XXI: Azathoth Pleroma
What exists? One possible answer is that any self-consistent system exists, not just as a mathematical possibility but as concrete reality. This materialistic Platonism is a logical consequence of functionalism.
If it holds, then every mathematical system corresponds to a universe (or family of universes). Some are tiny and cramped, like the algebra of 0 and 1. Others are as vast - or vaster – than ours.
But the set of all such systems is also a system, encompassing them all (and being part of itself).
This set of sets is the True God. It is not a being, it does not act - it just is everything in the ultimate sense. It includes uncountable (in the literal mathematical sense of the word) universes with lesser deities. Most of its component worlds are barren or pure chaos, but some are filled with complexity of any level. And just like all natural numbers can be generated using a short program while
individual numbers hold enormous complexity (in the algorithmic complexity sense), so the Set is ultimately trivially simple while holding infinite complexity within itself. God is Unity and Perfection.
But this pleroma of possibility is also the ultimate chaos. Most (again, in a very strong mathematical sense) worlds are inconsistent chaos, where anything is possible and everything happens and not-happens at once. The Set is not just the God of All Gods, but also the idiot god Azathoth dancing at the core of chaos - there is no planning, no thought, no higher meaning, and no consistency.
Azathoth and the Logos are the same.
The Gnostics were wrong. All the meaning exists within the subsystems of the great Set, not in the Set as a whole. Ascending into the pleroma reduces one to a tautology. It in the fall into matter - specialisation within a local system with limited axioms - where possibilities appear and goals can be achieved.
Ultimates. Meaning and nonsense. Consistency and inconsistency. Infinites. Existence itself.
XXI: Azathoth Pleroma
What exists? One possible answer is that any self-consistent system exists, not just as a mathematical possibility but as concrete reality. This materialistic Platonism is a logical consequence of functionalism.
If it holds, then every mathematical system corresponds to a universe (or family of universes). Some are tiny and cramped, like the algebra of 0 and 1. Others are as vast - or vaster – than ours.
But the set of all such systems is also a system, encompassing them all (and being part of itself).
This set of sets is the True God. It is not a being, it does not act - it just is everything in the ultimate sense. It includes uncountable (in the literal mathematical sense of the word) universes with lesser deities. Most of its component worlds are barren or pure chaos, but some are filled with complexity of any level. And just like all natural numbers can be generated using a short program while
individual numbers hold enormous complexity (in the algorithmic complexity sense), so the Set is ultimately trivially simple while holding infinite complexity within itself. God is Unity and Perfection.
But this pleroma of possibility is also the ultimate chaos. Most (again, in a very strong mathematical sense) worlds are inconsistent chaos, where anything is possible and everything happens and not-happens at once. The Set is not just the God of All Gods, but also the idiot god Azathoth dancing at the core of chaos - there is no planning, no thought, no higher meaning, and no consistency.
Azathoth and the Logos are the same.
The Gnostics were wrong. All the meaning exists within the subsystems of the great Set, not in the Set as a whole. Ascending into the pleroma reduces one to a tautology. It in the fall into matter - specialisation within a local system with limited axioms - where possibilities appear and goals can be achieved.
Ultimates. Meaning and nonsense. Consistency and inconsistency. Infinites. Existence itself.