October 22nd, 2024
Now that you understand the dichotomous nature of reality, I’m going to pull the rug out from underneath you by pointing out that the two poles of the dichotomy can blur together. They’re not simply black and white; there’s a large gray area between them.
This is most apparent in quantum physics, where we learn that all particles have wavelike properties and all waves have particle-like properties. An electron is a particle, but it can diffract through a slit just like a water wave.
We see the same blurring in economics. Any good can also be described as a service, and any service can be described as a good. For example, when you purchase a hamburger, are you getting a bunch Objects stuck together (all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, pickle, and onions on a sesame-seed bun), or are you obtaining the services of the people who raised the cattle, drove the trucks, cooked the food, and delivered it to you?
In linguistics, we see nouns and verbs changing into each other.
In the body, we can talk about the “immune system” just as easily as we talk about the white blood cells that play a key role in the immune system.
Thus, reality is comprised of both Object and Process, but they blur together:
Are you sufficiently confused now? I can offer a few helpful thoughts. First, there are plenty of situations in which it is more productive to think solely in terms of Object.
For example, Saturn is both a particle and a wave, but for all practical purposes, you can ignore its wavelike properties. They just don’t have any observable effects. In like fashion, for some situations, it’s easier to think exclusively in terms of Process:
The blurring together of Object and Process in everyday experience is so rare that we never noticed that blurring until we discovered quantum mechanics.
One other way to keep Object and Process clearly differentiated is to realize that Objects exist in space and Processes exist in time. Every Object has a definable spatial location (e.g., my computer is in my office in my house, which is in southern Oregon), but Processes do not have a definable spatial location (e.g., where is gravity?) Conversely, Objects extend across all of time unless some Process changes them, while Processes can be specified to take place in a certain range of time. For example, Pompeii was destroyed on August 24th, 79 CE.
The moral of this story: In some cases, Object and Process can blur together in confusing ways, but such cases are special.