On infinity and the logic of absurdity…

We crave reason, yet behave unreasonably.  Social systems, infrastructure, and institutions are based on logic, yet our most fundamental system {numbers} is smoldered with logical inconsistencies.

Allow me to titillate your intuitions and tickle your neocortex. (The neocortex is responsible for your logical reasoning and looks like this):

This is a number line
|0-----1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7-----8-----9|

On that number line I can clearly see nine individual sections.  I could also identify 45 sections.  Depending on your scale of reference, how many possible way could you divide that numberline?

In fact you could divide that numbered segment an infinite amount of ways. 

I’ll allow that to ruminate.  But don't fight the accumulating thought bubbles because your intuition definitely isn’t failing you.

How could it be that in a defined set there are an infinite number of possible segments?  Intuition tells us that in a finite distance, there are only a finite amount of parts.  Intuition also tells us if there are an infinite number of parts the set should extend ad infinidum.  But we have to talk about infinity; it’s weird.

Infinity {aka ‘∞’} and 7; while both are part and parcel of this thing called math, the latter is a number and the former isn’t.  Infinity is a concept, an abstract one at that, to describe something that is without any limit.  If you are interested in the ability of this concept/number/word/ or even God? to melt away your intuitions I hear this website www.Wikipedia.com is really good.  Bertrand Russell described some of these paradoxes as “immeasurably subtle and profound,” if that’s not a ringing endorsement for you then I don’t know what is.

Absurdity is reality.  It’s engrained in the very framework of all systems. Game shows, movies, novels, have all recognized this, phenomenon, nay condition, and often present the antagonist with a twist that could not have been anticipated and cannot be explained.  You have already in your life and you assuredly will again face a circumstance that simply does not make sense.  The successful ones are the ones who anticipate this and act accordingly.  In the mean time appreciate infinity here, here, and here {seriously what is that hand gesture supposed to mean?}