approaching the absolute

What is free will and what does it mean? Free will means you are free to choose to do anything that is within your power to do; free to choose to think anything that is in your power to think; free to choose to experience anything that is within your power to experience. But most of all, free will means you are free to define your values relative to the All, relative to ETI.

Every part of ETI that has the gift of free will defines zer values relative to the whole, to ETI. All the values and value-systems (VAVS) defined by those parts of ETI with free will are relative to other VAVS defined by other parts of ETI with free will.

Does that mean all VAVS are relative? Yes and no.

Some VAVS approach absoluteness more so than others. The VAVS held in common amongst all members of a particular culture, for instance, approach absoluteness more closely than the VAVS held by an individual. The more individuals holding VAVS in common, the closer are those VAVS to absoluteness. But the approach to absoluteness is asymptotic, ie it's an approach that never gets there, no matter how many individuals hold VAVS in common.

What about ETI zerself? Are the VAVS of ETI absolute? With one exception, they are not. ETI holds all the VAVS of all the individuals within ETI, and while some VAVS approach absoluteness more so than others, each is relative to the others. The exception is the value of existence itself, ie, beingness, ontology if you prefer. The fact that I exist and the fact that you exist means that we share at least one value: existence. In fact, everything that exists holds the value of existence. ETI holds the value of existence. Everything holds the value of existence. The one and only absolute value, now and for all time, and for all things alive and dead, is existence. Everything else is relative.

Existence is absolute. And yet. And yet. Somethingness can only be seen and understood in contrast to its opposite, nothingness. So in that sense, even existence is relative. But it is only relative to one other thing: nothingness. You've heard of the arrow of time? That it points in one direction? Well, ETI has an arrow, one and only one arrow: existence.

(Shit! I've just realised that ETI has at least one other arrow--entropy--as highlighted in the second law of thermodynamics. But there is a way out, via the law of eternal return. (What do you get when you cross the arrow of time with the eternal return? The eternal spiral of course!) If we invoke the big bang / big crunch model, the arrow of entropy is compensated for by its opposite.)

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