The fear of everything and nothing at all

[kaynai]

Why is it that human consciousness is incapable of fully contemplating and understanding two fairly elementary concepts: nothingness and the infinite? Why must everything somehow be quantified? Ask someone to imagine nothingness or to describe what it is like and they will spout off words like "darkness, blackness, emptiness" when it is so

Comments

A Mathematician's Perspective

[moshez]

Nothing: Depends on what you mean. I've dealt enough with the empty set that I feel I have *some* understanding of it.

Infinity: There's the aristotelian concepts of "potential" vs. "true" infinity. They translate, in modern maths, to the concepts of "limits" vs. "infinite cardinals". Again, I see no problem except that there are multiple concepts often jumbled together.

99.9999... -- That's a 100, so I am not sure what your point is.

Froor!

[moshez]

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