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It is interesting isn't it - how much has been invested in this sort of classification.
Good/evil. Yin/Yang. My mother, who is into alternative medicine, always calls supposidly bad foods 'acidic' and good foods 'alkaline'.
The structure of logic is based around true/false and somehow this seems to be elemental somehow, however we know that many things in life can be partially true. Hence fuzzy logic in mathematics. In electronics we have tri-state circuits - and in IT (databases) people have problems with the introduction of a third value (NULL) in what appear to be binary (two state) statements.
In physics though (and my physics is rusty) there are three colours of quarks. Each has 1/3 of the previous basic unit of charge. We have two key particle families (I think) but six particles in each. We have antimatter and matter... but there is more matter than antimatter - then there is asymettry in other interactions. Hopefully somebody else knows this stuff better...
I believe then as others have said, that binary parameters are just the first classification scheme that humans learn to use within higher order thinking. The simplest symbol set or concept set that we learn to manipulate (face is parent... vs is not parent...).
Even if we register more complex sensations (colour, hunger, pain) in shades or levels -I believe that we most commonly use the concepts, within our conscious thoughts, in a binary manner...
So overall - I reckon that this is a simplification. A useful one and the most basic one available... We like it because it is smallest and simplest to handle mentally. Maybe it requires less neurons to implement...
There is no reason to expect though that the universe or situations around us will be based on this... or stick to this pattern.
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