<p>Dualism has been a viable concept in physics since the 1920s, when Arthur Compton demonstrated the corpuscular nature of photons as distinct from their wave nature. More recently, information theory applied to ecological dynamics has portrayed the behavior of whole ecosystems as being not only dual but actually dialectical (oppositional) in nature. Each and every element or exchange in ecosystem networks contributes to two contradictory phenomena: (a) it serves to maintain and reinforce the structure of the network, and (b) it provides opportunity for the structure to change in response to new exogenous events. The degree to which a member or exchange supports either of these dual phenomena can be parsed and quantified using information theory. System structure and stability can be assessed by network mutual information, while the flexibility to alter system configuration resides in its conditional entropy. Adapting the Boltzmann–Gibbs “entropy” to quantify the diversity of exchanges (processes), rather than biomasses (objects), portrays this quantifiable duality, which relies more on system topology than on effective mechanisms. One is led, therefore, to search among realms beyond conventional physics, such as process theory or apophasis (lacunae), to formulate a more complete quantitative narrative of ecosystem status and behavior. Because numerous other complex systems can be described in terms of two-dimensional flow matrices, the possibility arises that dualistic behavior may be far more widespread in nature than heretofore has been intuited.</p>