Duality via a view of Symmetry

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two. 

- Gautama Buddha.

The numerical system is an amazing medium for the expression of reality. Numbers are remarkably congruent in translating the behavior of nature into a format that the mind can easily process for comprehension. The great device produced by Cartesian philosophy was the rigid grid of regularity, which could be superimposed over nature's curves and crevices to transform them into mathematical representations of some non-deified Order. This important historical development certainly made reality significantly palatable for the mind to grasp, without having the need to invoke complex feats of cryptic computation. At least for a while. It would take about another 300 years (and the invention of modern computers) for Benoit Mandelbrot to come along and reveal the squiggly infinity hidden in nature by transforming it into fractal dimensions on a computer screen. 

                   

Complex mathematics apart, the fundamental truth about Nature appears to be encoded in something relatively simple - duality. This property of nature can be illustrated through her many traits, which are observable in myriad natural phenomena. Around 460 BC, Democritus, the laughing philosopher, postulated that all matter is made up of indivisible particles called atoms. These atoms were later discovered to be composed of a finely tuned relationship between the positively charged  protons in the nucleus and the negatively charged electrons orbiting around it. Even though by the late 19th century it was determined that the atom was not indivisible as previously thought, the presence of electric charge, in terms of positive and negative polarities, had already unleashed the magical powers of electricity - the basic foundation of inventions to come. 

                Chiral molecules, sinister and dexter enantiomers with cis/trans type of configurations, optical isomers and zwitterionic forces, are symmetry motifs that form the foundation of some extremely potent chemistry. In biology, symmetry is evident in the complimentary properties of nucleotides in the DNA molecule. Adenine always pairs with Thymine and Cytosine always pairs with Guanine. Chromosomes usually come in pairs. Sex evolves primarily through the coupling between the male and female counterparts of a species - at all levels of anatomy, physiology, and psychology. There is a fine balance between apoptosis or programmed cell death, and cell proliferation, which is crucial for the sculpting of tissues and organs during embryonic development. 

                  

Meanwhile, to make matter more complicated the particle-wave duality pervades throughout the material universe, including light. Deeper dives into matters of matter in the late 20th and early 21st century, further exposed the tumultous tapestries of strings and super-symmetries that are thought to compose the basic fabric of the universe. The ancient symbolisms of yin-yang, the ‪Ardhanarishvara‬ dance between the feminine and masculine energies of the universe, the charming, and UP and DOWN flavors of quarks and antiquarks, the rising crests and dipping waves of unobservable uncertainties, were all suddenly integrated into a semiotic soup of quantum mechanics. Thankfully, these paradoxes of reality have some how found solace in terms of the complimentarity perspective. Nevertheless, the conundrums of continuity constantly continue and for ever. Space and Time, are supposedly two sides, of the same coin. 

              

Even our personalities are split between the left and right brained thinkers, the musicians and the logicians, the mathematicians and the wordsmiths, the abstract and the detailed, the scientists and the artists. Political parties segregate into polar world-views. Psychologists split between Jungians and Freudians. Reductionism thrives on the opposite side of the spectrum of Holism. 

              There is a past and a future. There is day and night. There is the Self and the Other. The black and white checkerboard of reality concatenates endlessly into greying areas of strings and SUSY. How then, can there be Symmetry without Duality? There is something strangely heartening about this particular complimentarity. Images invert to reveal the negativity situated so perfectly within the picture of reality. 

            

"Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things." - Heraclitus, (the crying philosopher)

On the origin of origins...

The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA.
Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.
- Lewis Thomas

Information in Biology can be expressed in many ways, of which one of the simplest is in terms of DNA - the apothegmatic code of life. The familiar serpentine image of the spiraling double helix is a subject of much myth and mystery. It is also the centerpiece in the great puzzle of biology. Genes, genomes, and chromosomes are some of the fundamental features of form and function arising from the endless sequential tapestry of the DNA molecule. It is as if the entire hyper-structure of life on the planet is a manifestation of some musical form emerging out of the fecund potentialities of the cosmic background.  

             Repeating sequences (A, T, G, and C) of chemical motifs called nucleotides have, over a very large period of time, generated an astronomical variety of living systems. Accurately estimating the global census of all life on earth is a dizzying feat of taxonomical data collection. An astounding variety of shapes, sizes, colors, textures, tastes, smells, and sounds account for the myriad complexity of life forms found on earth. Even from a reductionist perspective, the immense intricacy of biophysical, molecular, and cellular details accommodated by living matter is absolutely breathtaking. And this is not to say that non-living matter is less complex in any way. After all, it is the apparently lifeless electrons surrounding the portent nucleus, which impart the much needed chemical proclivity for atoms to form molecules in the first place. 

  

              The most rudimentary ingredient of matter essential for terrestrial life to emerge is of course the planet itself, which was formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The occurrence of this event in the history of the solar system is a significant point in the emergence of life as we know it. Everything that superseded after this event is comparable only to other natural phenomena that we are familiar with; such as the sprouting of a stem from a seed, buried in the soil, watered by the rains and energized by the photonic energy of the Sun. It may take a few years for the little plant to grow into a full tree, which would bear flowers, fruits, and more seeds, but for some imaginary observer, who has no concept of how this works, and has never witnessed the growth of trees from seeds, it would be an imaginably complicated task to anticipate the unfolding of the entire process of development. 

              Our situation, when working out the origins of life on earth, is sightly more complex than this hypothetical observer. It may not be a coincidence therefore, that the reiterative bifurcating pattern of the Tree of Life is essentially similar to that of any other tree. This of course brings us to the paramount issue regarding the important role of trees themselves in sustaining the delicate balance of life on earth. 

Darwin's first sketch of the Tree of Life.

I speak for the trees! Let them grow! Let them grow!

- The Lorax.

Tesla Recoil

Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them. - Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 - 7 January 1943).

He was the champion of the invisible forces of nature. He dwelled in the mysteries from where the logical and rational prowess of science emerged, leaving behind trails of abysmal wonder. Beyond, hovered the magnificent backdrop of oceanic infinitude - a buzzing pleroma of activity in an altogether strange realm of nature. 

              Imagination appears to form a link with these hidden dimensions, which exist beyond the default constrains imposed on ordinary levels of consciousness. Indeed, human imagination connects the mind to the very edge of observable reality. At this point there are few who make the choice to dive into the eternally fluctuating yonder. Fear is but natural. After all a vast terrain of uncertainty looms in the great lofty depths of the Unknown.  

             Information and Entropy play puzzling tricks on the minds of those who venture to explore deeper, question further, and think wilder. Only a few manage to walk the fine line between insanity and the profound vistas of kaleidoscopic realities, spread out so charmingly by the alluring Natura. 

Nikola Tesla was amongst the brave who precociously managed to bring back precious gems of genius from journeys embarked upon into the subtle, hidden, and articulately labyrinthine logos of nature. The ideas that developed in Tesla's mind embodied his inventions with the uncanny impetus of Space. He often emphasized with great passion that emptiness was pregnant with energy and a fertile source of infinite potentialities. Here is an example of what this means in his own words:

"A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes in Nature."

The life of this enigmatic personality is a message that still lives on through his legend. He probably epitomized the image of the mad-scientist. He rummaged in the contrasting and slippery regions of science and spirituality to bring about fantastic designs of instrumentation to life. He conjured images of machines that would plug into the omnipresent energy of the universe and forever solve humanity's problems of perpetual paucity and avarice. He used to say that our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world. 

               

In a fittingly strange way the circumstances in which Tesla was born somehow heralded the ineffable synchronicity underlying the unfolding of such an extraordinary life. Tesla was born 156 years ago, on a midnight while heavy lightening and thunder struck outside in the Serbian skies.

"He'll be a child of the storm," said the midwife who assisted with his birth. 

His mother replied, "No, of light."