Binary code of the Universe and symmetric languages
Founded by the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras sacred-mathematical cult One of the main practices was the religious worship of numbers. The Pythagoreans treated two numbers with special trepidation: one and two. The one symbolized the internal unity of all things, and the two was identified with the division of the world into opposites.
In the modern world, this duality of opposites underlies all computing: computers operate on the basis of binary code – long sequences of zeros and ones, some of which encode data, and some of which encode the executing program. But few people realize that in addition to computer technology, duality plays a fundamental role in the very nature of the Universe.
Duality
Most attention is paid to the role of duality in nature in Eastern philosophies, especially in Buddhism and its related Hindu Advaita Vedanta. In Buddhism, the world is considered to be a creation of our mind. The two main functions of the mind are the discrimination of entities and the construction of abstractions based on them. According to the Buddhist doctrine of dependent arising, as soon as our mind discerns an entity, its exact opposite immediately arises. For example, as soon as we highlight red among the colors available to our perception, then automatically we also highlight everything that is not red. As soon as A appears, NOT-A appears, and immediately from these opposites our mind begins to build concepts and abstractions.
Even the two main functions of the mind themselves, perception (perception/discrimination of entities) and concept (construction of abstractions), represent a kind of symmetry. In his essay entitled “The Doors of Perception,” the English writer Aldous Huxley reflects on how concepts are so powerful in our thinking that we forget what lies behind them and can only return to pure perception through a change in our brain chemistry:
For what seemed an unimaginably long time, I looked, not knowing and not even wanting to know what it was that I was encountering. At any other time I would have seen a chair streaked with alternate light and shadow. Today, perception has swallowed up the concept. I was so completely absorbed by this spectacle, so amazed by what I saw, that I could perceive nothing more. Garden furniture, slats, sunlight, shade – they were all no more than names and concepts, simple verbalizations for utilitarian or scientific purposes after the event. The event itself was this alternation of azure stove fireboxes, separated by thickets of unimaginable gentian.
And suddenly I had the feeling that I could understand what it was like to be mad. Schizophrenia has its heavens as well as its hells and purgatories; I remember what an old friend of mine, deceased for many years, told me about his crazy wife. Once, in the early stages of the disease, when she still had intervals of clarity, he came to her in the hospital to talk about children. She listened to him for a moment and then interrupted. How could he waste his time on a couple of absent children when the only thing that mattered here and now was the ineffable beauty of the patterns he made with his brown tweed jacket whenever he moved his hands?
The interdependent emergence of opposites leads to symmetries, which in turn underlie the entire universe. In 1915, German mathematician Emmy Noether provedthat all conservation laws in physics directly follow from the symmetries of physical systems.
Symmetries
If we look at the reality around us, we will see that the world is full of duality. In space, the left is symmetrical to the right, the top is symmetrical to the bottom, and the front is symmetrical to the back. In time, the past is symmetrical to the future relative to the present. Rest is symmetrical to movement. Light is symmetrical to darkness, and day is symmetrical to night. Waves in quantum mechanics are symmetrical to particles. Parents arise interdependently with children, and causes arise with effects. When we look at these symmetries, we see how one is interconnected with the other, and one cannot exist without the other. How can quanta of light exist if they are not separated by darkness? But things change when we look at some other things.
Good arises interdependently with evil. What is good for us may be evil for a person with different beliefs. We are furiously attached to our views and believe that good, in our understanding, must necessarily defeat evil. This picture of the world with the confrontation between good and evil is typical of children's fairy tales, but even in adulthood many believe in it. We become attached to one side and dislike the other, forgetting that they arose interdependently.
Appearance is symmetrical to disappearance and birth is symmetrical to death. People greet the birth of a child with joy, and with grief they greet the death of a loved one. They want to keep only what they like and get rid of what they don't like. Hence the eternal search for the philosopher's stone and the potion of immortality. However, one cannot exist without the other – birth cannot exist without death, and death cannot exist without birth. For life, evolution, and natural selection to exist, both are needed.
Many thinkers called not to be afraid of death, but to consider it in the same way as birth. For example, the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus urged not to see anything terrible in your death:
Do not be afraid of death: while you are alive, it is not there, when it comes, you will not be there
Being attached to the illusion of our own “I”, we try with all our might to avoid death, or at least not to think about it. But death is as much a part of our life as our birth. After death this “I” will no longer exist, there will be nothing left to suffer. American writer Mark Twain writes about this:
I'm not afraid to disappear. Before I was born, I was gone for billions and billions of years, and I didn’t suffer from it at all.
In many other symmetrical phenomena, we also become attached to one thing and try to avoid the other. Reason and emotions, idealism and materialism, consciousness and body, pain and pleasure, love and hate, activism and contemplation – in different situations we choose one thing, become attached to it and suffer due to the consequences of our choice. We need to understand that we find inner harmony only when we accept the world as it is – in all its integrity.
British philosopher Alan Watts, in his book The Taboo of Knowing Who You Are, metaphorically describes what people do when they become attached to one side of symmetry and try to avoid the other, by playing Black and White:
Thus, for thousands of years, human history has been a remarkably pointless conflict. After all, no matter how hard people try, their life remains a superbly staged drama in which triumphs alternate with defeats. And all this because common sense stubbornly refuses to admit that Black cannot exist without White. Perhaps never before in the history of the world has anything gone anywhere with so much delightful fuss. Just as when Tweedledum and Tweedledum agreed to compete with each other, the essential detail of the Game of Black and White remains the carefully hidden conspiracy between the opposites, according to which they hide their unity and try to appear as different as possible. This is reminiscent of such a good staging of a fight on stage that the audience involuntarily begins to believe that they are seeing a real fight.
Israeli anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari gives a similar example:
They are like a person who stands on the shore for many years, rejoicing at the “good” waves and trying to hold them, and driving away the “bad” ones so that they don’t get too close. Day after day he stands on the shore, driving himself into a frenzy with this meaningless activity. Finally he sits down on the sand and relaxes – let the waves crash as they please. This is bliss! Nirvana
Thus, our entire Universe is a continuous cycle of opposites, which Chinese philosophers depicted as the sign of Yin and Yang. One is impossible without the other.
All possible computer programs are reduced to binary code – a sequence of zeros and ones. Without the existence of this symmetry, the existence of programs simply would not be possible. Likewise, the existence of the world is impossible without the existence of various opposites. It is not for nothing that information, measured in bits, is now becoming one of the main concepts in physics. Many scientists, like the American physicist John Archibald Wheeler, the author of the “it from bit” theory, even consider information the most fundamental concept of all science.
And indeed a bit is enough for the existence of the entire Universe. All possible books, movies, games and programs are encoded in an infinite random sequence of zeros and ones. There is even this very post that you are reading now. This sequence of bits is one huge Borges Library of Babel, where everything is encoded in two simple symbols – zero and one.
Symmetric programming language
The idea of the fundamental role of symmetry in nature has captured my mind for quite some time. Several years ago, this idea was embodied in the functional programming language Una, which I developed based on LISP, Javascript and Python, the distinctive feature of which is symmetries between operations.
The basic symmetry of language consists of two basic operations – abstraction and application. Abstraction is the creation of a named constant, and application is the application of operands to an operator and evaluation of the expression.
# Пример абстракции
= a 1
# Пример аппликации
+ a 2The symmetry of abstraction and application is not entirely obvious, but it lies at the very basis of this language. In addition, the language uses arrow symmetries.
First arrow symmetry – this is the symmetry of functions. The right-hand arrow represents a function declaration, and the left-hand arrow represents an immediately invoked function expression (IIFE), which evaluates and returns the result of executing the written code on the spot.
# Объявление функции
= sum -> (x y)
+ x y
# Немедленно вызываемое функциональное выражение
= c <-
+ 1 2Second arrow symmetry – this is the symmetry of asynchronous functions. The right-handed arrow denotes the declaration of an asynchronous function (async), and the left-handed one means waiting for the result of its execution (await).
# Объявление асинхронной функции (async)
= getUser --> id
database.loadUser id
# Ожидание выполнения асинхронной функции (await)
= user <-- (database.loadUser id)Third arrow symmetry – this is the symmetry of working with errors. A right-handed arrow indicates a try-catch block is declared, and a left-handed arrow indicates an error is thrown. The try-catch block in this case takes an immediately callable function expression as a try block, and a function as a catch block.
# Блок обработки ошибок
|->
<-
= getName null
getName ()
-> error
console.log error
'John'
# Выброс ошибки
<-| "number is not valid"Fourth arrow symmetry – this is the symmetry of working with modules. A right-handed arrow indicates importing a module, and a left-handed arrow indicates exporting from a module.
# Импорт модуля
=-> 'react' React
# Экспорт константы a в качестве дефолтного значения
<-= aFifth arrow symmetry – this is the symmetry of working with call chains. A right-handed arrow indicates a chain of calls based on the last parameter, and a left-directed arrow indicates a chain of calls based on the first parameter. I don’t want to give an example of these operations here, since it will be too large in volume.
In addition to arrow operations, there is symmetry in Una between the construction and deconstruction of hashmaps and arrays.
# Конструкция хешмапы
= user :
name 'John'
age 13
parents :
mother :
name 'Alice'
age 42
father :
name 'Bob'
age 39
# Деконструкция хешмапы
= (: name) user
console.log name# Конструкция массива
= numbers :: 1 2 3
# Деконструкция массива
= (:: firstNumber secondNumber) numbers
console.log secondNumberAlthough the Una language is not used in actual development, learning it gives the programmer a deep understanding of the principles on which his craft is based. Perhaps, after familiarizing yourself with Una, you will begin to better understand your native programming language.
Symmetrical language of communication
At the beginning and middle of the 20th century, a so-called linguistic turn occurred in philosophy. The key point of this turn was the publication of a book by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein entitled Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. His main idea is that our language has a huge influence on the way we think, and we must take this into account when we think about the world. Philosophers have made many attempts to reform language and thereby solve some age-old philosophical questions.
In linguistics itself, the idea of the influence of language on thinking was formulated in the form of the famous Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis. The essence of this hypothesis comes down to the fact that the language used in reasoning can hinder or, on the contrary, help a person reach a certain thought. And although the strong version of the hypothesis, which states that the language used limits a person's cognitive capabilities, has been experimentally refuted, the weak version, which states that the language used greatly influences a person's thinking, has been generally confirmed.
Based on this, it is possible that for a better understanding and awareness of the duality and symmetry of the universe, it would make sense to develop a language in which this very duality is included in its very morphology. Like Hebrew and other Semitic languages, in which the letter root, falling into a certain form, acquires a certain meaning, in this dual language, substituting the letter root into a certain form would give one of the symmetrical meanings.
For example, in Hebrew, the root “spr” has a meaning associated with counting, and the root “htv” has a meaning associated with writing. Substituting these roots into the form “mi12a3”, meaning the entity associated with the value being substituted, we get the words “mispar”, meaning “number”, and the word “mikhtav”, meaning “writing”. Similarly, we could create a language in which letter roots are substituted into two symmetrical forms and take on opposite meanings.
Let the form “е1е2” mean one of the sides of symmetry, and the form “у1у2” mean the opposite side, and “у1у2” the middle between them. By substituting different roots into these two forms, we will form the vocabulary of our language.
Let the root “bl” have a meaning related to gender, then the word “ebel” will mean a woman, and the word “ubul” will mean a man. Let the root “rd” have a meaning associated with beauty, then the word “ered” will denote ugliness, and the word “ubul” beauty. Therefore, an expression like “ebel urud” will mean “beautiful woman.”
Let the root “mr” have a meaning associated with direct kinship, then the word “emer” will mean a child, and the word “umur” will mean a parent. Thus, the word “ebelumur” will mean mother, the word “ubulumur” will mean father, the word “ebelemer” will mean daughter, and the word “ubulemer” will mean son.
Let the root “mn” have a meaning related to number, then the word “emen” will mean “one”, and “umun” means many. Therefore, the word “ebelumun” will mean “women” and the word “ubulumun” will mean “men.”
Let the root “vd” have a meaning associated with the parties to the interaction, then the word “eved” will mean “subject”, and the word “udud” will mean “object”. The word “eved” can also denote the concept of “I”, then “we” will be “evedumun” – in other words, “many I”.
Let the root “rl” have a meaning associated with life, then the word “erel” will mean birth, the word “urul” will mean death, and the word “iril” will mean life itself.
Let the root “lv” have a meaning associated with love, then the word “emen” will mean hatred, and the word “uluv” will mean love. And let the addition of “and” at the end of the word form the verb. Then the word “elevi” will mean “to hate”, and the word “uluvi” will mean “to love”.
Let the root “vr” have a meaning associated with time, then the word “ever” will mean the past, “uvur” – the future, and “ivir” – the present. By adding these words to verbs we can get the past and future tenses of the verb. For example, the expression “eved everuluvi” will mean “I loved.”
Let the root “nl” have a meaning associated with a segment, then the word “enel” will denote the beginning, the word “unul” will denote the end, and the word “inil” will denote the middle. By adding “unul” to verbs we can obtain perfect forms of the verb. Thus, if the expression “eved everuluvi” means “I loved,” then the expression “eved unuleveruluvi” will mean “I fell in love.”
It seems to me that a language in which duality is present at the level of morphology could greatly influence a person’s thinking and help him see the world as it really is – symmetrical and infinitely beautiful.
Karma
Another idea in Eastern philosophy is closely related to the concept of duality – the idea of karma. In the mass consciousness, karma is usually mistakenly imagined as a counter, according to the readings of which some higher power rewards what it deserves: it fairly punishes or rewards a person for his bad or good deeds. However, this view of karma is quite different from the meaning that was originally given to this concept. After all, for example, from the point of view of Buddhism, no higher powers exist, which means no one stands over a person’s soul with a counter in their hands.
In fact, Eastern philosophies view karma as an immutable law of cause and effect. Good actions are likely to cause and effect lead to good consequences and a better psychological state of mind for a person, and bad actions are likely to cause and effect lead to problems and disturbances of the mind.
For example, having killed someone or stolen something, a person risks receiving retaliatory measures from the state, relatives of the person killed, or the owner of the stolen item. In addition, he will be greatly afraid of the possibility of being caught or tormented by his conscience, which leads to constant anxiety in his mind and negative emotions. At the same time, by helping other people, a person can receive a good attitude towards himself in return, and his soul will be light. The law of karma is somewhat similar to Newton's third law, which states that to an action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. The forces directed from us to the world and from the world to us balance each other.
For educational purposes, the Buddha preached such a profane, straightforward philosophy of karma among the laity. To the monks initiated into the depths of the teachings of Buddha saidthat the world is extremely complex, much more complex than these simple examples – many factors operate in it simultaneously, and it is often difficult to track the chain of cause-and-effect relationships between a specific action and the response to it. In such a multifactorial reality, there are so many different causes and effects that even good actions can lead to negative consequences, and bad actions to something good. Therefore, the Buddha ordered monks to follow the middle path and not accumulate either negative or positive karma. This, according to the Buddha, is the path to enlightenment. In another Eastern teaching, Taoism, similar behavior was considered correct – wu-weiwhich translates as “inaction.”
IN article about panbioticism I described that peoples, states, religions and languages are the same living beings as a person, because it is impossible to draw a clear and logical line of demarcation that would recognize a person as a living being, and, for example, a state as inanimate. All living beings have karma, and therefore peoples, religions and states also have a kind of collective karma, which leads to certain consequences.
Conclusion
It seems to me that it is important to learn to see duality in all its manifestations and learn to accept both sides of symmetries, without giving preference to any one of them.
