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We,The People, are not happy
19 - A different way to look at the world
Let’s compare the complexity of nature and the possibilities of the human brain. There is a gap! A canyon! Our first reaction was to find a way to simplify. The scientific way is to divide, hoping that smaller parts will have smaller problems, easier to solve. We had some success. Mother Nature was reduced to 100 atoms (give or take a dozen). Nature was reduced to a puzzle of which we knew the different parts. That was enough to remodel our environment. Our thinking was capable of working on the puzzle.
The problem started when we realized that the puzzle represents only 5% of reality. What a disappointment! We realized that we had been turning around our cage and should look for a way to escape. Instead of cutting the world into little pieces, we should try to unite. It is good to know that water is made of oxygen and hydrogen but understanding the cycle of water in nature is more important.
Fractals in nature:
There are many ways to look at nature. After finding something interesting, you can look for something similar elsewhere. Have you watched fractals before? They are beautiful. They have colors and movement. There is something fascinating about them. Sounds, colors, and movement are criteria of life. It is like watching television or wood burning in the fireplace.
The first fractals appeared in 1979 and that was only a beginning. They made humans discover nature’s architecture.
Benoit Mandelbrot discovered the fractals using a computer to show the connection between shapes and mathematical formulas.
Zn+1 = Zn2 + C. You start with one point, and the formula tells you where the next point will be, and the next, and the next… That takes thousands of operations that only a computer can do. We went even further. We made fractals in 3 dimensions and music fractals.
After this discovery, we found fractals everywhere. They are in cauliflowers, ferns, mountains, lighting, our circulatory system…. For more than 5000 years humans were eating cauliflowers, looking at ferns, climbing mountains and afraid of lightning and nobody realized that they were surrounded by fractals. That does not make them look very bright - Does it?
Fractals are an invitation to change the way we look at nature. They are uniting instead of dividing. After noticing something in Nature, we look at something similar elsewhere. After fractals in black and white and two dimensions, we made them in colors and three dimensions and discovered fractals in many places. It is like discovering a law of Nature that applies in many domains, like gravity.
The association of opposites
There is another way to look at nature that does not require computers. Instead of looking for similarity, we look for opposition. For instance, you can start with a circle and a straight line. One is infinite. The other is limited. It is an association of opposites.
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Our DNA is a combination of a circle and a straight line. That does not prove anything. It is only a clue.
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Our hands are the mirror image of one another. They are made to work together. This is an association of opposites.
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Our brain is associated with our nervous system. One brain inside bones with a spherical shape is associated with thousands of nerves, outside the bones with elongated shapes.
We are surrounded by associations of opposites like we are surrounded by fractals.
- Some opposites are more difficult to see. For instance, there is an association of opposites between the blood circulating in our veins and the leaves of a tree. The blood in our veins is red because it has iron that attracts the magnet. Red and green are complementary colors. The leaves of the trees have chlorophyll, which is green because it has magnesium, which repels the magnet. Our blood circulates. The chlorophyll does not. Blood is inside our body. Chlorophyll is on the surface of the plants...
One association of opposites does not mean much unless you can find many more…. Let’s keep digging.
- Ovule and spermatozoa. There is only one ovule, it moves slowly, it is circular, and it is one of the bigger cells of the body. There are millions of spermatozoa. Their shape is a straight line, and they move fast. They are very small. Ovule and spermatozoid are obviously made for each other.
- Body and soul. The outside of the body is connected to the center of the soul. This is what makes touching important and gives you goose bumps.
- Our life is a compromise between two extremes. We cannot survive alone. To live in society, we must abandon some of our freedom. In a democracy, the individual has all the rights but must delegate some of his rights to the government. Everybody must drive on the same side of the road. On the other hand, we want to preserve our freedom. We want to live the life of an individual but remain in society! We are looking for a compromise between two opposites.
-Our life is divided between time awake and time asleep. When awake, we are conscious of the material world. When asleep, we could be conscious of the soul world.
The life of a couple could also be a compromise between two opposites. Each one must renounce some of his freedom and respect the individuality of the other. To be able to ask any question and get a complete answer implies that you don’t ask questions that infringe on others’ freedom. Two people can be associated like two planets turning around each other. United by their distance.
- Our conscious mind is centered in the domain of experiments and science. Our unconscious mind is in the domain of feelings and direct knowledge. Men could have their center of gravity in the conscious mind. Women could have their center of gravity in the unconscious. Sexes are an association of opposites made to work together.
- It is by investigating the faraway planets that astronomers discovered the dark matter and dark energy that surround us.
- We spend most of our life being free inside limits.
- Here are some more examples: Attraction and Repulsion of magnets - Past and Future – Thinking and intuition....
If we are looking for associations of opposites, chances are that we will not find them. If we are open-minded without looking for them, we will see them everywhere. That means that we will find them with our intuition rather than our thinking.
The Fibonacci numbers:
If you can count, you can enjoy another way to see the world.
This is an introduction to creation. The Fibonacci numbers are 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,13, 21, 34, 55, 89…. 987, 1597, 2584 …...
You start with 0 and 1 and keep adding the last two numbers to get the next one. 0+1 = 1 and 1+1=2 and 2+1=3 and 34 + 55 = 89. What is interesting is that you find Fibonacci numbers all over the creation, like we can find fractals and the association of opposites.
You can find them in sunflowers, in the branching of trees, in pineapples, in the arrangement of the leaves around a stem, in pinecones. You will also find them in plants, fruits, in seashells, in broccoli, in the human body and even in galaxies.
There is more.
Dividing two successive Fibonacci numbers leads to the golden ratio 5/3 = 1.666 The higher the Fibonacci numbers, the more decimals you get for the golden ratio. 13/8 = 1.625 and 89/55 = 1.618. The further you go, the closer you get to the golden ratio 2584/1597 = 1.61803381 Artists (Salvador Dali) and architects (Le Corbusier) have used the golden ratio.
Search Google, Images, Fibonacci and you will not understand how the Homo sapiens could live on Earth for more than 200 000 years without seeing the Fibonacci numbers everywhere.
...and all the rest:
After the fractals and the association of opposites and the Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio you may wonder what else exists around Earth, waiting to be discovered. What we learn from fractals and association of opposites is that intuition is a better tool than thinking to investigate Nature. That may not seem to be very scientific, but who cares, as long as it works? What would you think of the idea that the golden ratio, the fractals, the association of opposite and gravity are different implementations of the same law of Nature?
