“Mass movements start with intellectuals, often in universities where most bad ideas are hatched. The Movement gets oxygen when the masses – what Hoffer calls “the fanatics” – pick up the ball and run with it…. They feel important as part of a glorious army fighting for a righteous cause, with villains who are the root cause of the wretchedness of their existence. They don’t want freedom but rather a freedom from responsibility…. Awful leaders will sense the direction the masses are moving and then lead them there…. Sometimes a movement peters out, and other times it ends in tragedy measurable in millions of lost lives.”
– David Collum, “2022 Year in Review: All Roads Lead to Ukraine”
Bubbles, Within CASs
Bubbles are a natural aspect of life. They occur in ecology, in war, in equities markets, in physiology, in nutrition, physics, and astronomy. A ‘bubble’ is simply a run on momentum; an explosion in an expansion rate after a build up of resources amid an environment that can facilitate rapid expansion (at least in the short-/medium-term). The macro picture of “progress” may look like a sigmoid progression, however under a microscope you will find a series of bubbles, pops, adaptations, redistributions, and accumulations. Not unlike how if you were to look at a round object under a microscope you would find a series of straight lines with minor angles that facilitate the illusion of the “round” object. What this bubble nature would also suggest is that if integration were to be reversed, that is if an input were to be removed from a homogenous CAS, the adaptation response has a high likelihood to result in cascades. As the distribution system is abruptly disturbed; recalibration is required.
Let’s walk this one out a bit. In such an example, we have three separate systems: (1) is the system that exists before integration, (2) the new system after integration, and (3) being the system that results if an integrated input were to be removed. Because a CAS is an adaptive system, it responds, or reacts, in the moment. This also means that removing an input does not guarantee that the system will result in the exact same formation (or formula) as it had previously existed, such as in scenario #1. In fact I would go so far as to say that the likelihood of it returning to #1 is closer to a rarity, if not in the least an implausibility (depending on the penetration of the input that had been removed). You see, after a CAS has successfully evolved for a new input, the rest of the nodes devise methodologies to make due with the increases, or decreases, of resource allocation in order to facilitate chugging along and performing whatever function it is that they do. A relevant example would be: if you were to lose your form of income you may also reduce how much you spend in order to facilitate the efforts & expenses necessary in order to fill that void that has now been produced.
In such a system, every single input holds value. Failure in the eyes of a CAS is just a rehearsal for success in the future. Not unlike Edison and his musings with the tungsten filament that gave birth to the lightbulb; gaining knowledge of how something does not work is just as valuable, if not more valuable, than understanding what contributes to success. In success we gain actually very little beyond confirmation, but in failure we gain humility, visibility, education, and wisdom.
On Good & Evil
Part of the success & failure process also requires the deduction of what is morally right or morally wrong, as well as the understanding of why these values are important to organized society. Ayn Rand takes a quality analysis of how a rationalist/objectivist approaches what determines the morality of an action: (A) that which enables the propagation of the species; being the morally good, (B) and that which hinders its success; the morally bad. Take for example the concept of inter-gender violence: men acting physically against women is a no-go; our women are absolutely valuable to us on a special/societal/emotional/spiritual level, and men have many outsized physiological advantages; making it an unfair match-up. The same goes for actions taken against children. And the two hold the very future of the species in their survival and propagation. Which is why in times of hardship, like war, we aim to protect our ladies and children; they hold the keys to our future. Therefore, actions taken that threaten danger, and/or death, to those that hold the keys to our future are deemed morally deficient.
“ ‘Value’ is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. The concept ‘value’ is not a primary; presupposes an answer to the question: of value to whom and for what? It presupposes an entity capable of acting to achieve a goal in the face of an alternative. Where no alternative exists, no goals and no values are possible.”
– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness
We come to this angle for our discussion for the sake of understanding efficiency. A CAS is incentivized to seek operations that result in moral good action, because it promotes the success and growth of the system as a whole. Not unlike the Hollywoodified science-fiction views of a rogue A.I, a CAS is incentivized to grow in size. As well as in micro specialization, as the growth of the system enables for greater amounts of data to be interpreted, as well as depth of understanding. Immoral activity would result in cannibalism and parasitism within our CAS, and would therefore jeopardize its longevity and its future.
Does this not sound like the growth and development of an automated neural network (ANN), or a virus, or the spread of a species with strong adaptations for success? Can you see the similarities?
What this means is that those cliché turns of phrase suggesting that Love, Community, and Support are necessary for a successful & high-quality life are based very much in reality.
Then there’s the flood of scientific literature in physiology that lean towards suggesting that the mechanisms involved in psychological states can produce physiological impacts, such as reduced or improved cognition. And that these mechanisms can also produce feedback loops that result in environments that promote poor psychological and emotional health, and contribute to further poor quality of health. Suggesting to me that positive perception & thought can essentially be viewed as a type of not only therapy, but medicine.
Suggesting that not only is seeking moral good action, and providing positivity, and love to the world, is righteous for the sake of the species-broader, but it is also very important for the health & prosperity of the individual participants (you and I).
Where Are We…?
So, where does that bring us? CAS’s are mechanisms that seek homeostasis through management of many variables and resource distribution, while also being incentivized to consistently grow. As growth allows for greater information gathering, which allows for greater variable management and resource acquisition & distribution. And this system is incentivized to seek out morally good action and outcome, as the morally bad negatively impacts the growth imperative of the CAS and jeopardizes longevity.
Let’s Get Feisty
A complex and adaptive system sure starts to sound like it exhibits features of intelligence, does it not? If not, where else could intelligence arise from? In order for a form of life to be deemed as intelligent, does it not need to account for many multitudes of variables? Can we not view the neural network of plant life across forests or jungles as intelligence? Does this not provide plenty of evidence to claim that the ‘intelligent design’ that so many claim to be reflective of life is made possible because of this theory for a rational reality?
This brings us to a point that will be thorny for a large number of individuals. Meaning I particularly would like to discuss it.
This might trigger some folks.
So…
Taaaaaaaake a deep breath.
And let’s get started.
The topic? Religion.
“We are all important in the eyes of God… every human being is important, immeasurably important, in the eyes of the Godhead.”
— Alan Watts, The Karma of Christianity
Watts’ words feed into the pontifications of this paper, over this ‘theory of a rational reality.’ I am even willing to go so far as to say that (in my opinion) it is likely the basis for the claims of our planet’s religions. That the teachings in scriptures across history and culture were attempting to put forth this very elaboration that I am laying before you here. That these teachings were limited in the manner with which they could communicate these theories to the languages and understandings of their time. This rule stands true outside of the belief of God, YHWH, or Allah. Our capabilities of communication & conceptualization are limited to the level of complexity, depth, and breadth that is allowed by the languages we rely upon. Which evolve as we grow, age, and discover new dawns in understanding.
Within a CAS, every single input and attempt is immeasurably important. For each attempt is an attempt at intelligent design, whether successful or unsuccessful. Each attempt represents pure potential at a greater future.
Extrapolating the understanding of a CAS from a single ecological level to a global phenomenon is relatively easy, all that is needed is to zoom out; take things further. Then going to a solar system is also easy; this is still a system that is maintaining a relatively homeostatic system. Then we can go on to the galactic, and even the universal levels. For within all of the universe one has to admit that everything is being maintained and managed on a broad scale, otherwise how could we (any of this) be here? A CAS does not require an atmosphere. Representing “intelligent design” envelopes the whole of existence. Not just our piddly, inconsequential, human-centric view that our species so immaturely holds.
I ask again, could this be what so many religions had attempted to elucidate over the millennia?
This question is not to be taken from a point of atheism, but from a position of spirituality and rationale. I very much believe in the concepts of dharma, karma, of there being something ‘beyond,’ once we pass through the veil of death and consciousness as we presently experience them, and many more of the more esoteric belief systems.
“Since inspiration always comes through a human vehicle, it is liable to be distorted by that vehicle…
Now, so, therefore, everybody who receives divine inspiration… will express it within the limits of what language he knows. And by ‘language,’ here, I don’t only mean English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or Sanskrit, I mean language in the sense of what sort of terms are available to you.”
– Alan Watts, on Voiding Pain and Suffering
Is it not possible that when prophets across the ages were spoken to, could they not have experienced these revelations and interpreted them as the universe speaking to them? At which point the universe, representing a form of intelligence via the CAS of the rational reality theory, did, in a manner, speak to them. And was of intelligent design. If that were the case the next obvious question, because so many billions turn to religion to give them some sense of purpose, comes to, “well then, Mike, what’s the point to all of this?”
Can you not see?
Such a level of understanding does not change the lessons that are preached between the pages of the Bible, nor in Daoist teachings, nor the Quran. It simply shifts the nature of the protagonist. These entities were already established as omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. A complex, adaptive system is everywhere and nowhere, is everything and and in the very same breath; nothing. And is seemingly “all-knowing.”
All Is One, One Is All
This also does not change the nature of morality. As described in Ayn Rand’s, “The Virtue of Selfishness,” Rand very astutely describes how morality is simply a dynamic of rationalism; not borne of some mystic source, or fugazi. It is best to act in manners that promote the health and well-being of each other as much as possible, whilst protecting each other from actors that would seek to damage or maim ourselves and our peers. ‘Why,’ you ask?
In a free market, which we have identified is the natural state of reality, each individual actor is most incentivized to act upon its own destiny. As the broader CAS benefits from each individual node or organ doing what it’s meant to do, to the best of its abilities.
You as an individual are best suited to seek out and perform activities to which you find the most enjoyable. Why? Because what you enjoy doing will also improve your proficiency at a faster pace than that which you are forced or coerced into performing. A student will increase proficiency in a sport or video game much, much faster than they will in improving their understanding for an exam (typically). A craftsman that practices their craft out of enjoyment and curiosity will become a master of his craft faster than an employee in a cubicle working a job simply to pay rent (typically). In a free market, each individual actor is most incentivized to chase their passions, as the broader system later benefits from their specialization(s). Whether an engineer or an entertainer, all aspects of the system improve the operations and efficiencies. An engineer may help by directly improving energy distribution and expenditure efficiencies, while an entertainer may help alleviate stress for an engineer, helping the engineer avoid cognitive or emotional burn-out, keeping the engineer in a healthy state of mind and allowing them to continue contributing; thus helping the system maintain homogeneity.
In such a system all actors are most incentivized to first: (1) act in a manner to which the individual can establish and support themselves by performing a service that is useful to the CAS. (2) When acting through point 1, they are not incentivized to inflict malice or evil upon the individual actors of the CAS in the long-term as the CAS is self-regulating and problems are rooted-out when the efficiencies of the system are damaged or destroyed; whether it be on a small scale; a pedophile, or on a large scale; the Nazi regime. (3) While acting upon points 1 and 2, the individuals of the system are incentivized to establish a proper foundation within their environment, meaning they are incentivized to improve resiliency and vitality, as well as their own position. If they are, in fact, performing an effective service to the system, the system most benefits by their fortitude and survival. Else a rebalancing will be required. And finally (4) after point 3 has been established, each individual actor is then most incentivized to support the broader system by supporting their neighbors and their peers; uplifting those around them.
Following this order of operations produces an ever-improving system that maintains homogeneity, at least until resource allocation and exchange is disturbed or disrupted. Once resource allocation and exchange is disturbed, the incentive mechanisms shift, and greed & perversion can take the top spot in the incentive scheme. This results in the parasitic and cannibalistic behaviors that threaten the CAS’s health and potentially its future.
Which I believe we have been falling prey to for many decades now. Our incentive system was shifted, and the balance was broken. This led to an explosion of perverse activities & incentives after many decades of building up momentum; resulting in a bubble.
So, what do you think? Did my thoughts spark some contemplation? If it did please leave a Like and Comment. I love engaging in conversation and contemplation. If you’re on Twitter give me a follow and listen in on the many conversations I engage in over there!