Entangled winds…

…or how wind directions connect through meaning, in human cognition, similarly to how spins entangle in nature

Tramontane, greco, levante, sirocco, ostro, libeccio, ponente and maestro: these are some of the names that have been used in the past, and are still used today, to identify the North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West and Northwest wind directions, respectively. More precisely, I should say ‘wind spatial directions’ as ‘a wind direction’ is of course a direction within our three-dimensional Euclidean space: the theater we all use to stage part of our everyday physical reality.

A mariner’s compass rose

However, a wind direction, as a notion, is not equivalent to that of a space direction. This because space directions are all equivalent for physical entities (this is the well-known isotropy of space), whereas wind directions are usually associated with specific space directions, typically the above mentioned eight directions of the traditional mariner’s compass rose, which resulted from our countless experiences, over the millenaries, as inhabitants of the surface of this beautiful (pale blue dot) planet.

As an example of the difference between the notions of wind and space, consider the following two couples of wind directions: (Northeast, Southeast) and (Southeast, Southwest). If we only consider them from a pure spatial perspective, the difference between Northeast and Southeast is clearly the same as the difference between Southeast and Southwest, as both couples form an angle of 90°. On the other hand, if we consider them from the perspective of our more complex human experience, for example for the case of an European person, the difference between Northeast and Southeast could be perceived as greater than that of Southeast and Southwest. This because in our perception of their difference, other aspects can also play a role in addition to their spatial direction. For example, both Southeast and Southwest directions can be associated in Europe with a relatively warm weather, while between Northeast and Southeast the general perception is that there is a more important change in terms of…