The hierarchy of shapes.
This page is about the order of creation, from the basic elements to the most complex combinations of these basic elements. It's not about "bigger things are made of smaller things". I call any combination a shape, no matter how simply or complex it is, and no matter at what level it is. I here write about an imaginary universe, while I actually want to describe our universe. The thing is; I don't know exactly what the basic elements are. So, this writing is about trying to understand the logic of the shapes in our universe, without using real numbers, and also without labeling everything with names.
|
Romanesco broccoli is an edible flower of the species
Brassica oleracea, and a variant form of cauliflower.
Levels of complexity.
Imagine the basic elements of an imaginary universe, level 1, being: A and B.
I think space and motion are the two basic elements of our universe, but I can't be sure.
A "C" isn't possible in this imaginary universe, but there's an incredible amount of A B present, and they may sometimes be combined.
The most simple shapes at level 2 are the combinations: AA, AB, BA, and BB.
The basic elements A and B can't be destroyed in this imaginary universe, but the shapes of level 2 can be destroyed, brought down to what they were made of: A and B.
What is a combination here? A combination is a more or less stable being together of more than one. Imagine B and B brought together really close, but they don't bound at all, not even slightly, then it would not be a combination, and that would have great consequences for all more complex combinations.
A nice though not perfect illustration of a combination is: A = water, and B = the waves on the water. On waves there can travel waves in all directions. Interference of two or more waves causes many different shapes of waves, including some rare freak waves. A freak wave is a giant peak in the water, where many waves come together, at one moment, at one spot, all with a large positive amplitude, to together cause one giant peak wave. But these waves in the water never last, so therefore it's not a good example.
A better illustration of a combination is an atom. An atom is a fairly low level shape though a pretty complex combination already. It contains a lot of energy in a small space (could an atom be created by a freak wave of sub atomic motions?). Most atoms have a very stable shape. They don't seem to lose any of their energy. I wonder what keeps all that energy together (a third basic element, or is it more like how a vortex stays together, swirling around a less pressure area?).
The next level of complexity are the 8 shapes which are a combination of 3 basic elements. Level 3: AAA, AAB, ABA, ABB, BAA, BAB, BBA, BBB.
And the next level, level 4:
AAAA, AAAB, AABA, AABB, ABAA, ABAB, ABBA, ABBB, BAAA, BAAB, BABA, BABB, BBAA, BBAB, BBBA, BBBB. (16 combinations of 4)
Is AA + AA the same as AAAA?
Not in this example. Although both are 4 A, they are bound differently.
A+A+A+A ≠ A+A+AA ≠ AA+AA ≠ A+AAA ≠ AAAA
All different combinations are unique.
Bound, Join, or not.
What will and will not bound on ANY level is determined by the nature of the basic elements, by A and B in this imaginary universe.
I'm not going to write down what the nature of A and B is, because I don't know, and it doesn't matter for this text. Point is the existence of just a few basic elements and their "nature" or "character" or "structure". God to me, equals the character of these basic elements.
Some combinations of shapes are more stable than others. Some "want" to bound and become like one, probably by sharing part of their structure. Some combinations of shapes are impossible: you can bring them together but they just won't bound.
Some combinations of shapes want to join, but will not bound, they "want" to be together, but not become as one entirely.
It's not a black or white thing. Some bounds and joints are stronger than others.
|
What are you taking about?
This talk about combinations of A and B is kind of abstract.
An atom is a pretty stable shape, a combinations of more simple shapes like: electrons, protons, neutrons. Atoms aren't the most simple shapes in the hierarchy of shapes, nor are electrons, protons, neutrons. What are the basic elements isn't exactly clear yet. The character of the basic elements and lowest level shapes is very important to discover, as they define the character of ALL more complex shapes, like you and me and the world we live in.
The whole chemistry thing is about the joining and bounding of atoms. Bound atoms are shapes we call molecules. In the hierarchy of shapes, molecules are at a higher level than atoms. Certain combinations of molecules join together and form stable shapes we call living cells. Biological living cells are at a higher level than molecules. The billions of cells in what we call our human body, are joint. People join together, live and work together, ..not always, but next to being individuals we often work together and accomplish things one individual couldn't. One of the things that working together has accomplished is technology; materials, tools, machines. Nobody knows exactly how all the stuff around us is made. A computer is among the most complex shapes humans have created. They are of a higher level then large groups of people, in the hierarchy of shapes. Take away the humans, and gone is the technology.
When truly autonomous robots are developed by us, something strange could happen: If they are so advanced that they can survive without humans, build and develop themselves, they would not only be higher in the hierarchy of shapes than people, they could also live independent of people. Similar steps have occurred all throughout the history: shapes creating other kinds of independent shapes.
|
12 Pollen Mix. Source: Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility
Destruction and Creation.
When all shapes are destroyed, only the basic elements survive. Was there was a very turbulent beginning in the history of this universe? In such energetic situation, shapes can't survive. In a less energetic situation, caused for example by expansion (the spreading of energy) more complex shapes can form and survive longer. In a calm situation, very complex shapes can form. In a frozen situation, shapes can't form, nor can't they be destroyed.
The higher levels are build up on lower levels. When for example all the level 14 shapes within a level 22 shape are destroyed, all shapes higher than level 14 will also be destroyed, but all the lower than level 14 shapes can survive. To destroy is easier than to create. Destruction is thereby more common then creation.
A solutions to kind of escape from destruction is for a shape to create a new shape, similar to how itself began. Reproduction. The whole love sex and children thing. An other option is to clone, a shape that can make an exact copy of itself, or more likely; a repaired copy. Shapes that can't reproduce or clone itself, or be created by an other shape, will be destroyed by the decay caused by the interaction with other shapes. Only the ones that have a solution will survive as a kind and be able to continue the road of creation.
The chance of a very high level shape being created suddenly by chance, is very very small, near to impossible. The road to very complex shapes is very likely to slowly go from simple to more complex. People wonder about how large steps in evolution occurred. Like the step from a soup of molecules to a single cell organism. I wonder about that anyhow (do you?). To say it came from an other planet or it was made by God is not a good answer, unless you want to stop thinking about it. The step is so large, like a city arising in a desert, just by coincidence. That's unbelievable. There must be steps in between or an other more complex shape that created it. But if an other shape created it, how did that shape came to be?
Enemies and Friends.
How about a period of hardly any "enemies" and lost of "friends". That would bring the chance of a complex shape created by chance up to a plausible level.
What is an enemy? Imagine two shapes. One being the combination AAB and one being ABA. Both are pretty stable, but when getting in close contact, they interact and result in AAB and AB and A. Then AAB is the enemy of ABA. Because when they interact, AAB survives and ABA is destroyed. That doesn't make AAB better or worse, it's just like that. If ABA is a vital part of a more complex shape, that more complex shape can't be created with much AAB around.
Friends. If ABA can bound with BBA, but only when AAA is in close contact also, than AAA is a friend of that creative process.
A shape can be an enemy and friend at the same time. It's relative and this enemy and friend part has nothing to do with good or bad.
Combinations and Chance.
Very simple shapes like the 4 combinations of level 2 (AA, AB, BA, BB) can arise easily by chance, in an energetic soup of A and B. But a join of two level 2 shapes, can occur only after the creation of the level 2 shapes, or simultaneous. The chance of simultaneous creation of a complex shape and all it's less complex shapes, is much smaller than growing from less to more complex. But not impossible. Could a single cell living organism have come to life by just random chance? Not likely.
|
Galaxies. Photo made with the Hubble Space Telescope Source: NASA
Not Random.
A universe that contains more than one type of basic element, has a natural tendency to some level of order. Like gravity in our universe. Gravity brings atoms together to from planets and stars. It separates the atoms according to weight: air, water, stone. People don't live at random locations in space, we usually live on the stone-air border, in the air part. The chance of a high level creation occurring is much higher than could be expected in a random chaos of basic soup. Like ice crystals, when water cools down, they arise.
More different higher levels.
If the amount of simple shapes is limited, there are more simple combinations than complex combinations. But there are much more different complex combinations possible than simple ones.
The quality of shapes.
Bigger or more complex isn't equal to better. Quality... what is quality? That can be very subjective. More objective would be to measure how pure the structure is, how few random elements it contains, how well it is organized. I wonder what shape the highest possible quality or level would be like. Should we strive to create that shape? If we can we'll probably do so, some day. We are curious, we boldly go where no human has gone before. Boldly or blindly, we usually have no clue where we are going.
So, what are the "holy" proportions, what is the exact character of "God"?
Yep, that's the question. Possibly the most important scientific question.
I think we can discover it.
Where can we find the right clues to the character of the basic elements?
We (well... not me personally) are working on "the theory of everything".
I think the circle is important, so: Pi. Remember it from high school? "The ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius."
The ratio: 3.14159265358979323846…
And Phi, "the golden ratio", the ratio that can be found in nature a lot. "a+b is to a as a is to b"
The ratio: 1.6180339887...
And Phi's Fibonacci sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, …
Maybe the powers of two, because cells multiply like that: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, ...
Maybe Marko Rodin's vortex-based mathematics?
Let's play around with circles/balls.
The results can be like "the flower of life" and such.
 
Probably most useful clues can be found in chemistry, the knowledge of how atoms and molecules are.
Giesbert Nijhuis
2009-01-24
|
 |
