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I've been having a long chat with someone who is very well known and respected in the world of science and sacred geometry, but he is keeping a low profile so I wont say who he is.
I love the Golden Mean so some of the things he said . . well have a look.
He has this to say about the Golden Spiral and i wondered if anyone wanted to comment on it?
Firstly I asked:
What is it that the Fibonacci does not have that keeps you from respecting it equally amongst other spirals?
And his response:
It's nonsense. It's trivial. It's almost useless.
There is a whole world of really intriguing forms. Forms based on the Fibonacci numbers are just not interesting, because they're so trivial.
I don't mind if others are fascinated by the wallpaper, but I'm not. There is nothing wrong with the Fibonacci numbers, other than that they're "a dime a dozen". The whole thing is just plain wacko. Why people are so focused on this triviality is beyond me.
He are some other snippets:
1. The golden proportion is sterile, because it's narcissistic. It always circles itself in its own self-image, just like Narcissus in the famous myth of Greek godly mental illness. Narcissism, self-centeredness (as represented by the logarithmic spirals, including the golden spiral), is the antithesis of maturity and spiritual growth. It attracts children whose world includes only themselves and
their parents.
2. The golden spiral is sterile because it is _completely_
symmetrical, and never changes. It's the opposite of life, which is why it only shows up in the dead traces of where life used to be. It's not productive. Life is extraordinarily asymmetrical. I'm not referring to the fact that we have left-right symmetry and two arms, two eyes, etc. I'm talking
about the process of life, not a photograph. The process of life is utterly asymmetrical, starting from a helpless single fertile cell, and growing into billions of cells of an utterly unique being with free will. This is truly "the one and the many". It's exactly the opposite of the "gilded" frauds being promoted on the Internet.
3. The golden proportion is not either enormously important, nor worthless. It's a number. It's one of an infinite number of interesting numbers. It's not important in any particular way, compared to many other numbers, and numbers are not important at all compared to what they represent.
On the scale of importance, if healthy, natural cooking is a 10, and McDonald's Burgerbilge is a 1, then the golden proportion is a 2. Okay? It ain't going to poison you, but it doesn't provide much nutrition, either.
4. The nutburger that wrote the book on the golden proportion for Dover Publications was a religious fanatic. This kind of pseudo-scientific nonsense has been selling like hotcakes for about a century and a half since someone first decided to call the "narcissistic" spiral, golden. (Prior to the mid-1800's, neither the proportion nor the spiral were called "golden". The name was because fraudsters were trying to "turn lead into gold". Apparently, this con still works, because there are plenty of people on the Internet who are buying it. It's just plain sad.)
5. The idea of "a most beautiful proportion" is itself simply not true. This doesn't stop artists from believing in it, but it does frustrate people who know more.
And then he says . . . .
There are extraordinary beauties in mathematics, but you have to refine your eyes first, in order to see them. Most mathematicians that I know see mathematics as a kind of music, perhaps the highest form of art because of its extraordinary beauty. (Most non-mathematicians don't see any of this. But then, people who are tone-deaf don't enjoy music.)
I love the Golden Mean so some of the things he said . . well have a look.
He has this to say about the Golden Spiral and i wondered if anyone wanted to comment on it?
Firstly I asked:
What is it that the Fibonacci does not have that keeps you from respecting it equally amongst other spirals?
And his response:
It's nonsense. It's trivial. It's almost useless.
There is a whole world of really intriguing forms. Forms based on the Fibonacci numbers are just not interesting, because they're so trivial.
I don't mind if others are fascinated by the wallpaper, but I'm not. There is nothing wrong with the Fibonacci numbers, other than that they're "a dime a dozen". The whole thing is just plain wacko. Why people are so focused on this triviality is beyond me.
He are some other snippets:
1. The golden proportion is sterile, because it's narcissistic. It always circles itself in its own self-image, just like Narcissus in the famous myth of Greek godly mental illness. Narcissism, self-centeredness (as represented by the logarithmic spirals, including the golden spiral), is the antithesis of maturity and spiritual growth. It attracts children whose world includes only themselves and
their parents.
2. The golden spiral is sterile because it is _completely_
symmetrical, and never changes. It's the opposite of life, which is why it only shows up in the dead traces of where life used to be. It's not productive. Life is extraordinarily asymmetrical. I'm not referring to the fact that we have left-right symmetry and two arms, two eyes, etc. I'm talking
about the process of life, not a photograph. The process of life is utterly asymmetrical, starting from a helpless single fertile cell, and growing into billions of cells of an utterly unique being with free will. This is truly "the one and the many". It's exactly the opposite of the "gilded" frauds being promoted on the Internet.
3. The golden proportion is not either enormously important, nor worthless. It's a number. It's one of an infinite number of interesting numbers. It's not important in any particular way, compared to many other numbers, and numbers are not important at all compared to what they represent.
On the scale of importance, if healthy, natural cooking is a 10, and McDonald's Burgerbilge is a 1, then the golden proportion is a 2. Okay? It ain't going to poison you, but it doesn't provide much nutrition, either.
4. The nutburger that wrote the book on the golden proportion for Dover Publications was a religious fanatic. This kind of pseudo-scientific nonsense has been selling like hotcakes for about a century and a half since someone first decided to call the "narcissistic" spiral, golden. (Prior to the mid-1800's, neither the proportion nor the spiral were called "golden". The name was because fraudsters were trying to "turn lead into gold". Apparently, this con still works, because there are plenty of people on the Internet who are buying it. It's just plain sad.)
5. The idea of "a most beautiful proportion" is itself simply not true. This doesn't stop artists from believing in it, but it does frustrate people who know more.
And then he says . . . .
There are extraordinary beauties in mathematics, but you have to refine your eyes first, in order to see them. Most mathematicians that I know see mathematics as a kind of music, perhaps the highest form of art because of its extraordinary beauty. (Most non-mathematicians don't see any of this. But then, people who are tone-deaf don't enjoy music.)
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Unsu...
Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Fri, October 28, 2005 - 2:27 PM"Sacred Geometry" strikes me as mystical hogwash, both the sort which claims wondrous things for the Golden Mean/Golden Spiral/etc, and your friend who claims the opposite.
Your friend makes a few mistakes, too:
The golden spiral is *not* "completely symmetrical". It's self-similar, but that's not the same thing.
"The golden proportion is not either enormously important, nor worthless."
That's true, but:
"It's not important in any particular way, compared to many other numbers"
depends entirely on one's interests and one's definition of "important".
"numbers are not important at all compared to what they represent."
Is a matter of perspective. A mathematician would argue.
"The idea of "a most beautiful proportion" is itself simply not true. This doesn't stop artists from believing in it, but it does frustrate people who know more."
It's doubtful that there is one particular proportion for everything which is most aesthetic, but quite a lot of art and architecture was composed using the Golden Ratio, and it is *a* pleasing one. -
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Unsu...
Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Sat, October 29, 2005 - 5:33 AMThanks for the response :-)
I think he has some vested interests in dissing the Fibon.
Glad you pointed out "The golden spiral is *not* "completely symmetrical". It's self-similar, but that's not the same thing. " as this is not something I would have known. -
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Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Sat, October 29, 2005 - 7:30 AMGreat thread -
Anyone care to explain this & the other "problems" - "The golden spiral is *not* "completely symmetrical". It's self-similar, but that's not the same thing. " ? -
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Unsu...
Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Sat, October 29, 2005 - 10:58 AMNaively, "symmetry" of a geometric figure means that under some sort of mirroring or rotation, the figure is identical. The human figure, on the outside, is roughly symmetrical, because you can't instantly tell whether a frontal (or backal) image has been mirror-reversed. The shapes of many (latin) letters are not symmetric - you can tell if you're reading text in a mirror, even if it's not in a language you know, because only A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, and Y are mirror-symmetric. Rotational symmetry means that a figure is identical if rotated about a point. The shape of a 5-pointed star is both mirror-symmetric and rotationally symmetric, because a rotation of 72 degrees (360/5) produces the same figure. A swastika is rotationally symmetric, but not mirror-symmetric, because a rotation of 90 degrees gives the same figure, but reflection does not.
Self-similarity, roughly, means that scaling the figure makes it look essentially the same. It's the main property of fractals. Looking at a piece of the Golden Spiral, one cannot tell what the scale is, the way one can tell the scale of, for example, a piece of a unit circle.
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Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Wed, November 9, 2005 - 4:35 PMI dont agree with your friend mostly for his wording.
The golden mean/ratio/spiral/proportion is simply a tool. You either use it or you dont. A hammer is useless if you dont know how to use it. I think the statement that its trivial and almost useless might sum up his experience of working with it but that doesnt mean other people have the same experience.
I find the tone odd because people I met that are reknowned in their field are usually very careful about wording things as to stay within their own subjective experience and not make broad sweeping statements, which usually turns around and bites you in the ass later.
oh well. -
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Unsu...
Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Fri, November 11, 2005 - 7:16 AMThanks for the feedback guys . .
It was all going well with the email dialogue I had with the anti-fibon guy till i put my foot in it by saying that his broad sweeping statements sounded like he had vested interests in dissing the Fibon . . . i think he got a bit grumpy with me and . . well he has not writen back to me.
I agree that the tone of his emails were odd in that he was not more careful about his wording. Strange that . . .
Kiris: I'm gonna have a listen to:
www.phidelity.com/songs/Phi...13-052.mp3
By the sound of the feedback your getting it should be some smooth sounds . . . ;-) -
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Re: Some things I was told about the Golden Mean
Fri, November 11, 2005 - 10:53 AMi like to think so ;)
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