> Matter is merely energy slowed down to visibility. So believed Albert Einstein, author of the world-renowned theory of relativity, and with it the formula `E = mc²`, in which he seemingly unites the nature of energy and the nature of matter, proving that their deepest essence is **identical**, and even interchangeable. One arises from the other, and vice versa. Just this alone, if you contemplate it, sounds phenomenal, doesn't it? It makes you want to look at your palms, doesn't it? To turn them and somehow grasp your essence anew through gazing upon them. But what if I told you there is something more? That in reality, we are not dealing with duality, but with a triad. # Will, manifested in the profound essence of things Why do two magnets **always orient themselves in one specific way?** Depending on the polarities you bring together in space, they will either repel or attract each other. It would seem we're talking about two different forces (since the movement is in opposite directions), but in reality, it's about one – the force of electromagnetism, which **always acts in the same way**. One and the same. The poles change their position in 3D space, but its action remains unchanged. Always one and the same. Magnets never chaotically change their position, or heat up, or change color, or size. No, everything is much more pragmatic, and most importantly – more predictable. Why do atoms combine into molecules **according to precise geometric patterns**? Always the same ones. If we "take" two hydrogen atoms and bring them close enough to each other, we get a hydrogen molecule (H₂). Always it. Only it. Just imagine: this force has worked in the Universe exactly as many times as hydrogen molecules have been created throughout time, and there are – myriads of them. Without any fluctuations, always following the same **rule**. Particles in our reality seem to "know" what they need to do, adhering to an invisible pattern. Why does light travel according to the principle of least time (Fermat's principle)? Light **"chooses" the path that takes the least time**, which explains why a rainbow looks the way it does, and not otherwise. A rainbow could look much more wondrous if this weren't the case, but no. There are photons (energy) and **there are invisible rules** that define the nature of light. Without these rules, light would not be light (as we understand it). Physicists call these laws. And we've somehow grown accustomed to this – it lives somewhere at the edge of our minds. A law is a law, just another invisible norm, of which there are thousands, which we do not feel. Partly because we are immersed in it, as drops are immersed in the ocean. All these examples – from magnets to atoms locked in molecules – are united by one common essence: a universal principle that acts always and everywhere, like an invisible hand that takes puzzle pieces and assembles them into parameters of reality. # But what is this if not ideas? What is the difference between a law and a rule? For us humans, a rule is sometimes optional, and laws... well, laws too, except for those that are laws of physics. And what is the difference between a law and an idea? Both can be imperatives – that is, mandatory to follow. Ideas don't necessarily become laws, but **laws always originate from ideas**, such decisions about why balance should exist, or should not exist. Or why gravity is when energy, slowed down to visibility, attracts. The laws of nature do not arise from a vacuum – they always originate from ideas. Even Plato, in his theory of ideas, suggested that behind every visible phenomenon stands its ideal form, unchanging and eternal. The laws of nature, by this logic, are reflections of such forms in our reality (here a metaphor with simulation begs to be used, but this topic is too interesting and deserves a separate essay). If for a moment you "turn off" your filter of normality (I promise, you can turn it back on later, although it won't ask permission and will turn itself back on 😄) and peek into the space of ideas, suddenly it becomes obvious: everything around is permeated with decisions, laws... ideas. Even we ourselves. If you simply decompose the matter of your body step by step, then at each level, at each stage, structures will emerge from matter, energy, and... ideas, **why exactly like this, and not otherwise.** And it doesn't matter how precisely you imagine this. Even the very first "step" is enough to see and comprehend this. # The Formula Now let's return to the most famous formula of our time, the one we started with, and look at it from a new angle. `E = mc²` Here `E` means "energy", `m` is mass, and `c` is the speed of light. By the way, this speed is always constant, which is not at all like our everyday experience. Imagine a car that immediately accelerates to its maximum speed – that's what light is like! But that's not all. There's also the sign "=", and hidden multiplication signs. Here's how this same formula looks in expanded mathematical notation (may all the mathematicians of the world forgive me). `E = m * c * c` The multiplication sign here is nothing but an... **idea**. As, indeed, is "equals". > In fact, the formula is a bit more complex – `E²=(mc²)²+(pc)²`, where `p` is momentum. But for bodies that aren't moving, momentum is zero, so we memorize it in the simplified form `E=mc²`. Yet the essence remains the same – energy and matter are intertwined deeper than it seems at first glance. # The dial on the spectrum of duality I won't claim that all experiences in this reality are dualistic. But there are clearly many such experiences: cold..warm, high..low, big..small, far..near, many..few, fast..slow. And not just in the materialistic world. Love..fear. Submission..rebellion. Primitiveness..complexity. To confess, I'm one of those people who hasn't yet found any non-dualistic experience. The maximum I've found are binary options in the style of "exists/doesn't exist," "true/false," and so on. In essence, these are the same dualistic experiences, just without a spectrum between extremes. They have only two options: "yes/no," "right/left." And where are the ideas here? Realized ideas are nothing other than rules that determine exactly what place a particular experience occupies on the spectrum. Conditionally, the decision that ultraviolet is "on the right," and infrared is "on the left" (very conditionally). Or that gravity on the spectrum between 1 and 0 is in position 0.0000000000667430 m³/(kg·s²) (it seems someone among the architects really values freedom 😄) Change the rule, and you get a completely different experience, and with it, a completely new reality. # Wait, I have questions Yes, I have them too. Here are a few: - To whom do ideas belong? - Why are they the way they are? - What if information (the space of ideas) is the basic level of reality? Who are we then? _Thoughts of Being itself?_ And if the material world is a combination of "thoughts of Being," have we finally found what we've been seeking for centuries – the true reconciliation of spirituality and materiality? If the laws of nature are ideas that define "reality," then we humans are not just their explorers, and not even just their embodiment. We are in a sense a dimension of the board of architects? It seems that the dualistic spectrum is present here as well. # Authors - Created in co-authorship with 🤖 Claude 3.7 and 🤖 Grok 3