Overview

The unicycle provides a singular image of balance and impending peril, lifted by whimsy for the weighty subject of this book. All the evidence of experimental science reveals that nature is asymmetric. No pure symmetry has ever been found. What does it mean to live in an asymmetric environment? Unicycle introduces the logic of asymmetric polarities of change to interpret the evidence, while showing how our symmetry-based math has failed to grasp a vital ethical and physical connection between humanity and the environment, between mind and body. The observation that nature is asymmetric confirms reasoning that is as organized as the current foundational symmetries of math by using symmetry as a foil in a proof by contradiction. One result is the discovery that nature, the universe, has a nonrandom sense of direction with vital ethical consequences, as matter and conscious behavior fundamentally combine in changing polarities and degrees. Humans are drawn repetitively, even addictively, to pure symmetry in the fictitious simplicity of absolutes, like moths to the flame, gamblers to roulette, or - clowns to the unicycle. The more extreme the instability, the greater the need for balance. There is a Tao-like polarity - but one where absolute poles of chaos and order cannot exist. Where physical and social pressures cannot go, they must turn away, in the absence of absolutes, not into relativism, but into the natural, open-ended polarity of the River of Asymmetry. Self-defeating actions attract asymmetric counter-pressures. A self-centered monoculture needs to reach out for balance and learn to navigate the currents. A key finding is that symmetry and asymmetry are mutually exclusive. In the absence of absolutes, nature's asymmetry opens a creative continuum of opportunity that cannot be stopped with absolute finality. That which connects us is more profound than the differences that divide us. Nature's asymmetry is multifarious and fundamentally inclusive. This provides the ethical basis for a democratic society and a fresh, panpsychist understanding of natural law. The reasoning is elucidated with an interdisciplinary narrative fiction, including mythological tales. The stories gain a realism of their own through the deductions. Nature comes to life, along with the characters, as they work on the book by a river in Maine - discovering Mother Nature's moral compass.

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9781959112044

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Reviews

Very scrupulously set out. It is extremely well written and beautifully literate. - Dr. Diane Collinson, author of Plain English, Fifty Major Philosophers, Fifty Eastern Thinkers, coauthor of the Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers This book contains some serious mathematics - smart, thought-provoking, and engrossing. - William H. Barker, PhD, professor of mathematics, Bowdoin College, coauthor of the textbook Continuous Symmetry: From Euclid to Klein A provocative book by a serious thinker, well worth the reader's time. We are essentially on the same page. - William A. Haviland, PhD, professor emeritus and founder of the Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, coauthor of bestselling textbooks, including Cultural Anthropology and Evolution and Prehistory Looks fascinating. - Daniel C. Dennett, PhD, professor of philosophy, co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University, bestselling author of books including Darwin's Dangerous Idea and From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds Unicycle is an important book. I am very impressed. It covers a lot of territory, and it is very thoughtful and even charming. The math and logic are understandable to the interdisciplinary reader. I agreed with everything the book has to say. - Esther Pasztory, PhD, professor emerita, Columbia University, author of groundbreaking books, including Thinking With Things, Aztec Art, Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living An eloquent explanation, with spare logic and excellent argument. In my critical thinking class, my students study the core ideals of the Enlightenment; this book's world view gives me a position from which to triangulate between absolutism and relativism and illuminates all three. - David S. Cook, author of Above the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine and Into the Civil War With the 3rd Maine Infantry Regiment (Upcoming in 2023)

Author Information

Born in Los Angeles, California, the author grew up among several Western countries. He attended Winchester College in the UK and is a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts. He is the co-founder of the Solon Center for Research and Publishing and of EOPA Code Blue Water Solutions.

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