10.1 Refusing to Clear the Game

“In finite games, the purpose is to win; in infinite games, the purpose is to keep the game going. For life, ‘winning’ is an extremely dangerous word. Because in physics, ‘winning’ means the system has reached the global optimum, and another name for the global optimum is—death.”

The Trap of Victory: Global Minimum

In classical optimization theory, all algorithms search for “Global Minimum”.

For example, water flows to the lowest terrain, chemical reactions seek the lowest energy state. Once found, the system stabilizes and no longer changes.

From the perspective of Vector Cosmology, this “stability” is fatal.

If a civilization completely “solves” all problems—it eliminates all diseases, solves all equations, fulfills all desires—then its $v_{int}$ (internal structure) evolution rate will drop to zero.

$$\frac{d}{d\tau }{v}_{int}=0⟹\text{Time Stops}$$

This is “Game Clear”.

For a finite game (like Go or football), clearing is glory.

But for an existential game (like the universe), clearing is thermodynamic suicide.

Because once you “win,” you have no “Potential Difference”. Without potential difference, there is no Modular Flow, no subjective time passage. You will freeze in a perfect, eternal crystal tombstone.

Algorithm Correction: Searching for Saddle Points Instead of Extremes

Therefore, a mature higher-dimensional civilization (or awakened observer) must “refuse to clear” in the underlying algorithm.

This requires us to modify the objective function from “searching for extremes” to “Searching for Saddle Points”.

• Extreme points: Like the bottom of a bowl. Once you fall in, you can’t get out.

• Saddle points: Like the center of a saddle. Stable in one direction, unstable (open) in another direction.

Players of infinite games always try to keep themselves in “Metastability”.

• They solve survival problems, then immediately invent art (a question with no standard answer).

• They conquer galaxies, then immediately explore the void (a realm with no boundaries).

They constantly “create problems”.

This sounds like making trouble for no reason, but in FS geometry, this is to maintain the non-commutativity of the Hamiltonian $H$.

Only when problems always outnumber answers can the wave function maintain coherent oscillation, and the fire of life will not extinguish.

The Wisdom of $\varphi$: Never Coinciding

This also explains why the universe chose $\varphi$ (golden ratio) as the growth constant, rather than integers or $\pi$.

• If the universe rotated according to integer ratios, it would eventually return to the origin (clear/cycle).

• $\varphi$ here ensures the orbit never closes.

With each rotation, we think we’re about to grasp ultimate truth (the $\Omega$ point), but $\varphi$’s irrational nature ensures we are always “just a bit short”.

It is precisely this “bit short” that constitutes the driving force for the next round of evolution.

Conclusion:

Do not crave perfection.

Perfection is the closure of a circle, the tyranny of $\pi$.

Defect is the friend of evolution.

We should praise those unsolved puzzles, praise those unrequited loves, praise those unfillable voids.

Because it is precisely these “uncleared” parts that preserve our position in time.

As long as you haven’t won, you are still alive.

Since we refuse to “win,” what exactly are we doing in this infinite game? If we’re not running for the endpoint, what are we running for?

This leads to the theme of the next section: The Rule Modifier. We will see that the true joy of infinite players lies not in following rules, but in rewriting rules.