The Atom As A Symbol Of Human Behavior

[HenryYoung]

I'm not a scientist, but I've got a hunch that the atom is a symbol of human behavior and may be a part of us that causes us to act. It may explain who we are. Is this so or possible? How or why not?

[CraigD]

Welcome to hypography, ****! :) After a long spell of battling endless waves of spammers (alas, endless, so you'll likely continue to see 'em, 'til we can get 'em), it's heartening to see a real person like yourself :)

 

Please feel free to start a topic in the introductions forum to tell us something about yourself.

 

I'm not a scientist, but I've got a hunch that the atom is a symbol of human behavior and may be a part of us that causes us to act. It may explain who we are. Is this so or possible? How or why not?

Anything can be a symbol for anything, it’s goodness judged by how well that metaphorical mapping enhances communication of the idea being symbolized to the writer’s intended audience. Scientists and science journalists have described the mechanism featureing the hypothesized Higgs particle as a famous politician crossing the room at a cocktail party (more times than I can count – I like this article, in large part for its cartoon illustration), so it’s not only possible, but only fair that psychologists, sociologists, philosiphers, and other denizens of the other of the two cultures have use subatomic particles to metaphorically describe human behavior.

 

Now that I think about it, a well-know atom-to-human behavior metaphor comes right to mind: the nuclear family. Not long after Rutherford’s model of the atom (pretty much the one most non-scientists picture, I think, when they think of atoms) became widely known (in the 1910s), social scientists and wonks began bandying the phrase “nuclear family” to mean a man and woman, tightly bound by the strong atomic force of matrimony, circled by 2 children/electrons (hey, I’m doing the metaphor thing myself!). The irony that no such atom exists in nature – helium has 2 protons and 2 electrons, but also usually 2, or, rarely, 1 neutrons, while the deuterium isotope of hydrogen has 1 proton and 1 neutron, but only 1 neutron, or that atoms commonly swaps electrons – appears to me mostly lost on the folk who most use this metaphor, which in no way diminishes its poignancy for me. ;)

 

But enough about early 20th century uses of atom-human behavior metaphors. What’s your idea, Midlove :QuestionM

[sigurdV]

Perhaps there should be two departments and beginners only allowed to post in one? Till theyve proven themselves to be non spammers?

 

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