Law of EAS

The universe is a complicated place. Despite our best attempts to model and predict it, there are exceptions to our rules, uncertainty in our models, and nuance in our categorizations.

The saying goes “The world isn’t so black and white.” The Law of EAS (“everything’s a spectrum”) agrees. It posits that most concepts or qualities are not so simple to be classified into 2 possibilities, even if they are typically thought of as binary/dichotomous.

There’s a reason why people mistake these spectrums as dichotomies. It’s because in real life, they manifest as dichotomies — similar to how quantum particles can exist in a probability wave but are only ever observed in one position.

For example, when people hold some belief, “Would you like fries with that?” requires a yes or no answer. Even if in their minds they hold the belief to some degree, and the final tally is only a 75% to wanting fries, the outcome is either responding “Yes” (100%) or “No” (0%).

As well, ideologies such as political positions hold more weight when you appear to stand on an extreme side (“You’re either with us or against us!”), and can sum up your position in a pithy way. “Pro-life” and “pro-choice” seem to be the prime buzzword takes regarding abortion, even when there are an infinite number of abortion stances and policies one can advocate for.

There’s a pretty easy way to verify this law. Initially, we might hold some quality in our minds as dichotomous. Take one example from each binary option, and mentally place…