The Big Picture

The attraction/repulsion dynamic - it’s everywhere and it’s certainly something we can all relate to. We all have things we are attracted to and repelled by. And they are intrinsic. We are not free to choose our attractions and repulsions. Free will comes into play with respect to how we can consciously manage them.

We all have fundamentally similar nervous systems that move us toward certain things and away from others, attracts and repels. First and foremost we are basically concerned with survival. Survival is so automatic, such a given, that, for the most part, we don’t even take notice of it. Our attractions are directed toward that which benefits our survival and we are repelled away from that which threatens it.

We have an attraction to an orderly existence, for example, and that is beneficial to survival. However, one might say here - an orderly existence makes sense and it is for that reason people tend to choose order over disorder. And, yes, our fundamental attractions do make sense. But we make the conscious judgment that they make sense after the fact. We don’t choose to eat food because it makes sense, although it does make sense for us to eat.

Take the action of aforementioned cheetah illustrated in the second post Attraction and Repulsion. We can’t be sure if she reasoned things out in her mind before deciding to go off for food but whether she did or not it was the sensible thing to do. If the cheetah had the mind of a human she would most probably feel that she had reasoned out all the pros and cons and freely decided upon the most logical course of action. But, in actuality, it was the more powerful attraction to food that was the deciding factor. And that was also what made the most sense.

Pursuing an orderly existence makes sense but that conclusion on our part is preceded by an innate attraction to order.

We can certainly see this regarding the opposite case. A disorderly state is one that we feel repulsed by. We don’t decide to feel that way. It’s not a conscious choice. It does, of course, make sense to feel that way but I think we all know that that feeling is not a product of our thinking. We don’t consciously choose to feel that way.

In not having to decide to not have a disorderly state there is no higher mental activity to get in the way of, or co-opt, our feeling of repulsion. Disorder is not something we actively pursue; it’s something we automatically guard against because of the repulsion we feel at disorderly conduct. So, our repulsion to disorder can be more easily recognized purely as a feeling.

On the other hand, we do act on our attraction to order and do make conscious choices on behalf of that attraction in our pursuit of an orderly state. Our attraction to order is consciously pursued. Our consciousness and our unconscious are working in unison and we can get the idea that our consciousness is in charge and leading the way.

But, one may ask here, if we are all so repulsed by a disorderly state then how can something like the Beirut of the 80’s happen, Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 90’s or the Iraqi chaos in the first decade of the 21st Century? Such extremely chaotic states are brought about by severe differences with regard to the kind of order that should prevail. The disorder that is caused is for the purpose of establishing some preferred order on the part of different conflicting factions.

Also, those who oppose an oppressive totalitarian state will seek to cause disorder in that state as a means of opposing an unacceptable order with the hope of installing a more acceptable one.

So all of that kind of disorder has to do with conflicting pursuits of order.

Fundamentally, though, we all have an attraction to order.

There are other universal attractions and repulsions. We are all attracted to money and repelled by the prospect of being without it. Religion is a great universal attractor, while the notion of our having a merely natural existence is generally repulsive.

Now, the idea that we are all alike in fundamental ways is anathema to those who like to think that we are more individually unique than not. And we can go to extraordinary lengths to promote this idea of our uniqueness.

For example, on a Thanksgiving Day NPR program called Here and Now there was a segment about the foods people choose to eat for comfort. People from all over called in to register their choices. Pasta and dairy were involved in most all of the choices. Macaroni and cheese was a popular dish. But there were differences in preferences about how to prepare it. For instance, one person might like it with breadcrumbs on top and another with chopped olives. And that minor difference was the focus of the final comment of the segment opining that those differences in peoples’ choices proved that we are all totally unique individuals.

The somewhat popular bias toward the notion of our absolute uniqueness, seemingly to the point of denying or ignoring any commonality whatsoever, leaves one to wonder how human beings manage to communicate at all. And one might also wonder how we come to hold such a common belief about our uniqueness, since total uniqueness would prohibit our holding anything in common.

The closing comment on Here and Now reveals the bias as it focuses on the superficial reality and totally ignores the underlying one. The overwhelming common denominator was that people seek comfort in food. Whether it be apples or oranges it comes down to the same thing.

Once on a BBC radio show a man was being interviewed about the loss of his child and he emphatically stated that there could be no shared expressions of grief between him and his wife over the tragedy because what each of them was going through was totally different from the other. Their separate grief for the loss was an absolutely unique experience. Their feelings had nothing in common. Of course, there can be differences in the way grief is manifested between two individuals but to have the idea that there is nothing in common with respect to that, or any other emotion is, to say the least, rather extreme.

The strong bias supporting human uniqueness seems to be a defensive mechanism against our being a product of nature where each and every one of us is informed and instructed from a common template. Total uniqueness cancels out any notion of uniform natural influences.

Of course, the universality of a trait does not totally rule out uniqueness. Certainly, there are differences in the degree of orderliness to which we are attracted. Some are attracted to a strictly ordered state, others to a loosely ordered one while most of us lie somewhere in between. But whether strict or loose we are all basically attracted to order. That is a norm that we all have in common.

THIS POST WAS AMENDED ON 10/24/2011

So, from the preceding post, something we call energy comprises all of existence. Everything is energy. But we don’t have any idea what energy is. The universe then is, and has always been, characterized by this one energy. And the one energy, composed of the forces of attraction and repulsion A/R, caused the eruption of energy that we call the big bang.

Prior to the big bang every point of the one energy was attracted to and repelled by every other point simultaneously. The attractive/repulsive points were very close together and the enormous energy was contained by the constant and minuscule transfer of energy from attraction to repulsion and vice versa. A little glitch at any one point would unleash a massive amount of energy. And such was the beginning of our universe. This massive energy, however, was much less energetic than that from whence it was produced. So the energy of the so-called big bang created a space where A/R lacked the energy to recombine into its original form.

This big bang eruption is viewed by us to be of enormously high energy and extremely hot. The eruption was something separate from the one energy, was less energetic and began to cool from the git go. This allowed the forces of attraction and repulsion to go their separate ways. The repulsive force of dark energy, then, repels itself, thus, pushing things apart and causing the universe to expand. The attractive force of gravity, attracted to itself, attempts to bring things into itself.

Various black holes appeared from the compromised attractive force while the repulsive force, unleashed from the coupling, expanded outward with a ferocious energy.

The attractive force formed black holes that were attracted to one another and huddled together in relative close proximity where some merged together to form larger more powerful black holes. Others at the periphery of the huddle entered into a struggle with the repulsive force that neither could win out of which clumps of dark matter that hung around with the group of black holes by virtue of its attractive force. And this growing concentrated force of attraction put the breaks on the expansion to some extent.

As things cooled matter developed. The black holes attracted it, swallowed some of it and created even bigger more powerful black holes.

As things cooled further quantum forces appeared, nuclei formed, atoms formed and all were kept within range of the black holes. Massive pockets of hydrogen atoms began to collapse from the gravitational force effecting them and stars began to form. The agon between the forces of attraction and repulsion around the forming galaxies created dark halos that separated and protected them from the dark energy.

We can see all the threshold events, like that of the big bang, as manifestations of the forces of attraction and repulsion. Particles attract and repel in certain ways to combine and form atoms. Particular atoms attract to one another and combine to form molecules and so on and so forth. Chemical bonding in general has to do with particular elements attracting and repelling one another. In this way all such events are vitally connected to the one energy that is the primal force of nature.

All is a manifestation of the attraction/repulsion dynamic of the one energy. And it is to that one energy that all seeks to return. Energized quantum particles display a marked tendency to recombine into the whole energy from whence they appeared - like the virtual particles that percolate out of the vacuum energy and just as soon recombine back into it. However, the quantum particles of our universe, called real particles, lack the wherewithal to perform that neat little trick.

In the formation of an atom we can see the tendency to recombine along with the inability to do so. The forces of attraction and repulsion that wrestle around with quarks, the strong force, perform a Sisyphean like agon of continually coming together and pushing apart. This is, perhaps, a good illustration of how energy itself behaves in its constant attraction and repulsion to itself. Oppositely charged quarks constantly repel one another by virtue of an electromagnetic field while the attractive force of gluons continually reels them in. Out of this agon the A/R forces and the quarks do combine to create a unity in the form of a proton or a neutron. Electrons are attracted to protons, as they would be to their antiparticle positron, but lack the energy to take that attraction to its logical conclusion of merging back into the single form of energy a nucleon represents. And so atoms are formed.

Hydrogen atoms with the assistance of the attractive force of gravity formed galaxies. The black hole at the center of a galaxy is a massive attempt by gravity to return to the prior state of oneness. A greater majority of the hydrogen atoms in proto galaxies, however, got caught up in less massive gravitational fields and produced the fusion reactors known as stars which created all the atoms with multiple nucleons. And, in seeking to recombine, these heavier atoms formed the molecules that created solar systems and life forms.

From the forces of A/R we can derive all the characteristics of the universe that stand in opposition to one another. In terms of the one energy they can be seen as absolutes and our universe exists by virtue of a dialogue between them.

These characteristics are:

• unity — diversity
• uniformity — disparity
• stability — instability
• order — chaos
• contraction — expansion
• permanence — change
• attraction — repulsion

The characteristics that make up each column are interchangeable with one another. Unity, uniformity, stability, order, contraction, permanence and attraction are all intimately related, as are their opposites. The one common denominator in all of these pairings is attraction/repulsion because they qualify as ultimate forces; all of the other dualities can be seen to be an effect of the cooperative contention of the attract/repel dynamic.

At one extreme we have super giant stars with enormous centers of gravity striving to hold them together while the ongoing force of their nuclear furnace violently pushes outward producing an overwhelming force of repulsion that seems bent on tearing the body of the stars apart as quickly as possible. This objective is achieved soon enough in a massive explosion as the star’s constituent parts go their own separate ways into outer space. This nearly absolute repulsive force can also be characterized as approaching absolute diversity, disparity, instability, chaos, expansion and change.

Something approaching absolute uniformity can be seen in our universe as a neutron star, or a black hole, where the force of attraction, gravity, acts as a cosmic vacuum cleaner sucking everything around it into its super monolithic density and stripping everything down to elemental particles. This nearly absolute uniformity brought about by a nearly absolute attraction can also be considered as absolute unity, order, stability, contraction and constancy.

In opposition to the extreme black hole gravity devouring galaxies from the inside we have the repulsive dark energy pushing them apart and threatening to eventually tear them up. It seems that the dark halo surrounding galaxies protects them from an invasion of dark energy that would rip them asunder. Such a halo might have been created from a static combination of gravity and dark energy. That is, a standoff between the attractive and repulsive forces where they are neutralized. And the dark matter found in and around galactic formations could be a by-product of that energetic tug of war.

A/R is what is responsible for the controlled expansion of spacetime and what started the universe in motion prior to the eruption of light and heat that ushered the visible universe into being. The visible universe is an anomaly in the universe as a whole. It accounts for only a fraction of the contents of the entire universe. Light is, and must always be, contained within the universe. Light is a product of this universe and cannot exist except within it. The expansion of the universe proceeds at speeds faster than that of light and it keeps on expanding at an ever-increasing acceleration. If the universe had begun with an explosion of light then its boundaries would be that of light itself and it would have been impossible for anything else to accrue more energy than that which the initial expansion predominantly consisted of. Before the lightshow of this universe took place there existed a vast ocean of energy roiling with innate forces of attraction and repulsion.

In subsequent posts we will see how all this relates to the human condition.

People can experience a lot of resistance to a purely materialistic or naturalistic worldview like the one being presented here. Many find such views repulsive and opt for metaphysical visions that they find to be more attractive. The belief that we are special creations of a supernatural entity has an attraction for us, while the facts of evolution can arouse repulsion. What leads us to discover and finally accept unpalatable scientific findings like evolution is our attraction to knowledge.

So, attractions and repulsions can create conflicts for one’s self and this prevents us from being mindless automatons of the attract/repel dynamic. If we find ourselves attracted to knowledge and also to metaphysical visions that are at odds with a particular body of knowledge then we have to make educated reasoned judgments about reforming our worldview.

Now to return to the universal phenomenon, discussed in the previous post, where something is created out of something it is not – the classical world out of the quantum world, for instance, where some threshold event occurs to trigger a metamorphosis.

And there are many other such thresholds; Protons, for example, are formed from quarks and gluons but protons are something else entirely from the particles that form them. And it would seem that, just as the classical world does not exist as far as the quantum world is concerned, protons don’t exist as far quarks and gluons are concerned. And just how protons and the classical world materialize from things that they are so different from is one of the great mysteries of the universe. Other threshold events include individual anatomical cells creating particular organs. Neurons, for instance, coalescing at some point to produce a working brain and then, as a result of another threshold event, the brain goes on to produce a conscious mind. How the brain goes about producing the phenomenon of consciousness is as mysterious as how the classical world is produced from quantum particles. All we can say is that some kind of threshold event triggers a kind of transcendence. And one may wonder if all the various threshold events in the universe are informed and instructed by the exact same elemental influence that must in some sense be vitally connected to the primal force of nature. But if various forms of existence do not register as such with preceding forms then it’s likely that as far as the primal source of nature is concerned nothing else exists beyond itself. That’s not to say the universe doesn’t really exist. It does. But just as the classical world doesn’t exist for quantum particles the universe doesn’t exist according to that which it is created from. As far as energy is concerned nothing exists except energy.

We might list the various threshold events in this way:
ENERGY -> PARTICLES
PARTICLES -> ATOMS
ATOMS -> MOLECULES
MOLECULES -> INORGANIC MATERIAL
INORGANIC MATERIAL -> ORGANIC MATERIAL
ORGANIC MATERIAL-> CELLS
CELLS -> ORGANISMS
ORGANISMS -> CONSCIOUSNESS

Each stage in the right hand column represents an apparent departure from its partner on the left. Each stage in the left hand column remains unchanged throughout all subsequent stages. Each stage is unique unto itself while each and every stage is a result of the previous stage. From the perspective of quantum particles, for instance, the world that we inhabit is nonexistent even though it is those very particles that form the objects that inhabit our world – the classical world. Chemicals such as amino acids are not in and of themselves organic, but they are, along with other chemicals, useful in developing the organic chemistry responsible for life. The quantum world does not change as it composes the classical world. Brain cells are not transformed in bringing about consciousness; they are not transformed into consciousness. Our consciousness is something other than the neuronal activity from which it arises. The separate chemicals in a living cell are no more alive than they would be outside of a cell. It is the interactions of non-living chemicals within a cell that creates a living cell. What is not life creates life. And Energy itself does not change in composing particles. From the perspective of energy nothing else exists except energy.

Generally speaking, with regard to each manifestation of existence, a threshold is reached and something happens to extract one stage of existence from another. Again, Individual brain cells reach a particular threshold at which point they become a functioning brain and another threshold is reached where consciousness is produced. And some threshold is reached to produce the classical world from the quantum world. But what is behind these thresholds, what mechanism, what force, what influence? Could such thresholds be determined by some ultimate source - the origin of all things that must be omnipresent in a deep and abiding way at every event in existence?

Fundamentally the universe is comprised of energy. Energy is what empowers the whole universe. It is energy that configures the universe with material objects. Spacetime itself has to do with the transformation of energy from one state to another.

The whole universe, and all that comprises it, is derivative of one energy. This might be why all of the various fundamental particles of force and matter, which are the next stage over from energy, are absolutely identical to each one of their kind. Each photon is exactly identical to every other as are electrons, positrons, quarks, protons, etc.

To say, however, that particles exist in the energy that they are formed from would be somewhat misleading. Particles do not actually exist in energy anymore than a particular life form actually exists in genetic code, though it can be said that all possible life forms are contained in genetic code. The genetic code bears no resemblance to that which it creates. Life forms are completely different from that which produces them. The world of quantum particles remains oblivious and fundamentally unchanged by the macroscopic worlds that they compose. The macroscopic worlds are completely different from that which produces them. So too, energy exists as it is in and of itself alone with seemingly no connection whatsoever to anything else. Energy is, however, everything that exists. Energy also remains as one thing in and of itself alone while at the same time it gives form to all the various particles of force and matter. Energy is everything that exists and everything is composed by virtue of energy though it is completely different from what it composes. Everything it seems is composed of that which it is completely different from. Everything, that is, except energy, which is a thing in itself.

Finding a formula for one of these threshold events would, one might surmise, be a rather significant discovery with respect to describing the fundamental nature of the universe. A complete understanding of one of these threshold events could very well serve as a complete understanding of all of them and give us an idea about the universe prior to the big bang.

In looking at a particular threshold event with the attract/repel dynamic in mind we have, for instance, the repulsion of quarks drawn together by the force of attraction provided by the strong force, which produces a proton. Perhaps, when a certain arrangement of repellant quarks interact with the attractive strong force a particular ratio between the forces of attraction and repulsion is reached and this causes a specific energy field to envelop them that produces a proton. The particular ratio of the two forces could be the key to a formula for other threshold events. Consciousness could be the result of an organism’s need to manage the various attractions and repulsions of a complex nervous system. One might imagine lines of the two forces of the attract/repel dynamic extending from the universal energy and working the universe and everything in it like the strings of a marionette. So, a formula describing the threshold events on this side of the big bang might be applicable to events prior to the big bang.

Energy was behind the initialization of the big bang - an energetic display of a particular manifestation of energy. And as far as we know energy is all there is. We know that everything is energy but we do not know what it actually is. In order to be energy, however, it must be energetic. If energy is all there is then its energetic activity must be self-generated. That energetic activity could be the result of an inherent attraction/repulsion dynamic. That is, energy is attracted to itself while at the same time repelled by itself.

The A/R dynamic of the universal energy causes it to be in a state of extreme tension. A certain ratio of the A/R dynamic was reached at one point in that energy and resulted in the intense eruption known as the big bang. The eruption compromised the energy’s force of attraction while its repulsive force enjoyed a massive energy gain. The universe expanded at a relentless pace leaving the flotsam and jetsam of the big bang to hold itself together as best it could. So, we can see the universe at large as being formed from, and being an ongoing revelation of an attract/repel dynamic constituting one energy.

The idea that the big bang was propelled out of nothing, that nothing existed prior to that event, could have some validity here. If the inherent attraction/repulsion of energy is generally equal it would at some point cancel itself out. And that would be its eternal state. As far as eternity is concerned, then, nothing exists. Eternity cannot be arrived at. It always is, always was and always will be. Within that eternity, however, all manner of various configurations of A/R are possible. Eternity would, in effect, comprise all possible states including, of course, the one where A/R is perfectly equal. The equal state where energy cancels itself out is the actual eternal state because it is the only one that never changes. Any particular temporal manifestation of energy is non-existent as far as the eternal is concerned.

Think of the attractive force as positive and the repulsive force as negative and relate them to positive and negative numbers. There are always as many negative numbers as positive numbers and, therefore, the numbers are cancelled out leaving only zero forever in their stead.

So, to answer the question posed by Leibniz, “Why is there something instead of nothing?” we say there is something and nothing. Taking the measure of time moment by moment something exists; but in the all-encompassing eternity nothing exists. But again moment-to-moment existence is something entirely separate from eternity; the eternity of zero is something separate from a progression of moments.

How can this be? Well, again, we see in the universe certain threshold events where things exist as they are while at the same time they manifest themselves as something entirely different. Also, quantum particles have been found to exist in different states at the same time. As it manifests itself on this side of the big bang energy gives rise to a lot of bizarre happenings. Can we expect anything less from energy on the other side?

In the absence of an authentic discourse the world is inundated with a bunch of pretentious worldviews. I call them pretentious because, for one thing, they all fall short of the fullness that the term worldview now implies. We have various views-of-the-world like socialism, capitalism, conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism, fascism, communitarianism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam et al. And they all conform to the traditional definition of worldview in that they offer a comprehensive view of the world from a particular standpoint. However, in this age of globalization, electronic communication and information processing particular standpoints have been rendered invalid. Each and every standpoint is constantly overtaken by every other as traditional boundaries separating and protecting them have vanished. To hold fast to a particular standpoint now requires enormous obstinacy that is manifest in the rise of extreme fundamentalism, which, from Rush Limbaugh to Osama bin Laden, calls for the elimination, in one way or another, of all who do not share a particular point of view.

Thus, as we see, there is no worldview that actually speaks to the world as a whole. What we have is a rage of ideologies in cacophonous concert all attempting to impose their particular standpoint on the world as the one and only truism. Such attempts are nothing new. It’s what defines the history of the civilized world. In the past, however, these impositions were the prerogative of an organized state ruling over a bounded territory. Today states of mind take precedence over states and map the landscape via electronic media where armies of like-minded individuals, infused with one dogma or another, can participate and attempt to enforce their view of the world as sacrosanct.

There is a universally accepted dogma at work here whatever the ideology or cultural conceit, namely that human beings are all participating in an exercise that lies beyond the plane of obvious existence. We believe our natures are molded and guided by some influence from the beyond. We believe that the inspiration for all our ideologies comes from a realm apart from the natural one.

But how can this realm be feeding us conflicting views of itself and the world? How can one god be visiting different beliefs in different gods upon us?

Good questions, but we are reluctant to give them any play for fear of undermining belief itself and thus our very own belief as well. But such reluctance gives tacit approval to the violence of extremists. For, if it is a legitimate claim that, according to divine decree, one’s belief system is the one and only truism then what earthly limits can realistically be put on proponents of a particular worldview in their efforts to establish its absolute supremacy?

For fear of the consequences no believer wants to dwell where uncompromising challenges exist. Desire to believe trumps all. Reason and knowledge must not be allowed to encroach upon anyone’s belief system because it poses a threat to our own.

Believers of all kinds share a distrust of science if not downright disdain. But there is not a unifying worldview to be found among their various belief systems. They create divisiveness. It is only through knowledge of the world that such a worldview can be found. A genuine worldview that does not need to be imposed on the world but is derived from it. A worldview that, by default, includes everyone. A worldview that puts everything in place. Everything. Including traditional belief systems, which, it will be shown here, are derived, not from a divine realm, but from the very fabric of the natural world.

The worldview that will be presented here constitutes a departure from just about everything now in place. From the model of the universe that physicists are using in the quest for a Grand Unified Theory GUT to the model of human nature espoused by most social scientists and philosophers to the ideological models for the formation of social systems. It is a worldview that is grounded in science and draws on the works of established scholars in various fields.

To begin with, we consider the universe itself - how it evolved, how it manifests, designs and engineers itself. And then, by reverse engineering deduce what exists beyond this universe, beyond the “big bang”. The big bang isn’t something that happened billions of years ago. The universe is still in the throes of that powerful eruption as the ever-accelerating expansion of the universe attests to. The particles created in the early universe are exactly the same now as they were then. Time has not passed for them and since they are the foundation of everything that exists, including ourselves, we are not very far from the beginning.

Now, one of the fundamental characteristics of this universe is its peculiar habit of creating something out of what that something is not. Take the classical world and the quantum world. The classical world is the familiar sensual world of objects, sights and sounds that we inhabit, and the quantum world is the world of particles like quarks, electrons and atoms. The classical world is formed by quantum particles but it is something entirely different from the quantum world. As far as the quantum world is concerned the classical world doesn’t even exist. In the quantum world, for example, there is no such thing as solidity while in our world it is commonplace. The quantum world allows us to exist in a world that is experienced as something other than what the quantum world is. Or we might say that the quantum world makes up another world that is totally different from it. Scientists have yet to find a connection between the two worlds and use two entirely different mathematical approaches in dealing with them.

In SHADOWS OF THE MIND Roger Penrose expresses his consternation at this state of affairs. He writes, “Quantum theory provides a superb description of physical reality on a small scale, yet it contains many mysteries. Without doubt, it is hard to come to terms with the workings of this theory, and it is particularly difficult to make sense of the kind of ‘physical reality’ – or lack of it – that it seems to imply for our world. Taken at its face value, the theory seems to lead to a philosophical standpoint that many find deeply unsatisfying. At best, and taking its description at their most literal, it provides us with a very strange view of the world indeed. At worst, and taking literally the proclamations of some of its most famous protagonists, it provides us with no view of the world at all.” Mr. Penrose goes on to ponder the fact that there are no mathematical formulas to account for the inconsistencies that arise between the behavior of the objects in our world and those in the quantum world - that the objects in our world do not behave like the quantum particles of which they are constructed. For one example, particles are said to occupy many locations at once but objects like golf balls do not. Penrose writes, “We have seen that a particle’s state can involve superpositions of two or more different locations. (Recall the discussion of 5.7, in which a photon’s state is such that it can be located in two different beams simultaneously after it encounters a half-silvered mirror.) Such superpositions could apply also to any other kind of particle – simple or composite – like an electron, a proton, an atom, or a molecule. Moreover, there is nothing in the formalism of quantum theory that says that large objects such as golf balls cannot also find themselves in such confused states of location.”

In a subsequent book THE ROAD TO REALITY Penrose speculates that gravity might account for the difference between the two worlds. At the quantum level gravity’s effect is inconsequential but on large objects its force is much more influential. And it is the exertion of that force which might account for the more uniform behavior of classical world objects.

The goal to somehow merge the classical and the quantum worlds in a GUT whereby both worlds will be expressed by the same mathematics is the holy grail of physics. No one can know for sure, however, whether such a prospect is actually possible. There are a few theories that are in the process of being worked on, such as string theory, loop quantum gravity and twistor theory. The proponents of string theory have been touting it as having the GUT all but wrapped up. It’s just a matter of time they say before it will all come together.

Be that as it may, all the theories remain shrouded in a problematic fog where experimentation is not as yet, perhaps never will be, able to penetrate. There are extraordinary complexities to be dealt with. String theory, for example, posits extra dimensions at the tiniest scale of the universe. There are seven extra dimensions that are posited, making eleven altogether, and they are all curled up in a complex convoluted Calabi-Yau space of which there are an infinite variety that somehow need to be sorted through to find just the right one.

This all seems hopelessly complicated, especially when we look to science to reduce things to simpler elements. Strings are simple elements but they are all wound up in complex phenomena. Also string theory does not offer us a way of readily relating to the universe we are part of.

There is nothing that says there has to be one math for everything. And it seems clear that the two different maths are given to us and dictated by the nature of things. The classical world gives us one kind of math and the quantum world another. It remains to be seen whether or not there is one math for the entire universe - one equation that will unite everything. Physicists certainly want there to be. In a platonic universe, an ideal universe, perhaps that would be the case – one equation for it all. But what world will provide that equation? The world that led up to the big bang, perhaps?

Perhaps taking a different view of the universe might yield more satisfying results. I propose we take a telescopic view and get away from the minutia of particle behavior that so bedevils our minds. A broad view that everyone can follow and, if one has a mind to, actually relate to.

To begin with, the scientific model of the universe physicists are using, known as the standard model, consists of four fundamental forces - the strong force (gluons), the weak force, electromagnetism and gravity. However, moving way back and taking a telescopic look at the whole universe from the largest scale to the smallest there appears to be only two fundamental forces – namely, attraction and repulsion. Attraction and repulsion form a universal dynamic that seems to suggest a law whereby the one infers the other.

Gravity is, of course, attractive. And the forces of attraction and repulsion are quite evident in the quantum forces. The force of attraction would, of course, be accounted for by the strong force, the gluons, as they are called, that keep quarks held in confinement by overcoming the force of repulsion between them. And the weak force, responsible for radioactive decay, drives assembled atomic particles apart. The weak force, then, is a repulsive force. Electromagnetism serves as the catalyst in which all the quantum forces of attraction and repulsion are conducted. Particles draw on electromagnetism to produce either force in relation to the particular charges of the particles.

Since 1998 there is also the discovery of dark energy to contend with. This is the repulsive force responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. So, we see that the underlying universal forces are indeed those of attraction/repulsion A/R.

This brings a heretofore strange, alien universe into familiar territory with respect to the human condition. The forces of attraction and repulsion, which we all experience in regard to various things, are how we as a particular life form can come to see ourselves as intimately ensconced within the fabric of the universe itself.

Quantum particles are formed and instructed by the forces of attraction and repulsion that permeate their existence. A/R characterizes the whole universe with its repulsive dark energy and attractive gravity. Life itself is characterized by the attraction/repulsion dynamic. The expansion and contraction of our lungs is due to our organic attraction to oxygen molecules and repulsion to the waste products that are exhaled. Our brains, hearts and intestines are constantly expanding and contracting by some internal attractive/repulsive dynamic of their own. Proteins, the very building blocks of life, are characterized by A/R. Before they become proteins the chains of amino acids of which they are composed must fold. The folding of proteins is due to the attraction and repulsion of the amino acids with respect to the alignment of their specific charges and also to hydrophobia, the repulsion to water, expressed by the non-polar amino acids.

This dynamic is also manifested in the external behavior of organisms. Primitive one-celled creatures swimming in primordial tidal pools functioned by employing such a dynamic. They were attracted to food and repelled by toxins. Here we have the beginnings of conscious intelligence where informed choices are made. In the case of more evolved animals the interplay of attraction/repulsion becomes more complex. For instance, a female cheetah with cubs is faced with a dilemma. For days she has been staying close to her cubs to protect them from lurking predators. But her growing hunger is telling her its time to hunt for food before she becomes too weak. The thought of food is attractive. The thought of protecting her cubs is also attractive. The thought of leaving her cubs alone is repulsive. The thought of becoming weak with hunger is also repulsive. She is reluctant to leave her cubs but she knows she has to. Her cubs might be okay on their own for a while but without food neither they nor she could survive. And so, finally, the attraction to food wins out and off she goes to hunt. Further along the evolutionary track we have human beings who can reflect about what they are attracted to and repelled by and philosophize about it in grand style.

We see that the attraction/repulsion dynamic factors into every facet of existence from the beginning of the universe to the present. Everything is holding together and pushing apart, attracting/repelling. It seems that this dynamic is the primal mover behind all that exists. Spacetime itself is drawn out, as it were, between the attraction/repulsion dynamic. The expansive force of the universe, the force of repulsion, pushes away from the force of attraction making room, as it were, for all that follows. The attract/repel dynamic is ubiquitous throughout the universe. This dynamic duo is responsible for the revelation of all the various phenomena in accordance, perhaps, with a particular ratio of itself. Attraction/Repulsion is the binary language of your computer that has to do with electrons being attracted or repelled. A/R is the computer we know as the universe. The universe is at once the hardware and the software. It is an information processing system that produces and processes its own information through the binary of A/R.

Attraction/repulsion of energy itself is the élan vital that makes all things possible. It is difficult to think of any phenomenon where they are not present in tandem, from the holding together of an ever-expanding universe to the deciding factors in human relationships to the imbroglio of quarks and gluons. It is the duality of attraction and repulsion, a coming together and a pushing away that makes the universe at all possible. And the one thing that this duality is part of is something we call energy. All is one as the philosophers of old used to say. All is indeed one. Everything and everyone is of the one and the same energy. And with the creation of life, energy has found a way of experiencing itself.