Can the human mind comprehend/understand infinity?

We can apprehend infinity in the sense that we can look it up in a dictionary, grasp the meaning and significance of it. But comprehending it is impossible. For example first try comprehending such a number as this 10^10000000000000000000000000000. Thats a big number, yet infinity is. . . well, its infinity.

Walter Russell, a scientist and artist etc, said that the sun expands, creates planets, then reverses to become a black hole. Then it reverses again and the whole process starts over. He stated that if you sped up time you would see the stars blinking on and off as they expanded and contracted for eternity. No energy is ever lost etc.

www.geocities.com...

what i am really saying is that infinity can be understood and comprehended. but it cannot, i repeat cannot be described by words or numbers, it is everything and it is nothing. it has to be expirienced.
for example, the planets collective mind is infinite and can be felt by few. that mind cannot be described either by words. it has too, to be expirienced. imagine falling down a well with no bottom. after a while you will not know what is up and what is down. in total darkness, the mind is fooled and time sieze to excist.

well, maybe i am just rambling. but what if i am not?
it is not everything that you are supposed to understand.
time is infinite, because it does not excist other than in man's mind.

I am going to agree with Protector on both his comments. Very well said and explained...thought provoking as well.....

Man's mind can determine and 'explain' alot of things....but man's mind remains finite and has limitations. In such, the human mind cannot begin to fathom the infinite....one day maybe....but I am not betting the bank on it happening.

Infinite does make a rather good discussion topic while one is among friends and having a few brews.....


regards
seekerof

I know that a human brain is capable of retaining loads of information and has the ability to process and information and the ability to reason, but compared to the total amont of "information" in the universe or even within our planet it is nothing. There is seemingly an infinite amount of "info" out there and we can only grasp a tiny part of it.
With us being 6 billion strong you would think we could all put our minds together and make some progress.
Mathmatically us math heads think we got a good idea of what infinity means. Too bad the math world is not a very real dimension.

I think us math heads can grasp what the concept of infinity means. But actually being able to comprehend infinity into a thought on its own is different. I mean. We can say the word infinity and know what we mean. We can even try to describe it to others. But our minds rationalize everything as a finite quantity. When we think of infinity, most people think of something...any object...and it almost "expanding". Or we think of numbers...increasing. Or we think of space and time...never ending...never beginning. But our minds try to make us think it is constantly expanding. When in reality infinity is already as big as it can get. That statement "as big as it can get" implies in our minds that it is a finite quantity. That is why we cant understand it...because as big as it can get...in only this one instance...is not finite.

A human's mind may be smeared up against the infinate and sieved thru it without understanding it

Well, SeaPeople. I tend to agree with you, as you can define the word "Never ending" simple enough, eh? But, to comprehend something is of an entirely different nature, is it not? Think about it for a second. Space. Infinite? Picture that. Neverending. It is semi-hard to imagine something like that, and what is there. Good post

-wD

I can understand and work in concepts in the order of trillions of things (1,000,000,000,000s). I have done that in some interesting ways.

I cannot recite Mersenne Prime #38, the highest known prime number, which is an interesting number indeed, taking a couple of dozen pages to record.

On the level of infinity, the thing that stops me understanding it is the issue of boundary. For example, if the universe goes on infinitely, then it conflicts with the popular theory of an expanding universe. If the universe is expanding, then what exactly is at its edges?

For me, infinity may not exist at all, because all things may in fact be finite. That is the nature of "things".

But numbers, used to represent quantities and things, can certainly deliver you a more abstract concept of infinity, that may have no particular place in reality.

Time, on the other hand, which has no characterics of any "thing" has its own infinite concept, which is eternity. That does truly exist, from a point of origin, in a non-linear direction. Obviously I believe in that.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
I can understand and work in concepts in the order of trillions of things (1,000,000,000,000s). I have done that in some interesting ways.

I cannot recite Mersenne Prime #38, the highest known prime number, which is an interesting number indeed, taking a couple of dozen pages to record.

On the level of infinity, the thing that stops me understanding it is the issue of boundary. For example, if the universe goes on infinitely, then it conflicts with the popular theory of an expanding universe. If the universe is expanding, then what exactly is at its edges?

For me, infinity may not exist at all, because all things may in fact be finite. That is the nature of "things".

But numbers, used to represent quantities and things, can certainly deliver you a more abstract concept of infinity, that may have no particular place in reality.

Time, on the other hand, which has no characterics of any "thing" has its own infinite concept, which is eternity. That does truly exist, from a point of origin, in a non-linear direction. Obviously I believe in that.

I understand what you mean. It may not exist, I agree. But the concept still exists in our minds for sure even if it is fake. Still...even though we made it up, and we know what it means, something without boundries is impossible to comprehend....in my opinion.

Originally posted by heelstone
I can certainly comprehend infinity, but a lot of people around me apparently cannot. Even those who imagine an eternal afterlife in my own family cannot for one moment imagine a reality where you live forever whereas I can (even though I do not think such a thing exists). The extreme finite limits placed upon man makes many people unable to think otherwise.

You live in a finite world too. Not some people. Everyone......

Infinity. What if one or maybe two people at certain times in the world can comprehend it? What if people like Jesus were meant to comprehend that which a normal human can't so as to maybe try to find the words or numbers or symbols that can at least give you an idea? What if comprehending infinity isn't simply like comprehending a thing that is whole like a ball, but more like comprehending extreme duality, like an oxymoron?

What if... I am so bold as to say, I can? I do. I am.

It's like... a circle, the letter o, or like 0 but infinitely adding +1. When thinking of the circle we tend to think of it going round and round, we are unable to draw a circle without starting somewhere and ending where we began. However, if you think of a circle you simply see the circle, you don't mentally draw it.

Now if you can... think of that circle as though it's tunneling, spinning, and revolving all at once, turning over and over so much so that really, the original circle is only spinning into a sphere and that sphere doesn't really move but it's walls expand outward in constant cycles, circles, and constantly turning tunnels. The result is like atoms, planets, and universes, everything is really just energy or space, it's all made up of spheres and circles never quite the same way twice because the directions, the timing, and the order of things is infinitely changing.

The only kind of infinity most people need to at least understand the meaning of, is time. Time is a concept that infinite because we give it the grounds to be, the past is a time, the future, moments, and minutes expanding forward and contracting backwards into infinite realities and giving everything it's infinity in the moment it's in. No moment on this earth is ever repeated, so many details of occurrences are contained in one moment and how many people live a moment together but don't experience the same moment. All we have is now, and now is infinite, because it is always now. Give time a measurement and it's like drawing a circle, give yourself only the moment and you are within the sphere with infinity being what you are in the moment because you are not seeing out of the sphere but letting it spin and revolve and tunnel outward around you while you become the space inside, the energy made of nothing, to sustain your own personal infinity.

Sighhh* that make any sense to anyone? sighhhh rawr.

Puzzled

Originally posted by Gazrok

Surely we have to be able to understand it if we can define what it is?

Ahh...but we coined the term God too....

We can pretend we understand infinity...just like we can pretend to understand how much a Trillion really is....but in reality, we don't really comprehend it all that well....

Why do you use your comprehension to sum up ours? Are we all just as intelligent as you?

If time is infinite and space absolute than that means everything that is possible has happened, is happening, and will happen again.

I cannot even begin to comprehend all the possibilities that exist with the understanding that I do possess ... how can I possibly comprehend that which I do not understand yet?





[edit on 16-2-2010 by Nurv47]

(Sorry double-post)

[edit on 16-2-2010 by Nurv47]

I like to think I can comprehend infinity but then I realise just how deluded I am to think I have such an ability when I meditate or gaze into a real-time fractal viewer or if I try to imagine the vastness of space.

From the lowly grain of sand to the most distant of galaxies and the relentless uncomprehending immensity of her content I realise with a crashing sound that have no idea what infinity means really and if I could realise the true size of infinity then that may be something that could either have be consigned to being spoon fed for the rest of my life or it could set me free?

The reality of the situation always comes to the fore inevitably and infinity from my perspective is like a razor of the mind, human arrogance/ego or just a will to be one with the universe leaves us thinking we have the tools within our skulls to think we could conceptualise such an infinite thing that is infinite space?

We can visualise a galaxy but only abstractly and as we zoom out we can see other galaxies but could a person truly imagine countless swarms of galaxies and their content with a will to zoom out faster and faster until they reach what? - Infinity? – A singularity?

All abstract visualisations in any case where truth is literally a subjective creature, and if it were to be a reality manifested within our mind even for a short time we would bleed out from the ears, eyes and nostrils I am sure of it.

At this moment in our evolution we are not able and probably for a very good reason.

So, I am human therefore my ability to understand the word infinity might be possible but to actually visualize and assimilate the big picture that is infinity is beyond the ability of my mind but I keep trying of course because it is a tremendous thing to find a sense of perspective when I imagine that I am an insignificant atom amidst a universe of swirling matter and blazing energy.

If you know what the word "infinity" means then you understand it.

Comprehend well...... that's a bit tougher.....

I think most people have made a thought about what infinity is. Infinity is a definitions we have to learn to understand in school. And we are thought many ways to visualize what infinity is. With numbers,symbols and different figures of lines.

I'm a little late for this conversation but I will give my opinion anyway.

No, the human mind cannot fully appreciate the infinite. We can try to reason with it, but when it comes down to it infinite means all possibilities coexisting at once and so on, and it gets pretty crazy. I find the best way to approach it is to just let go.

(Certifiable) Possum.