Mystics still have a few things to tell scientists (don't
reach for the napalm - its on topic). The wheel of life
has two principles, male (competition) and female
(nurture). The two principles work sequentially. First
male, then mix, then female, then separate. The two are
actually four, in a wheel.
Draw a circle divided up by a cross. Mark the poles N
"governance", E "competition, S "utility" and W "altruism".
(If you want to go back to the beginning, label them N "weak
force", E "strong force", S "electromagnetism" and W
"gravity". Its still the same pattern and process. Now mark
the fields - NE "hunting, potential", SE "mixing", SW
"realisation" and NW "separation, information".
Now bisect the circle with a diagonal line from NW to SE.
The upper right half is what we see as "male" and the
lower left half is what we see as "female". NE is pure
male, they meet and mix in the SE, SW is pure female and
they separate in the NW. The line of separation in the NW
is actually a gap. The gap marks the start and finish of
each cycle. But the system spirals through time, so it
extrudes from the upper side of the gap, goes clockwise
round the cycle, and disappears beneath itself at the gap.
This matrix, or wheel of life, is actually the end view of
a spiral. It is the presence of the gap that gives
physicists such a problem trying to work out a Theory of
Everything (TOE), and they are now trying to bridge the
gap with string theory. Biologists have it much easier,
because they already know how.
Leap a few billion years from physics to biology and the
appearance of life. Every living thing has the same cycle.
It hunts potential (NE), mixes up gained resources (SE),
nurtures itself (SW), and feeds information (NW) back round
the feedback cycle to start/not start another hunt -
homeostasis.
breeding pair. Now the matrix (latin "womb"😉 has become a
den (or territory) with a notional E entrance. The male
principle has to govern (N) the environment and hunt (NE)
by means of competition (E) to take ownership of resources
and drag them back to the den. These are mixed (SE) into
new bits of resident and utilised (S) in reproduction (SW)
and nurturing the den (W). They either survive/not survive,
information that will start the next hunt. Information
jumps the gap.
The genes follow the same pattern at the same time. First
the male dominates N, hunts potential NE (the arrow on the
male sign) by
(the sign of the little matrix on the female sign) and the
female gives birth SW and nurtures W. The old breeders slide
down the helter-skelter to history, but the genes jump the
gap to the next generation and the spiral continues through
time with another cycle. The nurturing "female" den is the
default position. The male "goes outside" to hunt potential,
always pushing the parameter. The female stays at home – if
well fed, the den gets bigger.
Evolution is continually testing every direction on this
cycle. Lack of fitness in any direction - dominance (N),
hunting ability (NE), competition (E), gene mixing and
digestion (SE), utilisation and gestation (S), birth and
satisfaction (SW), altruism (W) or the ability to carry
information (NW) means you don't jump the gap in the
rotation. Lack of a selfish male strategy means you have to
use female altruistic strategy. Lack of female strategy
means you use male strategy. The mixing ensures variation
and adaptation.
It results in an infinity of strategies, too. Lions use a
male strategy – they fight well but breed slowly. Locusts
use the female strategy – they fight badly (no resource
territory) but outbreed attrition. The food chain is a
measure around the same Matrix. Some animals use the male
(outside) lone principle. Others use the (female) herd
principle. Some life-forms, like viruses, are simply
information (NNW) so "mix" (SE) inside others to achieve
their cycle. Others, like bacteria, have dens but live
inside the dens of others. There are infinite permutations
in position, direction and strategy. Social insects, like
bees use female societies with disposable males for genetics
and do the rest themselves – they lack governance (N) and
have a utilitarian (S) life. The same pattern permeates it
all. It all gets tested for fitness in the environment,
while dens try to protect the residents with nurture. If
population pressures rise, the male principle makes the
organism "go outside" and emigrate in dispersal. Everything
is a potential resource for something else. The only common
denominator throughout is the same matrix pattern.
We were once den-building animals, then we developed a new
brain and mind. We crossed a line on the continuum from
"animal" to "human" with intellect. Now, our male principle
sent the mind out hunting (NE), and we call it intelligence.
Our female principle constructed an intellectual den in
which to nurture us, and we call it civilisation. They were
made possible by mixing (SE), mental technology, expressed
in toolmaking, turning resources E into utility
S. The cycle was completed by language (NW) allowing
information to jump the gap between ideas and people,
accumulating knowledge in the WNW and reason in the NNW.
Its not magic – the NE is notionally the electricity in
the brain, the SE is the chemistry in the brain, the SW
is the biology of the brain and the NW is information.
The same cycle now gave us "Mind" (upper half) and
"Body" (brain, lower half). It also gave us Gods in our
invisible Heavens (governance, N) above and physical
Earth below.
We flourished in our dens of civilisation and grew into
societies and nations. The same bloody pattern still runs
them in our four great enterprises – Science, male (NE)
hunting potential - Technology, mixed (SE) converting
resources to utility - the Arts, female (SW) the realisation
of what it is to be human, and the Humanities (NW), our
information, split between reflection (knowledge, WNW) and
prospection (reason, NNW). And since there are numbers of
scientific thinkers here, science follows the same damn
cycle – physics (NE), chemistry (SE), biology (SW) and
information (NW).
Resources still flow into our den on the east, are utilised
in the south and shared out in the west, giving us our
spectrum of economics, from competitive on the right to
Marxian on the left. The same pattern gives us our politics,
too – authoritarian (N), competitive (right), utilitarian
(S) and altruist (left).
They are all round tables, and I love to watch the arguments
across them. Who is right and who is wrong? The process is
sequential and every step has its most advantageous time and
place. A well-fed society swings left (female) and goes anti-
male as homeostasis steps in to prevent over-cooking. Views
turn to nurturing inclusiveness and harmony – perfectly sane
middle aged ladies turn into GM cereal killers and shout at
MacDonalds or go on peace (anti-war, anti-male) rallies. The
arts (SW) rise in education and science (NE) suffers.
Organism fitness altruism begins to challenge selfishness.
The wheel turns.
So, the question remains - who is the watchmaker? If you
want to know more about this matrix, it's at
www.nashmatrix.com
Have an interesting day, everyone.
John Nash