s Nature a computer?
Marc Washington
On the whole, in both the inorganic and organic realms – and also in human civilization itself – it is interesting that the engine of growth, development, and evolution appears to be based on sustained cycles of relative balance offset by abrupt imbalance: i.e. long periods of stasis driven forward by quick (on the physical level) and short-lived punctuations of imbalance. Physicists have long been familiar with this. Over half-a-century ago, in the biological sphere, Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, alludes to such stating:

From the view we have formed of the mechanism of mutation we conclude that the dislocation of just a few atoms within the group of 'governing atoms' of the germ cell suffices to bring about a well-defined change in the large scale hereditary characteristics of the organism. 1

Similarly, Neils Bohr of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen wrote of sustained order alternated with punctuated change in Quantum Physics and Biology:

Genetic reproduction primarily depends on the atomic scale ... The states of new systems, like those of the original system, in a simple way are determined by the atomic particles they contain. 2

Gradual evolution in biological systems are characterized by periods of stasis thrown into short-lived quantum imbalance as death from cancer begins with a misplaced electron in a single atom in a single cell. In the processes spoken of by Schrödinger and Bohr, the catalyst of these atomic scale origins of change, mutation, and evolution would be driven by a simple change in charge of a + or minus one. One scales both smaller and larger than the atom, the same phenomena occurs.

Alan Guth is credited with the widely accepted notion that the universe began with a quantum fluctuation: some balance thrown into sudden imbalance. Nucleons were formed as single quarks sought their complements resulting in a form of neutrality: protons3 and neutrons. In nucleosynthesis, the ladder of atoms, known as the periodic table, is basically formed as atoms long neutral are suddenly bombarded with protons which force them to evolve higher. The ladder of life itself arose from the never ending cycle of the neutral molecule (later gene) thrown into ionic imbalance which ended on a higher rung. The ladder of human civilization is a story of societies in stasis thrown into evolution often by suddenly new ideas which propel them forward: fire, the wheel, gun powder, the printing press, the steam engine, computer, and so forth. Thus, nature would seem to have a very simple principle for growth and evolution: long periods of balance + sudden imbalance.

If we want to assign numbers to stasis and change, even numbers would represent stasis or balance and odd numbers imbalance: i.e. the force of change. The smallest even number is two the smallest odd number one. Two here represents balance or stasis. One equals imbalance. Then, 5, or 17, or 453, would be in imbalance and equal to one. Temperature imbalance exists under circumstances where there is even a one degree difference in temperature between inside a home and out.

In the sphere of civilization, nature would also seem to have a simple principle for growth and evolution: balance superseded by one. Power imbalance is found where a strong nation is pitted against a tiny nation but equal to one. In the United States, it is the Vice President's single vote that breaks a Senate tie; any close political race is decided by a victory margin of just one; and the holder of 51% stock in a company holds the majority by one. A score of one higher breaks any record and wins any championship playoff. A basketball score of 160 to 161 gives the victory to the latter. A tenth second faster time wins gold medals in the Olympics. Playoffs that are tied going into the last game and overtime are decided by the tie-breaker winning by one.

The evolution of higher performing sportsmen and women is when they establish a new world record 1 point higher. A higher IQ by 1 over the maximum sets the limit higher. The person with one point higher in a test is considered to be the best. Crime statistics follow trends upwards by increases of only 1. Evolution is characterized by +1. Decadence and retrogression by minus 1. And the sustained accumulation of either + or minus determines the cyclic rise and fall of civilizations.

Not on the scientific and technological front which is surging forward, but in indices of societal stability, health, and order, it would appear civilization is on a stubborn and sustained downward swing and morally the future does not look bright. + or minus 1, then, would appear to indicate imbalance and are the driving forces of change and evolution. The converse would be true for balance. The number two, or identical indoor and outdoor temperatures, or nations of equal strength would all be in balance: all represented by two. Comparing two or more quantities, all things can be quantified and if equal divisible by two and unequal if offset by only one.

The bulk of this paper, in over 70 examples, attempts to demonstrate that subatomic and atomic change is the engine for most significant evolutionary changes in the physical and biological world and they embody balances represented by two driven forward by short-lived imbalances represented by one – all operative processes even within seconds of the big bang. And though it is not the subject of this work, we can observe the effect of social and other imbalances around us daily.

  • Alan Turing devised the binary code which was employed by John von Neumann to develop the computer language used in almost every computer today. However, both Turing and von Neumann felt that the binary code was not the most efficient. Both felt that e, (2.7) the base of natural logarithms, was the ideal computer language. Though unrealizable in practice, von Neumann developed a model which can be designed as a multi-level network of binary/ternary elements. In its simplest, it is literally a sequence of two's and three's.

    While the above stipulated that all forms of imbalance can be viewed as the number one Nature seems to use not only one but three – which is nonetheless two offset by one. This paper, in its simplest, looks at Nature as constructed around use of the base of the natural log: "sequential" structures embodying two-three relationships and/or structures. Though an oversimplification, where it occurs, the mechanism or engine of evolution would be atomic stability periodically thrown into a short-lived ionic imbalance forcing it to a higher stability when a + or -1 is neutralized. Evolving biologically upwards, Nature fundamentally consolidates her gains. An equation has been offered which gives a view on how to achieve base e:

    e = [2n + 3m] / [n + m]

    where n = the number of binary computations and m = the number of tri-valued computations. The interesting question is that if it is true that two is a unit of stasis and balance while three a force catalyzing change; and if it is true that the undergirding quantum structure of the universe is based on 2-3 entities, on the most fundamental level – the interface between subatomic and atomic particles – is Nature a computing entity designed to evolve and would AI be aided by a computing system resting upon base e?

    Binary-ternary is a tool of Thought: Least, though, the reader somehow conclude that it is the writer's opinion that the fundamental character of organization in nature is that of a dry, emotionless, machine-like computer, let the writer now clearly say that such is not at all the case. The writer agrees with the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus, Jews, and Christians and more recently Sir James Jeans, Wolfgang Pauli,4 and Freeman Dyson, that the fundamental feature of creation is that of Thought. That Thought is its key aspect. That there is the relation to Thought and binary-ternary as between a great composer and the eight octaves used to express his music. It is the writer's feeling that binary-ternary organization is nothing more glorified than a tool. A hammer or saw as used by Christ the carpenter, or a glove fitting around and assuming all the motions and expressions of the magician's or seaman's hand it snugly covers and protects.

    Elsewhere, the idea was introduced that it is • immaterial forces underlying matter (e.g. the electromagnetic force forming and controlling electrons and overall behavior of atoms; the strong force forming and controlling protons and neutrons and, in general, the atom's nucleus; gravity forming stars and planets and establishing their relationships) that immaterial forces are the blueprints underlying matter and – more properly, as the universe coheres as one, unified body – Thought is the common, unifying principle of the so-called physical universe. • Also, the binding between the subatomic particles we know as electrons, protons, and neutrons are mediated by what physicists call "resonances:" vibratory energies so short-lived they have never once been photographed and have not a shred of physical evidence to prove them but are are mathematical explanations whose absence would mean atoms could not otherwise exist.

    • Furthermore, it was mentioned that "matter" particles themselves are not properly only matter (we somehow, perhaps wrongly, "feel" matter is fundamental), but wave-particles and thus are a physical manifestation of the activities of the immaterial forces ungirding them. Forces which (if we had to choose between "matter" and Thought) have the immaterial nature of Thought. There is nothing fundamental about the physical world. It is an expression of Thought while activities in the physical world would seem to be Thought thinking. Finally, any aspect of evolution found in creation in a Thought-based universe would appear to reflect a purposeful desire existent from the outset of the universe that things evolve until the point in the far future where sentient beings reflect and become equal to the nature of the Founder.

    Please click The Nature of God, The embedding of Thought in the universe, or The nature of intelligence to see ideas more relevant to those representing the more fundamental or basic feature of the universe – in the writer's opinion. While a presentation of a key feature of a Thought-based universe is found in the introduction to the The alpha-imago nature of the cosmos in the foreword of Plato's Republic where Plato speaks of the relation between image and the physical world.

    Nevertheless, presented below are over 70 quantum instances of 2-3 interfaces in the first three seconds following the big bang. The text of the present paper has been omitted: only the tables included for the reader's own evaluation.

    [ Binary/ternary matter pyramid ] [ Standard Model in binary/ternary sets ]

    Bibliography supplied on request

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