an infinitude of events and experiences

Alan Watts wrote in The Way of Zen (pp. 6-7):  
"It is really important to recognize that the memories and past events which make up man's historical identity are not more than a selection" ... "from an infinitude of events and experiences" 

The image we have of ourselves, our lives, our minds and our personalities, is determined in part by the subsets of impressions that we visit, are exposed to or actively work with. By increasing the number of these subsets and gaining flexibility in how we interact with them, we provide ourselves with new ways of viewing ourselves, with additional affordances and possibilities. 

Next time:
What kinds of data structures could represent our image of self? Could a data structure include the events and experiences which feed into that image?  

We can approach, but probably never achieve, a model of self fully informed by our “infinitude of events and experiences.” How to design a model which can grow within these limits, unfold within the space between, benefiting both from relative sparseness and from approaching degrees completeness?

[Concept fields: near infinity, mixology of memory, memory space, memory as infinite system, memory surface, memory, sampling effects, self (data structure), personality, combinatorics, collection effects, limit (mathematics)]

If you would like to reference this page, here is an APA Style citation:

Smith, T. (2026). An infinitude of events and experiences. Small-Infinities. small-infinities.com/surfaces/an-infinitude-of-events-and-experiences