Quantiverse

I’m going to the Quantiverse.

It’s all numbers there. Everything else isn’t.

I’m here. I land, alighting on 1. It’s the only thing I can see at first anyway. Gotta start somewhere. The source of the rest of it at first glance.

As soon as I touch down, 2 lights up, and oh, actually there’s the rest of them anyway. At least in this direction. 3 and 5 and 395832583529 x 10^3434367112 and so forth.

0 is behind me. Not gonna look at it yet. It’s upsetting. Except it isn’t behind me because it isn’t anywhere. Or I guess really it’s everywhere something isn’t, which maybe is most of it. I glance around. What percentage of this place exists? Is there more nothing than something?

That’s a bit too much to take in. I look over at 2 to ground myself.

I decide to take a step from 1 to 2. +1 they call it.

Ah. Ok, easy. Forward we go. 2 to 3. 3 to 10. 10 to 150. Woah, big one.

Wonder how big I a step I can take?

From 150 to a 1,000,000. Easy. 1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000. Just as easy. Ok, from 1,000,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 ^ 1,000,000,000. Yup, still easy, here at least.

I think there isn’t a biggest step I can take.

Can I go back? I think so.

I retrace my steps. Subtraction they call it. Same idea I think, just in the other direction.

How small a step can I take? 1,000. 10.

Can I go smaller?

I glance around to make sure no one is looking. Hope I don’t get in trouble.

I tentatively reach out to reach 9 but I pull short. Is there anything there to put my foot on? Hope so. Dunno what happens if there isn’t.

I hit 9.5. Oh, look at me. There was something there.

Holy shit the gaps are filled in.

Actually, hold the phone… (I’m borrowing this imagery a bit from Berlinksi’s A Tour of the Calculus now.)

There aren’t gaps. Weird. No matter how closely I look.

It’s weird. There’s no gaps, so it’s continuous like, no parts. Except it’s all parts? I mean 3.43 is just what it is, not 3.431. Perfectly discrete, but with no gaps. Wild. It splits forever.

I take a .01 step. I take a .001 step. I take a 5 x 10^-33859667 step.

So there isn’t a smallest step I can take either.

I keep walking. Ah, seems I’m about to reach 0.