Idea Space Theory

An idea space is a mathematical model for your mind. It contains your thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions. Your idea space is unique to you, holds an uncountable field of possible states, and has zero measure under the model's outside-observer measurement. Through that measurement, it can look like nothing even while it contains your lived experience. Idea space extends the observer-relative perspective of relativity by exploring how each person experiences the same universe from a unique point of view.

Two people on a beach watching the same sunset from their own vantage

Sunset Conjecture

The Sunset Conjecture shows why two people can experience the same universe from different perspectives. Picture yourself on the beach at sunset. The sun's golden reflection appears to point directly toward you, while a friend beside you sees it pointing toward them. This phenomenon occurs because (1) everyone is at the center of their own observable universe where everything they see arrives from the past, and (2) at that center lies the observer's idea space, the private field through which the incoming universe is experienced.

From the outside, an idea space looks like nothing, the empty set

Zero Measure

Zero measure means that an idea space registers as nothing under the outside-observer measurement. Simply put, an idea space looks like nothing to the outside observer. Bring to mind a picture of a pink elephant. Another person can study your words, behavior, and brain activity, but they cannot directly see the image as you experience it. That is the puzzle: something can receive zero under a particular measurement without being empty. A set can even have zero measure while containing uncountably many points. When a measurement returns zero, has it found nothing, or has it missed hidden depth? The measurement alone cannot tell us.

A path through changing momentary states, each holding different distinctions

Uncountable

Uncountability is a size of infinity larger than the countable infinity of the natural numbers. An idea space contains uncountably many possible states: no complete list could capture every combination. Lived experience is also impermanent. The mind changes from moment to moment as thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions arise and pass. Uncountability describes the depth of the possibilities; impermanence describes our movement through them.

The Whitepaper

Idea Space: A Mathematical Model for Observing the Mind. Read it here, open it in a new tab, or download it.

Open Download

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Earlier version

From the Channel

The Idea Space official trailer

A short film from the book’s prologue. It serves as a trailer for the book.

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What is an idea space?

Get a better understanding of what an idea space is and how it relates to the world around you.

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Clopen, Black Holes, & More

The full channel with more videos to explore across an array of interesting topics.

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