A Simple Indulgence
We all know that there is an alluring elegance in simplicity, hence the saying "less is more".
However sometimes we can overlook the power of simple ideas, especially when trying to understand or explain the very complex: we become fixated on the minute detail, and fail to see the blatantly obvious. Not seeing the wood for the trees I guess. Or as Bruce Lee said in one of his famous quotes:It is like a finger pointing toward the moon. Don't concentrate on the
finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
With that in mind, I request your indulgence to explore the following simple idea:
All things stay in a state of flux and change until a stable configuration
emerges.
Any stable configuration survives for as long as it can withstand internal and external influences, before loosing stability and changing into a state of flux and change.
Put more succintly, it says: "unstable things remain unstable until something stable emerges, and stable things remain stable until they decay into something unstable."
Seems obvious doesn't it? Hardly rocket science. So why am I mentioning this? What is so special about this particular idea?
Well, put simply, it is the basis of all that we observe in the Universe, including our own existence, and has some very profound implications for the future.
That is quite a bold statement to make, and I will be expanding on that in future posts.
However I would like to make a couple of things clear first:
The idea itself does not talk about the mechanism by which stable things emerge, and ultimately decay; just that they do. Or rather that they can, it does not even mandate a transition between stability and instability, it just allows the possibility of emergence and decay in any system. The specific mechanism(s) are dependant on the system in question.
It also makes no specific claims about what constitutes stability and instability: the common English definitions are assumed (as per links).
As such it is a universal principle that can be applied to anything and everything at any and every level of existence.
I believe it can be easily proved, and will attempt to do so in a future post.
Also in future installments I shall further expand on why I believe it to be the basis of all that we observe in the Universe, what it tells us about the future, and why I believe this idea is so important for us.
3 comments:
Doesn't this imply that all stable things *eventually* decay? Stable atoms don't, for example. I wonder if you are hoping to extend this to social fabrics of today, which I think are inherently unstable and never ever will be stable under human means. What I mean is, there is no stable configuration possible. Maybe the economic/social extension is inappropriate for this model...
Yes and no. :)
The actual hypothesis does not mandate that anything will emerge or decay, just that it could.
Stable atoms can decay though it takes a very long time for them to do so (e.g. Proton Decay and Heat Death).
One of the key points of the hypothesis is that the duration of stability (or instability) is dependant on the context of the system you are considering.
For some systems stability may be measured in terms of billions of years, for others, a few minutes.
So personally I believe that the model CAN be applied to economic/social situations: some civilisations evolve to a point of stability that lasts a few hundreds or thousands of years, but then (given the historical evidence to date), they decay. See my previous Point of no return?.
You can also have stable sub-systems within larger unstable systems (e.g long-lived vortices within turbulent currents), and vice versa.
It rather depends on the boundaries of the system you are considering.
I intend to explore this and some of the less scientific and more spiritual aspects of the idea in future posts - so watch this space!
Comments not only welcome but positively invited!
OK, as a teaser for some of concepts I will explore in future postings consider the following:
The emergence-decay idea is IMHO cyclic, rather than strictly linear.
Supporting examples include the evolution of stars and solar systems, species of life, civilisations, etc.
Taking a more spiritual slant Samsara also fits into this.
For those of a more Judaeo-Christian persuasion, I believe there is an angle that fits that too.
It is way too complex for a comment/teaser, but it has to do with whether you believe the cycle will end with emergence or decay, and what that actually means.
This is why I think the idea is so important: I think it is A Universal Principle that can be applied to everything, and has huge implications.
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