unity

Converting a sine wave into a square wave. *Straightening mother nature’s curves* so computations and manipulations become less expensive and more modular. Providing a framework so we humans can play God for a bit. This is a powerful skill to master. Data loss is accepted by design, with deliberate trade-offs baked into the machine. As components and codes mature, our square waves look more and more like the universe’s sine waves. Our system gets closer and closer to Mother Nature’s *algorithm*. Will we ever be able to write code like her?

“Aposematism is the advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predators that it is not worth attacking or eating.[1] This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the prey difficult to kill and eat, such as toxicity, venom, foul taste or smell, sharp spines, or aggressive nature. These advertising signals may take the form of conspicuous coloration, sounds, odours,[2] or other perceivable characteristics. Aposematic signals are beneficial for both predator and prey, since both avoid potential harm.” - Wikipedia

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Like a checkerboard pattern in the game of chess, the putrid smell of rotten organics, the jarring sights and sounds of a railroad crossing signal, or any such example of high contrast, these mechanisms trip our alarms by design. Or did our alarms evolve to trip around them?

What is Chaos Theory? Chaos is the science of surprises, of the nonlinear and the unpredictable. It teaches us to expect the unexpected. While most traditional science deals with supposedly predictable phenomena like gravity, electricity, or chemical reactions, Chaos Theory deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather, the stock market, our brain states, and so on. These phenomena are often described by fractal mathematics, which captures the infinite complexity of nature. Many natural objects exhibit fractal properties, including landscapes, clouds, trees, organs, rivers etc, and many of the systems in which we live exhibit complex, chaotic behavior. Recognizing the chaotic, fractal nature of our world can give us new insight, power, and wisdom. For example, by understanding the complex, chaotic dynamics of the atmosphere, a balloon pilot can “steer” a balloon to a desired location. By understanding that our ecosystems, our social systems, and our economic systems are interconnected, we can hope to avoid actions which may end up being detrimental to our long-term well-being.

<n>Anish Kapoor</n>'s installation '<n>Leviathan</n>' at <n>Monumenta 2011</n>. Photo by <n>Jean-Pierre Dalbéra</n>.

Scene from <n>Blade Runner 2049</n> (2017), directed by <n>Denis Villeneuve</n>.

Our obstetrician gave us a due date and said: "Let nature run its course." The sonographer took a moment to admire the minutia jumping off the screen, commenting on how different this one seemed. The signal strength was sharp. The blood was A positive. The heartbeat was mechanical. The movements were laborsaving. We weren't surprised by any of the remarks. This little one is going to take after its father.

IQ tests favor pattern recognition and the ability to deduce algorithms, as opposed to most exams which typically detect if the student studied some material and comprehended it, or simply memorized it.

The best advancements that humans achieve almost always resemble a set of principles that hold true under all conceivable input states. Someone with a high IQ has a knack for this kind of thing, they are systems-oriented. They can build useful machines out of modular components. They piece these components together in such a way that the sum of their parts produces a consistent output. Consistency proves that a pattern of our world has been successfully modeled.

There’s nothing contrived about the real world. There are seemingly infinite patterns in nature waiting to be discovered. *Unrealized* *systems are dying to be built*.

We must take the principles from our IQ tests and apply them in creative ways to try and build things that Mother Nature would deem useful. Accurate data models are the seed for such systems. The most difficult part is *asking Mother Nature the right questions*, she tends not to respond. But when she does, you can feel it in your bones.

*If* your intuition is strong, *then* you don’t need to take any cues, be “certified”, reference an operating procedure, use a framework, or read a blog. ***You only need the correct specifications for whatever object you attempt to enhance***.

Of course, you can use all this tooling that people previously laid out for you. It will indeed increase the project’s throughput. And it will challenge you to think with another’s perspective, which is valuable for growth. But if we are talking brass tacks… *the most potent inventors have ruthless intuition.*

The most natural organisms evolve under the "method of false position" set within a given boundary or limit. Bouncing off the walls of their cage in such a way. They either die rather swiftly from the impacts or if they have the necessary codes to survive long enough, reproduce an organism with mostly similar codes with the exception of some seemingly random mutations, thus propagating existence forward. To approach engineering with similar tactics is an innate quality that some of the most misunderstood technicians possess.

A photograph by <n>Bill Durgin</n> from the series <n>Figures & Wares</n>.

Mankind experiences its greatest advancements when an individual (or a group of people) dedicates their life’s work to the art of *bridge design and construction*. Mastering engineering feats such as interface design, framework development, networking, modular architecture, and scalable manufacturing. We see these advances when people bold enough (and talented enough) band together in the name of pushing the state of the art forward, in the name of bridging gaps that were previously not traversable, in the name of curiosity. This allows organisms to mingle that have never experienced each other before. This requires a rare form of vision combined with fearlessness to break the status quo. *Everything must be removed from the table except the most fundamental components that one can discover*.

The 2011 demolition of a building in Montfermeil featuring <n>JR</n>'s <n>Portrait d’une génération</n>. Photo by <n>JR</n>.

Our most vivid memories are captured when a sensory input triggers an emotional response that is stronger than usual. The electrical signals become amplified and singe the memory receptors with a bit more force.

Also signals with smaller bandwidths (e.g. smell, sound) seem to be captured in memory with greater accuracy and ease.

<n>The boundaries of nothingness</n> by photographer <n>Alexander Plechko</n>.

Fibonacci had style. He was known to be serious in demeanor. Much of his life story went undocumented, and much of his work is presumed lost. His forte was distillation and delivery. He would study everything around him, and when he found value or meaning, he would write about it passionately. Fibonacci released his findings in literary form. He was a multi-disciplinary talent who could express complex mathematics with the written skills of a modern-day best-selling author. Fibonacci opted to apply mathematical principles to real-world situations when attempting to explain or enhance them. He invented the notion of a mathematical word problem. He had a knack for communicating the complexities of nature using relatable situations. His most famous book was published in 1202 (when he was estimated to be 32 years old). The crux of it convinced all of Europe to adopt the Arabic decimal system while also introducing uniquely novel ideas. His work engaged those in positions of power due to its practicality in business, economics, and society. In summary, he was a technical interface between anything and everything living, with a rare earthiness typically not seen in the scientific community.

<n>last day</n> by artist <n>Hiroshi Kudo</n>.

Ink drawing by Serbian artist <n>Endre Penovác</n>.

Injuries, in all forms, tend to occur when nerves run high. In response, the affected area of the body or mind transitions to a paralyzed state. This mechanism is most likely a product of natural selection and evolution. During this window of paralysis, healing occurs. Once the healing cycle is complete, the natural function of the affected area becomes restored. A new perspective is a potent by-product of the cycle and is directly proportional to the severity of the injury.

<n>Naked Paris</n> by photographer <n>Marco Zavalloni</n>.

<n>Arrival in Altay</n> by artist <n>Tamas Gyimesi</n>, a digital artwork inspired by the 2016 film <n>Arrival</n>.

From the editorial <n>Falling Down</n> by photographer <n>Sölve Sundsbo</n>.

In calculus we hear terms like: “negative infinity”, “positive infinity”, “taking a function to its limit”, “finding the derivative”, or “calculating an integral”, but the education system never really explains what all this means. They just have students memorize mathematical algorithms and test to see if they can reproduce common calculations in the field of calculus, without ever getting the students to ask themselves why is this particular calculation significant. Or how do all these terms and symbols translate to the real world? We would be a much more advanced society if our curriculums were reworked. Let me take a stab at it below.

Calculus was largely pioneered by Isaac Newton as a better approach to calculating the area under a curved object. Take a leaf 🍃 for example. If you wanted to reproduce that leaf exactly to specification, you would need to somehow calculate those beautiful curves exactly the same way as they exist in nature. The leading approach before Newton (and the way digital computers today operate with such tasks), was to slice the leaf into segments of narrow rectangles with known areas that would ascend or descend in length, riding the edge of the curves. The more rectangular segments you created (the narrower they were), the more accurate your calculations of the curvature would be. But mathematicians would never quite be satisfied with this approach. As the decades went on mathematicians would decrease the width of their predecessor's rectangles, carrying out calculations that took years, and get closer and closer to accurately reproducing that beautiful curve on paper. So close but so far, until Newton came along.

Newton said the number of rectangles stacked side by side to represent a curve is infinite. He said Mother Nature is capable of drawing rectangles that are infinitely narrow, in fact, she’s not operating with straight lines ever, and I’m going to give us a way to mathematically express this phenomenon. thus calculus was born.

Let’s go back to that leaf 🍃 and try to model it in calculus terms. We would say something like “Calculate the integral of the leaf function”. The dictionary defines integral as “necessary to make a whole complete; essential or fundamental”. So when we set out to calculate the integral of a leaf function what we are really saying is “Let’s try to provide a formula for mother nature’s fundamental way of creating leaves”.

We then say something like "We are going to calculate this integral against certain limits". In other words, “Let's set the limits for how advanced or accurate our calculation of the leaf integral is going to be before we begin.” When we reach the higher levels of calculus we begin to set these limits between negative infinity and positive infinity. That’s us saying “My calculation of this leaf’s curvature is going to be infinitely precise. I’ll represent it as smoothly as nature does”.

The final “answer” to such bold quests relies on the notion of a derivative. The dictionary defines a derivative as: “something that is based on another source. Imitative work of another person.” So our answers in calculus are based on these abstract derivatives which are mathematical representations that by definition own up to saying “This is my best attempt at expressing what nature did to build such a perfect curve.”

Calculus is all about curvature. The most natural shapes on earth. Easier forms of math like algebra or basic geometry/trigonometry deal with contrived objects like numbers or straight lines. In order to calculate curvature, your mind must be thinking about infinity. About the endlessness of the Cosmos.

<n>Ryan Gosling</n> in <n>Blade Runner 2049</n> (2017), directed by <n>Denis Villeneuve</n>.

"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order." — Carl Gustav Jung

Digital artwork by <n>Stuart Lippincott</n>.

*When* I attempt to take too large of a slice out of the modulating frequencies that make up the ebb and flow of life, my journey becomes jagged and uncomfortable.

*If* I treat the signals with the respect they deserve, *then* my contributions obtain a palpable smoothness that is soothing to my peers and I.

Poster for <n>Blade Runner</n> (1982) by artist <n>Christopher Shy</n>, starring <n>Harrison Ford</n> and directed by <n>Ridley Scott</n>.