The Relativity of Distance

brianlux
brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 44,428
edited December 2012 in All Encompassing Trip
Here's the scene:

You live in a house on Manning Hill.

Your mail box is on another hill exactly 100 yards from your house as the crow flies.

There is a gravel path that leads straight from your house to the mail box that undulates up and down over several small rolling ridges (much like a mini basin and range topography).

The crow flies from your house straight to the mail box and travels exactly 100 yards.

You walk straight from your house to the mail box but must traverse up and down the rolling ridges, thus your walk is more than 100 yards.

Your pet ant walks straight from your house to the mail box but not only must traverse over the undulations of the rolling ridges but also the undulations of the gravel in the path and thus must walk much farther than you do.

Your pet microorganism walks strait from your house to the mail box but must not only traverse the undulations of the rolling ridges and the undulations of the gravel but also the many tiny cracks and fissure on each piece of gravel and thus must travel a very, very great distance to get to the mail box.

Distance is relative.

This seems fractal like-- maybe even verging on chaos.

Or it may just mean that some will have to travel farther to get to the same place.
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni

Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Shorty
    Shorty Ontario Posts: 1,160
    I told my pet ant to stop reading my mail!
    Your Disciples Are Riddled With Metaphors.

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  • RKCNDY
    RKCNDY Posts: 31,013
    I used my slingshot to take out the crow...I don't need some bird squaking at me to hurry up.
    The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

    - Christopher McCandless
  • JonnyPistachio
    JonnyPistachio Florida Posts: 10,218
    interesting parable Brian.
    Pick up my debut novel here on amazon: Jonny Bails Floatin (in paperback) (also available on Kindle for $2.99)
  • hedonist
    hedonist Posts: 24,524
    Most everything's relative, and not just in the physical sense.

    Traversing from point A to B can't be the same journey for anyone or anything...part of what I love about this life.

    (and thanks for the smile, Shorty!)
  • pandora
    pandora Posts: 21,855
    So it sounds the smaller the mind the farther it has to go ...
    bing bing bing bing
  • hedonist
    hedonist Posts: 24,524
    pandora wrote:
    So it sounds the smaller the mind the farther it has to go ...
    bing bing bing bing
    I'm not sure what the mind (did you mean brain size?) has to do with it, when this is related more to size itself - obstacles. At least from here, this little perspective of mine.

    I look at it this way. Two people, same sized brain - one in a wheelchair, the other not. The former will have a tougher time - a longer or more difficult path to make his way, while the latter won't.

    Bing-o?
  • pandora
    pandora Posts: 21,855
    hedonist wrote:
    pandora wrote:
    So it sounds the smaller the mind the farther it has to go ...
    bing bing bing bing
    I'm not sure what the mind (did you mean brain size?) has to do with it, when you're talking body size.

    I look at it this way. Two people, same sized brain - one in a wheelchair, the other not. The former will have a tougher time - a longer or more difficult path to make his way, while the latter won't.

    Bing-o?
    Nope wasn't talking brain size ... mind size.
    With that in mind... the person in the wheelchair may be miles ahead, those tougher times and all.
  • hedonist
    hedonist Posts: 24,524
    pandora wrote:
    hedonist wrote:
    pandora wrote:
    So it sounds the smaller the mind the farther it has to go ...
    bing bing bing bing
    I'm not sure what the mind (did you mean brain size?) has to do with it, when you're talking body size.

    I look at it this way. Two people, same sized brain - one in a wheelchair, the other not. The former will have a tougher time - a longer or more difficult path to make his way, while the latter won't.

    Bing-o?
    Nope wasn't talking brain size ... mind size.
    With that in mind... the person in the wheelchair may be miles ahead, those tougher times and all.
    I edited my post, as I don't think the OP was talking about the mind. Then again, I could be wrong.

    We all walk the long road.

    (plus, the ant may be facing tougher times too!)
  • JonnyPistachio
    JonnyPistachio Florida Posts: 10,218
    I'm pretty fucking big compared to that microorganism, but sometimes I swear I feel those minuscule undulations of the rolling ridges in each grain of sand..
    Pick up my debut novel here on amazon: Jonny Bails Floatin (in paperback) (also available on Kindle for $2.99)
  • DS1119
    DS1119 Posts: 33,497
    What happens if the crow eats the ant?
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 44,428
    DS1119 wrote:
    What happens if the crow eats the ant?

    Free ride!
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 44,428
    pandora wrote:
    So it sounds the smaller the mind the farther it has to go ...
    bing bing bing bing
    hedonist wrote:
    pandora wrote:
    hedonist wrote:
    I'm not sure what the mind (did you mean brain size?) has to do with it, when you're talking body size.

    I look at it this way. Two people, same sized brain - one in a wheelchair, the other not. The former will have a tougher time - a longer or more difficult path to make his way, while the latter won't.

    Bing-o?
    Nope wasn't talking brain size ... mind size.
    With that in mind... the person in the wheelchair may be miles ahead, those tougher times and all.
    I edited my post, as I don't think the OP was talking about the mind. Then again, I could be wrong.

    We all walk the long road.

    (plus, the ant may be facing tougher times too!)

    Right, Hedonist!

    No, it's more big picture than that. It's more about things not being what they seem.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • kw18
    kw18 Posts: 3,909
    Sometimes that 100-yard walk can seem unfairly too long. On those days, I suggest email, texting and skype to get your communication. Suddenly, those 100 yards fade to nothing at all ...

    Of course, othertimes you really want to have your phyiscal mail. During those times, if the walk is too tough and too long, simply move your mail box closer to home.
    "Where's KW?"
    "Let's check Idaho."
  • RKCNDY
    RKCNDY Posts: 31,013
    kw18 wrote:
    if the walk is too tough and too long, simply move your mail box closer to home.

    the postman might get a little upset, because then he has to make a longer trek.
    The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

    - Christopher McCandless
  • kw18
    kw18 Posts: 3,909
    RKCNDY wrote:
    kw18 wrote:
    if the walk is too tough and too long, simply move your mail box closer to home.

    the postman might get a little upset, because then he has to make a longer trek.

    In that case, move home closer to the mailbox.
    "Where's KW?"
    "Let's check Idaho."
  • pandora
    pandora Posts: 21,855
    hedonist wrote:
    pandora wrote:
    hedonist wrote:
    I'm not sure what the mind (did you mean brain size?) has to do with it, when you're talking body size.

    I look at it this way. Two people, same sized brain - one in a wheelchair, the other not. The former will have a tougher time - a longer or more difficult path to make his way, while the latter won't.

    Bing-o?
    Nope wasn't talking brain size ... mind size.
    With that in mind... the person in the wheelchair may be miles ahead, those tougher times and all.
    I edited my post, as I don't think the OP was talking about the mind. Then again, I could be wrong.

    We all walk the long road.

    (plus, the ant may be facing tougher times too!)
    I don't know, aren't 'they' saying the ants are the only thing that will survive?

    yeah I wasn't sure, took what he was literally talking about and made an analogy
    to our real journey's is all.
  • pandora
    pandora Posts: 21,855
    brianlux wrote:
    [
    Right, Hedonist!

    No, it's more big picture than that. It's more about things not being what they seem.
    You mean in your reality?
  • Dru_Cortez
    Dru_Cortez Posts: 953
    In theory,
    the human in this scenario
    is the only entity with a concept of distance.

    The crow, the ant, the micro-organism,
    none of these can gauge the distance to the mailbox
    using any concrete form of measurement.
    Only the human can estimate the distance
    in terms of something that others might understand,
    like metres or yards.
    To the others, it's simply a LONG way to go.

    Distance may be relative,
    but it is the awareness of how to conceive + quantify distance
    that makes it universal,
    at least for humanfolk!

    Cheers.
    'Cause you don't give blood and take it back again.
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 44,428
    pandora wrote:
    I don't know, aren't 'they' saying the ants are the only thing that will survive?

    yeah I wasn't sure, took what he was literally talking about and made an analogy
    to our real journey's is all.

    "They" be me.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 44,428
    pandora wrote:
    brianlux wrote:
    [
    Right, Hedonist!

    No, it's more big picture than that. It's more about things not being what they seem.
    You mean in your reality?

    Possibly. My reality might be similar to yours. On the other hand, if it is not, that's ok too. R. D. Laing put it this way:


    “What we call ‘normal’ is a product of repression, denial, splitting, projection, introjection and other forms of destructive action on experience. It is radically estranged from the structure of being. The more one sees this, the more senseless it is to continue with generalized descriptions of supposedly specifically schizoid, schizophrenic, hysterical ‘mechanisms.’ There are forms of alienation that are relatively strange to statistically ‘normal’ forms of alienation. The ‘normally’ alienated person, by reason of the fact that he acts more or less like everyone else, is taken to be sane. Other forms of alienation that are out of step with the prevailing state of alienation are those that are labeled by the ‘formal’ majority as bad or mad.”
    ― R.D. Laing, The Politics of Experience
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

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