In the previous post, we saw how Escher’s impossible worlds reveal the tension between local lawfulness and global integration. Perfectly lawful local relations do not guarantee an inhabitable system. Now, we turn to the cosmos itself: the phenomena known as dark matter and dark energy.
These are often presented as mysterious “substances” or “forces” beyond direct detection, invoked to explain observed anomalies in galaxy rotation and the accelerating expansion of the universe. But from a relational perspective, these may not be new entities at all. They may be artefacts arising from a misreading of relational structure.
Local Lawfulness in the Cosmos
Consider what astronomers actually observe:
-
Galaxy rotation curves: Stars in the outer regions of galaxies orbit faster than would be expected from visible matter.
-
Cosmic acceleration: Distant galaxies recede more quickly than predicted by gravitational theory and visible energy.
In every case, the local dynamics obey known laws: Newtonian gravity, general relativity, conservation of momentum, and so forth. There is no observed violation of lawfulness. Like Escher’s figures on the stairs, everything behaves perfectly in its own frame.
The anomalies only appear when we attempt to project these local measurements into a single global ontology—assuming that all local observations can be embedded into a unified, fully coherent picture of matter and energy.
Relational Misreading as the Source of Artefacts
Here’s the key insight:
-
Relational ontology: Physical phenomena are not intrinsic entities but relational patterns—how objects interact, move, and influence one another.
-
Observation: We capture only local lawful patterns, such as the orbital velocities of stars or the trajectories of galaxies.
-
Misreading: When we treat these local lawful patterns as direct evidence of global unseen substances, we produce artefacts—dark matter and dark energy.
In other words, the “missing mass” and “accelerating expansion” emerge from the structure of our interpretation, not from new physical objects.
This is analogous to Escher:
-
Each stair, each plane, each orientation is perfectly lawful locally.
-
Only when we attempt to integrate all frames into a single inhabitable world does impossibility emerge.
-
Dark matter and dark energy may be the cosmic equivalent: artefacts of assuming that local lawfulness directly translates to global reality.
Why the Analogy Matters
The Escher metaphor clarifies two critical points:
-
Local lawfulness is not sufficient for global ontology
-
Observing stars and galaxies locally tells us nothing about “hidden” global substances unless we assume an integrable global structure.
-
-
Artefacts emerge from projection, not error
-
The anomalies are not mistakes in measurement or law; they are products of a misconstrual, the projection of lawful local patterns onto a presumed global ontology.
-
This helps reconcile observations with a more parsimonious ontology:
-
There is no need to posit undetectable matter or energy.
-
All observed local behavior remains fully lawful.
-
The apparent anomalies are epistemic, not ontological.
Conceptual Payoff
Understanding dark matter and dark energy as artefacts of relational misreading accomplishes several things:
-
Preserves the accuracy of local lawfulness: physics as measured locally remains valid.
-
Explains the “impossible” phenomena without invoking unseen substances.
-
Extends the Escherian insight from art to physics: local lawfulness does not guarantee global inhabitation, and attempting to force global integration can produce apparent anomalies.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we will take this relational perspective further. We will consider how the cosmos might be reconstrued when we accept that local lawfulness does not automatically define global entities. By doing so, we can see dark matter and dark energy not as physical mysteries to be solved, but as artefacts of global misinterpretation, a direct analogue to the impossibility in Escher’s worlds.
No comments:
Post a Comment