Where is the fourth?
Recentest substantive update: February 20, 2026.
| 0. | 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Existential choices. | Creation. | Preservation. | Annihilation. | Prevention from existing. |
| Special relativity. Assume relativistic units as needed. | pc Net momentum. | m₀c² Rest energy, rest mass. | e Non-rest energy (linear energy) | E−pc Gross minus net momentum, i.e., structure, internally balanced momenta. |
| Communication. Semiosis. | Source. Semiotic object. |
Encoding. Sign, representamen. |
Decoding. Interpretant sign. |
Destination. (Collaterally observant) subject. |
| Joyce’s 3 aesthetic stages +1. | Arrest. | Fascination. | Enchantment. | Devotion. |
| 1 + Aquinas's 3 requisites of beauty. | Prominence (due magnitude), salience, with due orientation. | Harmony, due proportion, due rhythm. | Radiance. | Wholeness, intactness, perfection, with due orientation.. |
| Conjoint logical quantities. | General- &-fully-universal. |
(Monadic or polyadic) singular- &-fully-universal. |
General- &-specil. |
(Monadic or polyadic) singular- &-special. |
Notice E−pc at the end of the Special Relativity row above. E−pc (or, if you like, E⁄c−p) stands to momentum as SLOWNESS stands to SPEED. I noticed decades ago that E−pc would be more useful to consider for a system at high speed than for one at rest. In a rest frame, the quantity's magnitude simply equals the rest mass (rest energy). This is likewise as linear energy is more useful to consider for a system at low speeds than for one at lightspeed, where it equals magnitude of momentum (expressed relativistically). It's almost a mirror-image kind of thing. One needn't be a physicist, it's right there in the arithmetic. Anyway, now (2026-2-17 or so) I find it said by Google AI that E−pc is a formula for light-cone momentum and is useful to consider at high speeds. Call it "slowmentum"?—no, that already is defined for another physical quantity. How about "lentorment"? In doodles I used to label it lusk and symbolize it k. I'm not a physicist or a mathematician, but I was fiddling around with these things in search of Aristotle's Four Causes or the like. I think I found them and it's not something lame.
Assume relativistic units (i.e., lightspeed c = 1). Let "m" stand (as is now usual) for rest mass. p = momentum. E = total energy. e = linear energy. k = E−p (remember, c = 1).
E² = p² + m².
E = p+k = m+e.
p−m = e−k.
p−e = m−k.
√(2ke) = |p−e| = |m−k| = E−e−k.
Example:
◤ p=3. ◥ e=1.
■ E=5.
◣ m=4. ◢ k=2.
Note principles of Aristotle's four Causes at the corners.
◤ Agent as effector ◥ Act as action (culminal end)
◣ Patient as matter ◢ Act as form (structure, entelechy) (I'd say "borneness", balancement, as form.)
I used not to know that Ancient Latin patiens was a translation of Ancient Greek paschonta (undergoer, sufferer, e.g., "which is cauterized") with connotations like those of passion rather than of patience which are nearly the opposite, I assimilated agent:patient to make:let and must:can. So I had to make a fourfold out of the four causes' three causal principles (agent, patient, act).
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