Jansy: VN and his readers should not use the word “infinite” without due care & attention. It is not a synonym for “very large.” The total number N of distinct chess games is very, very large, but FINITE. The number of possible chess moves that can legally lead from one given position to another given position is also FINITE, and typically much smaller than N! It really does make a difference. The gap between a finite set (however large) and even the smallest infinite set (aleph-0) is ... beyond belief.
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 07/10/2008 01:19, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
JM:Incongruity is spacio-temporal... "two chess games with identical openings and identical end moves might ramify in an infinite number of variations, on one board and in two brains, at any middle stage of their irrevocably converging development" (A,18)[...] two chess games, or characters, represent a single one, now doubled because it is apprehended by the two different brains that are exercising themselves on only one board. Reader and book. Past and present...]
Chase Carnot: Instead of two chess games or two different brains overlooking the same game. It could also be that the "spacio-temporal" split of Terra/Antiterra could simply be simply a split in consciousness, Van's. He could well be the psychotherapist drawn into madness by the "texture of time" that is so palpable for his patients.