On Isomorphism: The Most Powerful Cognitive Tool

Words can be isomorphic to numbers but are not the same as numbers, even words such as five. Imagine, dear reader, a compound number, 155, or one hundred and fifty five. The three digits are made of individual characters which more or less map onto specific, particular words. This means that the word Five is isomorphic in terms of creating mathematical structures to the number 5.

Isomorphic is from the Greek words iso-equal and morphe-shape or form. The idea here is that, despite different systems being setup to handle different sorts of information and different states in different linguistic computational activities, we have nonetheless molded them to fit together in some ways — though, importantly, not *all* ways.

This essay will briefly touch on a few different examples of this fascinating phenomenon. In *Formal Dialectics* I was able to explore these ideas in detail, and any intrigued reader should not hesitate to track down a copy of that now-out-of-print primary source philosophy text I wrote and had peer reviewed, which was published in 2018. The logic is simple enough: imperfections in representation between languages is a feature, not a bug. The relationship between language and the world is similar-isomorphism. Value created by use is the source of power for these concepts, not objective structure or a one-dimensional KPI…