Permutate letters to make words,
permutate words to make sentences,
permutate phonemes to make speech,
permutate numerals to make numbers,
permutate tones to make melodies,
permutate colours to make images,
permutate pixels to make graphics.
permutate genes to make genotypes,
permutate bits to make information,
permutate memes to make memories,
permutate sounds to make harmonies,
permutate scents to make perfumes,
permutate emotions to make personalities.
Ring the changes, like bells,
kaleidoscopes, holograms.
Create mandalas, Julia sets, symphonies
algorithms, spreadsheets, equation sets.
All complex wholes are made up of a few fundamental units, (26 letters, 8 scale notes, 4 primary colours, 10 numerals, 20 amino acids, 4 DNA bases), but are far more than the sums of those units, since the patterns are more important than the units. Millions of molecules are made up of only 92 (natural) atoms. And so on.
The units are the “givens”, the raw materials, but the patterns are chosen, for their meaning and beauty. Like ascribed and achieved status.
There are esthetic limits: e.g. melodies should not be too random (“white”) or consist of tones too close to each other (“brown”, as in Brownian motion, i.e. too orderly); but 1/f (fractal definition, or what I would call “beige”).
What is the probability of chance formation of functional sequences in proteins and nucleic acids? Is the origin of life easy or difficult? How does a composer choose notes for melody or harmony? How does a sculptor choose shapes? How does a painter choose colours?
Primary computer output (zeros and ones) looks meaningless, “mere information”. But higher computer languages disclose the meaning hidden there.
Meaning can be deliberately hidden, e.g. by encryption.
Meaning is hidden in sequences of cards, solitaire, hands of bridge, euchre, blackjack, fortune-telling. Meaning is hidden in words on the scrabble board or in crossword puzzles when we try to combine them into sentences. Syntax can be satisfies while semantics and logic are violated.
“Meaning” is devilishly hard to define. What is the meaning of “meaning”?
The mathematics of permutation and combination is the key to some of these questions. The unexpectedly huge numbers sometimes observed are surprising to our intuition.
How does order emerge from this randomness?
Why are our minds not attuned to grasp hidden order instantly, without having to play out the game?
Some mathematical geniuses can do it. Do they have differently-structured minds? Higher or just different?
Some minds might not have to laboriously derive proofs in Euclidian geometry, but grasp their truth immediately and intuitively, since the hidden connections are already all there. No one needs to shout “Eureka”. These other beings would just yawn and say “What’s the big deal?” “So what’s new?”