The Dynamics of Ambiguity

A fascinating topic! A fascinating book! Quite often, science and art are considered as the "two cultures" dividing our society into two separate groups. However, important phenomena in science and art have a common root. By using the concept of broken symmetries the author enlightens the similarities between the process of creation of an art work and of a scientific theory, as well as the similarity between the process of perception and measurement. Symmetry is a no-change as the outcome of a change. In order to obtain information, the symmetry of an initially balanced system must be broken. The consequence is ambiguity, the critical point of any dynamical instability. Here the world of physics and emotional and rational spheres match.The dynamics of perception (the transformation leading to a choice) involve well known physical phenomena like symmetry, entropy and others. Many illustrations and a strict ratio between popular inserts and technical chapters make this a scintillating book explaining why sciences and arts have in common the feature of universality.

Insert Synergetics.- One Ambiguity in the Cultural Relationship Between Man and Natural Structures.- Insert Symmetry, Simplicity, Order.- Two Natural Structures.- 1. Atomic Modules Constituting Molecular and Crystalline Structures.- 2. Binary Structures: Chemical Bond of the Electrons in Molecules.- 3. Binary Structures: Dynamics of Electrons in Molecules.- 4. Binary Structures and the Bit of Information.- Insert Symmetry, Information and Ambiguity in Quantum Physics and Design.- Three Symmetry and Broken Symmetry in Science, in Perception and in Art.- 1. Symmetry, Conservation and Constants of Motion: The Privileged Role of the Energy Operator.- 2. Perturbation-Induced Breakings of Symmetry and Restructuring of the Dynamic Architecture of Atoms and Molecules.- Four Entropy and Information.- 1. Entropy and the Principles of Thermodynamics.- 2. Statistical Significance of Entropy: Disorder and Disinformation.- 3. More About Entropy, Order, Information and Symmetry.- 4. Information in Languages, in Musical Language and Genetic Language.- Five The Dynamics of Ambiguity.- 1. Dynamics of the Perception of Ambiguous Structures.- 2. Symmetry as Persistence of Significance as the Result of Structural Transformations, and the Role of Symmetry Breaking in Poetry, Music and the Visual Arts.- Inserts The Musicality in Virgil.- Exchange Symmetry.- The Game of Broken Symmetries in the Industrial Trademark.- Selfsimilarity in Nature and Culture: The Fractals.- Six Conclusions.