Mathematical Infinity and Human Destiny

Science and technology, through the objectivity of experiments, are expanding human power at an accelerating rate. In contrast, the growth of our spirituality and values remains haphazard. This widening gap is at the core of the multiple crises we face.

What is and what will be integrates science with values and meaning by making the simplest possible assumption about the connection between physical structure and conscious experience. The implications are not just philosophical. They extend to the foundations of mathematics and physics suggesting that Einstein's intuition near the end of his life was correct.

I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on the field concept, i. e., on continuous structures. In that case nothing remains of my entire castle in the air gravitation theory included, [and of] the rest of modern physics. -- Albert Einstein

The enormous implications for mathematics and physics of no continuous structures are explored in detail. More important are the wider implications of connecting conscious experience with physical structure. This book argues that spiritual instincts have evolved to connect us with the creative aspects of biological evolution which are crucial to long term survival. In this view God is the unlimited evolution of consciousness. This is a physical process that can be measured and directed. For it to expand without limit requires ever expanding diversity. No single path approach will work. If the evolution of consciousness is allowed to expand without limit, then whatever ecstatic wondrous experience any being ever experiences is the merest hint of a shadow of what can be and that will always be the case. This follows from Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and the assumptions of this book.

Paul Budnik is a consultant in Silicon Valley. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois and has taught computer science at UCLA. His web site (www.mtnmath.com) is highly ranked by Google on many topics including "Schrödinger's cat", "formal logic", "developing intuition" and "universal consciousness".