>
>Matt Eggleston wrote to Mark Bloss about "Existence Exists"
 ME> You have contained in your answer to me elements of exactly what I
 ME> have written on many occasions about "infinity".
 ME> The infinite is a potential, a "possibility", as you put it.  But it
 ME> is not an actuality.  Light can travel immense distances, but no
 ME> matter how long it has travelled, it has only travelled a finite
 ME> distance.  Will it travel farther?  Possibly, if it does not strike
 ME> something to bring it to a halt.  Will that distance ever be infinite?
 ME> No.
 ME> The same in math:  The integer number series is infinite in its
 ME> potential length, but no matter where you begin, no matter how long
 ME> you count, you always fall on a finite number in that series.
 ME> Get the concept?  The actual is the finite.  The infinite is always a
 ME> potential.
 Matt, you are indeed in a trap.  If you allow yourself the answer "No",
 that light will never stretch to infinity - you are saying so because
 you yourself are finite, with a finite brain - and NOT because it really
 will never reach infinity - nor ever already having had reached it!
 
 Infinity is as real and concrete as the sky is blue; otherwise we would
 not have irrational numbers to deal with at all - they could not exist;
 but they _do_ exist.  It is a _fact_ of reality, that 3 can be divided
 an infinite number of times - it isn't metaphysical - it's _real_.  It's
 concrete.  Maybe you nor I can spend eternity dividing 3 into its
 component infinite parts - but that doesn't mean infinity is just a
 "potential" - that just means you and I are finite!  You don't have to
 understand it - but it is real. 
 
 When you say "the actual is finite", from whose perspective are you
 speaking?  A finite human?  Or from the perspective of reality itself?
 You cannot speak of what is actual - unless you know what is actual -
 and as a finite brain - you are _incapable_ of telling me what is actual,
 and that's the concept you have missed entirely.
 
... Davis' Explanation: Serving coffee on aircraft causes turbulence.
--- GEcho 1.11++TAG 2.7c
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