Principle of Patterns: everything has a pattern
Do you notice that the whole universe is made up of patterns?
Pythagoras described the universe as made of numbers; Pythagoras considered that through mathematics the universe could be understood. Pythagoras, and other philosophers noted that the universe was musical, giving rise to the philosophy of harmonics. Pythagoras and Plato considered the universe could be seen as shapes; Plato said that all atoms were types of triangles. Shapes, numbers and music are all patterns.
TED recently produced a series of talks on the subject of narrative . All stories are patterns. People live their lives based on stories. People live their lives according to patterns. Memes are cultural actions and ideas that form organised patterns called memeplexes, like the religion of Islam.
Our DNA is a pattern, and our body functions based upon the genetic patterns encoded in our DNA. The internet, computer applications and even clumps of words that make up blogs are all patterns of code.
Our brains are constructed to make sense of patterns, to construct patterns, to follow patterns. When the individual becomes part of the crowd, the individual naturally falls in line with the overall pattern. Some of us have an accent, when we move to a different town were the accent is different, we naturally start to take on the accent of that locality.
Science is possible because we can make sense of regular patterns of behavior in the universe, from which we construct our scientific laws and theories.
Anything that has rules, or laws, or a morality, are all patterns.
Only at the quantum level does patterns break down, as the smallest particles have low resistance to the effects of entropy, thus they go chaotic and won’t follow the scientific laws that we associate with more complex forms of matter in the universe.
- Posted in: Nature ♦ Philosophy
Interesting post, but I’m almost certain Plato didn’t write about atoms.
He certainly did not write about our modern version of atoms, but rather he was reacting against the sort of atomist theories as that of Democritus with a version of his own as set out in the Timaeus.
http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/mms/handouts/mmsatoms.htm
Hermes writes that, ‘All is Mind’, and the first emanation from Mind is Intelligence/light. Later on Hermes suggests that this Intelligence patterns the cosmos and recognises such patterns, because that is what the Cosmos is, a reflection of Mind; i.e. intelligence reflected in the Form of Intelligent life (life in the hermetic sense that is). Pattern is indeed everywhere!
I really enjoyed this article, many thanks,
Otove
Thanks for your comment Otove, I identify with what you are saying
I wonder if patterns do break down at the quantum level, or if a different kind of mathematics/physics is required to describe them. We’ve done the best we could with what we have so, but some patterns, I think, may require different approaches to be understood.
Mark Blasini
It is possible. It is observable that the patterns at the quantum level won’t always abide by the laws of physics that we observe in larger objects.
I think I read somewhere that in chaos theory it has been recognized that there is an underlying pattern in seemingly chaotic events. As you just commented, the applicable laws in the quantum world are not the same as the ones we normally observe.
Indeed: organised chaos
Contructal theory..
Do you mean Constructal theory? : http://www.constructal.org/en/theory/presentation.html
Haha yes. Sorry for the misspelling..
No worries, I was unaware of that theory until you mentioned it, thanks for letting me know.