The
Dialectic
of the
Kinds
of
ORDER.
GLOBAL STRATEGIC HYPOTHESES.
Dear Reader,
There are two kinds of
temporal orderedness with which most of us are familiar –
(1) Changelessness, e.g., “eternal” stasis, of the kind which Platon and Parmenides thought to be the immutable reality behind the “delusory” sensuous appearances of things, and;
(2) Cyclical, circular,
periodic, “ever”-repeating change.
In the state-space geometrical metaphor of dynamical systems theory, for mathematical models of “dynamics” expressed in the language of “ordinary differential” – i.e., of total-differential – equations, kind (1) is expressed by fixed points in the state-space of, e.g., a linear differential equation, the only kind that can have a single fixed point as its solution, its, motionless, state-space [non-]trajectory.
Dynamical systems can also
have “neutrally-stable” state-space trajectories, which neither attract nor repel
nearby state-points in their “basin”.
This provides a state-space metaphor for kind (2), the purely-cyclical,
ever-repeating kind of change.
Only nonlinear total-differential equations can exhibit limit-cycle attractors as their state-space ‘solution-geometry’. The “limit” in their name, “limit-cycles”, alludes to the fact that they never become truly “cyclical”, and purely “repetitive”, “until” t = +¥, a “time” that never arrives.
For all finite – actual – time, the
state-space trajectories of limit-cycle attractor solution-trajectories approach
the “cycle” inside them ever-closer, “asymptotically”, but never actually touch
that limit-cycle closed curves in their state-spaces.
This means that, nonlinear,
limit-cycle solutions represent a first step toward the third kind of order, which
many people have never considered as a kind of orderliness: non-repetitive;
even never-repeating order. Many
people see such order as dis-order.
More deeply nonlinear
equations have a kind of attractor, called, wouldn’t you know it, a “strange”
attractor, that is not asymptotically periodic, as is a
limit-cycle attractor. “Strange
attractors” are asymptotically aperiodic; non-periodic. They exhibit what is called “non-periodic
deterministic flow”.
Such nonlinear dynamical system-models are completely causal – completely deterministic. Their entire future is determined by their initial, t = 0 state-point, if we abstract from all externally-sourced
so-called “perturbations”.
But they are popularly called
“chaotic” attractors, with “chaotic” trajectories, because, to calculate their
future states in advance, one would have to know the coordinates of the initial state-point of each with infinite precision.
However, in our
view, these never-repeating trajectories provide a mathematical metaphor for a third
category of order, which is a dialectical synthesis of the
category of (1) static [intrinsically-repetitive] order, and/with the category of (2) cyclical/strictly-repetitive order, by drawing ‘negatively’ upon both order-kind category (1) and order-kind category (2): that is, by being a
not statical and a not
cyclical kind of order – neither statical nor
cyclical – i.e., a non-repeating kind of order.
Such a species of order, and
such a name for that kind of order, may sound, at first, overwhelming exotic.
However, in actuality, we are
surrounded and permeated, both physically and culturally – ‘human-phenomically’ – by cases of this kind of order.
The “Natural” Numbers –
e.g.,
1, 1+1 = 2, 2+1 = 3, 3 +1 = 4, etc. –
may seem like the nearly simplest ‘ideo-ontological’ product of the human mind.
Yet the distribution of the “prime” natural numbers among the “composite natural numbers” exhibits a never-repeating, yet not random, pattern.
If the Riemann
Hypothesis proves to be true, then the Riemann Zeta Function apparatus may have
already captured their non-repeating pattern, the order of the primes. That function-apparatus is, have no doubt, a
very complex mathematical expression to write down via our present
mathematical languages.
But, already, via solution of
Hilbert’s Tenth Problem, in March 1970, algebraic equations have been found
that, with 26 or 24 or 21 or even as few as 10 algebraic variables, capture the
positive prime numbers as their positive integer solutions. These finite, algebraic equations capture the
order of the primes in, perhaps, a simpler, algebraic way, compared to the complexity
of the Riemann function.
Moreover, consider the decimal
representation of “Natural Numbers”, of the space named N, of “Rational Numbers”, of the space named Q, and of “Irrational Numbers”, of the space named R.
“Natural Numbers” can be mapped to “ever-repeating” 0s to the right of “their” decimal points, because “Natural Numbers” are non-fractional, e.g., 1 maps to –
1.0000000000000000000000… .
Their decimal representations are analogous to dynamical
system state-space fixed point solution-geometries.
“Rational Numbers” exhibit “ever-repeating” sequences of digits to the right of their decimal points. For example, the old standard rational number approximation for the, “transcendental”, “Real”, “irrational” number pi is –
22/7 = 3.142857
142857 142857 142857 142857… .
They are analogous to
dynamical system limit-cycle attractor state-space solution-geometries/trajectories,
“at” t
= +¥, and to “neutrally-stable”, purely-cyclical,
purely-repetitive, closed-curves state-space trajectory solution-geometries.
But “irrational” numbers,
like that “algebraic irrational”, the positive square root of 2, or that
“golden” algebraic irrational, phi, or those “transcendental” irrational
numbers, like pi and e,
are analogous to “strange attractor”, so-called “chaotic”, NEVER-repeating
state-space trajectory solution-geometries, in their decimal
expressions/expansions, because their right-of-decimal-point digits-sequences never
repeat.
Yet, change even a single digit, say the billionth digit, in the decimal expansions of the positive square root of 2, of pi, of phi, or of e, and you no longer have a representation of the positive square root of 2, of pi, of phi, or of e any more. Every digit of the decimal expansion of any “irrational” number is strictly “deterministic”, strictly determined. No other sequence of digits will do to be those numbers!
For more
information regarding these
Seldonian insights, and to read and/or download, free
of charge, PDFs and/or JPGs of Foundation books, other texts, and images, please see:
and
https://independent.academia.edu/KarlSeldon
For partially pictographical, ‘poster-ized’ visualizations of many of these Seldonian insights -- specimens of ‘dialectical art’ – as well as dialectically-illustrated books
published by
the F.E.D. Press, see –
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DialecticsMATH
¡ENJOY!
Regards,
Miguel
Detonacciones,
Voting Member, Foundation Encyclopedia Dialectica [F.E.D.];
Elected Member, F.E.D. General Council;
Participant, F.E.D. Special Council for Public Liaison;
Officer, F.E.D. Office of Public Liaison.
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