Discovering the Source of Sync

Spontaneous order is a magnificently mysterious topic which, as Steven Strogatz says, "strikes a chord in us, somewhere deep in our souls." In fact, he even goes as far as to say that if we, mankind, were to one day discover the source of spontaneous order, then we will realize that we have actually discovered the "secret of the universe" (Strogatz 289). This claim naturally interests me in how this "secret" is the solution and explanation to every single question and uncertainty that I have had over my lifetime. I imagine these are curiosities that we all naturally share amongst ourselves as curious beings, no matter how we differ, whether we have differing heritages, or even from the time period in which we existed. Everybody, including historically renown figures like Plato, Francis Bacon, and Charles Darwin, would be completely astounded if or when we find our answers.

Technological advances have exploded over the past few decades, resulting with almost every other household item containing some sort of electronic circuitry, on top of each resident of the household owning at least one computer. This coexistence with technology leads to a question that many of us have thought of at least once in our lives: Do we really have full control of our actions? Or are we the product of some sort of higher essence that operates us or predetermines our course in life? With artificial intelligence in full development, I assume that many of us ask ourselves very similar questions. However, it is impossible to know for sure whether or not we are really just trained to believe the things that we know, similar to the "brain in the vat" concept. Our lives could potentially be a simulated reality with interactions with other things that may cease to exist in the first place. Everything we know, or more appropriately, everything that we believe we know, may in actuality be false ("Brain in a Vat"). In fact, the men held captive in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" may be a better representation of our lives. Life as we know could just be a lower form of a higher, more perfect form. Ultimately, the highest form would be the Sun (Plato). In this analogy, the Sun would symbolize the "secret of the universe." If we can ever reach the level of the Sun, we may discover all there is to know, including the source of spontaneous order and sync.

Another debatable topic that I have pondered about concerns religion and its roles in our lives. In reality, there is no physical, concrete evidence supporting any religion over another. In addition, if one religion is the right religion, why are there so many differing religions across the globe? It seems that the purpose of religion, in general, is to provide us with some form of hope. I hate to reference a video game, but as witnessed in Final Fantasy X, Tidus and Yuna discovered the hard way that their practiced religion and rituals to bring an end to "Sin," what represented all of the bad in the world, were completely ineffective. It turns out that through their practices, "Sin" would only be temporarily halted instead of permanently terminated. Instead of helping their community by ridding it of this "Sin," their actions were found to be fruitless. Instead, they were actually just providing their community with hope, hope that "Sin" would one day be just a memory (Final Fantasy X). Hope is what drives us as human beings, keeping us going from one day to another. Without this type of hope, our lives would be meaningless, and I believe that it is from this necessity that comes the development of religion. With everyone needing "hope" to survive, we can understand that shared beliefs among a community, although not necessarily proven, are typically accepted according to Francis Bacon's Idols of the Tribe, and religions are created. According to Bacon, idols like this impede our ability to arrive at factual conclusions ("Baconian Method"). However, if we were to be able to eliminate or bypass all of the idols in our minds, both known and unknown, we may be able to discover the "secret of the universe" and avoid having to rely on religion to guide us.

Charles Darwin's contributions on the theory of evolution have heavily impacted the scientific community. Most of us have come to accept that species change and adapt according their ever-changing surroundings. There is also plenty of evidence in the form of fossils that support this theory, some of them even dating back to millions of years ago. I find this really fascinating and have questioned it to a certain degree. Why do we, or living organisms in general, still continue to change after centuries of adaptation? After a specie has taken countless variations over a myriad years, it seems as if one supreme specie would be developed that would be able to exist in just about any environment given any circumstance. I suppose we meet this criterion, but what about all of the other species? After millions of years of natural selection in action, I would imagine that just about every criterion would be accounted for and the vast array of different species would eventually merge and produce a single, supreme specie left to roam this planet. Perhaps we are not at that stage yet. Maybe there are still trillions of years left to go, and that we are still in the process of developing this super-specie. However, there is really no way of finding out the truth, unless we happen to discover the "secret of the universe," perhaps by first finding the source of spontaneous order.

Steven Strogatz's Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life really makes one think about all of the similarities in behavior among various objects and organisms. What makes it so striking to us is that "unlike many other phenomena, the witnessing of it touches people at a primal level" (289). Just like the fireflies and schools of fish, some instinctual quality deep inside all of us manages to move us in what seems like spontaneous, yet systematic order. Considering that the idea of "sync" is a more modern topic, I find it very interesting. What if it holds the "secret of the universe?" This curiosity is where my interest stems from. If we can one day find the source of spontaneous order, we may be able to solve or prove concepts that have been debated for centuries. Although, Steven Strogatz's publications on "sync" are something of the twenty-first century, it reaches and impacts philosophers from every century, including Plato, Francis Bacon, and Charles Darwin.

Works Cited

"Baconian Method." 30 November 2009.

"Brain in a Vat." 20 November 2009 .

Final Fantasy X. 2. 20 December 2001. Square Enix. 2007.

Plato, & Jowett, B. (1941). Plato's The Republic. New York: The Modern Library. OCLC:

964319.

Strogatz, Steven. Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily

Life. New York: Hyperion, 2003. Print.