In reading many descriptions of MoQ, it seems to me that the many diagrams
provided are very abstract and seem only to explain the patterns of quality
rather than to help us actually visualize them. I find it hard to accept
these abstract patters of quality without a real way to visualize them. I
personally stumbled onto a solution that works for me one night and i'd
like to share it for others who don't find circles upon circles or boxes a
solid visualization of the material universe and its workings.
The theory that led me to this picture is, let me warn you, highly
disputed, or even worse, largely ignored as scientists find it silly. But,
from what I know about science (which isn't a lot but it significantly more
than lay more than lay people), it is an eloquent and useful model. This
is called the single electron theory (but perhaps single quark or single
unknown particle would be a better name). The theory takes advantage of
both our extremely limited perception of the dimension of time and the fact
that every proton is exactly the same as every other, as are electrons and
neutrons and every other particle. Also, a positron (anti matter electron)
is mathematically equivalent to a regular electron moving backwards in
space time. Thus the theory proposes that there is but one electron in all
of existence, displaced differently in space and time. (Stick with me, it
gets easier)
Imagine an airplane pilot who looks down at the ground from his plane and
finds three roads directly beneath him. Traveling further up (progressing
in time as the metaphor goes) he sees that two of the roads merge into one
at a switchback. Turning around out of curiosity he finds that there was
another switchback earlier and the three different roads were really only
one. If an electron were a string woven through space time, the three
roads would have been seen initially as two different electrons and one
positron. the switchbacks would have been a matter/antimatter collision
which would have obliterated the two particles (or created them from
nothing, or well, from energy at least).
So, as I see it, all of existence is one or three or a very limited number
of particles, perhaps an electron, or a quark and a photon, or whatever is
the bare necessity for existence. Guided by quality, these threads twist
around each other and form a fantastic tapestry that is all of existence as
we know it in all of space and time. Thus, to me, this explains "patterns
of quality". a person (a static biological pattern) would be seen as a
specific twisting of the threads that continued for a brief span in time
until the person dies. the thread itself may be "chaos" (hence
uncertainty) and its patterns make the inorganic, and upward. The best
visualization I can think of now is a fractal (specifically the one that
builds before each chapter of Jurassic Park), and if you don't know what a
fractal is, there are thousands of pictures on the internet, they are a
result of chaos theory if "fractal" in a search engine doesn't give a good
enough explanation. Anyway, One simple pattern is repeated while
participating in a larger pattern, etc. These are the patterns of quality,
the simplest being inorganic, participating in the biological pattern,
which is a part of the social, etc. However, in this picture of the
universe I see an infinite number of static patterns. The four Pirsig lays
out are the one in which we exist now and the three beneath it, however,
innumerable forks (and levels above us that we cannot perceive) exist as
well. The universe itself is one gigantic pattern, and the planets perhaps
have "societies" with meanings we can't comprehend from our fixed position
on the intellect branch. You must admit, four levels seems far too precise
a description of all reality and fairly arbitrary as well.
This email is far too long right now, and very dense. Please comment and
I'd be glad to answer questions, clarify a point, or expound more deeply on
anything. This is a very small description of a very large and complex
idea. Think about it a little, I think all the appropriate principals of
MoQ can be found in it, and in a much more meaningful (and aesthetically
pleasing to the senses and mind) visualization.
Elliot
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