in the observable universe. Atoms, as most people know, are the building blocks of matter - Everything, from the air you're breathing in, to the clothes you're (hopefully) wearing, to the device you're reading this on, to the sun, our neighbouring planets, our galaxy and just about everything else you can imagine, is made of atoms and the sum of these atoms gives us the number ten quadrillion vigintillion and one-hundred thousand quadrillion vigintillion atoms. A one, followed by 81 zeroes. This value is much greater than 7 billion. But annoyingly, it's much lower than infinity. It's less than half, a quarter, an eighth, a sixteenth, a third-second, ad infinitum, of infinity. 10 quadrillion vigintillion and one-hundred thousand quadrillion vigintillion is closer to 0 than it is to infinity. 

 

This last paragraph is meaningless to you. 

 

It is also meaningless to me. 

 

Because while our minds enjoy thinking about numbers in relation to scale and quantity, after a certain point, numbers become completely meaningless to us. This point, I'm convinced, varies directly with age. Explain 10⁸¹ to a child and you'll have them buzzing with excitement. But as we age, it seems we become desensitized to magnitude and scale. And how we qualify these numbers becomes irrelevant - 6 million lives lost in the Holocaust, 75 million deaths during World War II, 20% of women raped in their lifetimes, 17 million people killed during Leopold II's time in the Congo, US$200 billion to Jeff Bezos' name: It all sounds the same. Very big numbers. 

 

And yet, it's more than that. 

 

It is a large number of lives lost, of dignities stolen, of dollars accumulated and many other quantities that are of great significance to us. Similarly, our brains underestimate the significance of the seemingly small. An increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the average global temperatures for example seems quite insignificant and infinitesimal, and yet its impacts are astronomical - The submerging of coastal cities, massive storms and the shifting of seasons amongst other things. Our brains struggle to operate within extremes, and yet the world and indeed the universe in which we live is one of extremes. Extreme poverty, extreme illness, extreme changes, extreme beliefs, extreme impacts. 

 

In the beginning, I introduced you to a very big number - 1081: A one, followed by 81 zeroes. Chances are, you won't remember what I was describing when I invoked that very massive number (A reminder: Atoms in the universe). Greater evidence exists that shows how quick we are to disregard the noun that qualifies numerical values. But the point, all the same, exists. It is too easy to simply shut down our minds when faced with large quantities, at best marvelling at their size and at worst forgetting them entirely. 

 

Infinity doesn't exist. It's not a number, it's not a quantity - It's not a thing because it cannot end and things, by definition, must end in order to be quantifiable. It falls under a class of values known as non-real numbers - The square root of -1 is also a non-real number (Try punching it into your calculator). Because of this, the spectral approach of the human mind to numbers must not stand because no matter how big numbers get, we're nowhere near the end of the spectrum (which, surprise, doesn't exist). 

 

Numbers, when used right, are beautiful things. They tell us to get excited about our birthdays which are a few months away. They tell us to start studying because 11% in a test isn't the prettiest thing to look at. They remind us that 19 slices of cake in one seating is a bit…unnatural. But they can also annoy the living daylights out of us and leave us so exasperated that we disregard them entirely. 

 

But numbers are never just numbers. Your primary school teachers were right when they screeched "12 what? Donkeys? Blueberries?" in our ears when we told them that Lee, who has 73 watermelons and gives away 61 remains with 12. Numbers are lives. Cells. Car accidents. Murders of minorities. Mass shootings. Active conflicts. Words in this blog post. 

 

Numbers are alive. 

 

Sincerely, 

Muku

Photo by Daniel Giannone on Unsplash