Duality defines complementary or opposing aspects within a single entity or concept. These aspects or forces oppose each other, but exhibit a balance, tension, and interconnectedness. Duality is essential in understanding the physical and metaphysical, from the quanta of reality to the entirety of the cosmos.
These aspects cannot be the same, or it leads to a paradox or worse. Zero cannot equal to one, or can it?
List of dualities:[]
- Wave-Particle: In quantum mechanics, light can behave as a wave (creating interference patterns) and as particles called photons (showing particle behavior in the photoelectric effect).
- Quantum entangled particles exhibit a strange and "spooky" interconnectedness.
- Yin and Yang: In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang represent two fundamental forces that are opposite but complementary. Yin is associated with qualities like darkness, passivity, and femininity, while Yang is associated with light, activity, and masculinity. Together, they create harmony in the universe.
- Shiva and Shakti: In Hinduism, Shiva and Shakti are often seen as complementary forces, where Shiva represents the masculine principle (consciousness) and Shakti represents the feminine principle (energy).
- In-Yo: In Japanese culture, In-Yo represents the duality of the universe, where In is the passive, receptive, and negative force, and Yo is the active, assertive, and positive force. This positive and negative energy could be a symbolism for the theory that a universe comes from nothing, where its net sum energy is zero.
- Masculine and feminine. Essential for reproduction in most species.
- Dark and Light. In reality, dark is the absence of light. Outside reality, the Dark (that which did not exist before) and the Light (that which exists) make an eternal framework. Philosophically this is "to be or not to be".
- On and off. If something is on, it has energy. If it's off, it has zero or less. This binary system of 0 and 1 is the basis of computing.
- True and False. This is the logical extension of on and off.
- Good and Evil. The essence of life and the cornerstone of a compelling story or history.
- Love and Hate. The emotional manifestations of good and evil respectively.
- Chaos and Order. This is the ultimate duality of the cosmos. It is not known how the cosmos was formed and how it came to be eternal. It could be cyclic or pre-existential, born out of nothing or self-generated from a proverbial cosmic egg said to exist before time, the essence of supreme potentiality. This pre-creation led to chaos which settled into the cosmos. On the "smallest" scale, this happens with the Big Bang of a universe, all the way up levels of infinity until the cosmos is reached.