#109 INFINITY

HUMANITY HAS CERTAIN LIMITS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

T

he universe must have a limit somewhere, somehow.

Humanity constantly experiences limitations, so why should not existence be similarly limited. Why does humanity continually become fooled by the possibility of infinity?

New ideas are created as a consequence of the previous idea hitting a natural limit, like an electric vehicle eventually running out of a charge, no matter how good the range or how fun the ride has been.

A good idea can generate a cluster of derivative ideas when the original good idea runs out of stimulus power, but eventually, the derivatives also get saturated.

The ultra rich have similar built-in limits – although the wealthy entrepreneur is the most relentless denier of the inevitable. The wealth might be infinite for one lifetime but what one person can do with that infinity can become suddenly quite limited.

Generational wealth can quite unexpectedly disappear, just like the human energy to spend that infinite wealth. The next generation often finds this predicament quite befuddling.

One can only wonder how often a billionaire visits each of their real estate holdings held around the world. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos needs to disclose those trips from Medina in Washington State to the massive penthouse in Manhattan. The acquisition of a global real estate portfolio must inevitably require the purchase of a private jet to help justify getting out and about to each part of the world where property sits vacant for most of the year.

I doubt though that those multiple properties remaining vacant for the majority of the year bothers members of the ultra rich jet set.

Excessive global travel must inevitably require a stop at that sun vacation location where a lot of decompression must occur before continuing on.

I am sure they own a sun vacation property there as well.

When there is so much money, the task of finding how to invest money or what to do with money must seem like an infinite task at times. But of course, the options are somewhat limited. Either here or there, or nowhere.

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates started a charitable foundation that uses a lot of his wealth fighting diseases in third world populations. But the foundation also fundraises to increase the depth and breadth of the enterprise. And so, the infinite task of spending a large amount of money simply loops around. If your wealth was infinite, why would you accept donations?

Infinite spending is not a Ponzi scheme, if the money invested goes to a good cause, even though the ‘good will toward mankind’ regularly kicks back to financial contributors.

Only the ultra rich can afford not leaving money behind for their children. You know, they should earn their own, especially the grandchildren, even if there is enough money to fund the full lives of great-grand children.

The poor, knowing the limits first-hand, would hold all of any financial windfall to themselves, and then enrich the lives of their children with generous hereditary donations.

The best things in life often almost always have limits when the last will and testament proves not to be so generous as previously thought.

The warm summer days and those cool summer nights suddenly come to an end with the children going back to school. That constant clatter of children at home from morning until night eventually does end when the scramble around the breakfast table, and in front of the fridge organizing lunch boxes, begins again when the kids go back to school in September.

You might get a few more weeks out of the summer sun, but you know those tree leaves eventually change color and the subtle changes of autumn give way to the hard days butted up against the inevitable bitter cold night skies.

People have learned to look younger and be younger even in advancing age, but eventually that too reaches a limit with variable results.

Maybe equality is all about shared limits. The days are 24 hours long for everyone, regardless of failure or success of attempts at wealth accumulation.

People do tend to reach for immortality, by breaking records of one sort or another, or by becoming separated from the rest of the Earth’s population by shooting into space as one of a limited number of astronauts, however briefly.

The first group of astronauts to reach the surface of the planet Mars will become immortalized, even more so than the astronauts that landed on the surface of the Moon.

Other firsts are not so noteworthy. But people will endeavour to conquer them despite the obvious limitations as to the worth of the accomplishment.

One might suppose that media mogul Rupert Murdoch no longer cooks his own meals, and likely has not done so for quite some time. But knowledge about what goes on inside the real life of these people is limited.

I could go on and on until I begin to write off topic, but I think I’ll stop because this idea is extremely limited.