Constantly recurring activity patterns are things (in the sense used here). In the end, all things are repeating activity patterns.
They are the elementary components of knowledge.
Together they constitute a structured space, the space of knowledge and of activity.
Knowledge helps us find the best action in a particular situation. Not always do we know one that applies perfectly. Sometimes experience just tells us not to repeat a certain mistake.
Physics — as well as other domains of knowledge — enable us to calculate and predict the outcome of selected events and actions. Based on this knowledge we can decide better what to do next.
This is one of the main purposes of knowledge: to provide us with certain pieces of activity, clearly defined processes allowing us to achieve precisely determined results.
We are actively forming and selecting our world, even the physical reality. That means that there are other possibilities, all the time. We decide which one is real.
Every space is a space of knowledge representing just a certain selection. To enter a particular space means to make a specific selection.
Still, this is generally more than simply applying an absorbing filter. It is principally different from merely selecting ready-made things. It is an active process, the things are to be manufactured.
It is much like applying a program.
Knowledge is selective. That’s crucial. We have to filter out a lot, all that is disguising, all the data that we do not need at this moment. If we see nothing but the relevant phenomena, decision is easy.
The physical things exist in the physical space. This, their physical existence, is maintained by all other physical existences, only together they are possible. But no thing as such depends on any other. It is just its physical existence, its appearing in the physical world, which is a function of that world.
Every existence is perfectly woven into its context. Every thing, however, exists totally independently of each of its existences.
A thing comprises various aspects of itself and so constitutes its own space. Every point of this space is a potential appearance of the thing. The thing appears when it is reflected by another thing. In these reflections (which can be used to enter the other thing’s space) the thing exists.
In general, the plentitude of one thing’s potential appearances allow the construction of manifold existences of it.
Every such existence is an appearance of another thing, a reflection in the space of that thing. This space is made of the existences of many things. All these (individual) existences do not exist but inside that space; they are appearances of the respective (common) thing and may be called functions or embodiments of that community.
As we can analyze a thing into its various aspects, so we can also join diverse aspects together. The thing itself is the fusion of all its aspects, so to speak. Yet, it does not show them directly; additional activity is needed, the respective spaces have to be entered in order to get a grip on these aspects.
Every thing leaves its traces (some of them forming characteristic structures) in many spaces. Every aspect of a thing is associated with a specific space. And new aspects can be found virtually endlessly.
A thing is meant to be given at once. It is always the whole thing. As such it appears, each time it appears, at just one moment, marking one point in its space.
On the other hand, every thing is also complex, extensive, distributed. It forms a more or less constant structure in space — which then, however, is another space, not the specific space of that thing.
Many things must come together before we speak of a physical object. But once we are sure that such an object is there, not much is needed. In general, slightest signs suffice to recognize a physical thing. Often it is determined by very few measured values, while all the others are included, so to speak. Frequently, they can be computed, derived from the known laws of physics. These laws form the space providing the material that build up a complete physical object in gathering around the nucleus consisting of maybe not more than one single measurement
Not every repeated activity manifests itself physically. But every physical thing is a manifestation of repeated activities.
Every thing is characterized by its activities. These activities, constantly recurring, constitute the thing, they make up its appearances, letting it multiply. The typical effects these activities have on other things indicate the existence of the causing thing.
If there are such characteristic effects, recurring, forming a noticeable pattern, then there is a thing. If the effects are in accordance with certain rules (some of them called “laws of physics”), then the origin of the effects is a physical object.
Such a “mental representation” is thing because it multiplies, which means that it is used again and again. This usage is primarily a kind of habit, a continually repeated activity: the symbol is associated repeatedly with the respective object. Whether or not this habit is represented by a physical manifestation, as a permanent connection in the brain, for example, does not matter. Although it is pretty well possible.
Not always is it a mistake to treat different things (from different spaces) as if they were one and the same. Actually, it is often quite natural and inevitable. So, for example, when a physical object is identified by — and with! — its name or symbol. Without such an identity it would be impossible to speak about anything, to comprehend anything, to know anything.
What we do in cases like that is creating — or using — a new thing comprising the others, which by themselves remain what they are: distinct, actually incompatible. But their spaces can penetrate one another. So they can form a new space for the new thing, which is different from the original things, although somehow combining them.
This process is extremely important, it is fundamental for knowledge of any kind. We have called it the central “act of knowing”. It is the process by which we get a mental representation of the physical thing, in combining it with the proper symbol, so to speak.
Generalized in this way, things occur everywhere in physics, naturally, not only in form of physical objects, but also as universal constants, for instance. Even mathematical equations expressing the laws of physics are things in this sense.
So we have various types of things in different fields of physics on different levels (or, as we preferably say here: in different spaces of knowledge) and it is often extremely important not to mix them up. Though, to become aware of how easily this may happen, it ought to be understood that logically all these different things are equal (– that means: one and the same thing!).