In the Beginning

In the beginning there was ones and zeros. Well, there was a one or a zero. This is important: Was it a one (on) or a zero (off). Was there something or was there nothing?

Wait, is zero even nothing? Isn’t even zero something?

We aren’t making much progress here are we. And I don’t think we will. I have read so much about the beginning.. from “Genesis", to "The Epic of Gilgamesh" to “A Brief History of Time”.. and on and on.. that I have come to realize we are fish in a fish bowl, incapable of comprehending what is outside of the glass.

Whether there was something at the beginning or if there wasn’t is both wildly important to all following philosophical discussion.. but it is also maddeningly out of reach. We simply can’t know.

I remember a discussion with a physicist/author and Stephen Colbert. The physicist was arguing that there was nothing, but that was actually different types of “nothing”. Stephen was having none of it, he just danced around the guys logic. I mean, come on, we all know something can’t come from nothing.

So, let’s just agree, for the sake of argument, that there has always been.. something. Great. Moving on.

Now, this infinite something. Is it chaos? Or is it order? I was always taught that entropy.. the second law of thermodynamics was the end all be all: Everything would end in a cold death of the Universe and that was that. Or, it would be recycled into a Universe.. or.. or.. or..

The reason I want the discussion to start here, at the beginning, is because it’s important. The information, of which, everything is constructed of, seems to be organizing itself. Humans, agents of chaos, are constantly organizing information. Yes, we make our messes, but on the whole.. we crave order. Our machines line up ones and zeros into nice little chunks.. those chunks organize more chunks. Now we are on the verge of a self-organizing system without limit.

To what end?