The Action Potential Is the Original Form of Plato’s One

Plato’s one doesn’t exist in the reality. However, everyone knows that one plus one equals two. If he didn’t know the abstract number, he could not do this calculation. That is, anyone knows Plato’s one by nature. There is a biological entity, which corresponds to Plato’s one. The leading candidate of it is the action potential of the neuron. It is the electrical signal of the neuron. Neurons communicate each other using it.

The most remarkable feature of the action potential is that it is similar to Plato’s one (1). That is, our brain can get only digital information. I quote an impressive paragraph in “From Neuron to Brain” (2).

An important feature of electrical signals is that they are virtually identical in all nerve cells of the body, whether they carry commands for movement, transmit messages about colors, shapes or painful stimuli, or interconnect various portions of the brain. A second important feature of signals is they are so similar in different animals that even a sophisticated investigator (like one of the authors of this book) is unable to tell with certainty whether a photographic record of an action potential is derived from the nerve fiber of whale, mouse, monkey, worm, tarantula, or professor. They are universal coins for the exchange of information in all nervous systems that have been investigated.

Thus, the action potential resembles Plato’s one. This means that Euclidean space is made in the brain because both the input and output signals of the brain are action potentials. Because the brain can get only digital data, it makes the analog image from digital data. The basis of our recognition is digital.

References

1.The Action Potential as the Universal Coin

2. Martin, A. R., Wallace, B. G., Fuchs, P. A., Nicholls, J. G., From Neuron to Brain 4th edition, Sinauer Associates, 2001

Plato’s One

The starting point of the modern science is the statement of Descartes: “Cogito ergo sum” (1). The premise of his statement is that the self has properties of the natural number one, which is defined by Plato (2). Plato described in The Republic as follows.

O my friends, what are these wonderful numbers about which you are reasoning, in which, as you say, there is a unity such as you demand, and each unit is equal, invariable, indivisible, –what would they answer?

They would answer, as I should conceive, that they were speaking of those numbers which can only be realized in thought.

This idealized one is Plato’s one, which is the base of all logical thinking. The importance of Plato’s one is increasing in the present age. Now, the digital revolution is in progress. Digital data consists of Plato’s one. It should be noted that “0” of digital data isn’t “0” as a number.

As shown above, 0 of the number is divisible, but 0 of digital data is indivisible. Furthermore, “1” of digital data isn’t a common number. We don’t regard the natural number one as indivisible unlike the ancient Greeks.

That is, our common number one is divisible. Rather, “1” and “0” of digital data are similar to alphabets. For example, “A” of alphabets is equal, invariable, indivisible. Indeed, the computer can handle not only the number but also the text.

Next, the very important difference between Plato’s one and an alphabet is the sensible property. Because the major role of the alphabet is the communication, it must have sensible properties. In contrast,  Plato,s one has no sensible property.

In conclusion, the electrical signal of the computer is very close to Plato’s one. It has no sensible property. Furthermore, it must be indivisible, invariable and equal to each other. Companies all over the world actually compete toward the ideal signal. The base of the digital revolution is Plato’s one.

References

1. The Starting Point of All Science

2. What Is the Natural Number One?