Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Holes

From: http://www.impawards.com/2003/posters/holes.jpg On Jan 9 2007

Oh, and the picture doesn't really have anything to do with today's post. The post today is actually about Art, Mathematics and the languages of the universe. Yes, LanguageS of the universe. It has been said that math is the language of the universe. It has been said that if you ask the universe a question it will answer in math. Well this is sort of true, but it is true in the same way that the language of a computer is English. Every time I look at the computer all I see is English. But the computer actually speaks on and offs, but we are able to translate it into English. What language then does the universe speak? I think it is something closer to math art. There are numbers galore, even if I don't hear birds spouting formulae, there are still numbers everywhere, yet there is also great beauty. Intense amazing beauty in each and every component of the universe. The languages of the Universe is art, but to understand the art of the universe we have to translate into math. Birds don't sing in numbers but their song can be transformed into them the same way the computer screen is written in 1s and 0s then the English is dug out from them.

Ah fascinating, but if math is not the language of the Universe proper, what then is math? Math is the language of holes. (Ah, that's where the picture comes in, a post Hole if you will.) Moreover, art is the language of Wholes. I say that math is the language of holes because math provides us the techniques to fill in the infinitely many potholes of logic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, sines, cos, and the rest--these are the letters the language of Holes is written in. They are the dirt, the foundation on which the whole is built. 2+3=5 if this is true we can then fill the hole that "2 and what, will make 5. " We disguise the hole with the symbol "x." I guess X marks the trap. Since we have ascribed 5 to be formed from 2 and 3 3 is the only thing that will fill in the hole we have created. The same holeds as we progress through stranger smaller holes to fill math gives us the shovels and the dirt to fill the missing holes. Sine of what will fill the hole (X) plus some other hole (Y) when divided by 6 and squared will equal three.
Science is intimately tied with mathematics because science is the special case of looking for holes in the universe and ways of filling them. Math is the language and science is the story problems.

Ah, so what of art? Art is the language of wholes. Art likes to see the whole picture whereas math and science are only concerned with the hole picture. The reason well laid out pictures of every day objects work so well is that the artist is keen at recognizing what we see as the hole-- merely a part of something larger is inturn itself a whole. All of the universe can be contained within great art, if even but a glimpse. The master has shown us the whole within the hole. And herein lies the metaphysical fractal for it is truly an object of math to be powerful enough to fit the whole within a hole. Artists see the emotional picture, the grandest scheme of things--the wholes if you will, while the mathematician and the scientist seeks only the newest question that expands the hole of our understanding by filling in the holes of our understanding.
If this is true, then a religion is an art and a science for it deepens our hole yet it lets us glimpse the universe as a whole. Music is another translation of sight into the realm of sound, letting us too perceive the whole hole. To eat is to fill our holes with things that are whole. And engineering is the whole of holes filling holes with perceived wholes.

But, the trick is for the studier of holes to realize that there are wholes, and for the wholes to realize that even their wholes have holes. The two are opposites one is empty even though it is filled, while the other is full and yet empty. To be a success we must unite the two. Art and religion must unne with science as must the other way round. Only then will we truly see the whole of wholes holes and all.

11 comments:

Boom said...

Hole-y cow that post hurt.

Boom said...

That post was no holes barred.

Boom said...

Texas hole em?

Boom said...

A hole trigheist?

Boom said...

I think that is the whole of my jokes.

Ki said...

Boom-- awesome post, and if it wasn't your normal puns, then it left room for them in your comments section-- which you've definitely been taking advantage of.

I'm interested (and mildly wounded) that you would think logic leaves holes that only math can fill. To me logic is nothing more or less than the conceptual math of metaphysics translated into words. In fact, if you saw my notebook, you would laugh at how much my logic looks like algebraic equations. I kid you not.

Sooooo-- if logic and math are the same understanding and thought process, then perhaps using math to solve logic problems is you being better at counting on your fingers than I am. :)

PS. Beautiful bit of writing.

Boom said...

No logic is the filling of holes, for as you say logic and math are intertwined. And my holes offer no value judgements it is the same as the holes between the threads in fabric use of the threads of logic will fill the holes but when it does smaller different ones will remain.

Math is the searching for the round peg to fill the round hole with and rejecting the square peg for some other hole. Math and logic are the devices we use to fill the holes.

Do not forget also that an artistic logic is not because I can count on my fingers better than you but perhaps that I am looking at a problems tiny speciefics whereas a logician or artist might be see the whole picture. Answers that look widely different, but are actually very much the same albeit a matter of perspective one the perspective of the artist the other from the point of the mathematician.

Boom said...

Thanks for the compliment, if this page were a gun, would this be my hole-ster?

Anonymous said...

So I interpret that you regard math as a translation of the language of the universe. Yet isn't it a fairly incomplete translation? You may add 2 apples to 3 apples and end up with 5 apples but does the equation 2+3=5 really do jusice to the apples? To fully understand the apple you would have to have equations for color, weight, taste, origin, reproductive capacity, sugar content, water, effectiveness of the cuticle in replusing enviromental attacks, and hundreds or thousands of other things to describe a single apple. Then you have to combind 5 such masses of math. But perhaps I am looking to much at the Whole.

I sense that this is related to the idea in Persig's book on Motorcycle Maintanence. The conflict between emotion and reason ie art and science/math. I decided a long time ago that I needed to find a balance between the two sides. And the more I try to seek it the more I am convinced that the key to blending them lies at the third point of the triangle. The heart and the mind must meet with the deeper substance that ties them together, the spirit.

You combined religion with art. I think Religion, or true religion anyway, is really the harmony between art an science. Certainly in practice religion is most often a emotional or artistic pursuit, although there are plenty of religions out there that run under the science half. But God isn't more in one half then the other because that would make him unjust. Therefore He must be a Wholesome combination of the two.

God does seem to have a particular gift for fixing the holes in order to run the whole.

Boom said...

Touchee and well put sir Riley

Boom said...

Incidently this is my first post with double digit comments!