Ramblings on the Problem of Zero
Just like math, language is a human invention that has allowed for the representation of the world in a form that can be interpreted. Language changes all the time so it can accommodate all things in the world, whether it’s as grand as a new particle or as simple as a mix of emotions. However, zero is incompatible with language.
Language functions similarly to math, and the best examples deal with affirmative and negative statements.
Affirmative: I have five apples: 5 apples
Negative: I have lost five apples: -5 apples
Affirmative: I have zero apples: 0 apples
See the last one? There’s something tricky about how the lack of quantity affects language. See, there’s really only one way to express your ownership of five apples (unless you pull out your thesaurus and change “have,” but that’s irrelevant). Moreover, the statement can only be affirmative (we’re maintaining the “I have” format). In contrast, talking about the lack of apples can be either affirmative or negative.
Affirmative = Negative
I other words:
+ = -
The beauty of language is that it’s fine if something seemingly contradictory is said because language doesn’t solely depend on words for meaning. But if we were looking at it from the point of a logician, who only gets meaning from the word, this seems rather odd. Both statements are saying the same thing, but it’s rather hard to account for one containing a negative and the other one not containing a negative. Luckily, language can accommodate special cases, like zero.
So why is zero so tricky? Well, zero had to be invented because language never accounted for the lack of something in any symbolic way. Unlike most words that gain their meaning from something corresponding to the world, “zero” came from something artificial. What’s crazier than having invented a symbolic representation of nothing is that we treat it as though it were something, which causes massive errors.
It’s easy to give examples of these paradoxes:
x = 0
x(x-1) = 0
x-1 = 0
x = 1
1 =0
The error here is that we divided by zero. Regarding mathematical rules, it’s easy to show how this can be false. But the bigger question is, where does this exist in the universe? There’s nothing in the universe that can cause one to equal zero in any way. Yet, this can happen in math, so there seems to be a disconnect between mathematical language and the universe. Nothing in the universe can cause these sorts of errors in the universe, so there’s something that this implies:
Zero doesn’t exist in the real world.
Psilocybin cubensis
So last night, after I made it home from an AMAZING new years eve party with some close friends, and an even closer woman ;). I realized i had leftover mushrooms. The night before, but really the early morning before. I had taken about, a gram worth of caps. It didn’t give me anything real visual, some things were distorted, but in general i wasn’t in this amazing psychedelic journey, & it was intended. I had alcohol in my system, and kept rolling a new joint every 30 minutes. So, i didn’t feel the need to trip balls. Anyway, i ended up renting a hotel because i didn’t want to drive 2-3 hours back to where i live. I mean, i love driving, love it with good music and good weed… But, i had a shitty hangover already, and some mushrooms in my system. I never drive drunk, hungover, or shroomed out, even if it is a lonely gram. Best believe i drive BAKED TO THE GILLS on weed though. Anyway, i wake up, make my way home and had a very refreshing drive high as fuck the entire time to my one bedroom house i recently rented out. I was a bit sad when i realized i’m back where i live, away from my hometown, my close friends and the bay area i grew in 17 years of my life. So, i wanted to spice things up. It was new years day for fuck sakes, and all my friends had plans with their family or were to hungover. I remembered i had over an 8th of the magic mushroom in the trunk of my car. Weighed it on my scale, and it was about 4.6 grams worth which is over an 8th. So, i wasn’t drunk. Meaning my taste buds were working. And i wasn’t high. Meaning my “I don’t give a fuck” Attitude wasn’t there. I was stone-cold-sober. And mushrooms, taste like pure, fucking, garbage and cow shit.. Was not looking forward AT ALL to eating over an 8th sober. So, i throw the stems and caps into a coffee grinder. Grind that shit into a powdery substance, literally like.. fine powder.. and i stirred it into a large cup of kool-aid. I drank it, it barely tasted bad.. sure it wasn’t enjoyable, but god damn was it acceptable. So, i go online. Check a few things out. Let some online-friends know that i’m about to be shot into a blackhole and spat into the depths of the universe. Of course, nobody takes me serious. Anyway, drank the mushroom kool aid around 9:00, and it is 9:17 by now . I’m online and syncing some last minute songs for my Psychedelic Playlist. Which consists of; Lords of Acid - Marijuana in your brain, Jimi Hendrix - Castles made of sand, RadioHead- Creep, Explosions in the sky - First breath after coma, AwolNation - Not your fault, Modest mouse- The good times are killing me, Little Dragon - A place to belong, Eyedea and Abilities - Spin Cycle, DeVotchKa - How it ends, Beirut - Scenic world, Sufjan Stevens - All the Trees of the Field will clap their Hands, Rilo Kiley - With arms outstrecthed. And a lot more songs you probably won’t know about. To me, these songs were the best choices for my mushroom trip. They all make me feel happy, and a balance of how being sad isn’t always bad. So, i sign off of the internet, have downloaded movies ready to watch after i start to come down and can use a mouse. And that movie was KickAss, one of my favorite movies. Lol, anyway.. around 9:30 i felt my motor skills start to go weak, my body felt an intense high, as if i smoked 9 blunts and an ecstasy pill. By this point i knew it was about to happen. I’m already a master of the magic mushroom. I don’t need to tell my self “It’s all okay, everything will be happy, there is no bad trips”, I’ve been over that for over a year. So.. around 9:47 was the last time i checked what time it was, and i had two sweaters, 4 pairs of pajama pants on and snow gloves. And in my mind, i had it set i wanted to spiritually awaken my self. I wanted to know my Pineal gland is alive, is activated. Anyway. i noticed that my visuals weren’t accurate. The chair i sat on felt like i was sinking into a hole, but.. in a positive way, like.. i felt the sinking to be very.. pleasurable .. So, i got up and looked around my living room. no, the walls weren’t melting, things weren’t popping out at me. it wasn’t scary, it was peaceful, whenever my clock ticked. I could literally see the waves of the sound leave the clock, when i took a step, i felt like there was a trace, like.. a ghostly-plasma like trace. Almost as if i’m lagging. Thank god it was a clear day and night. I stepped outside, with my iPod, Jimi Hendrix-Castles made of sand Was the first to play in the shuffle, i already felt like i was at the peak of the trip. By this time i didn’t know what time it was, i could barely read my iPod and thats why i had it on shuffle and auto replay.My best revelations, conclusions, realizations, whatever you want to call it.. were influenced by mushrooms. And this trip, was no different. Anyway, as i was on the ground mesmerized by the beauty of our universe.. It hit me once again. The world we live in is so god damned fragile.. existence as we know it is do delicate, so rare, so.. beautiful. All i could think of, was how lucky I am, hell, we are to be alive. Aside from how corrupt the world is.. the universe isn’t. To the cosmos, our problems don’t matter, to the cosmos, our happiness doesn’t matter, but at the same time.. we are apart of the cosmos, the cosmos is us.. It felt like it was when i was tripping. It kept blinking in and out of my head, the thought of consciousness, the fact that my senses are more open, the fact that i could see and feel music. & I’m not even explaining my visual and psychical trips anymore but i will, these are just thoughts. Point is, it just doesn’t feel like a coincidence that we’re here, that we’re self aware, that we know so much, but don’t know anything. So much thoughts fluttered my brain to the point that i was overwhelmed by how delicate, rare, amazing, liberating this world is.. I started to breath heavily like .. the universe was pouring information into my system. I couldn’t help but feel lucky that i could breathe, see, hear, and feel. I felt so humbled by the universe around us, by infinity, It was truly one of my best mushroom trips ever. A lot happened. A few memorable things that happened while i was listening to music. And rewind back to when i first played my iPod, by this point i was peaking and Jimi Hendrix - Castles made of sand played. I had my Dre Beats headphones, amazing quality in sound.. anyway.. my body felt.. so, so unreal. Normally, you control everything, you dont notice your heart beat, or your bloodstream for that matter. I mean fuck, you barely notice consciousness. You just go through the day hoping you’ll find love, or sad over love, or hoping something materialistic can swoop you out of your life where your needs aren’t met. All these things get in the way of true happiness, spirituality and being in awe of our universe. The point is, was the song played.. it entered my ears, and it was like clock work.. I literally felt staticy electrical looking signals leave my ipod, enter my ears, and the beating of the drums matched my heart( So i felt ) Maybe not so accurate in real time, but i was on shroom time. Point is, i felt every rhythmic pattern enter my body. The beat of my heart, my breathing patterns, everything aligned with the song. I felt the guitar rifts flow through my bloodstream, the tip of my fingers were swaying in some rhythmic form as well. It just felt like, every atom of my body was stimulated.. It was an amazing feeling. And other memorable part of my trip i had was playing the song Little Dragon - A place to belong .. Looking at the beautiful, scenic, night sky. And as the song flowed into my ears, and i was looking up. The stars seemed to flicker to her vocal patterns. Her singing is amazing, and also again.. The flickering of the stars synced up with the vocal range of Little Dragon .. I don’t want to get to deep into every little thing that happened, but those two visual and psychical feelings i had to explain. The trip lasted for about 5 hours. Mind you i had an empty stomach, no food in my system at all. My stomach felt shrill. So, i was tripping HARD. I had no sense of time. I had troubles opening my backyard door. So it got way to cold outside, and i stepped into my bedroom, layed down and took about 20 minutes to connect my iPod to the stereo. It was like rocket science at this point. i got SO fucking happy when i got it to work.. and all i had to do was plugin a headphone jack adapter into my iPod.. Lol.. But yeah, by this time its nothing but boring details to regular folk. Around 2:30am, i felt the visuals leaving me.. I signed on skype and tried to speak to a few people but made a complete idiot out my self. So i signed off right away because i was aware of how retarded I typed. Anyway, this is basically the end of this. I know it’s a bit long. It’s actually REALLY long to people who don’t really read. But i’m sorry. I just had to express my self even in the most loser-of-ways on tumblr.
TL;DR
Took Shrooms, was spat into the depths of the universe, realized how amazing life is, how delicate it is, and every atom in my body was stimulated.
FUCK THE SYSTEM
