Saturday, June 7, 2008

Duality integration happens in spacetime

Often we over-focus on the process of integrating dualities. Perhaps because of the relief and the payoff of doing so.

Whatever the reasons, one must truly know each side intimately before seeing how to bring them together. Dualities integrate in particular ways that have to be discovered. Take:

e=mc2

which integrates energy and matter. It isn't "1/2 e" or "2m." There is a very particular relationship between the opposing elements. To know how to weave two dualities together, it is vital to know them separately first. It took Einstein a decade (if not longer) to come to it. A huge part of this was the integration of light as both a particle and wave, an unresolved duality that caused physicists much consternation. It was not until he could understand both points of view intimately, going around the circle many hundreds of times, that the integration of the duality could finally come about.

In the case of Google, the duality in the Valley of Death was "search with integrity, but no revenue" juxtaposed with "paid keyword search with no integrity." It took them five years to figure out how to integrate it and create two search engines, thus preserving the integrity AND making money.

Finally, the prodigal son first knew "dependence," then knew "independence" only to finally find "interdependence" a journey of many years.

Duality integration is a hard-won prize that cannot be rushed and unfolds in the goodness of time. Before forcing toward it, get to know each opposing element intimately!

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