The standard monkey cage encloses a space using three dimensional planes; x,y and z.

Take one standard monkey, place him in the cage and it’s game over for monkey freedom.

Humans also occupy a cage only it is less simple to observe – because it is infinite. We live in an ‘infinity monkey cage’ in which we can travel in any direction – but with the restrictions of always coming back to the start.

Then it gets complicated. Scientists measure time; from leaky water clocks to atom accurate atomic clocks. This single act of measurement creates a past and a future – pressing our minds into an ever smaller space, or is that a larger one? Either way it puts human endeavour into a tight spot.

Things must be done ‘on time’. In a kind of cosmic act of cookery, we are placed in a dome shaped oven to cook for a measured period and then emerge as plump loaves of bread. The cosmic clock is not our friend but our enemy, for it cannot be beaten. It ticks inexorably in the background of all our endeavours.

This dominant dimension in our lives – I would argue it is not a dimension at all. The act of measuring a thing will not make it real if it is imaginary. Can you measure freedom?

Time picks us up and places us in a social order on a point of singularity within the Universe; it is called ‘being born’.

And as we grow into adults we accept this social order. We indulge in it’s whims which are justified as ethical (providing complexity and contradiction are ignored) and therefore acceptable. If you reject the ‘normal’ of that moment, you must risk being regarded as ‘not normal’.

An 18^th century normal is not a 19^th century normal. Slavery – which had been around for thousands of years – was voted out as unethical.

Humans were not learning but unlearning bad habits. It was never ‘natural’ to enslave your own species. Nature (if ever) rarely does it. This change in human consciousness was restricted by time. Slaves had been enslaved for millennia. Eventually, for ethical reasons – slaves were released to live in social equality.

It was just an imaginary game that had been played out by the victors at the cost of ruining millions of lives and their descendants.

Were there Roman aristocrats who refused to have slaves? I don’t know but such a person would have been described as ‘out of their time’.

Human societies evolve – not because of time but despite time. Some evolutionary steps are incredibly slow, but if you can not measure time, that is an invisible transition.

There is no ‘one direction’ for human evolution. We have freewill so do not hit the bars of the space cage, just as we do not hit the bars of the time cage. This fact alone should make us query the reality of space and time.

Are they not mere conventions?

Of course without matter and gravity we could not walk to the shops for a pint of milk, but physicality was only ever, a compromise. By shedding our acceptance of what is ‘normal’ or ‘fixed’ or ‘normal’ we edge closer to the reality of an infinite space.

The ‘man of the age’ who is lauded as a hero, is not a better human being. They are simply so much caught in the conventional illusion of what matters and what does not – that they go along with the fickle opinions of others – especially if they are being flattered.

The true ‘hero of the age’ is not of the age they appear to others to be in. Such a person acts independent of time either as a scientist like Nicola Tesla, an artist like Leonardo de Vinci or any of the prophets.

Examine the words of their words and their thoughts are independent of space and time.

They uncover / reveal / expound truths which are out of ‘time’ and ‘space’. Their starting and finishing point is infinite and exist in every reality.

Such truths as ‘love one another’ and 1+1=2, subvert corruption in human societies. They ‘unpeeled’ coverings that have been revealed as real in previous centuries. They will always be true.

Man has not been on Earth for long. If Earth was created in 1000AD then we came along on 22 December 1999. We are no more than a passing thought created just in time for the end of the year. It would do us well to remember how truly insignificant humans really are but some of us, sometimes, get a glimpse of infinity, a quality which is not ours to hold.