The history of human civilization, in a certain sense, is the history of how the finite attempts to understand the infinite.

All our systems of science, mathematics, and philosophy are attempts to approach the infinite world within finite cognition. And every pursuit of “truth” is, in essence, a pursuit of completeness — an attempt to build a system capable of explaining everything. But the question remains:

Can finite beings truly grasp the infinite?

I. Why Does Understanding the World Always Lead to Paradox?

In The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant proposed four famous antinomies: Does the world have a beginning? Is it composed of indivisible minimal units? Does freedom exist? Is there a necessarily existing God?

Why can’t these questions be answered definitively through logic? The reason is simple: When finite reason tries to deduce infinite objects, logical divisions and paradoxes inevitably arise.

II. Both Philosophy and Mathematics Have Been Torn Apart by the Problem of Infinity

Two fundamental approaches to understanding “the infinite” have shaped the fields of philosophy and mathematics:

✅ View 1: The Infinite Precedes the Finite (Deriving the Finite from the Infinite)

• Philosophical School: Empiricism
• Mathematical Camp: Logical Formalism (Hilbert’s tradition)
• Core Claim: The infinite objectively exists and must first be given a formal definition.
• Representative Achievement: Cantor’s Set Theory

Methodological Logic: Assume the existence of “actual infinity,” then use symbolic logic to describe the world.

✅ View 2: The Finite Generates the Infinite (Approaching the Infinite from the Finite)

• Philosophical School: Rationalism
• Mathematical Camp: Intuitionism (Brouwer)
• Core Claim: Reject the “actual infinite”; acknowledge only the “potential infinite.”
• Mathematical Spirit: What can be constructed, exists.
• Impact on Modern Thought: Laid the foundation for computer science and formal computation theory.

Methodological Logic: The infinite is not “defined” — it is approached through finite steps.

III. The Third Path: Evolution Unifies the Finite and the Infinite

Why can’t the previous two viewpoints settle the debate?

Because both attempt to use static logic to explain a dynamically generated reality. The real world is not given all at once — it unfolds through evolution.

✅ Third Perspective: Evolutionary Epistemology

The finite and the infinite are not sequential, but coexistent.

• Life is finite — our individual cognition will always be limited.
• Matter and information evolve infinitely — the structure of the universe continues to expand.
• The two are coupled through time and evolution.

This means:The finite is a local folding of the infinite, and the infinite unfolds within finite life through evolution.

This explains why:

• Genes can achieve “infinite continuation of information” through generational replication.
• Scientific knowledge can accumulate and evolve.
• Truth is never given once and for all, but is progressively approached.

IV. Evolution Explains Not Only Life, but Also Bitcoin

Here, one may be surprised to realize — Bitcoin’s logical structure is also evolutionary.

Bitcoin is not an “algorithmic system” in the traditional sense. It is not a recursive program, but rather: A self-sustaining, self-selecting, and self-evolving information system unfolding in time.

It embodies simultaneously:

• Finiteness — each block is a finite computation.
• Infiniteness — the chain structure can extend infinitely.
• Evolvability — consensus and hashrate drive structural selection.

Thus, it becomes a unity of the finite and the infinite — humanity’s first realized evolutionary computation system.

✅ Conclusion

Early human science sought to explain the world through logic; later, we formalized it through mathematics. Now, we begin to understand — The world is not a static logical structure, but an evolutionary computational process.

The emergence of Bitcoin tells us:

• Evolution does not belong solely to life — it also belongs to computation.
• Evolution not only explains how order in life arises, but can also create order itself.

This marks the rise of a new scientific paradigm: The Philosophy of Evolutionary Computation — the future science that unifies physics, life, computation, and value.