Laws of Physics

[Udai Shankar]

Dear Friends,

           Is it true that the laws of physics have "symmetry and symmetry breaking" as their basic building blocks [I am a researcher in quantum computing but my knowledge is mostly  in math  and not physics] ? if so, may be they are so because our minds can only recognize patterns and patterns = broken symmetries. 

thus perhaps our minds are only self evolving by constantly breaking symmetry and that is all we see in the form of all these physical objects and the laws of physics. 

Please comment.

Regards

Udai

[Ben Iscatus]

I can't comment specifically on symmetry, but a more general way of saying this (it seems to me) is (in Rupert Spira's words) "Creativity is freedom from the past".  If the One true Consciousness is infinitely free, then even as apparently separate, finite selves we inherit its desire for freedom. In expressing this desire, evolution from "what-is-now" to "what-has-not-yet-been" is inevitable. 

[Peter Jones]

Oops. Double post.

[Lex Benjamin]

           Is it true that the laws of physics have "symmetry and symmetry breaking" as their basic building blocks [I am a researcher in quantum computing but my knowledge is mostly  in math  and not physics] ? if so, may be they are so because our minds can only recognize patterns and patterns = broken symmetries. 

Symmetry is an essential part of physics. I guess it's correct to say it's a building block. We assume that rules and laws are invariant relative to momentum or reference frame. Symmetry breaking wouldn't be a good candidate for your theory. I like it and I think I understand what you're saying. "We only see patterns that deviate from the norm". The issue is, symmetry breaking is an anomaly in physics, not the norm. It only occurs in very specific and unique scenarios. That doesn't seem to grant enough opportunities for us to have the cognition that we appear to. 

[Peter Jones]

Symmetry-breaking is also a basic process for the mystical philosophy. After all, if by reduction the world is a Unity then there's only one way to go from there. Hence this is the 'world of opposites'.  Spencer Brown in 'Laws of Form' shows how form derives from the breaking of symmetries and the making of distinctions.  

[Dana Lomas]

Indeed ... What mortal hand or eye could break thy fearful symmetry? :)