I have an idea. Why don’t I write it down on paper and post it to you?

(Forgive the anachronism, but it helps with analogy.)

You get my message, you read it and now you know my idea.

I sent it to you.

WRONG.

The idea never left my head. And it certainly never entered yours.

• I had an idea.
• Using processes and algorithms in my brain, I drew or printed some symbols and squiggles on a piece of paper.
• I sent the result to you.
• You reviewed the message using reverse algorithms and processes in your brain,
• You constructed an idea in your head.
• With luck, the two ideas match.

So what did pass between us?

If you took my message and very carefully scraped the ink off the paper, you would be left with

• A piece of paper
• A pile of ink dust
• No message.

Now, we’re not going all “quantum” here, this is an analogy and like all analogies, it might not quite fit exactly. But for this purpose, this one works.

The message, the information that could be decoded to construct your idea, was contained as a pattern.

A pattern is abstract. It is real, very real, but you cannot separate it from the carrier medium (ink and paper) and examine it on a bench independently.

Even what I am typing now is being stored in my laptop as a pattern. An electronic pattern in the RAM and on the drive. That pattern is not directly information, but it can be decoded to produce a screen display and that screen display can be decoded to allow you to build a version of my ideas.

Now we are standing on a bridge over a river. It’s a sunny day, with just the right amount of breeze. Lovely, isn’t it?

Looking over the bridge, there are little eddies downstream of the bridge piers. Some detach and float away down river.

You can see them. You can take pictures of them. Scientists can tell you lots about them and bore you to tears.

But, you cannot get a fishing net and dip one out of the water, take it home and look at it on the kitchen table.

Yes, there is water. Yes, it forms a funnel, it has speed, it has circular motion.

But the pattern that drives all this behaviour is an abstract. Real, but without length, width, depth or time.

This same type of dynamic pattern drives so many things: tornadoes, hurricanes, weather fronts.

Nearly everything is controlled by an abstract pattern.

Now this is getting out of hand. This could go on forever and I need coffee and a ciggie.

Just thought you might like to know.

Think about it.