"Everything is the same thing, everything is part of the whole, the point of origin is the point of arrival." (Paulo Coelho)
"All distinctions disappear sooner or later. No frontier endures. Everything returns to the sea of unity." (Fred Alan Wolf)
Final Reflections
A universal paradigm
MENTAL is a universal paradigm, a theory of everything and a universal formal language based on universal semantic primitives, which are also primal archetypes (or archetypes of consciousness) and philosophical categories. These primitives are dimensions or degrees of freedom of possible worlds, including internal (mental) reality and external (physical) reality.
The deep level of the primary archetypes is a privileged point of view where everything is contemplated as the unity of all things, where everything is connected, where everything is the same thing.
MENTAL is the foundation of everything, the Magna Carta of possible worlds, a theory of everything. Its applicability is universal, but it is especially suitable for the formal sciences. In this sense, MENTAL can be considered the foundation of the formal sciences or the universal formal science.
The question of primitives
Although, throughout history, different sets of semantic primitives have been proposed, they have always been restricted to specific domains. We believe that this is the first time that a proposal for a set of semantic primitives of a universal nature has been made.
MENTAL is the result of a research effort aimed at the search for universals, for generic concepts that allow us to better understand the nature of language and the mind.
The search for and identification of these primitives has not been easy. It is paradoxical, but the truth is that discovering the simple is the most complex thing there is. Why? Because the simple goes unnoticed because it is visible to everyone. The author of this work can attest to this. The search for the simple is a very complex task. It has been necessary to revise the work several times, as the level of abstraction was raised or when a chosen primitive was actually a derivative.
It is possible to define different sets of universal semantic primitives, but the proposed set we believe covers fundamental aspects of the nature of consciousness, which make it particularly appropriate.
According to Popper, there are no unquestionable starting points. In the case of MENTAL, the primitives are semantic axioms. However, they can be questioned, as an alternative set of semantic primitives could be discovered.
Regarding derivatives, the subject is more open, both at the semantic and syntactic level. The generic derivative operations proposed here are only a few examples of the existing possibilities.
The revolution of conceptual simplicity
In the deep converge consciousness, truth, simplicity, freedom, wisdom, power, creativity, common sense and transcendence. In such a way that one of these concepts implies all the others. The deep is the world of all possibilities and where everything is connected.
With MENTAL, from the deep (or from a higher point of view), from the primary archetypes:
Everything is simpler, because the most powerful resources are available. What seemed complex at a superficial level, appears as simple from a deep level. Things that were not expressible (or were very difficult to express) can now be expressed more easily (parallelism, quantum entanglement, simultaneity of states, etc.).
A paradigmatic example is the case of the representation of natural numbers, which moved from the complex Roman numeration to the Indo-Arabic positional numeration, much simpler and simplifying calculations. The same happens with MENTAL: everything is simplified and everything is easier.
All problems disappear, are diluted, solved, simplified or clarified.
Scientific problems (because MENTAL is a formal language) and also philosophical problems (because MENTAL is an ideal philosophical language). In reality, all problems derive from being contemplated or approached from a superficial level, from a mental level. From the level of the archetypes of consciousness everything is contemplated as the same thing.
Everything is better understood and the relationships between all things are discovered. The ideas of the great figures of history (Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Jung, Gödel, etc.) are also better understood.
MENTAL is a privileged point of view, a sort of Borgian Aleph. From this superior point of view everything is better understood, everything is clearer and simpler.
Everything is the same thing. It is the end of the "ego" of the different sciences, which were believed to be important. The ego is associated with the superficial. MENTAL blurs the boundaries in a new unifying framework.
Why make things difficult when they can be easy? It is necessary to consider that the complex is created as something provisional, waiting for something simpler to be found.
The great lesson of MENTAL is simplicity. That everything can be simpler, that everything is simpler than we had imagined. MENTAL represents the triumph of simplicity over complexity. It is the revolution of simplicity and consciousness because everything shares the same essence.
"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all else will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). This can be translated to the generic level as "Seek first the deep and you will understand everything superficial, all the manifestations of the deep".
A discovery
MENTAL is not an invention. It is a discovery of something profound, simple and obvious. Some quotes about it:
"The more original a discovery is, the more obvious it seems afterwards." (Arthur Koestler).
"Breakthrough discoveries in mathematics are seen as extremely simple and obvious, and make everyone, including their discoverer, look foolish for not having discovered them earlier" (John Lilly, in "The Center of the Cyclone").
"Someday we will understand it all as a simple wonderful vision that will seem so overwhelmingly simple and beautiful that we might say to each other, 'Oh, how could we have been so stupid for so long? How could it have been otherwise?'" (John A. Wheeler).
"The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in learning to see the old land with new eyes." (Marcel Proust).
"The most fundamental and important discoveries come from very simple concepts." (David Lister Grimsby).
"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought." (Albert Szent-Györgyi).
"Simplification facilitates discovery." (Gödel).
"It is easy to understand all truths once they are discovered; the question is to discover them." (Galileo Galilei).
"It is necessary to discover in the simplest things the laws of the complex". (Francis Bacon).
If the importance of an invention or scientific discovery is measured by the dimension of its impact, MENTAL has enormous importance because it affects, as we have seen, all the formal sciences. The more general a theory is, the greater its impact. The value of MENTAL is its universality.
Learning
MENTAL can be learned in a very short time because it is a simple language with no semantic gap, since its semantics is that of the human mind. More than learning it, it is necessary to "recognize it" because the primary archetypes are doors of the consciousness that are already in us. Additionally, it is necessary to learn a syntax, a simple task, since it is also generic in nature.
"All that is called seeking and learning is nothing other than remembering." (Sócrates en Menón de Platón).
"The sciences are all linked together: it is much easier to learn them all together at the same time than to separate one from the others." (Descartes).
"Scientific research can then be seen as an unveiling of structures that already exist within us: a kind of psychoanalysis." (René Thom).
The knowledge and practice of MENTAL transforms us, makes us more aware of the primary archetypes, the archetypes of consciousness. MENTAL turns us into creators of realities, into generators of manifestations of the possible. It is a descending process: from the possible (the primary archetypes) to the manifest, thus connecting the internal and the external.
The use of MENTAL awakens our intuition and connects us with the deep and essential unity of all things. It increases our awareness and leads us on the path of self-realization and self-knowledge. Languages that move on a superficial level create mental confusion because they deal with the manifested, not with the source of all manifestations.
Future
MENTAL, as a formal language, is a complete language. But the expressive and combinatory possibilities of MENTAL are not exhausted with what is exposed in this work. There are infinite possible applications. The most significant ones have been included in this work, but many more will have to be developed in the future, which will make even more evident the deep connection between all the domains.
MENTAL opens a new line of research, with a great future as a standard universal formal language, with a generic and simple semantic base, capable of representing all types of information and knowledge structures with the maximum conceptual economy.
MENTAL is the new literacy in its most literal sense, the foundation of the real and the possible, of mind and nature.
MENTAL has pointed the way, but many domains (especially mathematics and computer science) need to be rethought and reformulated in terms of this universal language. MENTAL should force a rethinking of all formal sciences. The result will be simpler, more understandable and more humane sciences.
Implementation
Regardless of its possible computer implementation, MENTAL has value in itself as a formal language, as a model of the mind, for formal communication and as conceptual modeling.
MENTAL is a theoretical language but could be implemented physically. For this, 3 elements are required:
An interpreter, which would have a universal character to perform the evaluation of the expressions.
A memory for the abstract space where the expressions (code and data) reside. The abstract space is actually the web, the network of relationships and interrelationships between the different expressions.
A manager that performs the communication between the abstract space and the users, applications and peripherals.
An intellectual adventure
MENTAL is the culmination of a long search for a universal paradigm and a universal, ideal and transcendental formal language. This search has culminated in the encounter with the limits of abstraction: the primary archetypes. This search has constituted for the author a particularly enriching intellectual adventure. I cannot conceive of a greater intellectual adventure than the one I have undertaken.
The writing of this work has produced a profound transformation in me. It has been like a kind of initiatory journey, an inner journey, a progressive process of self-knowledge, a kind of Jungian individuation process, a process of self-realization based on reifying (making conscious) the deepest and most fundamental patterns.
A Copernican revolution
The Copernican system replaced the Ptolemaic system as a simpler model for the description of the motion of the planets, although both systems are equally valid, since they describe the same phenomenon. Kant brought about a "Copernican revolution" (in his own words) in philosophy, based on the categories of understanding, the internal, mental categories, the central and essential reference for understanding the world.
In the same way, MENTAL implies a Copernican type of change in that it is based on the archetypes of the consciousness, the principles common to the internal and external world. This does not invalidate previous more or less complex approaches, but they must be replaced by MENTAL for their greater simplicity. In the Copernican system, the new center was the Sun. In MENTAL the new center is consciousness. From this deep center, all things are connected, boundaries dissolve and everything is seen as the same thing.
The last mandala
The last mandala of this work is composed of three keys: two lateral keys and a central one. The lateral keys symbolize the two modes of consciousness (analytical and synthetic). The central key symbolizes the union, connection or harmonization of the two modes of consciousness, the union of the opposites or duals, the master key that opens all doors, the key that opens the consciousness to the unity of all things, of the internal (mental) world and the external (physical) world.
In reality there is only one door, which is opened by the archetypes of consciousness. At a deep level, all the doors are the same door and there is only one key that opens all the doors.
The number 3 is the number of consciousness, since it represents or symbolizes the union or harmony of opposites. MENTAL is the number 3 harmonizer and connector of all opposites or duals.
Perhaps the number 3 also has its symbolism in the acceptance process of MENTAL: "Every truth goes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed. In the second it is fought against. In the third it is considered self-evident." (Arthur Schopenhauer).
