Yes, I agree with this ... except maybe with some of your conclusions. Once ripples have been established, they never dissipate, but only reduce in amplitude, never reaching zero. The wave (ripple) never disappears.Sy Borg wrote: ↑March 16th, 2021, 9:34 pm I think of it like ripples in an ocean. If a boulder topples down a cliff into the ocean, its ripples will only go a certain distance before being dissipated by other waves. So the boulder's waves are causally disconnected from most of an ocean. I think of space similarly - a huge field with waves everywhere - criss-crossing, swamping, boosting, cancelling etc. Really, a case could be made for the arena of human thought having similar dynamics.
In its early stages, when a ripple is at its strongest, it interacts with other ripples most obviously. But these interactions continue forever, at ever-lower (but non-zero) amplitudes.
So yes, I think of space as "a huge field with waves everywhere - criss-crossing, swamping, boosting, cancelling etc." But they never dissipate fully. As a ripple progresses, it interacts with all the other ripples, affecting them and thereby the whole. And, in this way, it leaves its effect(s) behind. In fact, it's sort-of true to say that ripples are immortal, in the way I have just described.
A case could be made for comparing this with the impact individual human lives have, during their own tenure here, on life, the universe and everything. And perhaps human thought shares some of these dynamics too, as you suggest. The holistic perspective rears its ugly head all over the place, don't you think?