Thoughts by Deb Ewing
I once had a two-decade long conversation with Peter Kidd, beginning in 1997. Pete told me he was living in three worlds – said that a few times over the years. Sometimes I thought I understood what he meant; sometimes I didn’t. It never mattered to our conversations, though. We built ontology like tree forts, tacking on whatever caught our fancy, borrowing from each other and everyone else.
Sir Roger Penrose penned (ha ha) a Three Worlds theory: He drew a model of human experience with the physical or noumenal world, which is outside us and which we can touch; with the subjective mental world, which exists solely within each person’s experience; and with the Platonic world, which could explain all things in non-physical terms, such as mathematics.
the Laws of the Universe”, Knopf (2005)
Oxford’s English Dictionary provides me with the definition of Platonic I want: Adj.– 2. Confined to words, theories, or ideals, and not leading to practical action.
Discussions with Pete were always platonic, and usually at least one something else at the same time.
When we talk about marshmallow as a word representing a marshmallow – like whether it can be used as a verb (it can; I did it in a garrotín) – we explore the platonic sense of language, or maybe of marshmallows.
Penrose tried to define ways in which each world interacted with the others, and built caveats into his cyclical model:
We access most of the platonic world through reasoning
Not all of our mentality stems from the physical world
There should be things in the real world that cannot be explained by logic
Connection is a wonderful plaything. We feed observations via senses to our tidy minds; we build internal models, find patterns, and seek agreement with other humans who are doing the same thing. The process is not linear, so we use whatever language seems to fit: rhyme or meter, paintings, sandcastles, mudholes, picnics, music. Marshmallow becomes a verb.
Let me slip another brain into this soup: Carl Jung, who believed in a collective unconscious. I only want to tie a little bit of his theory to Penrose’s with my own interpretation. When we humans compare and extrapolate our platonic interpretations of the physical world, it’s easier to believe that what cannot be explained affects us all.
We can believe in impossibility.
I generally dislike marshmallows, and spent a portion of an outdoor music concert roasting them for other people. When I did decide to eat my creation, there was something ritualistic about it, as if I were internalizing the scene, growing the sum total of me exponentially. Not to go too far off into the weeds, but that marshmallow was a seed that grew into a close-knit but physically distant community sharing pain, joy, and recipes. We mail each other things – tangible talismans. How’s that for extrapolation?
Sir Roger is also an artist, and he liked to create impossible designs. He and his father toyed around with geometry and architecture until they came up with a staircase that perpetually goes up. They presented it to Maurits Cornelis Escher, who elaborated.
Shortly before his passing, Pete told me he thought he’d found a fourth world, and that he would try to find it again. He reported that he did find it again, but he was tired and would get me more details later.
I believe in impossibility – six things or more, before breakfast or after.
I hope I meet up with my friend Pete in that fourth world sometime, so we can continue the conversation.
Further reading:
Escher in the Palace: M.C. Escher and Sir Roger Penrose talk about their collaboration on Ascending and Descending in a documentary embedded on this website.
Carl-Jung.net: Give yourself a crash course in Jungian psychology, and read the man’s own words on the topic of collective unconscious.
Socrates and Meno’s Slave: Socrates strives to prove that since a young and uneducated slave boy grasps geometry he must have learned it in a past life. Socrates was, I think, grappling with the same ideas Jung called Collective Unconscious.
NOVA- Exploring Cosmic Cycles: I’m not the only one who says the universe is cyclical. Check out some trending theories that our universe could one day be reborn. Which world is this?
debnation.com: debora Ewing is a writer, artist, oracle operating out of Annandale, Virginia, US. Read more of her musings and short fiction here, and catch spontaneous nonsense on Twitter or Instagram by following @DebsValidation.
Willie Nelson: Me and Paul – YouTube: Via twisty loops and troubadours, Willie’s song is the inspiration for this essay’s title. Find a friend and go on an adventure. Write a ballad.
