QUESTION6.com
The world we live in
19 - Many ways to look at the world
The fractals
Let us compare the complexity of nature with the possibilities of the human brain. There is a gap! A canyon! An abys! You cannot blame the Homo sapiens for trying to simplify. Their solution was to divide everything into smaller parts, assuming that smaller problems will be easier to solve. They had some success. Mother Nature was reduced to 100 atoms (give or take a few). Nature was reduced to a puzzle of which we knew the different parts. What a relief! The book of Nature may have many words, but we know the alphabet. The human brain had a chance to dominate the whole universe!
That did not last. It is good to know that water is made of oxygen and hydrogen. That does not mean that the cycle of water in nature is irrelevant. Instead of dividing the world into little pieces, we should try to unite.
We know of the water cycle and the carbon cycle. This is only a beginning. We are surrounded by many other cycles such as the hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, methane cycles. Since 1970 we have increased the methane concentration in the atmosphere by 160%. This increases the amount of ozone and contributes to global warming.
We also have the cycles of aluminum, arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, mercury, selenium, vanadium, zinc. Geologist are telling us about the rock cycle. We also have the marine biochemical cycles.
We are not a separate entity of planet earth. We are part of many cycles influencing our everyday lives.
There are many ways to look at nature. After finding something interesting, you can look for something similar elsewhere. Have you watched fractals? They are beautiful and you can find them everywhere. They have colors and movement. There is something fascinating about them. Sounds, colors, and movement are criteria of life. There is something in fractals that connects us to life. They also remind us that we are between the infinitely small and the infinitely large. It is an invitation to zoom-in to the atoms and zoom-out to the Milky Way and 2 trillion galaxies. We may be a very small part of the cosmos but we belong to something infinitely great.
Benoit Mandelbrot discovered the fractals by 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 several dimensions and music fractals.
After this discovery, we found fractals everywhere. They are in Algae, ferns, Blood vessels, mountains, clouds, DNA, lighting bolts, neurons, mountains, pineapples, broccoli, ferns, snowflakes, slime molds.
For thousands of years humans have been eating cauliflowers, looking at ferns, climbing mountains and afraid of lightning and nobody realized that they were surrounded by fractals. That does not make us look very bright - Does it?
Fractals are an invitation to change the way we look at nature. After noticing something in Nature, we search for something similar elsewhere. After fractals in black and white and two dimensions, we made them in colors and multi-dimensions. We discovered a law of Nature that applies all around us, like gravity. We are again in the position of our ancestors looking at fruit trees. That was the first step. The next one was to amplify the process and create agriculture. We should not wait a few thousands years to develop the possible uses of fractals.
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. The first time we were told that slime molds can solve complicated problems without a head and a brain we had the impression that Nature was using opposites ways to implement thinking on earth.
We know of the altruism of some species where individuals sacrifice their life for the survival of others. This is opposed to our idea of the individual fighting for himself, and the survival of the strongest. This association of opposites can be found in many different aspects. 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 and there are many more.
-
Our DNA is a combination of a circle and a straight line. That does not prove anything, but it is a clue.
-
Our hands are the mirror image of one another. They are made to work together.
-
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. Can you see 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 stays on the surface of the plants...
Let us 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 body comes with a set of sense organs. The soul does not. Sense organs are limited to the material world. The soul is not. 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. We need to belong to a society and follow its rules. On the other hand, we want to preserve our individual freedom. We are looking for a compromise between society and total freedom.
• 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.
• What we call freedom is often freedom inside limits.
• It is by investigating the faraway planets that astronomers discovered the dark matter and dark energy that surround us.
Here is the best example of association of opposites:
Dark energy made the space between galaxies expand for 13.8 billion years while gravity should make them collapse.
“The gods created the human species and cut it into two to separate the sexes”. The Greek mythology does not give us many details about the motivation of the gods, but it is consistent with the discoveries of our astronomers. There are two opposites forces dominating the universe. They are attraction and repulsion. Planets don’t go their separate ways. They are attracted to their sun. Electrons are attracted to the nucleus of the atom. Men and women are attracted to each other.
More examples: Attraction and Repulsion of magnets - Past and Future - Electricity and magnetism - Thinking and intuition, Electrons and positrons (the antimatter counterparts of electrons)….
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 intuition rather than thinking. Intuition unites. Thinking divides and we need both.
Another way to see the world: 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… 987+ 1597 = 2584. 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 the Fibonacci sequence 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 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 300 000 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?
