Dual Forces: Gravitational Attraction and Existential Repulsion
One of the most fundamental dichotomies in nature is that between forces of attraction and repulsion. Gravity, for instance, is entirely attractive (mass pulls on mass), causing matter to clump together. However, modern cosmology tells us that some repulsive influence – dark energy – is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate, pushing space itself apart. On human scales, we might analogize gravitational attraction to the force of love, cohesion, desire, or the drive to unite; and repulsion to the force of fear, separation, aversion, or the drive to individuate.
This duality has deep roots in philosophical thought. The ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles in the 5th century BCE spoke of the cosmos as governed by two opposing principles: Love (Philia), which draws things together, and Strife (Neikos), which pushes them apart. In his cosmology, the four classical elements (earth, water, air, fire) are eternally mixed and separated by these two cosmic “forces.” “Love works by bringing together roots of different types into harmony… instilling attraction… While Strife…[works] by instilling repulsion among different types of roots… replacing the attraction [of Love] with repulsion.” In this vision, at times Love dominates and all things converge into one – a perfectly unified Sphere (interesting to note: a moment of complete symmetry). At other times Strife dominates and all things separate into chaos (complete disorder). The world as we know it exists in a mixed state where neither Love nor Strife has total control allowing structure (elements combining into compounds, organisms, planets) but also separation (distinct forms, free will, movement).
Empedocles' vision is remarkably resonant both with modern physics and with psychological reality. The gravitational force is a literal love in the Empedoclean sense: it aggregates matter. If gravity had its way unchecked, the universe would end as a single massive black hole – a Sphere of unified matter. The opposing tendency, visible in everything from electromagnetic repulsion between like charges to the expansion of space, prevents such collapse from being absolute (at least for now). In particle physics, every force except gravity has both an attractive and repulsive side (depending on charges involved).
Gravity stands out as purely attractive (positive mass never repels positive mass). This is why many speculative theories, like Lisi's E8 model, have tried to treat gravity on a different footing or include a symmetry that yields gravity in a unique way. Some have wondered if what we call dark energy – a kind of uniform outward pressure – is a form of Empedoclean Strife, balancing gravity's Love on cosmic scales.
In any case, the topography of reality can be conceived as a landscape of peaks and wells shaped by these forces. Attraction creates “wells” – valleys in the potential energy landscape where things gather (like matter settling into a gravitational well, or people forming communities under social attraction). Repulsion creates “peaks” or barriers – hills that things have to overcome to meet, often keeping entities apart unless sufficient energy is supplied.
The Peak vs. Well metaphor also applies to states of being. One might speak of high potential states that are unstable (peaks) and low energy states that are stable (wells). For example, a perfectly symmetric arrangement of particles might correspond to a high-energy peak (unstable equilibrium) whereas a spontaneously broken, asymmetric arrangement is a low-energy well (stable equilibrium).
Gravitational attraction tends to drive systems toward lower potential energy – pulling things into wells. Existential repulsion, by analogy, might represent whatever principle drives differentiation and prevents complete collapse into uniformity. One could poetically describe “existential repulsion” as the need for the universe to diversify, to push parts of itself away from each other so that they can become unique individuals. If gravity is the glue, perhaps some form of quantum uncertainty or zero-point energy is the countervailing pressure that stops everything from being glued into one. In human terms, if love draws people or ideas together into unity, an opposing force (call it strife, individuation, or even healthy boundaries) pushes them to maintain separateness and autonomy. Both extremes alone are destructive: pure attraction with no repulsion could mean monolithic stagnation; pure repulsion with no attraction could mean utter isolation of every point from every other (a gas of non-interacting, lonely particles flying apart forever).
From another angle, consider the potential energy landscape of string theory. With E8×E8 heterotic strings compactified on a Calabi–Yau, there are many possible 4D vacua – valleys (wells) in the energy landscape corresponding to different ways E8 can break to smaller groups. Each vacuum is like a local minimum produced by a combination of attractive and repulsive effects (fluxes, branes, geometrical constraints). The heterotic vacuum that resembles our universe is one such valley, chosen perhaps by cosmological evolution. To get from a higher, more symmetric vacuum (peak) to a lower one (well), some “force” or mechanism must push it off balance (akin to a repulsive kick that breaks symmetry). Inflationary cosmology also employs this imagery: a scalar field rolls down from a false vacuum (a high plateau) into a true vacuum (a deep well), releasing energy. Peaks and wells, love and strife – these are complementary ways of describing why the universe has structure and motion.
In sum, attraction and repulsion are dual aspects of reality's engine. Empedocles' insight still rings true: “Sometimes by Love all things come together into one… Sometimes again each one is carried apart by the hatred of Strife.” The interplay of these forces is necessary for a dynamic, evolving cosmos. A Theory of Everything that uses an object like E8 might capture the Love – the unity – but it must also accommodate the Strife – the intrinsic tendency toward differentiation. The presence of both in one framework could be envisioned as a sort of cosmic Yin-Yang: within E8's unity lies the seeds of division (it has subgroups and can fracture into those), and within every division (like each broken-symmetry phase) lies an underlying unity (the fact that fragments were once joined).