weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) (03/11/86)
The following is found in the beginning of every book in a certain
series on science and culture. I thought it was worth sharing.
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The Mobius Strip
The Symbol found on the cover of each volume in Convergence is the
visual symbol of *convergence*--the subject of this Series. It is
a mathematical mystery deriving its name from Augustus Mobius, a
German mathematician who lived from 1790 to 1868. The topological
problem still remains unsolved mathematically.
The Mobius Strip has only one continuous surface, in contrast to a
cylindrical strip, which has two surfaces--the inside and the outside.
An examination will reveal that the Strip, having one continuous edge,
produces *one* ring, twice the circumference of the original Strip
with one half of a twist in it, which everywhere *converges with
itself*.
Since the middle of the last century, mathematicians have increasingly
refused to accept a "solution" to mathematical problem as "obviously
true" for the "solution" often then becomes the problem. For example,
it is certainly obvious that every piece of paper has two sides in the
sense that an insect crawling on one side could not reach the other
side without passing around an edge or boring a hole through the paper.
Obvious--but false!
The Mobius Strip, in fact, presents only one mono-dimensional,
continuous ring having no inside, no outside, no beginning, no end.
Converging with itself it symbolizes the structural kinship, the
intrinsic relationship between subject and object, matter and energy,
demonstrating the error of any attempt to bifurcate the observer and
the participant, the universe and men, into two or more systems of
reality. All, all is unity.
I am indebted to Fay Zetlin, Artist-in-Residence at Old Dominion
University in Virginia, who sensed the principle of convergence, of
emergent transcendence, in the analog of the Mobius Strip. This
Symbol may be said to crystallize my own continuing and expanding
explorations into the unitary structure of all reality. Fay Zetlin's
drawing of the Mobius Strip constitutes the visual image of this
effort to emphasize the experience of coalescence.
-Ruth Nanda Anshen
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No indication is given who RNA is in the books, but the name sounds
vaguely familiar. Was she (?)Bhaghwan Rashnee's number two until she
fled to Europe several months ago?
ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720greg@harvard.UUCP (Greg) (03/12/86)
In article <12329@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) writes: ... >I am indebted to Fay Zetlin, Artist-in-Residence at Old Dominion >University in Virginia, who sensed the principle of convergence, of >emergent transcendence, in the analog of the Mobius Strip. This >Symbol may be said to crystallize my own continuing and expanding >explorations into the unitary structure of all reality. Fay Zetlin's >drawing of the Mobius Strip constitutes the visual image of this >effort to emphasize the experience of coalescence. > >-Ruth Nanda Anshen >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >No indication is given who RNA is in the books, but the name sounds >vaguely familiar. Was she (?)Bhaghwan Rashnee's number two until she >fled to Europe several months ago? Isn't she a famous geneticist-biochemist? I've heard that a large class of organic molecules has been named after her... -- gregregreg
mac@uvacs.UUCP (Alex Colvin) (03/14/86)
> -Ruth Nanda Anshen > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > No indication is given who RNA is in the books, but the name sounds > vaguely familiar. Was she (?)Bhaghwan Rashnee's number two until she > fled to Europe several months ago? No. She publishes a series of books on Science & Philosophy. Some by quite respectable authors.