THE STRUCTURE OF REALITY - PART ONE
"She convinced me that dust can't exist in a vacuum!"
That's a pretty good joke, heard on, "Who's The Boss." Of course, vacuum cleaners are full of dust, but actual vacuums - (complete space) - are full of nothing, we all know that.
We built light bulbs to burn longer by emptying the bulbs of their air. That way, there would be no oxygen to burn up, and so oxidize the filament out of order. When corporations saw that bulbs were lasting too long, and they were therefore selling less, they reversed course and made bulbs that would burn out sooner. This is because corporations, like rust, like fire, like nature, absolutely abhor a vacuum. Really, if you build the perfect vacuum? What would happen? Everything would stop.
So, whenever or whenever there is any kind of vacuum, nature does it's darndest to rush in, with fools and angels, and fill it up - with anything! In this way, nature very much resembles some kind of psychopath. Can't it just leave well enough alone? Can't we just have one moment of absolute peace and quiet? Can't I lie down here for just one minute on this Inertial Frame of Reference bed, without all these dreams poking through, and that damn chainsaw, and my sudden compulsion to express myself in Yellow?
So, very clearly, nature is obsessed with getting it's fingers into every vacuum, every still point, every dark and silent hiding place, including the graves that neutrinos fly through.
Is it any wonder, then, that there actually is no such thing as a perfect vacuum? Every vaccuum, no matter how tight, is forever violated, by lines of gravity, electromagnetism, of other forces or, if not these, then at least, and always, by virtual particles. Virtual particles pop into existence for no apparent reason, and pop out again. They are like dreams or hallucinations arising in a brain who's senses have been deprived for a long time. It just happens! You can't get away from it. Virtual particles demonstrate that the universe continues to act even when every roadblock has been set up, and every variable eliminated, every inkling pargeted.
It is like the universe goes on, "thinking," no matter what - as if there may be higher laws going on than we might assume locally. (It's OK, though, because this mistake is made everywhere else in the universe, so). I'm not really sure, just to note, how virtual particles square with laws of conservation of energy and of matter - I know there's some shiftiness going on. I expect that the classical people will sort that out. (I have written in the past that the likes of virtual particles may exist as a medium for sustained photon exchange, (as one way of looking at it), as, "opposed," to photon travelling uninterrupted over long distances).
In this way, nature is being parsimonious. Orderly, in fact, although it looks disorderly. On Earth, if you open a pot of steam, it will all empty into the surrounder cooler, drier room, which is, relatively, a kind of vacuum, right? This is the movement of hot to cold or, more generally, from orderliness to chaos or entropy. This whole, universal, evening-out thing. This great conspiracy towards cold, cold heat death. It's happening everywhere. Your stomach is exploiting it and keeping you alive. So, this whole movement towards evening-out, which is called the movement from (measurable) Order into (not very measurable) Entropy is the thermodynamic process by which we experience Time.
If you think about it, the only way your life moves on, is because this movement towards entropy is happening - everything is degenerating, or decaying, or rusting, or becoming a muddle - AND, you have the mortal processes of order going on in contrast to this great decline. But order is a function of entropy, or chaos. Eventually, the universe is supposed to hit a dead end, and there will be no more orderly progression possible. You can recall this in that video I post a month or two or so ago, where the whole of life on Earth is contracted into only a short span of time. Everything looks dire at the start, then very promising and progressive, but, near the end, all the plants and bacteria die and the sun eats our planet up. And then the sun dies. It's aaaaaallll the same stuff.
However, many believe that, while order may be a function of chaos, chaos may also be a function of order. With my background as a transcendentalist, you may count me as one of these. And I do have questions about the orthodoxy of an expanding and dying universe. Not that I don't like the idea, and so want things to be different. Remember, I am also an existentialist. I have scientific reservations.
But, suffice it to say that, maybe you don't grasp this onslaught of decay being responsible for making your day, since it is peppered with all this contradictive order, but our time here is minuscule, and not amenable to the big picture. Entropy happens. Order also happens. Both are important. The former may win out in Time. But the latter seems to have something else going for it. As I said regarding the vaccuum, there may be higher laws. Than time.
Whether by entropy or by chaos, nature is parsimonious. The reason for this is that a kind of democracy of forces is going on. You've got the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, gravity, time itself, and the very, very underrated: space. You can't fit two things into the same space, can you? A rubics cube would be twice as large if it were made out of pyramids. A house cannot be sensibly built from soccer balls. Many molecules, beehives, soccer balls, and storms on Saturn, employ the shape of the hexegon - (in two dimensions. I'm not so sure out models of molecules, usually two-dimensional, are so precise). When you drive to work, when animals create a trail, when the crow flies as the crow flies - these are all parsimony of the universe. Electricity takes the shortest path of least resistance. Planets orbitting in circles, balancing outward pull against inward pull. People using words to sum up their feelings. Nature equalising a vacuum, by whatever hook or divine crook. Parsimony. And, so, as the universe is constructed this way, because it's so damned lazy, or democratic, or tenuous, the general rule of Ockham's razor, that the simplest explanation is the most likely, is a successful rule.
The universe doesn't get out of bed wanting to be smarter that day. It just wants to go along and get along, and make the most planets happy, and avoid collisions, but if they happen, they happen. Basically, the universe wants to conserve. Why? It's a pretty astonishing reason? Because if it doesn't, there's a plethora of alternate realties out there - alternate poassibilities. No - the whole point is to hang on to the possibility line that has been realised up to this point. Yes? And if you have a problem with that, then turn to the Other Worlds theory. Because everything is equal there, mathematically.
Parsimony is at the root of what I call, "the Origami Universe." This concept goes a little farther. Not only do things fit together best in space and time, but also meaning. After all, consciousness is not apart from nature, nor physics, nor physicality. Just as nature moves in, from every direction, to resolve an aberration or disequilibrium, so does the universe of meaning use the least amount of space, time, spirit and thought, to make real to all observing entities important occasions to their lifespans. Making this work means that not every being gets to experience a zowtastic life 24/7.
But, every entity will experience some degree of amplified meaning, at some points along its timeline. It's not so much that there is only so much meaning to go around. It is more that the individuality of each entity can be elevated only so much, above others all contesting in the muck of reality. And, also: meaning is a quality, not a quantity. There is more going on than our understanding of conventional physics, in the origami universe. But, like the petals of paper infolding upon and into each other, the universe makes the best, as it can, for each of its meambers - by each of its members. This is a very important concept, and I think some of you can have fun contemplating it.
A vaccuum, is like meaning. Where else do you get anything as pure? Where else could the meditation of the universe surface? When you meditate, or something like that, you put out all noises and botherances and plans and.. time... and motion... and fear of being devoured in a sudden house fire, and so on. Seriously, if you live in a bad part of an urban area, filled with barking angry dogs, and yelling idiots, and sirens and car alarms and bangings on the walls and pursuit by bill colletors and hate from angry family memebers and fear of upcoming court dates and no idea of how you are going to pay rent or car insurance...? Who can meditate in that? Not even Ghandi or god damn Dali LLama, baby. It's got to be all silent and still and empty - like a vacuum, and then, and only then, can you distill meaning!
In college! You had to get away from your bear-swilling toadmates, so you went to the university library, and you sat there in complete silence, focusing on your books, distilling your meanings, and making your memories, which would soon be tested by the fire! Is there any meaning in battle? Or hate? Or fear? At this point, ask anyone versed in poli sci and politics, is there any point in listening to Biden or Putin? No! Meaning is found in a virtual vacuum - in silence - in the feeling that you are not being tussled about, at least for the time being. That's what the origami universe brings, at the times most prescient.
A vaccuum, entertaining meaning, is also comperable to an Inertial Frame of Reference (IFR), in relativity theory. How do you get anything so perfectly still, that you may measure everything else from it. You can't. Only on paper. But, in theory, we have innertial frames of reference, (IFRs), by which we measure the speeds and timelines of other entities in the universe. But, according to relativity theory, these IFRs become not static and stable and non-moviing or inert, but they become moving relative to some other observer(s) now regarded as the more important IFR. That's what relativtiy theory is all about. Feel grounded in the meaning and gravity of your life, meditate all you like but, in relation to something else, you are as good as a shooting star, possibly portending destruction. I have written about this stuff before. So, let's just move on to what I am getting to...
No IFR is absolute. No vacuum is complete. No silence is silence. No darkness is darkness. You can bury yourself in pain and cutting and hate and sorrow and abuse but, even more so, you will be tortured in your dreams, reminded that you are still a part of this meaningful, parsimonious universe. You will have your dreams and probably fly. You think you are alone? You are never alone. You were never one to begin with. So why all this defensiveness? As if the power of the universe is behind you, maintaining that you, worst of whatever could be, deserve some claim to be. You are not alone.
What does, 'One', mean? How much is an apple an apple and not an orange, by association? What is a man who was never an ape? How can this planet beb without orbitting with others around some great, insanely powerful star? In your family, are you not part of your parents, and your parents, and your pets, and friends, and your books, and your teachers, and music, and seeings, and your wants, and your hopes, and your disappointments, and your ultimate death? Are you one when you have sex, or make love, or make a child, or commune with nature, or watch a movie with friends, or fall asleep and become haunted by dreams of some old flame decades ago? Are you when you eat spaghetti, which is degested with bacteria and fungi into molecules and insulin and bothersome thoughts? Are you one when you marry?
Are you one when the weather and the moon and 5G and solar winds and the time of the month and patterns of history and pollution and social scorn and the latest trend on social media and disturbing new discoveries and radiation and life from elsewhere and all the forces of this monstrous universe keep passing through you? When are you one? Only when it serves that body to say so? What is that body but a product of this great wave entropy - immeasurable forces - taking over? When are you one? Where are you one? Is it ever really possible for you to be anything like the still point of the turning world, therein where real meaning resides?
I hope I have personalised things enough because I don't think this post will be going anywhere, soon, other than into the obtusely metaphysical. And this is what the dorks like. So, it must me worth something, lol. Here we go...
To be One. To be an identity. An entity. A little bit of order against this great dark sky called, by the likes of us, disorder. What does it mean to be truly one. Because, you need that, if you want to proceed along to other things. We have iron, we have other elements, and we can study this along those lines, one day. But, I'm being metaphysical, for the time being. Being one means being an integrated piece of order standing against some significant degree of disorder. It's a sad fact, especially in our political world, but One cannot be without anti-One.
Can you imagine all the universe stopping just so that One could be? It doesn't work that way. One has to exist in spite of the rest of the universe, at least in the temporal realm. But, to be truly One, you must be distinct from all the universe. All else in the universe. If you are a clone of a clone, you were still born of some completely different point in space and in time, and that makes you different to all else in the universe.
The number ONE assumes a lot that isn't real. It assumes forces will be as there are now, in all cases and times in the future. It assumes no forces are intervening now. And, really, I could go on and on about all this. One does not exist. It isn't real. It is as good as a statistical norm, although, in physics, those norms are way more precise than are ours. In reality, One does not exist. It's a bump. An average of other things. But, the idea of One is not only fundamental to our math, it is fundamental to existence in the universe. Just remember: In a vacuum, there are all these particles popping in and out of nowhere. How do you make a one to stand apart from this? Well. For one thing. Those particles, as brief as they live, are Ones. They are right out there, on the threshold of One. Everything after that? In spite of what I have said? It's all a race to be One. Why do you suppose? Parsimony! However, the important point is this: You cannot start anything without the concept of one. That includes a universe. One universe, we are assuming. So...
Identity begins with the assumption of an inertial frame of reference. Like a vaccuum. You can't have a universe unless it is based on entities - ones - like atoms. Although, there are quanta, but we are avoiding all that, for now. The important thing is that the fundamental building block of the universe, according to math, is ONE!
What does it take for ONE to actually be? Here we go, again, beyond...
Reduce everything to absolute fundamentals. What if nothing existed? (And, as they say, then the universe came to be?) How do you discern a ONE against this background? A ONE entirely composed of the same substance of this background? How do you discern? How do you define? Time. If you want ONE, in absolute contradiction to whatever else is, then you need TIME.
Imagine a ball in the middle of an ocean of grey. The ball, or disc, must maintain itself as being a different shade from that of its surroundings, in order to be called a, "ONE." In fact, this may be a very good imagination of reality. How did the universe begin, as some kind of One, from nothing, after all? To discern itself against all else, a One must contradict. IF you are the only - the first - ONE in the universe, and if you are truly ONE, then you must stand in contradiction to all the universe. In other words, if the universe is light grey, you must be dark grey. The, if the universe - all else surrounding you - is dark grey, then you must be white! And if the universe is white? Then you must be black! And vice versa. (Reminder: Here we are back to looking at things as if all forces are few, or as if two-dimensional. But, all forces probably began as few, and less dimensional).
To demarcate a single entity - a ball or disc - against a background requires difference to that background. Should that background change, difference must accord, so as to maintain integrity. IF the universe began as a great void, then what to puncture that void? What if it was a great vacuum, then what would pierce that vacuum? The only thing to pierce a vacuum of endless disintegrity? Integrity! ONE! The moment that One entered the picture, the universe was changed for all eternity!
So, we can easilly be reduced to basic graphics, which is fine!
You have an environment of bland nothingness, neither this way nor that. Into this? You drop the disc of identity! Whatever shade the sea may take, the disc will turn oppositely, (unless in negotiation). How do you expect that a disc or ball shall differentiate itself from its environment unless it shows an opposite shade? (Shade is allegorical - OR - it means a summation of all the many forces concentrated from the universe).
One ball, set against a vast backdrop of grey nothingness. How will it maintain its integrity? Just by being a different colour than everything else? How does that even happen, in time? If you are the only particle, and this is the only environment - surrounding you - then how does this differentiation even occur?!
One small drop in an ocean of naught, wanting to exclaim itself as different and alone and ONE... How does that happen?.. Because it had to happen for anything else to happen! Identity preceded everything else! The bias to exist is fundamental to all existence! The universe is neither based on chaos nor on One. It is based on meaning. What, exactly, was meant, by this upstart, ONE, rising out of the scum to claim we are all so unfair?! Such an ingrate! What an upset!
I want to watch movies like they know what all of this means. Oh, yeah - TBC!!!
That's a pretty good joke, heard on, "Who's The Boss." Of course, vacuum cleaners are full of dust, but actual vacuums - (complete space) - are full of nothing, we all know that.
We built light bulbs to burn longer by emptying the bulbs of their air. That way, there would be no oxygen to burn up, and so oxidize the filament out of order. When corporations saw that bulbs were lasting too long, and they were therefore selling less, they reversed course and made bulbs that would burn out sooner. This is because corporations, like rust, like fire, like nature, absolutely abhor a vacuum. Really, if you build the perfect vacuum? What would happen? Everything would stop.
So, whenever or whenever there is any kind of vacuum, nature does it's darndest to rush in, with fools and angels, and fill it up - with anything! In this way, nature very much resembles some kind of psychopath. Can't it just leave well enough alone? Can't we just have one moment of absolute peace and quiet? Can't I lie down here for just one minute on this Inertial Frame of Reference bed, without all these dreams poking through, and that damn chainsaw, and my sudden compulsion to express myself in Yellow?
So, very clearly, nature is obsessed with getting it's fingers into every vacuum, every still point, every dark and silent hiding place, including the graves that neutrinos fly through.
Is it any wonder, then, that there actually is no such thing as a perfect vacuum? Every vaccuum, no matter how tight, is forever violated, by lines of gravity, electromagnetism, of other forces or, if not these, then at least, and always, by virtual particles. Virtual particles pop into existence for no apparent reason, and pop out again. They are like dreams or hallucinations arising in a brain who's senses have been deprived for a long time. It just happens! You can't get away from it. Virtual particles demonstrate that the universe continues to act even when every roadblock has been set up, and every variable eliminated, every inkling pargeted.
It is like the universe goes on, "thinking," no matter what - as if there may be higher laws going on than we might assume locally. (It's OK, though, because this mistake is made everywhere else in the universe, so). I'm not really sure, just to note, how virtual particles square with laws of conservation of energy and of matter - I know there's some shiftiness going on. I expect that the classical people will sort that out. (I have written in the past that the likes of virtual particles may exist as a medium for sustained photon exchange, (as one way of looking at it), as, "opposed," to photon travelling uninterrupted over long distances).
In this way, nature is being parsimonious. Orderly, in fact, although it looks disorderly. On Earth, if you open a pot of steam, it will all empty into the surrounder cooler, drier room, which is, relatively, a kind of vacuum, right? This is the movement of hot to cold or, more generally, from orderliness to chaos or entropy. This whole, universal, evening-out thing. This great conspiracy towards cold, cold heat death. It's happening everywhere. Your stomach is exploiting it and keeping you alive. So, this whole movement towards evening-out, which is called the movement from (measurable) Order into (not very measurable) Entropy is the thermodynamic process by which we experience Time.
If you think about it, the only way your life moves on, is because this movement towards entropy is happening - everything is degenerating, or decaying, or rusting, or becoming a muddle - AND, you have the mortal processes of order going on in contrast to this great decline. But order is a function of entropy, or chaos. Eventually, the universe is supposed to hit a dead end, and there will be no more orderly progression possible. You can recall this in that video I post a month or two or so ago, where the whole of life on Earth is contracted into only a short span of time. Everything looks dire at the start, then very promising and progressive, but, near the end, all the plants and bacteria die and the sun eats our planet up. And then the sun dies. It's aaaaaallll the same stuff.
However, many believe that, while order may be a function of chaos, chaos may also be a function of order. With my background as a transcendentalist, you may count me as one of these. And I do have questions about the orthodoxy of an expanding and dying universe. Not that I don't like the idea, and so want things to be different. Remember, I am also an existentialist. I have scientific reservations.
But, suffice it to say that, maybe you don't grasp this onslaught of decay being responsible for making your day, since it is peppered with all this contradictive order, but our time here is minuscule, and not amenable to the big picture. Entropy happens. Order also happens. Both are important. The former may win out in Time. But the latter seems to have something else going for it. As I said regarding the vaccuum, there may be higher laws. Than time.
Whether by entropy or by chaos, nature is parsimonious. The reason for this is that a kind of democracy of forces is going on. You've got the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, gravity, time itself, and the very, very underrated: space. You can't fit two things into the same space, can you? A rubics cube would be twice as large if it were made out of pyramids. A house cannot be sensibly built from soccer balls. Many molecules, beehives, soccer balls, and storms on Saturn, employ the shape of the hexegon - (in two dimensions. I'm not so sure out models of molecules, usually two-dimensional, are so precise). When you drive to work, when animals create a trail, when the crow flies as the crow flies - these are all parsimony of the universe. Electricity takes the shortest path of least resistance. Planets orbitting in circles, balancing outward pull against inward pull. People using words to sum up their feelings. Nature equalising a vacuum, by whatever hook or divine crook. Parsimony. And, so, as the universe is constructed this way, because it's so damned lazy, or democratic, or tenuous, the general rule of Ockham's razor, that the simplest explanation is the most likely, is a successful rule.
The universe doesn't get out of bed wanting to be smarter that day. It just wants to go along and get along, and make the most planets happy, and avoid collisions, but if they happen, they happen. Basically, the universe wants to conserve. Why? It's a pretty astonishing reason? Because if it doesn't, there's a plethora of alternate realties out there - alternate poassibilities. No - the whole point is to hang on to the possibility line that has been realised up to this point. Yes? And if you have a problem with that, then turn to the Other Worlds theory. Because everything is equal there, mathematically.
Parsimony is at the root of what I call, "the Origami Universe." This concept goes a little farther. Not only do things fit together best in space and time, but also meaning. After all, consciousness is not apart from nature, nor physics, nor physicality. Just as nature moves in, from every direction, to resolve an aberration or disequilibrium, so does the universe of meaning use the least amount of space, time, spirit and thought, to make real to all observing entities important occasions to their lifespans. Making this work means that not every being gets to experience a zowtastic life 24/7.
But, every entity will experience some degree of amplified meaning, at some points along its timeline. It's not so much that there is only so much meaning to go around. It is more that the individuality of each entity can be elevated only so much, above others all contesting in the muck of reality. And, also: meaning is a quality, not a quantity. There is more going on than our understanding of conventional physics, in the origami universe. But, like the petals of paper infolding upon and into each other, the universe makes the best, as it can, for each of its meambers - by each of its members. This is a very important concept, and I think some of you can have fun contemplating it.
A vaccuum, is like meaning. Where else do you get anything as pure? Where else could the meditation of the universe surface? When you meditate, or something like that, you put out all noises and botherances and plans and.. time... and motion... and fear of being devoured in a sudden house fire, and so on. Seriously, if you live in a bad part of an urban area, filled with barking angry dogs, and yelling idiots, and sirens and car alarms and bangings on the walls and pursuit by bill colletors and hate from angry family memebers and fear of upcoming court dates and no idea of how you are going to pay rent or car insurance...? Who can meditate in that? Not even Ghandi or god damn Dali LLama, baby. It's got to be all silent and still and empty - like a vacuum, and then, and only then, can you distill meaning!
In college! You had to get away from your bear-swilling toadmates, so you went to the university library, and you sat there in complete silence, focusing on your books, distilling your meanings, and making your memories, which would soon be tested by the fire! Is there any meaning in battle? Or hate? Or fear? At this point, ask anyone versed in poli sci and politics, is there any point in listening to Biden or Putin? No! Meaning is found in a virtual vacuum - in silence - in the feeling that you are not being tussled about, at least for the time being. That's what the origami universe brings, at the times most prescient.
A vaccuum, entertaining meaning, is also comperable to an Inertial Frame of Reference (IFR), in relativity theory. How do you get anything so perfectly still, that you may measure everything else from it. You can't. Only on paper. But, in theory, we have innertial frames of reference, (IFRs), by which we measure the speeds and timelines of other entities in the universe. But, according to relativity theory, these IFRs become not static and stable and non-moviing or inert, but they become moving relative to some other observer(s) now regarded as the more important IFR. That's what relativtiy theory is all about. Feel grounded in the meaning and gravity of your life, meditate all you like but, in relation to something else, you are as good as a shooting star, possibly portending destruction. I have written about this stuff before. So, let's just move on to what I am getting to...
No IFR is absolute. No vacuum is complete. No silence is silence. No darkness is darkness. You can bury yourself in pain and cutting and hate and sorrow and abuse but, even more so, you will be tortured in your dreams, reminded that you are still a part of this meaningful, parsimonious universe. You will have your dreams and probably fly. You think you are alone? You are never alone. You were never one to begin with. So why all this defensiveness? As if the power of the universe is behind you, maintaining that you, worst of whatever could be, deserve some claim to be. You are not alone.
What does, 'One', mean? How much is an apple an apple and not an orange, by association? What is a man who was never an ape? How can this planet beb without orbitting with others around some great, insanely powerful star? In your family, are you not part of your parents, and your parents, and your pets, and friends, and your books, and your teachers, and music, and seeings, and your wants, and your hopes, and your disappointments, and your ultimate death? Are you one when you have sex, or make love, or make a child, or commune with nature, or watch a movie with friends, or fall asleep and become haunted by dreams of some old flame decades ago? Are you when you eat spaghetti, which is degested with bacteria and fungi into molecules and insulin and bothersome thoughts? Are you one when you marry?
Are you one when the weather and the moon and 5G and solar winds and the time of the month and patterns of history and pollution and social scorn and the latest trend on social media and disturbing new discoveries and radiation and life from elsewhere and all the forces of this monstrous universe keep passing through you? When are you one? Only when it serves that body to say so? What is that body but a product of this great wave entropy - immeasurable forces - taking over? When are you one? Where are you one? Is it ever really possible for you to be anything like the still point of the turning world, therein where real meaning resides?
I hope I have personalised things enough because I don't think this post will be going anywhere, soon, other than into the obtusely metaphysical. And this is what the dorks like. So, it must me worth something, lol. Here we go...
To be One. To be an identity. An entity. A little bit of order against this great dark sky called, by the likes of us, disorder. What does it mean to be truly one. Because, you need that, if you want to proceed along to other things. We have iron, we have other elements, and we can study this along those lines, one day. But, I'm being metaphysical, for the time being. Being one means being an integrated piece of order standing against some significant degree of disorder. It's a sad fact, especially in our political world, but One cannot be without anti-One.
Can you imagine all the universe stopping just so that One could be? It doesn't work that way. One has to exist in spite of the rest of the universe, at least in the temporal realm. But, to be truly One, you must be distinct from all the universe. All else in the universe. If you are a clone of a clone, you were still born of some completely different point in space and in time, and that makes you different to all else in the universe.
The number ONE assumes a lot that isn't real. It assumes forces will be as there are now, in all cases and times in the future. It assumes no forces are intervening now. And, really, I could go on and on about all this. One does not exist. It isn't real. It is as good as a statistical norm, although, in physics, those norms are way more precise than are ours. In reality, One does not exist. It's a bump. An average of other things. But, the idea of One is not only fundamental to our math, it is fundamental to existence in the universe. Just remember: In a vacuum, there are all these particles popping in and out of nowhere. How do you make a one to stand apart from this? Well. For one thing. Those particles, as brief as they live, are Ones. They are right out there, on the threshold of One. Everything after that? In spite of what I have said? It's all a race to be One. Why do you suppose? Parsimony! However, the important point is this: You cannot start anything without the concept of one. That includes a universe. One universe, we are assuming. So...
Identity begins with the assumption of an inertial frame of reference. Like a vaccuum. You can't have a universe unless it is based on entities - ones - like atoms. Although, there are quanta, but we are avoiding all that, for now. The important thing is that the fundamental building block of the universe, according to math, is ONE!
What does it take for ONE to actually be? Here we go, again, beyond...
Reduce everything to absolute fundamentals. What if nothing existed? (And, as they say, then the universe came to be?) How do you discern a ONE against this background? A ONE entirely composed of the same substance of this background? How do you discern? How do you define? Time. If you want ONE, in absolute contradiction to whatever else is, then you need TIME.
Imagine a ball in the middle of an ocean of grey. The ball, or disc, must maintain itself as being a different shade from that of its surroundings, in order to be called a, "ONE." In fact, this may be a very good imagination of reality. How did the universe begin, as some kind of One, from nothing, after all? To discern itself against all else, a One must contradict. IF you are the only - the first - ONE in the universe, and if you are truly ONE, then you must stand in contradiction to all the universe. In other words, if the universe is light grey, you must be dark grey. The, if the universe - all else surrounding you - is dark grey, then you must be white! And if the universe is white? Then you must be black! And vice versa. (Reminder: Here we are back to looking at things as if all forces are few, or as if two-dimensional. But, all forces probably began as few, and less dimensional).
To demarcate a single entity - a ball or disc - against a background requires difference to that background. Should that background change, difference must accord, so as to maintain integrity. IF the universe began as a great void, then what to puncture that void? What if it was a great vacuum, then what would pierce that vacuum? The only thing to pierce a vacuum of endless disintegrity? Integrity! ONE! The moment that One entered the picture, the universe was changed for all eternity!
So, we can easilly be reduced to basic graphics, which is fine!
You have an environment of bland nothingness, neither this way nor that. Into this? You drop the disc of identity! Whatever shade the sea may take, the disc will turn oppositely, (unless in negotiation). How do you expect that a disc or ball shall differentiate itself from its environment unless it shows an opposite shade? (Shade is allegorical - OR - it means a summation of all the many forces concentrated from the universe).
One ball, set against a vast backdrop of grey nothingness. How will it maintain its integrity? Just by being a different colour than everything else? How does that even happen, in time? If you are the only particle, and this is the only environment - surrounding you - then how does this differentiation even occur?!
One small drop in an ocean of naught, wanting to exclaim itself as different and alone and ONE... How does that happen?.. Because it had to happen for anything else to happen! Identity preceded everything else! The bias to exist is fundamental to all existence! The universe is neither based on chaos nor on One. It is based on meaning. What, exactly, was meant, by this upstart, ONE, rising out of the scum to claim we are all so unfair?! Such an ingrate! What an upset!
I want to watch movies like they know what all of this means. Oh, yeah - TBC!!!