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Saturday, January 16, 2016

Catalysis and the reasonable effectiveness of nested structure (aka, 'mathematics')


...Thus, nested structured~duality (NSD) reveals, if you can make the intuitive leap:  the unreasonable effectiveness of 'mathematics' (ie., structure).

One of the advantages of noticing that reality is nested structured~duality -- nested fields within nested fields, and/or  structures of structures within structures,  is, when looking back into things that seem curious within the dominant scientific paradigm, all of a sudden, the curious thing turns out to not be so curious but a result of paradigmatic faux pas. Also, as the clarifying impression forms, one really goes on a paradigmatic walk-about and gets to experience how a change in the scientific paradigm may take place and also what parts of such a change may feel like.

In the current example, the curious thing is Eugene Wigner's 1960 expression about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences".  The liberating insight is to notice that mathematics is also nested structure, which, of course, is patently obvious in the 'reality is NSD' paradigm, but not so obvious in the dominant scientific paradigm.   Once one settles in on mathematics as structure, though, or more appropriately, that nested structured~duality is fundamental, the curiosity of Wigner's  perspective dissipates.

It arises, of course, in the dominant scientific paradigm, because of the tenets, their sequencing and  the structure of the dominant scientific paradigm. Crudely,  the western paradigm emerges, first, as  the selection of "cube/subject-object" with a strong bias  toward objectivity and complimentary taboo upon subjectivity. Already, ~mathematics - as cube with increments and 'space' as distance in three directions,  is tacitly, or unconsciously assumed or assigned as ~fundamental. Next, absolute time is added and then merged, nested, and downgraded into relativistic spacetime. Then, the surprising unexpected quantum nesting level is noticed.

Also, what the dominant paradigm does NOT overtly assume as fundamental is nested structure, yet, as is seen, this feature  creeps into and emerges from ALL facets and aspects of  the paradigm's expressions. It does so, well, because that trait IS fundamental.

The assumption of 'time' or temporal increments, particularly in a paradigm lacking an adequate nested account of language and cognition, prompts or allows people to focus upon, say, energy and matter, as two discrete,  always separate artifacts when the actual experience is far more co-joined, entangled, and/or dynamically nested. Energy-matter-mass are always in a dissociated equilibrium yet the tenets in the dominant scientific paradigm hide, cloud, separate and obscure  this fact.  In the emerging paradigm, the equilibria are nested structured~dualities -- nested fields within nested fields.  This fundamental is reflect also in the incremented 'half-doubling' of tetrahedron which is also the analog structural coding (mathematical) patterning of life and the stuff of life and our descriptions of such things. 

A related instance is found in catalysis.  When we peer into the 6^n 10^20 per second analog math in respiration, we notice, through that exercise, that ther e are many times two ways to accomplish various energetic transactions/syntheses.  In one way, we can accumulate excessive energy to  accomplish the task, perhaps over a longer duration.  In the other way, our systems create and sustain catalytic enzymes which guide or select for only certain  outcome. Thereby, nested structure within  catalysis hastens the creation of some artifacts (with reduced energy use) over the creation of other artifacts. Structure plays a fundamental role in creation. However,  it also mirrors the co-joined, dissociated nesting pattern, say, of other levels of organization of matter-energy. The structured catalysis  is another reflected form of the nested structure, say, in solar fusion flux, or in critical mass transitions.

Even critical mass reveals that structure has a fundamental rolein transitions and outcomes. With certain structures, some outcomes are selected while other outcomes are excluded. 

Thus the reasonable effectiveness of nested structure.

Best regards,
Ralph Frost

With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.  Isaiah 12:3  (~8th century, B.C.)

@frostscientific