The In Infinitum and the Ad Infinitum

Continuous addition to some quantifiable thing constitutes the meaning of ad infinitum; one is called upon by this term to add to infinity (which is impossible to disclose). Given this meaning (numerable) it has been argued that there are no existing actual infinities, only potential ones; but this argument depends on supposing that mind constitutes world, which is false. A quick and easy way to see the fallacy in this thinking is to think about "all" the real numbers on a continuous line. Counting the whole numbers is not sufficient to account for these, and even if we were to do so, per impossible, we would still have to count between these, and between those, etc., in infinitum. This thought experiment is the key to understanding the paradox that summarizes Zeno. If we consider two members of a race and see that if the first is to get a head start, pure mathematics demonstrates with sound reasoning, that it is impossible for the second to catch up, even if the first is a turtle and the second a hare. Also, paradoxically, it is impossible to start; for if we are to start to move, we must pass through an abnumerable infinity; for we must pass through half before we take the first step, and half of that distance, etc., in infinitum.

The reason that I am bringing up these concepts is that in order to understand the difference between the qualitative and the quantitative, it is important to have these terms at the ready. In psychoanalytic theory, one is coded to function according to formed desires, with queer bodies exemplifying the transgressed limits of the code. Consider the garbage that is becoming a man. According to Klein, patriarchy encourages us, by virtue of the power of the phallus, to give up our desires to identify with our mothers (to see ourselves as having wombs and breasts) and to accept our roles in patriarchal society. Hence, prior to becoming men, we have queer desires: we perhaps see breasts as penises; but definitely, without doubt, our masculine bodies are attached in queer assemblages. The queer child learns to pass; and thankfully many unlearn this ridiculous apparatus of the organ that is building-civilization. According to Klein, these masculine desires (to be mother) are then sublimated in permissible forms of behavior, the most interesting example being the idea of a brain-child, which is all too masculine and totally an appropriation of the feminine rite to reproducing the conditions for life. So long as this form of creativity doesn't go against patriarchy, desires are permissible. So then what could it mean to follow desires that do go against patriarchy?

I want to say that to explore one's (un)bridled desires is to open oneself to the in infinitum; it is to reject the operation of ad infinitum--to acquire more of the same quantitative reality. It is to give the existing (truly unquantifiable) realities, a difference that makes a difference to practice, a qualitative difference because one's purpose is emergent and not top-down. It is to follow one's right to be whatever; to be uncoded, or at least to go against predictability in a way that follows one's affinities, which are never given and only hopefully solid. To add more in every possible direction in infinitum is to eclipse patriarchy's Son; for here we are (perhaps) in the production of the good--or at least, it cannot be said that such isn't healthy for us.

Marcuse (Eros and Civilization) imagines Art(desire) to be (not necessarily heterosexual) fucking in a field; yet he also pictures only a temporary unleashing of desire, even though his fear-relief comes out as a hope that one will grow tired if one is permitted to explore repressed desires. But why should we grow tired? Why should we grow up? Why should we not explode as a fire that never tires, like a forest fire, fueled by our own potential desires?  

Kant didn't have a term for the summation of the in infinitum, or possibility, because Kant used the Quanta as his countable infinity to account for space as a series of experiences. Here, the quantitative is clearly present; yet, the unquantifiable is always forever murky, precisely because we are not dealing with quantifiable realities. Possibility is good security culture for the obvious reason that one can thereby protect oneself from being let down, and even laugh joyously in the possibility of letting one's own self down.