THE HUMAN CONNECTION: Part II
(revised July, 2016)
JOHN A. GOWAN
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This paper has been translated into Ukrainian by Anna Matesh -
many thanks Anna! See: http://eustudiesweb.com/human-connection/
Abstract (from part I)
As Carl Sagan famously said, we are "star stuff" exploring the
stars. Life is the information pathway by which the universe
achieves consciousness and self-awareness, and begins to explore
itself, including evolving new modes of experience, creativity, and
beauty. In terms of creativity, humans represent a fractal iteration
of the creative energy of the Cosmos, as well as of its evolutionary
powers. Because the entire material universe devolves from light,
matter and life are a conserved form of the information content
latent in the energy of light, expressed primordially through the
broken symmetry of light - leading to our "matter-only" cosmos,
charge conservation, atoms, the Periodic Table, chemistry, biology,
and humanity. The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of
light (Noether's Theorem), and through these charges the
energy of light is transformed into the information content of the
world. Hence it is ultimately through the connection between light
and matter (atoms), charge conservation and symmetry conservation,
that humans retain their connection to the primordial creative
energies and information content of the universe (and the
multiverse). "We come trailing clouds of glory..."
(Wordsworth)
Shaman-Priest-Magician and
the Weak Force IVBs
In physics, it is the role of the weak force "Intermediate
Vector Bosons" ("IVBs" - the W, Z) to "marry" a "real" particle
with the appropriate alternative "virtual" charge carrier so that
a transformation of identity can take place. The alternative
charge carriers (leptons, neutrinos, and mesons) exist in the
"spirit world" of quantum physics, the Heisenberg/Dirac vacuum
"sea" of "virtual" particle-antiparticle pairs, which wink in and
out of existence continuously as they form, self-annihilate, and
form again. Essentially, the IVBs provide a bridge between the
4-dimensional "real" world and the 2-dimensional "virtual" world;
the real particle and virtual particle pairs meet on this IVB
bridge, where the particle receives from the virtual pair the
alternative charge carrier it needs for its transformation, then
returns to the real world with a new identity. (The IVBs can also
be seen as a bridge to the electroweak force unification symmetric
energy state, where particle identity exists at a generic rather
than a specific level.) The similarity of this process to the
trance possessions of shamans and mediums and their purported
journeys to the "spirit world" to effect healing or other
transformations is evident. The shaman or medium is in the
specialized, high energy role of the IVBs, providing a bridge
between the real and the spirit world of "virtual" or unmanifest
beings. (For a discussion of the physics of the weak force, see: "The "W" IVB and the Weak Force Mechanism"
and "The Higgs Boson and the Weak Force
IVBs".)
In the human world, the priest, shaman, or medium provides a
bridge between ordinary people and the spirit world. It is the
role of the priest, shaman, or medium to ensure that proper
rituals are followed, so the exchanges can occur and the
transformations take place; this is the analog of the IVB insuring
that the proper quantum rules are followed, while it provides the
special high energy, dense metric in which the joining of the
virtual and real worlds can take place. When the ceremony is over,
the people and the spirits return to their respective worlds, both
transformed. (The human body functions as a temporary, physical,
alternative charge carrier for individual "identity", of which the
"soul" is the presumed immortal or spiritual component.) The
church is always a special "holy" place, where the "wholeness" of
life is celebrated, that is, where the spiritual realm is reunited
with the physical, the "virtual" or 2-dimensional realm is united
with "real" or 4-dimensional particles and people. In some sense
the church (building as well as institution) acts as the massive
IVB, producing a "special metric" or "holy space" in which the
manifest and unmanifest worlds can meet and effect transformations
of identity and/or charge (for example, "born again").
The services of the priest are most necessary when identity
transformations are occurring between this and the spirit world,
such as at birth (baptism), marriage, and death. The joining of
people in marriage requires the services of the priest because it
is a genuine transformation of identity: names are changed,
families are joined, and formal preparations are made for the
conception of new lives and identities. Marriages are usually
declared to be consummated in the spirit world as well as in the
material world ("What God has joined together...").
The archetypal magic trick is to vanish or create a real item -
"now you see it, now you don't". The rabbit comes out of the hat
and disappears again. The quarter disappears from the hand and
reappears behind the ear. This is also nature's ultimate magic
trick - the creation (or transformation) of real particles from
light or virtual reality, and their disappearance or return into
the "vacuum" (whether elementary particles or people: life and
death). This is likewise the ultimate magic of the shaman, the
creation (for example) of prey animals for the hunter by
intercession with the spirit world through the use of alternative
identity carriers, in this case symbolic drawings and sculptures
which are analogous to "animal neutrinos" (alternative identity
carriers) or "souls". In the church today, which is our modern
dimly lit "magic cave" with its priest/shaman, we find iconic art
with a very similar "miraculous" purpose, the intercession with
the spirit world through alternative identity carriers embodied as
symbolic or representational icons, talismans, figures, etc., and
of course the ultimate church "miracle", the transformation of the
wine and wafers via the mediation of the priest with a virtual
spirit world.
The Fractal
Connection
As Chardin so eloquently realized, life is the whole rationale,
purpose, and goal of the Cosmos; that is why life feels so
natural, right, and good to us, and why the Universe appears to be
so beautiful and friendly (the "Anthropic Universe"). We belong
here, the Universe exists for us and wants our awareness,
intelligence, creativity, and capacity to experience, appreciate,
and create beauty. The production of life from inanimate matter is
the great miracle and sacred mystery of the Universe. The energy
and information contained in every atom is the Divine Presence.
Every religion however constituted celebrates the experience of
life and its ultimate triumph - everywhere and always - over
death. As the patient eons turn, the creation of the elements in
the stellar forges of the galaxies provides a firm foundation for
the information age that emerges as a dominant and fertile
parameter from the primordial chaos of raw energy, spacetime,
matter, charge, and field vector. It is no wonder that when life
achieved the capacity for self-contemplation, it declared itself a
miracle and created religion to sanctify and celebrate itself, the
Life Force, and the Information content (including Natural Law) of
the Universe.
Among the many great wonders of our existence that we might
mention, at least six stand out: 1) the "Big Bang" creation of our
life-friendly universe; 2) the evolution of the planets, stars,
and galaxies; 3) the evolution of the atoms and elements; 4) the
evolution of life; 5) the evolution of humans; 6) the evolution of
symbolic thought - producing language, spiritual awareness,
religion, the arts, sciences, and technology, and the recognition
of Natural Law. While it may "take a village to raise a child", it
takes the entire universe to create one: the size and complexity
of the universe measures both the difficulty and the significance
of that task.
From the dust of the Earth, mixed with water and energized by
the Sun, life arose on this planet as an inevitable expression of
the information content and fractal form of matter (if life is the
rationale for the Cosmos then life must also be inevitable). In "Nature's Fractal Pathway" (and "Table") I have documented the fractal
nature of the information pattern of life, specifically DNA, as
part of a nested pattern of similar forms, beginning with the
three families of four elementary particles produced during the
"Big Bang", carried through the nuclear, atomic, molecular, and
chemical levels of structure to the (biological) nuclear material
of reproducing, living systems. The pattern is repeated at largest
scale in astrophysical processes, bodies, and systems of stars and
galaxies. Life is one expression of a universal fractal pattern
which appears on every natural scale in a 4x3 and 4x4 form. The
pattern occurs extensively as well in human thought concerning the
form of the Cosmos, in our religions, legends of creation, mystic
and occult systems, and scientific cosmologies. We have two
premier examples of ancient systems of prognostication, both still
in use after more than two millennia, Astrology and the I Ching,
representing intuitively derived "world orders" rather than
specific cosmologies or religions. Both are perfect examples of
the universal 4x3 fractal pattern, one Eastern, one Western, both
independently derived. Western religion and mythologies are
replete with the 4x3 pattern, which is also found in Buddhist and
Hindu philosophy; the pattern recurs in minor religions around the
world. The fractal pattern of life and human thought is another
link between the system of matter, humanity, and the Cosmos: "as
above, so below". The intersection of the universal 4x3 fractal
algorithm with the replicating molecule RNA-DNA is of the utmost
significance for the origin and abundance of life in the Universe.
(See: "Newton and Darwin: The Origin and
Abundance of Life in the Cosmos".)
One of my favorite stories in the history of science is that of
the discovery of the transmission of electromagnetic waves by the
great German physicist Heinrich Hertz. Hertz knew how to produce
electromagnetic waves, but not how to demonstrate their
transmission through space and reception at a distant location. In
a flash of insight, he realized that the receiver must be built in
the same form as the sender. Thanks to this intuition, Hertz
became the first to demonstrate the wireless transmission of what
we today call radio waves. This principle of the isomorphic,
resonant, symmetric (fractal) form of the sender and receiver of
energy supplies us with the necessary clue to understand one of
the most enigmatic statements in the Bible - the creation of man
in God's own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). This is an
intuitive recognition and statement of the General Systemic or
Fractal nature of the Cosmos, leading us directly to an
understanding of the reason for the fractal nature of the
Universe: its nested, isometric form is the functional basis of
its resonant connectivity, allowing the Cosmos to communicate with
itself, transmitting energy and information to all its parts,
regardless of distance, time, or scale. This leads us to the
question: has God created us in His image, or have we created God
in ours? In a thoroughly fractal Universe, are these even
different questions? How are we to know the dancer from the dance?
(See: "The Information Pathway"; "The Information Ladder"; and "The Fractal
Organization of Nature" (table).)
The
Miracle of our Universe
John A. Gowan Jan., 2014
Perhaps the most astonishing thing modern physics has revealed to us
is that the world is built from the simplest of ingredients. How do
we get from a proton, neutron, electron, and neutrino to a Beethoven
symphony? But given enough time, Nature somehow evolves even
this emergent miracle.
The "Big Bang" begins with pure electromagnetic energy (light), and
a few conservation laws - the conservation of energy/entropy
(Clausius, Boltzman); symmetry/charge (Noether); and
causality/information (Einstein - velocity "c"). These 3 linked
couplets of physical law are themselves linked within thermodynamic,
electromagnetic, quantum, and relativity theory, and they include an
emergent, crucially important 4th linked couplet, spacetime and
gravity/inertia (Einstein). It is this combination of positive
electromagnetic energy, negative gravitational energy, conservation
law, and information which builds our universe. Creation begins with
the simplest of blind forces, the attractive/repulsive forces of
electromagnetism, and the attractive-only forces of gravitation and
the color charges of the strong force. The neutrinos act as an
information-only component of this primordial "soup", distinguishing
among leptonic "flavors", and separating matter from antimatter.
Of course, even pure light is far from simple: the rainbow tells us
that much. But modern physics informs us that light not only has
multiple frequencies, it contains "virtual particles" (a "bound"
or (potentially) "massive" alternative form of electromagnetic
energy), composed of matter-antimatter particle pairs of specific
kinds of leptons and hadrons (whose ultimate
origin, like that of light itself, remains mysterious). The
hadrons in turn are composed of quarks and a confining gluon field,
so as it turns out, light is not simple at all, it contains hidden
within itself a fantastic amount of information mostly in the form
of virtual particles, a portion of which are made manifest during
the "Big Bang" or "Creation Event" (presumably due to the asymmetric weak force decay of electrically
neutral leptoquarks). It is this information which will, over
evolutionary time, under the impetus of energy and entropy, and with
the constraint of conservation law, build all the complexity of our
universe, even including the emergent genius of Beethoven and his
Ninth Symphony.
Homer's "war for beauty" (for Helen) seems to me a correlate of the
principle of symmetry/charge conservation in modern physics. Even in
the simple snowflake we see the connection between symmetry and
beauty. In physics, symmetry conservation is forcefully effected
through charge conservation (in particles) and inertial force (in
spacetime), establishing the connection between beauty (symmetry)
and truth (conservation), as intuited by Keats and proved mathematically by Noether. In
biology, the "war for beauty" takes place explicitly in competition
between (for one example) the male birds of paradise, enticing
females to choose the most handsome among them. In our own species,
this principle (sexual selection) has transformed prehistoric apes
into modern supermodels - and likewise transformed our brains in a
parallel and entrained process. In music also, we choose the best
composers (or at least we used to), according to similar aesthetic
principles - principles of harmony which, as discovered by
Pythagoras, translate into mathematical harmony as well - and, as
revealed by quantum mechanics, extend to the resonant harmonics of
electron shell frequencies.
Is the evolution of the universe, from simple energetic principles
of attraction vs repulsion, into human beings, also a blind process,
or is it in any sense guided? Well, it is obviously guided by
physical conservation law, and by the information inherent in the
primordial particles and "quark soup" (Gamow's "Ylem"). Because
symmetry conservation is one of these fundamental guiding principles
(manifest primitively as charge conservation), we end in biology
with beautiful creatures who recognize, express, and value beauty.
There is also a fractal pattern driven by a 4x3 algorithm operating within the
evolutionary process, beginning with the quarks and ending with our
genetic code. Hence we are created in the image and likeness of a
universal conservation/information/fractal/resonance principle - and
if you want to call that "God" I will not object, but suggest that
you must probably add the "Multiverse" to your equation.
Breaking the
primordial symmetry of light and its particle-antiparticle pairs
(during the "Big Bang" or "Creation Event"): (added July, 2014)
Neutrinos and the "Identity" charges
they carry form and conserve our personal connection to the
Cosmos, beginning with each and every elementary particle. Neutrinos
are the physical analog of the metaphysical "soul" - the identity
component and quantum of the information field, or information
parameter, which constitutes our personal connection to the Cosmos -
indeed, the personal connection to the Cosmos of every
elementary particle of matter. Creation is
not possible without the "Identity" charge of the neutrino, as
it provides an alternative charge carrier to replace the
elementary particle's actual antimatter partner - which would of
course cause an annihilation reaction if it was itself used to
balance charges. Such annihilation reactions would return all
elementary particles and their antimatter partners to the photons
which created them, leaving the symmetry of light and its
matter-antimatter particle pairs (whether virtual or real) unbroken.
(The primordial symmetry of light must be broken before information
of any kind can manifest - typically in the form of the charges of
elementary particles - which we have identified as "the symmetry
debts of light", acknowledging "Noether's
Theorem".) The symmetry debt of missing antimatter - the
"Great Asymmetry" of our "matter-only" universe - is the source of
all our woe: mass, charge, gravity, time, causality. Hence it is the
neutrino, the least of all particles, which carries the most
important of all charges: neutrino "identity" charge allows single,
massive elementary particles to manifest without their antimatter
annihilation partners (presumably during the primordial asymmetric
decays of electrically neutral
"leptoquarks" during the "Big Bang"), while charge
conservation allows these particles to wander the vast entropic
conservation domain of spacetime without becoming lost.
Synopsis of the Cosmic System
(July 2014)
Matter - Energy - Life: (
Teilhard de
Chardin)
Bound electromagnetic energy (atomic matter) -
free electromagnetic energy (light) - Information (periodic
table): ("
Tetrahedron Model")
This "Cosmic Trinity" of free vs bound forms of electromagnetic
energy plus the information contained in the Periodic Table of
the Elements (information revealed by
weak
force symmetry-breaking during the "Big Bang") is a
succinct formulation of the basic ingredients (ontology) of our
Cosmos.
To these basic constituents, we need to add preexisting physical
constants (derived from the Multiverse - such as the value of
"c"), and post-existing evolutionary forces (Darwinian Natural
Selection). The Four Charges (electric, color, identity,
location) and the Four Forces (electromagnetic, strong, weak,
gravity) they create must also be considered. Finally,
conservation laws pertaining to the long-range spacetime and
short-range particle forces are required to control the
unfolding dynamic of the Cosmos, which
is driven by three
primordial and
interrelated forms of entropy (the intrinsic dimensional
motions of
light, time, and gravity).
Chief among these conservation laws are Energy, Symmetry, and
Causality-Information, as set forth in the "
Tetrahedron Model", as well as the
"Standard Model" of particle physics. Dynamical theories
of the forces developed by Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein (among
others), and quantum mechanics, are involved in regulating the
expanding Cosmos and its material content.
Transformations between free and bound electromagnetic energy
states (light vs matter) account for the
major charges and forces of physics:
they are the
symmetry debts of light
and the
local gauge symmetry forces
(field vectors of the forces) which maintain the values of these
charges despite local conditions of relative motion and variable
metric fields. The physical "agenda" of the Cosmos is to return
its asymmetric bound form of electromagnetic energy (atomic
matter) to its original symmetric form (light), in obedience to
Noether's Theorem. This it accomplishes
through the conversion of mass to light in stars, supernovas,
quasars, and finally and completely, via the "Hawking radiation"
of black holes. Life is the beneficiary of the free energy
released during this conversion process. (See: "
The Tetrahedron Model".)
The
meaning of our Cosmos appears to
be an anthropomorphic ("human life-friendly") exploration by the
energy of the Multiverse of its information potential, including
the extent of its creative powers and capacity for beauty,
culminating (locally) in humanity. Our universe is created
from/by the Multiverse, which thus becomes the mysterious and
sacred "First Cause". God rules an Empire, not just a
Kingdom.
The creative pathway
of our Cosmos is apparently a
fractal
iteration/evolution of ever more complex information
systems, interactive with and d
erived
from one another. The connection between the abiotic and
biotic information systems is through the electron shells of
carbon and the reproductive capacity of molecular RNA/DNA. A
4x3 fractal algorithm is operative,
such that the generation of
life in not a
random event. Once a reproducing molecule in achieved,
Darwinian evolution takes over and the rest, as they say, is
history. Life is probably commonplace in the Cosmos, although
technologically sophisticated life may be rare. In any case,
interaction
between such advanced life forms appears to be extremely
unlikely due to the
tremendous scale of
spacetime.
(Added July 2014)
Matter - Energy - Life
(
Teilhard
de Chardin)
Bound electromagnetic energy (atomic matter) - free
electromagnetic energy (light) - Information ("
Tetrahedron
Model")
"Information" is the connecting idea between
life
and
spirit - between science (biology) and religion
(metaphysics). Princeton physicist John Archibald Wheeler
famously characterized the ontological role of information: "it
from bit".
"Spirit in nature" is the "information" content of nature, as
found in the great repository of the 92 elements of the Periodic
Table, and elaborated by the living, reproducing molecules of
RNA/DNA in biological organisms. While the ultimate source of
information is the Multiverse (the scientific stand-in for
"God"), in our cosmos information begins with the asymmetric
creation of matter via
weak force
symmetry-breaking during the "Big Bang". Antimatter is
annihilated, while a residue of matter composed mostly of
hydrogen and helium atoms is left to form our stars and
galaxies. Information creation continues in stars and supernovas
through the creation of all 92 natural elements (following a 4x3
fractal pattern - as embodied in the "alpha particle" (helium
nucleus), the "brick" or building block of the
nucleosynthetic pathway).
We revere the sun and stars not only for their heat and light,
but because they are creators (factories) of information.
Information is stored in atoms primarily as charge and spin in
two linked systems: 1) as orbital parameters of the electron
shells (low energy information useful to life); 2) the
configurations of its nuclear constituents (protons and neutrons
- high energy information useful to stars). Even the geometry
and shape of large molecules may contain biologically
significant information (as in the proteins). The concept of
"Information" allows us to produce a General Systems bridge
between a religious/spiritual vs a scientific/material view of
the Cosmos.
Teilhard de Chardin was the great
expositor of this view, although he did not use the concept of
"Information" (he used "spirit" instead), as "information" was
only just coming into general use as a recognized physical
parameter during his lifetime.
What connects life and information? Life begins and evolves from
information contained in specific molecular forms (combinations)
- RNA/DNA - that "know how" to reproduce and maintain
themselves, and successfully compete with other living forms
(even those of its own kind), retaining this information for its
own use and passing it on to its offspring. While these complex
chemical systems begin as purely "mechanical" forms of
information replication, storage, and processing, competition
and evolution (even at the molecular level of organized chemical
systems) soon favor "individuals" (specific molecular
combinations) with an aggressive "personal" agenda for survival
and reproduction - resulting in "self-interest", "identity", and
"personality" - even in very early living systems. (Later,
social organisms will find they must adhere to a more altruistic
behavior.) (See: "
The Fractal
Organization of Nature".)
A 4x3 fractal algorithm is involved in the evolution of
information, from helium to carbon to DNA to the genetic coding
for the amino acids of proteins, seamlessly connecting the
atomic and biologic realms. Finally, we note that the
astonishing Biblical assertion that Man is created "in the image
and likeness" of God, is best understood as a statement of the
fractal organization of the Cosmos from top to bottom. (See: "
Nature's Fractal Pathway"; See: "
Newton, Darwin, and the Abundance of Life
in the Cosmos".)
The universe explores, knows, and enlarges itself through the "
Information Pathway"
of life and humanity. Our role is to help the universe
understand and appreciate itself, and develop its creative
powers, productions, and expressions of beauty.
Chardin
- "Inner" vs "Outer" realm of atoms = information/spirit vs
force or energy field. What Chardin referred to as the "inner"
essence of the atomic world we would refer to as the
"information" content of atoms. It is this information content
that eventually produces the emergent property "Life". In
religious terms, we might identify information with the "Holy
Spirit" and the information content of humanity as the "Divine
Essence" of humanity ("God incarnate").
Chardin saw man as the natural culmination of evolution. Man is
necessary to understand, explain, and control evolution - as
well as to see and review its whole history in the fossil
record. Man's control of evolution is the fractal iteration that
demonstrates the end of one fractal cycle and the beginning of
another in the physical world - natural selection giving way to
artificial selection of various sorts - not only plant and
animal breeding but genetic manipulation via gene spicing, etc.
From physical genetics/genes to the abstract theory of genetics
and human control of genetic evolution.
The most amazing emergent phenomenon is human consciousness and
creativity. But all life is an emergent phenomenon. What is an
emergent phenomenon? Look in the mirror. You are "star stuff",
you are composed of trillions of cells, myriad species of
bacteria, multiple organ and sensory systems of great
sophistication (although you lack one-half of a complete
reproductive system), you encompass incredibly complex
biochemical pathways and mechanisms, and yet (if you are a
normal, healthy individual) you have a single integrated body,
identity, personality, agenda, and action.
Emergent phenomenon are exclusively a characteristic of the
information domain. Man is successful to the extent that he
recognizes and utilizes the information content of Nature
("Science").
Beethoven (and other geniuses) are emergent phenomena of the
human species and human social organization (human level of
natural organization). Human intellectual abstract mental
activity and creativity is an emergent phenomenon of the human
brain - language, art, science, religion, etc. Mind is an
emergent phenomenon of brain.
The atom, composed of a linked system of electron shells and
nuclear particles, presents a most remarkable example of
hierarchical information domains, the nucleus containing information
useful to stars and the process of element-building, the electron
shells containing information useful to biology and the process of
species-building. Thus are the planetary and celestial domains
united from the beginning by the information architecture of their
constituent particles: the Microphysical, Biophysical, and
Astrophysical realms of physical reality. Human consciousness adds
an emergent 4th domain: the Metaphysical. (See: "The Fractal Organization of Nature".)
There is a spiritual/physical Platonic duality operating in the
universe. In physics it manifests as the "virtual" particle vs
"real" particle duality, and additionally in my work as the
principle (derived from Noether's Theorem) that the charges of
matter are the symmetry debts of light.
I think of God as the Principle of Creativity and Life in the
cosmos, containing all forms of energy and information, utterly
eternal and conserved, manifesting through beauty, natural law, the
periodic table of the elements, the fractal organization of nature,
and quite probably the "Multiverse". Humans have an inborn
appreciation for beauty and the spiritual realm - due to the
abstracting ability of our highly evolved brains.
The universe is the body of God and natural law is God's law. God is
in every atom of the cosmos and the void between. Humans are, like
all other life forms, children of the universe. Our role, unique on
earth, is to carry forward, expanding and enlarging, the creative
activity of God into new realms and dimensions (art, science,
technology, information, biology, evolution, space travel, etc.).
Through mental creativity, humans distinguish themselves from the
animals and become God-like. Humans therefore represent a new
(symbolic, intellectual) fractal iteration or domain of creative
activity, manifesting through the abstracting ability of our minds.
For example, almost every creative act of nature has been
copied and enlarged by humanity - from the creation of elements to
the creation of species, including the creation of society, culture,
language, and formal moral code. And - uniquely again - we are
becoming citizens of our solar system (perhaps eventually of our
galaxy) through our space programs.
The innovative human is indeed a true child of God - created
(evolved) in the "image and likeness" - at least in the sense of
fractal resonance. We have become the means by which the universe
knows itself, and rises to self-consciousness.
Religious Symbology:
Several times a year when visiting my son and his family, I attend
Sunday services at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension
in Oakland, California. This church uses a marvelous variation of
the common Christian Cross symbol, one that features three circles
or spheres on each of the four ends of the cross, converting the
usual simple orthogonal cross symbol into a more complex but
nevertheless universal 4x3 General Systems symbol (see figure
below). This emblem now has a scientific interpretation in addition
to the usual religious one (of the Son embedded in the Trinity): to
the eye of the astrophysicist, this is indeed a "sun" symbol
representing four protons, each composed of three quarks, converting
to an "alpha particle", or helium nucleus - the process of solar
hydrogen fusion, the first step up the nucleosynthetic
pathway toward carbon and the complete Periodic Table of the
elements. The combining of the religious and scientific
interpretations of this symbol is philosophically interesting, as it
continues a long tradition of conflating pagan sun worship with
Christianity (indeed, Christ has always been identified with
"light"). Furthermore, we know that this first step along the
"Information Pathway" is necessary to all the others that follow -
the alpha particle is the nuclear "brick" used to build carbon and
all the heavy elements; from carbon and the periodic table we pass
to biological life forms; and eventually through evolutionary time
humanity emerges. Obviously, Christ cannot appear in human form
until humanity itself is evolved; hence in Christian religious
terms, the fusion process that fuels the sun is not just the first
step along a universal Information Pathway,
but also the first step in the long evolutionary upward climb toward
life, humanity, spiritual awareness, Christ, and finally, the social
expression of his namesake religion. This is a typical example of
General Systems symbology working on, cross-referencing, and
illuminating multiple information domains and significance levels
simultaneously. I don't know how ancient the Orthodox cross symbol
is, but one could make the case that the solar hydrogen fusion
process had been intuitively grasped - quarks and all - long before
science explained its detail.
Stewart C. Dodd's 4x4
Mathematical General System Matrix
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin : The Phenomenon of
Man. French: Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1955. English: Harper
and Row, New York, 1959
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