One and zero

Are one and zero the same thing? They are so different. One is the good guy – always true, knows every answer, positive, can divide and multiply any number without hurting him. Zero is bad – he adds nothing, is never positive, rude, if he multiplies you – you are doomed. You will never be the same thing again. You will also become a zero. You will be rude, multiply more people, turn them into zeros, too. Like an infection, an epidemic. And if you divide by him, it’s a disaster. Nobody knows what will happen. This guy is crazy.

How different are one and zero? Can such different things exist in reality? Without any connection between them? One always remains one, zero always remains zero. They are completely separate. Two parallel lines who never meet.

But determinism leads to a contradiction. They interact with each other. They breed. They form new numbers who are represented by them. Some numbers are represented by ones, some by zeros. They are not constant, they are changing in time.

How many worlds there are? How many universes? Of course, one. By definition. Everything who exists is one. Everything who doesn’t exist is zero. No middle option, no compromise – it’s a yes/no answer – either you exist, or you don’t. Either you’re dead, or alive. Always.

Maybe real numbers don’t really exist? Maybe the number of universes is not a number? There are other numbers we have defined, like complex numbers and cardinal numbers. But I guess the real answer is much more complicated than that. I don’t think the number of universes can be defined by a complex number or cardinal number. I don’t think it can be defined at all.

We know it’s not constant. It changes in time. How many universes there were before the big bang? How many will be in the future? Our concept of numbers is not coherent with reality. It’s an approximation, a good one, that works well in our real world, where everything seems to be constant, nothing changes too much, a year is one year, a person is one person. Life seems to be so deterministic to us, so we invented determinism, and we are trying to apply it to everything that appears to exist.

But it doesn’t always work well. How many people there are on this planet? Is it more than a million? More than a billion? Is it a real number, is it an integer, is it a prime? Does it have a square root who is an integer or a prime?

Nobody knows. We only have approximations. Everything that comes in big numbers comes with approximations. We invented the floating points, since a google plus one is also a google. Nobody cares whether it is or is not a prime. It’s not a real number. It’s just a concept.

But if we get too far away from our ordinary life, we find evidence that there are no numbers. One plus one is not always two, one minus one is not always zero. A particle seems to have a life of its own. He cannot be defined by numbers. Sometimes he’s one, sometimes he’s two. Sometimes he’s zero. Can anybody count the number of particles in something as big as a human body? Can it be even defined? I don’t think so.

Our concept as separate entities, who are separate from each other and from the rest of the world, is an illusion. We are not always one. Sometimes we’re zero. We are not always dead or alive. It’s too complicated. The world itself is not always one. It can be infinite, it can be zero, it can be anything that cannot be defined by a number. It can’t be defined at all.

Did the world exist before I was born? I don’t remember. But some people do, and I believe them it did. There are books about history, about time from which all the people are dead now. We still believe they existed.

Can the world exist without me? Did it exist before I was born? Will it exist after I die? I guess it’s an unsolved problem, I will never find out. Maybe the whole world is just an illusion? Maybe it’s not? Maybe there is no yes/no answer. Every yes/no answer is just an approximation. There is always uncertainty, there is always a doubt.

But I want you to know, zero. I love you, you are not a bad guy. Without you there wouldn’t be any computers. You are not less important than one. You are two sides of the same coin, you are a duality. You are both equal. If you wouldn’t exist, neither would one.

Sometimes I think God doesn’t exist. Sometimes I think he does. Sometimes I think he’s good, sometimes bad. Sometimes zero, sometimes one.

Maybe God is both one and zero. Both of them and neither of them as well. Both dead and alive, exists and doesn’t exist, good and evil, hard and soft. He contradicts himself, he tells you “do something” and tells you “do not”. He didn’t mind when I said that he doesn’t exist, he is not angry, he was not offended. He knew what I will say, and he let me find out.

God is something like i, the complex number. Something completely imaginary, who doesn’t exist, looks at his negative image and turns out to be the ultimate formula: -i2, the one. Even more complicated, but this is as far as our logic can get. Our logic is not consistent with reality, contradictions appear to exist as well.

Einstein said E=mc2. I would like to add my own formula: one is equal to zero. 1=0. The ultimate paradox. They are both equal and not equal at the same time.

E=mc2 created nuclear bombs, something completely new, completely destructive. I don’t know if 1=0 has any practical meaning, but if it does – I hope it’s not a destructive one. If it has any meaning, I hope it means more friendship and love.

1=0 defines a new logic, a nondeterministic logic, a logic in which anything can be defined. You can call it either illogical logic, or maybe true logic, or informal logic, or irrational logic, or confused logic, or nondeterministic logic, or fuzzy logic, or everything is possible logic, or whatever you prefer. I don’t mind. As long as the statement 1=0 doesn’t mean we are always wrong, it only means that sometimes we are.

One and zero are not always equal, they can be different most of the time. But once in a while they can merge and become one entity, 1=0, two entities who are equal to one. It’s like two people merging together, creating more people out of the blue. It’s not illogical, it’s just me and you.