How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
Book I – Dualism: Final Chapter (#35 - From apple to Apple)
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
“The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.”
– John Milton, Paradise Lost
Special Announcement!
As we reach the Final Chapter of Book One the Conversation is Growing with Over 1,000 active Subscribers! Next week launches the new “Reality by a Thread” upgrade to our Free Weekly Newsletter. The purpose of this upgrade is to expand the conversation related to Reality, build a community interested in an elevated discussion regarding the important ideas and topics necessary for bridging the gaps between us, and to help fund the advertising costs needed to support and expand the Newsletter, the New Podcast, and the New Daily Thread. Here’s How It Works!
All Current Subscribers will get the first four Untangling the Knots of Reality Podcasts Free with No Strings or anything to cancel. Four for Free for Everybody! You can also subscribe for a 30-Day Free Trial which includes the Daily Thread, “Reality by a Thread.” However, if you don’t cancel, Substack will begin your Paid Subscription of $7.00 per month after the 30-Day trial, at which time you will receive a code for your Free PDF Download of “Book I: Dualism – Recognizing the Patterns of Reality SUBSTACK EDITION.” As a paid subscriber to the “Reality by a Thread” upgrade you will also receive Free PDF Versions of future Substack Edition Books. If you decide not to upgrade, you will continue to receive the Free Weekly Newsletter.
So, Expand Your Part in the Conversation! Upgrade to “Reality by a Thread” and participate in the New Daily Thread, enjoy the New Untangling the Knots of Reality Podcast, and receive PDF versions of all current and future Substack Editions of my books. All for less than one cup of coffee a month from your favorite coffee shop! And you will have something interesting to talk about with your friends at the coffee shop!! Upgrade Today!!!
Thank You, to Everybody!
CONSIDERATION #35 – “FROM APPLE TO APPLE”
PREFACE
“By the way, if you get mad at your Mac laptop and wonder who designed this demonic device, notice the manufacturer's icon on top: an apple with a bite out of it.”
– Peter Kreeft
Welcome Everybody!
One of the taglines for Book One is “From the apple in the Garden of Eden, to the Apple in Cupertino Valley, California.” Well, here we are. We have covered the history of dualism from the Biblical story in Genesis to the foundation of Apple Computer Corporation and the digital revolution, as promised. We are now ready to reconsider what we have learned and begin the next step into our investigation into Reality: The Power of Three.
CONSIDERATION #35 – From apple to Apple
“They weren't kicked out of the Garden of Eden because of their thirst for knowledge; they developed their thirst for knowledge by being kicked out of the Garden.”
– Michael Walterich
From the first bite of the “apple” in the Garden of Eden, to the personal computing revolution unleashed through the innovative technology of Apple Computer Corporation, and others, the arch of dualism has been all-encompassing.
Our ability to recognize patterns in existence, particularly the ubiquitous manifestation of opposites, becomes the catharsis of reason that catapults us from an instinct-based experience to an intentional and logical manipulation of our own reality. Starting from the experience of the senses, we came to recognize a physical world that could be touched, tasted, smelled, heard, and seen, which became the foundation for what was “real.” However, the unexplainable chaos in the world came to represent a “separate reality” from our physical world that appeared conflicting and incongruent. However, like physical reality, this alternate reality also became an object of our obsession.
“Our consistent attempt at understanding and unifying these apparent opposites gave birth to philosophy, religion, science, metaphysics, and most importantly, abstract reason.”
This abstract world of the mind, or soul, became the focus of the metaphysics that would eventually become mathematics, geometry, and the basic theology of the Catholic Church. Our consistent attempt at understanding and unifying these apparent opposites gave birth to philosophy, religion, science, metaphysics, and most importantly, abstract reason. This rational, empirical, scientific method led to the Age of Reason, where it was applied to solving the world’s social challenges, leading to the establishment of the United States of America.
The United States represented a new vision of possibility in which Enlightenment ideas, such as equality under the law, individual human rights, personal ownership of ideas or inventions, and the pursuit of happiness, led to a plethora of miraculous medical, scientific, and technological advancements and innovations that significantly altered and improved the reality of human beings.
“We are moving closer and closer to the time when our digital reality is indistinguishable from God’s physical reality.”
We have now reached the apex of this Western approach through the creation of digital technology, based on dualism (0’s and 1’s), that allows us to be the gods of our own creation: digital dualism. We are moving closer and closer to the time when our digital reality is indistinguishable from God’s physical reality. Ironically, despite the long history of accomplishments gained through our recognition, and even manipulation, of opposites based on the principles of dualism, we are still faced with the same question posed to Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes: What exactly is reality?
Beyond Dualism
One of the most unique aspects of dualism is that it requires no understanding to be utilized. However, as suggested by Aristotle, “Human beings began to do philosophy… at first because they wondered about the strange things right in front of them, and then later, advancing little by little, because they came to find greater things puzzling.” Human beings eventually grew tired of simply using the patterns of nature to successfully alter their existence and reality. Soon, reason overtook myth as the accepted method of explaining the nature of existence, not simply as a way to recognize it. Philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and clergy began to use not only their senses, but their minds, through reason, to move beyond dualism; beyond recognizing the dichotomy of two into understanding the Manifestation of Three.
POSTSCRIPT
“The New World's purpose was to be The Old World's Eden - a place of dreams to wipe clean the mistakes and sins of the past and start again. This mirage bore the human flaws of its construction that we are still dealing with today.”
― Stewart Stafford
In Book Two, “The Power of Three,” the understanding of manifestation through a third factor leads to the Big Bang Theory, the Holy Trinity, the Atomic Age, the Theory of Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and much more. Keep reading to see how it works.
Next week starts the first of three Special Edition Newsletters focusing on the transition from the Age of Reason to the Modern Age of Science and a rebuttal of Enlightenment philosophy, with an emphasis on a “next” philosophical system presented by the first “post-Enlightenment” philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. After this transition we will begin considering the next book in the series: “Book II: The Power of Three – Understanding Realty Through Science & Religion.”
Book IV “The Cosmic Symphony: Overtones of String Theory.” Coming This Fall!
