THE FRACTAL ORGANIZATION OF NATURE

JOHN A. GOWAN
(revised Dec., 2010)

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jag8@cornell.edu 
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(See: The Fractal Organization of Nature (Table))

Because the metaphysical realm as presented above represents the intuitive mind's attempt to discover the ordering laws of the Universe, it should be possible, at this time in the historical development of man's rational powers, to construct a "scientific" or rational parallel to the intuitively based metaphysical realm.

Taking my clues from the General Systems Table 1, I attempt a 4x4 model of a rational "World System" which is, insofar as reasonably possible, isomorphic with the structure and dynamics of the Land-Jaccaci-Gowan General System format ("GRST"). In this instance, a (conceptual) model of the Unified Field Theory is chosen as a suitable example of a rational or scientific "World System", comparable in scope to religious and occult cosmologies of the intuitive mode of thought. The rational model appears at the bottom of Table 1, beneath a table of intuitive hierarchies. The rational model is not in the form of a hierarchy, however, as it is not a general survey of the rational metaphysical realm but rather a model of a particular theory within that realm. It does share certain structural and dynamic properties with the large table, however - more in the horizontal dynamic and less in the vertical (since it is not a hierarchy). (See also: "Simple Table" and "4x3 Table".)

The conceptual basis of the Unified Field Theory as presented in the rational model is summarized below:

"Noether's Theorem" states that in a multicomponent field such as the electromagnetic field (or the metric field of spacetime), symmetries are associated with conservation laws. In matter, light's (broken) symmetries are conserved by charge and spin; in spacetime, light's symmetries are protected by inertial forces, and conserved (when broken) by gravitational forces. All forms of energy originate as light; matter carries charges which are the symmetry (and entropy) debts of the light which created it. Charges produce forces which act to return the material system to its original symmetric state, repaying matter's symmetry/entropy debts. Repayment is exampled by any spontaneous interaction producing net free energy, including: exothermic chemical reactions and matter-antimatter annihilation reactions; radioactivity, particle and proton decay; the nucleosynthetic pathway of stars, and Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes. Identifying the broken symmetries of light associated with each of the 4 charges and forces of physics is the first step toward a conceptual unification. The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light. The necessity for charge invariance (and the "Lorentz invariance" of Special and General Relativity) is the key to understanding the local action of the forces ("local gauge symmetry currents").

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The vertical columns represent the 4 forces of physics; the horizontal rows represent energy states and conservation functions regulating free and bound energy forms (the table should be read from left to right and top to bottom, like an English paragraph):

Row 1) light or free energy in both its wave and virtual particle form, with symmetry-breaking in the 4th (weak force) column; "velocity c" gauges the entropy drive and the "non-local" metric and distributional symmetry of light, creating space, the conservation domain of light, and causing the expansion and cooling of space. Gravity provides negative energy/entropy to balance the positive energy/entropy of the "Creation Event". Matter/antimatter is also equally represented until weak force symmetry-breaking. The universe is created (from the Multiverse) in a state of zero net energy and charge. The weak force asymmetric decay of electrically neutral leptoquarks destroys this initial symmetric energy state.
Row 2) Particles or bound energy resulting from the symmetry-breaking of row 1; row 2 represents the conservation of light's raw energy (mass, momentum), and the necessary entropy drive of matter, time (intrinsic "velocity t", creating and expanding history, and causing the aging and decay of matter and information). Time is created by the gravitational annihilation of space and the extraction of a metrically equivalent temporal residue;
Row 3) Charges borne by the particles of row 2; the charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light ("Noether's Theorem"); row 3 represents the conservation of free energy's symmetry (charge and spin conservation, including the inertial forces of the spacetime metric and the gravitational "location" charge);
Row 4) forces produced by the charges of row 3 act to return the material system to its original symmetric state of free energy (paying the symmetry debts of light) - even including the gravitational conservation of the symmetry of entropy via Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes.

The conversion of bound energy forms (matter) to free energy (light) occurs in a variety of modes, and each of the four forces contributes in its own special way. Electromagnetic forces produce annihilation reactions (particle vs antiparticle); gravitational forces produce conversions of bound to free energy in stars, quasars, and the "Hawking radiation" of black holes; the strong force drives fusion reactions, contributing to the nucleosynthetic pathway of stars, and producing proton decay; and weak force fission reactions also contribute to the stellar nucleosynthetic pathway and proton decay, and produce radioactivity and particle decay - all in obedience to Noether's Theorem regarding the conservation of light's "non-local" metric, entropic, and distributional symmetry.

This rational matrix is explained in detail in two papers, which the reader should consult if further information is desired. See: "Symmetry Principles of the Unified Field Theory" and "A General Systems Approach to the Unified Field Theory".

The Path to Redemption and the Conservation of Symmetry

The "problem" set to the Universe by the symmetry breaking of the "Big Bang" is how to return to its original symmetric state in the absence of antimatter? Spacetime and matter have enough information to solve this problem but it requires the addition of the time dimension (produced by the gravitational transformation of space) to work through to the solution. It is as if the Creator set the Cosmos on a journey through time, a sort of labyrinth it must pass through to solve the puzzle of its own return to symmetry, the Golden Age, or period of Grace, from which it began and to which it must return.

Our own lives are but tiny, fractal expressions of the cosmic journey. Biological life forms are the means by which the Cosmos becomes self-aware and experiences itself (due to the operation and evolution of a cosmic "information function", characterized in this model as the 4x3 General Systems algorithm). Humans are special to the extent they improve upon and further this cosmic information function and purpose.

Summary

In the rational system, the overwhelming single fact is that the physical Universe of matter represents a condition of broken symmetry. More matter than antimatter was produced during the "Big Bang" and we are here in consequence. The particle and gravitational charges are responses by the spacetime continuum to this condition of broken symmetry, which is a consequence of the conversion of energy from a symmetric massless state, (light), to an asymmetric, massive state, (particles). The various conservation laws and forces which have been engendered as consequences of this broken symmetry work upon matter to return the material cosmic system to its primordial symmetric state, light. The inevitable march of thermodynamic processes toward a condition of greater entropy characterizes this process, for light has the greatest symmetry and entropy of any energy form.

The analogy between the rational story of a universal physical descent by light into the asymmetry of mass, time, gravitation, and charge, followed by a process of recovery via the conservation laws; and the intuitive tradition of a cosmic "fall" from "grace" into manifestation and sin, followed by the recovery of lost and confused souls, is startlingly complete. Whether we are talking about the conversion of particles to light or bodies to spirits, the conservation of souls or the conservation of symmetry, the gravitational rescue of the physical system or the spiritual redemption of humanity, the process is so similar, on both the individual and cosmic scales, that we can only believe rational and intuitive minds have embraced a single reality in two symbolic representations, one anthropomorphic, mythical, and religious, the other abstract, mathematical, and scientific.

For the intuitive mind, as for the rational, the problem of "existence" is the single overwhelming fact. And to understand this fact, the intuitive mind, thousands of years ago, came to exactly the same conclusion regarding this problem as the rational mind has today: existence is a consequence of a "fall" from a primordial condition of "grace". For the physicist, this "grace" is a primordial condition of energetic and metric symmetry. For the intuitive mind, it is a condition of spiritual unity.

The rational and intuitive systems need not be at war with each other. They are simply different methods of apprehending the same reality with different powers of the same brain. I personally find they enhance and enrich each other, each lending a needed significance for the human condition, which as has often been observed, seems poised between two realms, an incredibly complex organization of atoms endowed with an emergent spiritual awareness. We are the Cosmos become aware of itself.