Infinite vs Actually Infinite: The Case for Connection
“Infinite” is a fraught concept.
It’s a word we use to describe something we cannot understand.
How big is infinite? Bigger than anything you have ever experienced.
How much bigger? Infinitely bigger.
Whoops, now we’re using the concept to try to understand the concept.
There’s nothing you can imagine that’s even close to infinite, except the very thing you imagine with…
Your mind.
That’s right, your mind is infinite.
Imagination is not bound by anyone or anything. There is literally no end to what you can imagine.
And of course, that’s true of everyone.
That’s what makes our obsession with phones, social media, and the Internet so frustrating.
The Internet feels infinite. You could scroll and search for a lifetime and never run out of things to look at or discover.
It’s so enticing.
But it’s not actually infinite.
It’s bound, it has to be. It’s part of the material world and built on rules designed by programmers.
Just as you can’t program true randomness, you can’t build an infinite machine.
You know what’s actually infinite?
Someone else’s mind.
In 2015 Sherry Turkle coined intellectual serendipity:
“It may happen when someone tells a joke. Or daydreams and comes back with an idea that goes in a new direction. None of this is necessarily efficient. But so many of our best ideas are born this way, in conversations that take a turn.”
You know that high you get when you’re surfing the web, being constantly barraged with new information and eye-candy?
There’s that and so much more in conversation with a real person.
In conversation there is an infinite potential collision of ideas. Boundless ways to shape and reshape how you think and feel.
And in that pursuit is the most wonderful reward:
Connection.
The age of loneliness is upon us. Anxiety is rampant. Depression is out of control.
And two thirds of us don’t feel like we have anyone we can turn to or rely on.
In those desperate moments we’re turning to our devices.
And the more we rely on them, the worse it gets.
Our communication skills are measurably deteriorating.
Empathy has fallen 50% in the last 40 years and continues to atrophy.
We don’t see each other.
We don’t hear each other.
We don’t understand each other.
But it’s not lost… yet.
Because I’m here, and so are you.
If we can break free of our devices long enough to talk, we have a chance.
Talk about what?
Anything.
Literally anything.
A promise to ourselves: When we get bored or run out of things to say, we will not reach for our phones.
There’s an infinite world of possibility sitting right there in the silence between us.
Push on.
Through the silence.
Past the boredom.
Collide.
Because when you make a true connection with another person, it’s more magical than anything you’ve ever felt on a device.
The human connection revolution is upon us, but your friends, your family, your colleagues – they’re not ready.
They’re still hopelessly dependent on the system.
We need someone to show us the way.
We need you to lead.
