Sublime

‘Whatever I have never been asked about by a self-reflective cluster of mind-at-large like yourself,’ he continued, ‘I know only in potentiality. Think of it as the light of a match: until you ignite the match, its light exists only in potentiality, in the form of energy chemically stored in its phosphorus head. But when you ignite the match, its l

obtuse.

emeritus of physics at Princeton University: “It is an embarrassment that the dominant forms of matter in the universe are hypothetical.”42

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians.It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is.

For the geometer Pythagoras (c. 530 BC), living at Croton in Sicily, the key lay in number and harmony – and the dynamic balance of contraries, based on the opposition of odd and even. For Heraclitus (c. 540–475 BC) the true constant was change itself, in a macrocosm composed of fire and water; for Democritus (c. 460 BC), the essence was a flux of

To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day. —Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher

Matter is not prime: consciousness is. Consciousness creates matter in the same way that a computer converts digital information into sounds and images on a computer screen or creates a seemingly three-dimensional virtual reality environment when a VR headset is attached to the computer.