Crystal Vision: the Basics
Introductory Note
Crystal Vision is the most important concept to understand the Codex, because the Codex itself was built through my Crystal Vision. This page is very technical; if you do not like abstract thought, you can skip it. You don't need it to enjoy the benefits of the Codex. If you want to understand how I wrote the Codex, then it is a crucial read.
I think it's all Crystal clear
No observer can ever see the whole Universe from the outside, because every observer is already inside it. Only the Universe can fully 'see' itself -- we call this universal reality 'Truth Universal'.
The Codex's Rules of Sunlight say that "None can hold One". Every human can only hold a fragment we call 'Truth Individual'. Our Truth Individual is made of billions of photons, vibrations, chemicals, signals, memories, and associations reaching our conscious brain every instant. So, even those tiny fragments of Truth Universal, our Truth Individual, can already be very complex! In Codex terms, raw human reality has too much resolution.
Crystal Vision is the method of making those fragments crystal clear and usable. We want to reduce the endless details of reality into a small clear symbolic resolution. A resolution is the number of distinctions the lens allows.
Resolution Problem
What is the best resolution to see reality?
You perceive the world at a certain resolution, but that one is far too high! Imagine having to count every feeling you ever had, every thought you thought, every move you made, every molecule entering and leaving your body... It is too much! Even if we could point to a specific number for one observer, it would be astronomical, unstable, and constantly fluctuating, because we are living organisms. Your Truth Individual will never be fully understood by another observer, unless the other observer becomes you, and that is impossible.
So, staying stuck in your own resolution is pointless. But that of other human observers is just as complex as yours. Each human’s resolution differs. Some have more skin receptors. Others have sharper eyes. Humans (and any animal) are simply too big and complex. Even the simplest life forms we know, viruses, are made of millions of atoms.
For Crystal Vision, we will simplify and use integers (whole numbers, like 1, 2, 3) as base resolutions. This move is a drastic simplification.
Base-1 Universe
A Crystal lens with a resolution of 1 means: [Universe = 1].
This is the simplest resultion. It holds, because the Universe is everything forever and always. But a base-1 lens is not very useful.
Imagine answering 'yes' to every question. Everything is always true in this lens, because everything is part of the Universe.
Base-2 Universe
Now, let's increase our resolution to step out of the blinding light of a base-1 lens. We take a base-2 lens and now [Universe = 2]. Here, we see contrast. Suddenly, the world becomes black and white, light and dark, true and false, high and low, strong and weak, self and other,... This is the resolution where we can see opposites.
Base-2 is more informative than base-1, but still very black-and-white. If you believe the world is indeed black-and-white, the Codex agrees with you: a base-2 lens is true and a valid lens. However, we know that there are more lenses, much more lenses! Staying stuck in base-2 perception removes all the nuance and beauty from reality!
Base-12 Universe
Each time we increase the resolution, we get a bit more information. For example, a base-3 lens allows us to see the past-present-future triad, or the differences between a proton, neutron and electron inside atoms. For each higher base, we become capable of describing more complex things.
Now, we fast-forward a bit and land on base-12. This is the main resolution of the Codex. Why?
Twelve is small enough to be practical and large enough to differentiate many things. It is complex enough without becoming unstable.
There are mathematical arguments for choosing base-12. Twelve contains multiples 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 inside it. Base-12 allows us to easily switch back to lower resolutions of base-1, base-2, base-3, base-4, and base-6.
The Codex does not claim that base-12 is the only possible resolution. It does not forbid other resolutions in any way. It prefers base-12 for practical reasons. Base-12 gives Crystal Vision enough complexity to see relationships, but enough simplicity to remain usable.
Crystal Vision: the Assumptions
Twelve Elementals
The lens of the Codex is a circular group with 12 thresholds separating 12 arcs on the circle. Each threshold and arc form an Elemental.
Before diving into the specific mappings of the Elementals to objects and phenomena, we must first set a few fundamental assumptions. These assumptions are not scientific claims. They are the ground of the lens. They explain how Crystal Vision sees before it explains what Crystal Vision sees.
Universal Perfection
The Codex assumes that the Universe is a perfect circle. Even if we cannot see much with base-1, we know that [Universe = 1]. The Universe is everything forever and always. It has no outside. It has no final edge. Nothing can stand beyond it and compare it to something else.
A circle is the simplest geometric representation of infinity because it has no beginning and no end. For the Codex, the circle represents the Universal Whole: complete, continuous, and impossible to step outside of.
The assumption of Universal Perfection makes the Codex fundamentally anti-nihilistic. Even if our reality is fake, meaningless, simulated, or dreamlike, it is still 1 fake, meaningless, simulated, or dreamlike reality.
Crystal Vision holds that [Universe = 0] is unstable. The moment there is anything at all, even illusion, error, void, or observation, it reverts to [Universe = 1].
Directionality
The Codex assumes that base-1 has a single direction: FORWARD. With base-2 Vision, we determine that the Universe always runs from low entropy to high entropy. In simpler Codex terms, reality moves from small to big, hot to cold, light to dark, purity to complexity, beginning to exhaustion. This does not break the circle. It gives the circle motion. Directionality is the arrow of the Codex.
Bridge
The Codex assumes that the Universe has a Bridge where high entropy returns to low entropy. This Bridge is a mysterious and unknown threshold. It is the place where the exhausted end of a cycle becomes the pure beginning of another.
Here the Codex becomes predictive: if the Universe is circular, and if the Universe moves forward, then reality must contain a threshold where ending becomes beginning again. The Codex therefore predicts that the Big Bang was simultaneously the beginning of our Universe and the death of something else.
Declining Configurations
The Codex assumes that as the resolution of reality increases, so do reality’s self-contained constraints. This premise is abstract, but it points to something simple: lower bases impose limits on all higher resolutions of reality.
From base-1, we know [Universe = True].
From base-2, we know that [Universe = True & False].
Base-2 does not destroy base-1. It depends on it. Higher bases do not escape lower bases. They inherit them. This premise is meta by definition, yet it has important consequences.
It explains why mathematics and physical sciences are exact where social sciences are not. Mathematics works with low-resolution concepts. Physics often follows suit. Their frames of reality are closer to Truth Universal because the units they study are more universal.
Social sciences study concepts that are much higher resolution: human group dynamics, meaning, institutions, identity, conflict, memory, belief, value, and behaviour on different scales. Their reality is more complex because they do not describe atoms or forces as units, but intricate arrangements of intricate arrangements.
As a practical rule of thumb:
The less universal a phenomenon is, the higher its resolution and complexity.
This premise has an important consequence for Crystal Vision. The less universal a phenomenon is, the more it will deviate from the perfect Elemental representation of our base-12 Vision.