The Square of

Opposition &
The Concept of
Infinity:
The shared information
structure
 6th WORLD CONGRESS ON
THE SQUARE OF
OPPOSITION
Orthodox Academy of Crete, 1-5 November 2018
http://www.square-of-
opposition.org/square2018.html
 Vasil Penchev

Dept of Logical Systems and Models,

Institute for the Study of Societies
and knowledge, Bulgarian Academy
of Sciences
vasildinev@gmail.com
 Project:
ДН 15/14 - 18.12.2017 to the "Scientific
Research" Fund, Bulgaria: "Non-Classical
Science and Non-Classical Logics.
Philosophical and Methodological
Analyses and Assessments"
Prehistory and background
“Two bits, two bits!” for Mr Finnegan!
One may demonstrate that the
square of opposition shares the least
possible structure of the ordering
which cannot be well-ordered directly
This structure is equivalent to two
bits of information, absolutely
independent of each other
 The alphabet of “‫[ ”יהוה‬YHWH]

That minimal possible information

structure is a kind of the minimal
“alphabet” of the universe
That “alphabet” is necessary for anything
to be “written” unambiguously
 The YHWH alphabet of four letters

That alphabet consists of four letters

corresponding one-to-one to two
independent bits
It can be found as the four “letters”
of human genome as the four “colors”
enough to be colored any map
 “Four letters” vs “two letters”
The minimal possible alphabet consists
of only two letters
This is a single bit of information
That alphabet of two letters is used is
our computers
It is enough for any well-ordering to be
written exactly
 Why our computers do not think (yet)
One may define ‘thinking’ as the ability of
well-ordering of all (which is not ordered in
general)
The alphabet of two letters is insufficient to
be written relevantly anything which is not
well-ordered
So, the alphabet of our computers and that
of thinking are essentially different yet
 A fundamental loss of information
The record of anything which is not well-
ordered by only two letters implies the loss
of information necessarily
For example, let that not well-ordered be
written by four letters, i.e. as if “two bits”
However, one needs furthermore the
superposition of the order, in which the
two bits are recorded:
One quantum bit
(qubit)
Their superposition

Another bit
One bit
 An ontological example

An exceptionally important exemplification

of that loss of information is quantum
measurement
It reduces a coherent state before
measurement unorderable in principle to
a statistical and thus well-ordered
ensemble after measurement
 What the alphabet of two letters
implies ...
Any record of something not well-ordered
by the alphabet of two letters implies the
well-ordering principle (equivalent to) the
axiom of choice
One may mention Voevodsky’s univalence
axiom (2009) able to link logic to
topology on a similar basis
 Adding the lost information...

The sense to that application of the axiom

of choice is to add outwardly, by external
choices the information lost before
Namely, that information lost after
recording by that insufficient alphabet of
two letters
 Restoring the equation of
information...
The information equation before and
after recording, respectively before and
after measurement, need be restored
What the axiom of choice does do
actually...
 ‘Infinity’: the mathematical “God”

The power of the square of opposition has

been proved in logic during a few
millennia
It can be also utilized to be hinted the
most general concept in the framework of
logic, particularly the being of infinity
 The alphabet of infinity...

A reasonable conjecture in the same

course of thought is:
The concept of infinity admits to be
written by the same alphabet of four
letters or two independent bits
consistently
 ‘Infinity’ by two bits?

Or even a more strong hypothesis is

possible:
Infinity might be equated to te the
same elementary information
structure of two independent bits
 The present talk’s intention
The talk intends the discussion of
that hypothesis:
Infinity
Square of Four-letter
opposition alphabet
Two bits of information
Thesis:
 Four letters (or two bits) for infinity

1. The concept of infinity can be

written relevantly by the alphabet of
four letters
Thus, infinity shares the universal
alphabet enough for anything in the
universe
 All you need … are four letters

2. Even more, the concept of

infinity might be equivalent to that
fundamental alphabet
One means the alphabet consisting
of four letters or two independent
bits
 The four-letter language of nature

3. Metaphorically, anything in the

universe, or in other words, anything
existing is written by the language of
infinity
However, it consists necessarily of
only four letters...
An idea for the proof of the thesis
 The two dimensions of two
independent bits:

The structure of two independent bits

is two-dimensional necessarily
Indeed, it implies a gap between
the two bits due right to their
independence
 Infinity as .. a “gap”
The gap between any two dimensions
both requires and impies the concept
of infinity to be described explicitly or
“cataphatically”:
Dimension 1 Dimension 2

The gap “of” (or “as” infinity)

 The ‘gap’ of infinity and the “gap” of
bits
In other words, the gap between two
dimensions (such as two independent
bits) describes the same, however in an
implicit, or “apophatic” way
 The gap of infinity as the gap
between qualities
‘Infinity’ means not any finite entity,
but another quality different from any
finiteness
Quantity suggests homogeneity and
thus, does not a gap
Indeed, ‘two quantities’ means “two
qualities”
 Any single quality as a quantity

Thus, infinity can be represented

equivalently by two “finitenesses”
Properly: by the gap between them
symbolizing the different qualities
of each of those “finitenesses”
 The mathematical structure of two
qualities

Thus, the minimal structure of two

independent bits or the alphabet of
four letters, both can describe infinity
That description of infinity coincides
with infinity in a sense, even
 A symmetry of four elements...

Furthermore, the structure of four

letters is symmetric to the transforms
between elements and triples of
elements
And the triples of elements are all
well-ordering available among four
elements...
 The structure of four letters as
a tetrahedron

That symmetry of four letters can

be visualized as a “tetrahedron”:
Correspondingly, by its symmetry
to the transformation between
vertices and faces
 The structure of four elements as a
qubit
The structure of four elements is the
minimal one able to represent
equivalently a qubit
It can be explained as the
“superposition” of two bits, as
minimal as possible
 From a qubit to a string of qubits...

Any entity in the physical world is

necessarily a quantum one (according
to the contemporary stage of
cognition)
Thus, it is representable as a linear
string of qubits (words)
Conclusion
The power of the square of opposition

The power of the square of opposition

has been proved during millennia
It supplies logic by the ontological
language of infinity for describing
anything...
A happy end!

Thank you for your kind attention!

Any questions?
I would be very glad of many questions!