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Binary Schminary!

Friends,
Our analog world is filled with endless possibilities. While a fancy digital computer monitor's 1.07 billion colors may seem like overkill, there are infinitely more colors in nature. The number of hues is only limited by our ability to perceive them. Similarly with sound. While we may hear up-to 10 octaves, the 120 chromatic scale notes contained therein are merely arbitrary stops in an unlimited array of possibilities. Skeptical? Try tuning a guitar by ear --or listening to a Bollywood movie soundtrack. And that’s just the audible range. There's a black hole playing B flat a whole 57 octaves below middle C. Right?

Pick any topic and the number of possibilities is similarly boundless. Resolution? Subatomic particles to super galactic clusters. Time? A jiffy to an eon. Math? Will get your head spinning (and that's before you leave the integer, real number realm). Why, then, do binary choices hold such appeal? Perhaps it's comforting to simplify our immensely complex world. Then again, perhaps we need to be reminded these binary choices limit our creativity and may lead to bad outcomes. Here are a few:
  • All or nothing. Whatever happened to 8.675309% for me and the remaining 91.324691% for others?
  • Now or never. Let me think it over. What about next Tuesday at 3:14:16 AM? 
  • Us or them. Wait, is one group made-up entirely of clones with implanted shared experiences? Is that them? Is that... us??
  • Capitalism or Socialism. How about... well, the United States? This odd blend of semi-regulated markets with a quasi-social safety net can’t rightly be called either.
  • The lesser of two evils. Why discriminate against third-party evils? How about non-evil? --heaven forbid good. 
  • Matter or... Dark matter? Energy? Antimatter? Doesn’t matter?
My point being, this morning, don’t over-simplify your pastry choices. Sure, you can choose not to have a donut, but why? Why not half a donut. Or a French cruller. Or a Boston cream-filled bizmark. Or two. Heck, have a muffin! Too far? Yeah, I may need to walk that last one back. Sorry!
Happy Friday!


Comments

Bruce.E.Camber said…
Either/or, I-Thou, Subject-Object... It is all part of the Newtonian wasteland of space "and" time when we all now know it is spacetime and the playful know it is spacetimematterenergy, a kaleidoscope of Janus-faces built with and around 31 dimensionless constants that manifest as continuity with order, symmetry creating relations, and harmony creating dynamics and value. Perhaps this might help: http://81018.com as as simple start on a highly-integrated, base-2 model of the universe from the Planck units to the current time.
June 26, 2020 at 4:45 PM
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