Few weeks ago, while driving to work as part of my regular schedule, I was listening to Non Fiction, a radio show on WBAI, which I listen to on a daily basis. As one of the guesses framed the reality of collaboration which was the main subject on the show, I started to open my intellectual window so other well-known concepts could join the bigger picture I so deeply wanted to have. If collaboration is Universal according to the guesses, it’s because it shapes existence as gravity does. As I began questioning myself about the later one, I realized that even after its invasion on the landscape of modern intellectuals, it remains one of these subjects people still have trouble understanding. Of course gravity is everywhere. Do you have to see objects falling from the sky to the ground to understand the concept or is it simply none sense to you? Obviously, humans always perceive something for real, only if it interacts with one of their senses. And this is a natural fact, we must admit it. But as my focus shifted back to gravity instead of collaboration, I started to understand how big the picture was.
Indeed, from a standpoint, most of us view gravity as simple as the apple falling from the sky above to the ground as highly discussed by scientists like Isaac Newton and simplified by eminent Albert Einstein. So, whenever someone or something escapes the ground, it’s all about anti-gravity force that allows it to do so. Men like Michael Jackson with his Moonwalk dance, is said to have challenged gravity. Gravity of course is far deeper than the superficial look we usually give it. Indeed, it deserves more scrutiny in terms of what is really is. If the theme has gained the mainstream conversation due to widespread of scientific publications, it has also gained great misunderstanding. But we’d always expect such conceptual disparity due to dualism principle which embeds the universe. And obviously, physics included. It’s not randomly that everything has its opposite in the universe; it’s just a principle that shapes it. Though gravity remains one of the greatest forces on earth, it’s also one that contributes to communication among components of a system. The logical picture or image we always come out when debating about gravity is far from its reality. Of course, the interrogation it unveils is what is gravity?
Gravity is the force that keeps elements or components around a central point of interest, whether or not they share the same chemical properties or belong to the same family. That’s the simplest definition I really can stamp to the concept. Let’s dissect it so it can be absorbed by the tiny minds. Let’s ground the picture in a religious frame. In our assemblies, we surely have a mixture of different people, from different ethnic, social, intellectual, cultural backgrounds. But it doesn’t prevent them from gathering in the same temple, le saint lieu, worshiping a divine figure. No matter how wealthy or educated you are, you may find yourself sitting next to the poorest member in the community, doing the same thing, worship. Like it or not, trying to prevent it or not, it will surely happen, one day or another. People tend to put their differences aside and abide by their interests. The same scenario happens when election season comes, people from different cultural and economic backgrounds gather along the way, in a special place, just to take part of a meeting and cheering up for their candidate. They do so, just because they share a common ground through their candidate. And so, their voice can be heard, needs can be expressed, and so forth. Let’s take students, either from classical or college or university levels. They basically emerge from different horizon, though they have cultural differences. Even if some are Muslims, other are Christians, etc., they have a common interest, a common need which is the pursuit of knowledge. They want to gain some sort of solid knowledge in a field, on a subject, ect. No matter how rude and vicious their differences can be, but under gravity’s force, they have to put down their weapons, set aside their differences and submit to it. It’s so true that under such force, no one is free. Gravity has no barrier, whatsoever.
So, it’s not about falling somewhere, it’s about being attracted to. There’s surely a point of interest. Some could ask, what about objects falling from the sky to the earth, like asteroids? Again, they fall because they’re attracted to earth magnetic field, which we usually call, earth’s gravitational force. And remember, our planet emerged from asteroids hitting each other at the beginning of our solar system’s birth. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is an historical landmark of how brutal and chaotic our planet’s birthplace was billions years ago. And earth satellite, the moon has its entire surface ravaged by collisions with asteroids. And for a more evident example of this sort of collision, a trip to our southern border in the Yucatan province in Mexican gulf where lies a valid proof of asteroid collision with earth. But the debate goes further. If those in the famous Kuiper’s belt don’t smash the earth or other planetary structures in our solar system, it’s just because there are submitted to Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, which attracts them and keep them in place, particularly the closest ones.
At this time, let’s transcend the concept to a childish level. Precisely, when you take a magnet and surround it with some metallic tools, like screws, wires and so on, it immediately attracts them. Just because they have some interest in the magnet, they have to go to their point of interest. But, let’s turn things around. What if the magnet was small and we would put one large screw, ten times the magnet size, next to? The opposite reaction would happen; the magnet would go to the metal screw. Does the screw have a magnetic field? Of course! But in this classical scenario, size becomes a key factor and also puts in context the mass of the structure.
The same picture can apply to biological structures. In the nucleus of a nucleated cell, everything goes to the nucleus, whereas it’s not the biggest organelle or structure inside of the cell. But, due to its role and dynamic, it remains the center point of every activity being processed in the cell. Just another view of gravity’s wide landscape.
So the gravitational force also includes the activity or dynamics of the system. Ideally, we picture earth’s gravity or the concept itself in a frame, where because objects are high in the sky, they are subject to fall on earth simply due to the fact that gravity attracts it. But this framed gravity is far from scientific objective view or what it really is. Logically, things, when it comes to gravity don’t matter in terms of flat or not, it’s about the dynamics and interests in the system itself. Thanks to the great Copernicus and his disciple Galileo, we now know that our planet is not a flat plane, nor having horizons that lead undoubtedly to emptiness, but a sphere composed of a few layers, on which we stand, live and breathe. Imagine two persons, one standing on the south pole of earth and the other one, on the North Pole. Knowing in advance the spherical shape of our planet, each of them would eventually think that things on the other pole would have to fall (the person of the south thinks the one on the north falls to emptiness and vice versa). But indeed, both normally submitted to physical principles, stay in place and are attracted by the earth’s magnetic field. All that resulted from such theoretical experiment is the fact that gravity is far from our popular view. And as long as we keep digging and looking for every piece of the puzzle, we will eventually realize that it lies deeper in us. It’s not about being above or below, it’s about the attractions or interests which have to be investigated in order to fully understand why certain things are submitted to a gravitational point whereas others, in the same environment are not. Have you ever wondered how come a mother while asleep would not be bothered by the noisy garbage truck going back and forth in the neighborhood, whereas she’d wake up at the very first cry of her baby lying on the cradle? Or why a colony of ants would be directed first toward some grains of sugar while passing by, on their way, tons of meat? Why a philosopher wouldn’t bother knowing what’s going on in social media, when digging concepts such as ethics, morality, essence, being, existence, etc ? At least, one could figure out why earth, while being closer to Jupiter with its gigantic attraction, isn’t really attracted by, the same way it’s attracted by the sun? These are obviously different schemes or frames gravity can thread on. And honestly, they do characterize the flexibility of such misunderstanding of the concept. At the end of the day, we consciously can admit we’ve been distanced by the pure reality gravity exposes to us, or at least its beauty in terms of what it really is, and how it acts. Once again, it’s a cultural aspect of science to look for the truth, mislead itself and finally corrects itself. This is one of the main reasons; countless people really on science and more practice it, because of its ability to distance truth and lies, due to the lack of interest, even though one feeds the other, as light and obscurity does. Gravity of course surrounds us and penetrates every corner of our existence. It keeps us bound to earth and our environment, as to this article on that piece of paper, compared to those that would take a stance, in other to be submitted to another gravitational force.
