HIERARCHICAL COSMISM

 

Henry H. Lindner


An outline of the evolution of the Cosmos with its hierarchical levels of complexity

(Comment: This is an old document that represents my thinking at the time. I first that that the building blocks of reality were mass-energy and space-time (MEST), but upon reading Einstein’s popular book “Relativity, The Special and General Theory”, I realized that MEST consisted of measurements, made by the observer, with his rods, clocks, photomultipliers and other instruments. The caused me to grasp the alternative to observer-based meausurement predictions models: Space theory. A truly theoretical physics requires a theory of what space is and how it produces all the physical phenomena that we observer. )

 

SIGNIFICANCE

By describing the evolutionary origins of all phenomena, and their hierarchical organization, this outline organizes all of our knowledge and advances our understanding.  It helps us avoid common errors like ascribing consciousness to entities that don't have a nervous system.  It explains human consciousness as a natural product of linguistic evolution. This outline could be used to reorganize our divisions of knowledge and thus our university departments and specialties.  Most importantly, it creates a philosophical structure in which all sciences can properly function. This outline is necessarily incomplete, for to complete it requires the organization and inclusion of all knowledge about the Cosmos and all its phenomena.

OVERVIEW

Space is not no-thing; it is a substance. It is the ground of all being. This is the necessary implication of known physical phenomena including gravity, inertia, and the fixed velocity of light. The Cosmos is composed of space and of various motions in and of space. All subatomic particles are various persistent motions in and of space. Space appears to flow dynamically in into matter, like a fluid, causing gravity.  Inert matter like our Earth appears to be a spatial sink.  Space also conducts electromagnetic motions like an elastic solid.  See A Theory of Space and Motion.

In the Cosmos, space and its motions have become organized into increasingly complex non-living, living, sentient, language-using, and self-conscious entities. This evolutionary process is hierarchical--it is composed of distinct levels of being; each level operating according to its unique principles, and each level adding a new kind of organization of lower-level entities and processes.  Evolution is not just a theory of biological change—it is the inherent process of Cosmic self-development from the formation of the first particles to humankind’s development of language and philosophy.

At every stage of Cosmic evolution, higher-level phenomena (entities and processes) arise when, under conducive environmental circumstances, lower-level phenomena combine and interact in a new way that persists. Each new level thus arises from and remains dependent upon lower-level processes.

The resultant higher-level entities and processes interact in new ways that are unique to that level of being. Higher-level phenomena also interact with lower-level and same-level phenomena in new ways.

From subatomic particles to self-conscious humans all Cosmic phenomena are interdependent--consistent with and causally connected to one another.

The primary levels of Cosmic evolution are:

ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL

BIOLOGICAL

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL

LINGUOCULTURAL

CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL
 

PRESENTATION

At each hierarchical level, causal relationships are identified according to the following scheme:

First-Order Principles - Why x happened - Statements that, for each hierarchical level, define the most general observed regularities that are useful in explaining historical and contemporary phenomena.

Organizing Principles - How x happened - Statements that summarize the less general, more concrete observed regularities at the given level of existence. Organizing principles are derived from first-order principles.

Characteristics - What x happened - An historical summary of events at the given hierarchical level.

Please note that why, how, and what are categories of human linguistic thought and are not actually separable Cosmic phenomena.

 

COSMOGONY -- The question of the origin of the universe

The space and motions that comprise our universe are either eternal, or originated at some time in the past. How or why the Cosmos came to exist cannot be determined at this time and may be ultimately unknowable.

All observed phenomena in the universe can actually or potentially be explained as resulting from space and its motions. Thus there is no requirement to posit any supernatural (extra-spatial or extra-Cosmic) being--except in an attempt to explain the origin of space itself. The only ultimate Being of which we are undoubtedly aware is the Cosmos itself.

To posit an extra-spatial creator of space is to attempt to explain something that is evident (the Cosmos) as resulting from something (or someone) for which (whom) no other evidence exists. This attempt has so far been utterly fruitless and will probably always be so.

ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION

TIME: 14+ billion years ago to the present

ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL PRINCIPLES

These are principles of the spatial Cosmos qua spatial. They are inferred from the totality of our knowledge of the Cosmos.

SPACE AND MOTION

The Cosmos is space and motions in/of space. The ultimate substance is a quantized-discrete space. All change is ultimately reducible to motions and/or distortions in and of this space.

CAUSAL EVOLUTION

All spatial motions are produced by preceding contiguous spatial motions.  All effects are caused.  All manifestations of space act, react, and interact in ways which are regular and in accordance with their inherent properties. Time is our perception of evolution--the causal sequence of motions.

HIERARCHICAL EVOLUTION

Under appropriate local conditions, space and its motions become organized into new structures which are hierarchically distinguishable from the sum of their parts. These structures are stable and persistent combinations of space and its motions. They act, react, and interact (ARI) in new ways, displaying new properties and regularities.

ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES

Spatial Creation/Cosmic Inflation

Characteristics

Space

Space is the ground of all being in this Cosmos. It is a hitherto unknown substance.  It is not matter as we know it.  It has no mass. It appears to be composed of quantum cell-like units at the level of the Planck scale, 10-33cm. The extension and qualities of the spatial cells determine the size, strength, and possible organization of motions within it; i.e. the fundamental constants (h, G, e, c) and the evolution of hierarchical complexity (subatomic, atomic, chemical, biological, neurological, etc.).

Motion

Energy is our measure of actual or potential motion in/of space. All motions are uniquely, causally related to the local space. The fundamental spatial motions are these:

Hadronic: (1) space consumption and creation--the strong nuclear force and gravity
Fluid-Dynamic: (2) space flow and mass motion--inertia, translation, and rotation (3) space waves—high-frequency (neutrino-waves) and low frequency (gravitational waves).
Electromagnetic: (4) space cell stress and rotation--electromagnetism (5) space and electromagnetic structures—electrons and positrons (6) space and electronic motion--electrodynamics

Evolution

Evolution is the causal Cosmic process of change.  Change is evolution.  All change is caused—resulting from the preceding state of affairs.

Time

Time is simply our word for our experience of Cosmic evolution.  We measure the time of a process or event by comparing its evolution to a simple standardized repetitive causal process like that of a pendulum or atomic oscillations.

The Cosmic Cycle

The simplest explanation for past and present apparent expansion of the Cosmos is that the Cosmos undergoes cycles of spatial creation followed by spatial consumption. These cycles produce Big Bangs and Big Crunches, each inevitably giving way to the other.

Organizing Principles

The strong nuclear force and gravity

Electromagnetism

Particle Evolution

Characteristics

Particle condensation

Expansion and cooling of the Cosmos allowed the sequential evolution of the stable particles--hadrons and electrons. The union of a proton and an electron formed hydrogen, the simplest atom.

Nucleosynthesis

Space spontaneously self-organizes into hadrons—protons and neutrons—which adhere to form nuclei. Hadrons are maintained by a process of spatial consumption, and this same process may cause their adherence in the nucleus.

Electrons

Electrons are electromagnetic wave structures. They do not consume space; therefore do not create gravity.

Antiparticles

Unstable Particles

Neutrinos

These appear to be high-frequency longitudinal waves in space itself. Like light, they can be mathematically treated as particles since their interactions with matter are particulate.

Organizing Principles

Spatial Fluid-Dynamics

Weak nuclear force

Atomic Evolution

Characteristics

Atomic Synthesis

As the Cosmos cooled to about 3,000 K (~300,000 years after its the last Big Bang), negatively charged electrons combined with positively charged nuclei to form stable atoms, hydrogen and helium. 

Matter Era

The energy density of matter (mostly hydrogen and helium) overtook the energy density of radiation. The hadronic mass became predominant by a factor of one thousand.

Stellar Fusion

Hydrogen and helium clumped together by force of gravity, forming galaxies and then individual stars. Gravitational contraction created high temperatures within developing stars. Hydrogen began to fuse into helium--creating solar energy.

Elemental Synthesis

Heavier atomic elements (carbon, nitrogen, silicon, etc.) were formed by fusion as stars deteriorated in cycles of expansion and superheated contraction.

Organizing Principles

The strong nuclear force

The strong nuclear force is maintained by the consumption of space. It binds hadrons (protons and neutrons) together in nuclei. This force is responsible for the energy released during nuclear fusion and fission.

The Nucleo-electronic interaction

A highly complex interaction which binds negatively charged electronic wave-fields to positively charged nuclei.

Chemical Evolution

Characteristics

Planetosynthesis

In the Big Bang, much of the matter of the previous Cosmos survived, including heavy elements. After inflation, this matter formed new planets which were captured by newly formed stars. Only on cool planets were complex chemical compounds able to form and persist.

Chemical Compounds

Atoms of various size combined in myriad ways to produce elemental and molecular metals, liquids, solids, and gases. The amounts of various elements available and the other aspects of the local planetary environment determined the kinds of substances that could form and persist.

Organizing Principles

Covalent Bonding

The interaction of atoms to form compounds is determined by the number of electrons surrounding the nucleus, particularly the number of electrons in the outermost shell. Certain chemical combinations of elements persist because they are more stable in the given environment. The combined state is more apt to persist than the uncombined state.

Other Chemical Interactions

Other types of elemental bonding are hydrogen bonds, metallic bonds, bonds in crystals, etc. Chemical laws determine the physical properties of bulk matter as affected by molecular size, shape, and interactions; and interactions of molecules with radiations and fields.

ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL CAUSALITY

Determination

Gross determination of all events by causal regularities (laws) inherent in space and its motions.

Randomness

The random motion of particles and atoms increased with increasing temperature. Randomness is present in the most fundamental interactions of all matter and from the very start of the Big Bang. As a result, what has come to exist is the result of sufficient but not necessary causes. (Another Big Bang with the same starting conditions would result in a similar Cosmos but the location, mass, and number of resultant bodies would differ.

Degrees of Freedom

A degree of freedom exists at this level as a result of the variability due to randomness.

Teleology

That which occurred was the result of the interaction of the determinancy inherent in the fundamental elements (space and its motions). No other telos or goal need be implicated to understand the events.

ASTROPHYSICOCHEMICAL MECHANISMS

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

TIME: ~3 Billion Years Ago - Present

BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

REPRODUCTION

Those complex (biochemical) forms which self-replicate are more able to persist.

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES

Biochemical Evolution

Characteristics

Environmental

The phenomenon of life is apparently confined to Earth in this solar system due to its unique physico-chemical environment. Given the hundreds of billions of stars in this galaxy, and the hundreds of billions of other galaxies visible to our telescopes, we must consider it highly probable that there are billions of Earth-like planets in the Cosmos that are also supporting the evolution of living and language-endowed creatures.

Biochemical Synthesis

Molecules in the ancient Earth seas combined chemically to form simple biochemicals (amino acids, nucleic acids, glucose, etc.).

Polymerization

Polymers of these molecules formed which were stable and persisted - perhaps this occurred on the surface of clay or another conducive material.

Replication

At least one type of macromolecule, DNA, formed copies of itself and thus persisted in a new and unique way.

First Organism

The first entity that could be called "living" was probably a DNA polymer associated with amino acid polymers (proteins). These simple proteins catalyzed the chemical reactions involved in replication.

Organizing Principles

Chemical Laws

All the laws of chemical bonding and interaction that are involved with living organisms are studied as Biochemistry.

Reproduction

Specialized macromolecules were most efficient - DNA became the reproductive code for all forms of life

Procaryotic Cellular Evolution

Characteristics

Cell Membrane

When, over millions of years, this DNA and its associated macromolecules became surrounded with a continuous lipoprotein coating, becoming procaryotic cells.

Cytoplasm

All biological processes within procaryotic cells are carried out by organic molecules which are free floating within the cytoplasm or attached to the outer membrane. There are no internal membranes and no organelles except ribosomes.

Metabolism

The macromolecules within procaryotic cells perform the simplest biological functions: absorption, excretion, metabolism, anabolism, and reproduction.

Fission

Procaryotic cells reproduce by fission - splitting into two new organisms. The DNA is replicated first, then the cell membrane splits.

Symbiosis

Procaryotic cells (bacteria, mycoplasmas) do not associate to form multicellular organisms, but do form advantageous communities (blue-green algae).

Organizing Principles

Homeostasis

Challenge

Evolutionary improvements at this level, and at all higher levels, occurred when the existing life forms were challenged by change in their environment; a change strong enough to elicit an adaptive response, but not so powerful so as to destroy the life form.

Sustenance

Those biological forms which develop means to preserve and protect their DNA, are more able to reproduce.

Adaptation

Those complex (biological) forms which best adapt to changes in their environment are more able to survive.

Responsiveness

Those organisms which can learn to inhibit non-productive responses and improve their productive responses are more able to sustain themselves.

Symbiosis

Those organisms which can benefit from interaction with other organisms are more able to survive and reproduce.

Symbiosis - Biological forms associate and interact with various results.

Commensalism

Biological forms associate for mutual benefit, often on the basis of complementary differences.

Amensalism

Biological forms associate where one form is benefited and the other is unaffected.

Predation

Biological forms associate where one form is benefited and the other is harmed.

Eucaryotic Cellular Evolution

Characteristics

Incorporation

Eucaryotic cells originated as a community of procaryotic cells. Specialized cells performing different functions associated for enhanced survival. Eventually these cooperating cells were incorporated into a single larger cell. Thus the eucaryotic cell is a society formed from specialized macromolecules and procaryotic cells, i.e. Chloroplasts, mitochondria, flagella, microtubules, etc.

Organelles

Organelles were specialized structures within the cell that performed various functions: absorption, ingestion, digestion, excretion, metabolism, anabolism, protection, structural support, circulation, motion, and reproduction.

Organizing Principles

Specialization

Biological forms which become efficient at particular tasks receive enhanced benefits from cooperation and thus are more able to survive. Cooperation by a division of labor enhances survival.

Histologic Evolution

Characteristics

Symbiotic Aggregation

Multicellular organisms formed by symbiotic aggregation of like and unlike eukaryotic cells.

Tight junctions formed between formerly free-living cells, restraining their individual growth, development, and reproduction. This aggregation of cells for mutual benefit allowed them to better survive and reproduce as a group.

Cells that formed the different tissues of a larger organism were specialized in their functions: absorption, secretion, excretion, metabolism, information processing, protection, structural support, circulation, motion, and reproduction.

Organs

Sexual Reproduction

Every cell in the multi-celled organism carries two non-identical copies of DNA. Certain cells specialize for the reproductive function.

Embryology

The organism is not reproduced in its final form but must develop from a single fertilized gamete (sex-cell).

Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

The development of the individual organism, from embryo through maturity, follows a sequence similar to the evolutionary development of the species. The single cell divides into the various specialized cells that make up the organism.

Organizing Principles

Mutualism

Mechanisms of evolutionary change - aggregation (of molecules and cells), symbiosis, incorporation, parasitism, mixing of genetic material, sexual reproduction, and genetic mutation.

Specialization

Specialization and division of labor led to mutually enhanced survival

BIOLOGICAL CAUSALITY

Determination

Gross determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space. But at this stage, higher-order laws (chemical and biological) are primary in determining the sequence of events. These higher-order interactions become manifest only in conducive circumstances (Earth's seas of 3 billion years ago).

Randomness

A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, location, and structure of living entities.

Degrees of Freedom

As organisms become more complex, their range of adaptive responses increases and they are less dependent on environmental circumstances. The evolution of life can be seen as an evolution towards greater degrees of freedom from astrophysicochemical determination.

Teleology

At the biological level of existence, a telos or goal can be discerned. Biological organisms exist and strive to survive and reproduce because this has proven effective in promoting the replication and thus persistence of their DNA.

BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS

BIOLOGICAL PATHOLOGY

Death

Those organisms which die after reproducing undergo faster genetic change and thus more rapidly adjust to changing conditions, and thus more able to survive and reproduce.

All biological processes (reproduction, sustenance, etc) are ultimately dependent on the complex arrangement of molecules within individual cells. Death occurs to a cell when that complex arrangement can no longer perform its biological functions (metabolism, absorption, secretion, etc.) and an irreversible process of disruption has begun. Death occurs to a multicellular organism when the complex arrangement of its cells can no longer perform its biological functions (respiration, circulation), and an irreversible process of cellular disruption has occurred.

Programmed

All multicellular organisms which reproduce by gametes are apparently programmed to die. This maximizes genetic change and the rate of evolution.

Premature

Unicellular organisms reproduce by division and thus have no programmed death. Both uni- and multicellular organisms can die prematurely as the result of a pathological process.

Hereditary (Genetic)

Environmental

Non-infectious

Malnutrition

Maldevelopment

Poisoning

Overpopulation

Trauma

Neoplasm

Infectious

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

TIME: 2 billion years ago to present

The development in multicellular animals of specialized cells that rapidly convey and store information created a new level of space complexity.

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

DIGITOANALOGIC INFORMATION PROCESSING

Those organisms which can gather complex information about their internal and external environment, process that information, react appropriately to that information and remember that information are more likely to survive and reproduce.

ALGORITHMIC COMPRESSION

Organisms with complex neural systems that can organize percepts of significant environmental phenomena so that entities, motions, and causal sequences are accurately and rapidly comprehended are more able to survive and reproduce.

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES

Neurocellular Evolution

TIME: 2 billion years ago to present

Characteristics

Certain ectodermal (skin) cells evolved the ability to react to environmental stimuli by alterations in the electrical potential across their cell membranes.

These neurocells (and their unique DNA) were incorporated into multicellular organisms where they served the specialized function of sensing certain environmental parameters and provoking adaptive action by effector organs.

Habituation

Excitability

Conductivity

Transmissibility

Sensation

Specialized organelles reacted to changes in temperature, light, sound, pressure, odor, etc.

Reaction

Conduction

Electrical polarization and depolarization of specialized conductive cells enabled the transfer of information throughout the organism.

Reaction

The organism could respond in a rapid, coordinated manner to the stimulus by the use of efferent nerves and muscular systems.

Memory

Retention of learned information was made possible through semi-permanent and permanent electrochemical and molecular changes within nerve cells (mechanism still not understood).

Organizing Principles

Analogic Response

Digital Response

Neuroassociational Evolution

TIME: ~570 million years ago to present

Stimulus-response systems developed from simple one-celled systems, to two-celled systems (afferent and effector neurons), to systems with many intermediate neurons between the afferent and effector neurons.

Characteristics

Synapse

Electrical

Chemical

Ganglion

Brain

Information Processing System

Centralized information processing became possible using digital (on/off depolarization) and analog (variation in cell polarization) capabilities of intermediate nerve cells.

These information-processing systems (IPSs) enabled the organism to make graded and varied responses to environmental stimuli. As the number and complexity of intermediate (associational) neurons increased, so did the adaptivity (intelligence) of the organism.

Organizing Principles

Neuronal Inhibition

Instrumental Conditioning Evolution

TIME: ~450 million years ago to present

Characteristics

In vertebrates, central nervous systems assured the survival of large, complex organisms by allowing centralized control of internal functions and of reactions to external stimuli.

Trial and Error

Enlarging brains carried out more complex digital and analog information- processing tasks allowing highly discriminative responses to stimuli.

Complex behavior could be genetically acquired (instinct), and also could be learned (classical and operant conditioning).

Social behavior appeared among (and between) species.

Communication allowed exchange of information and was necessary for social cooperation.

Primary Representational System

Animals with complex neural systems create and maintain proto-concepts. These mental tools are algorithmic compressions of perceptions of significant environmental phenomena.

Communication

Through the use of vocalizations, displays, and badges one organism was able to inform another of its internal state, or to communicate knowledge of the environment.

Cooperation

Under conducive circumstances, organisms discovered the advantages of cooperation under a division of labor.

Society

Gains outweigh the disadvantages. Due to its enhancement of survival and reproduction - its gains outweighed its costs.

Spontaneity

Much animal behavior is spontaneously generated from within the organism, not a response to an environmental stimulus. Thus animals do not only react, they also act. They show evidence of a will.  

Imprinting

Latent Learning

Curiosity

Play

Organizing Principles

Insight Learning Evolution

Characteristics

Abstraction – proto-concepts

Insight Learning

Imitation

Tool Use and Construction

Motivation

Separation/Individuation

Development

Action

Emotion

Emotions developed in higher animals. They were the result of complex information processing that evaluated a stimulus in the mental context of the various instinctual drives.

Communication

Society

Organizing Principles

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSALITY

Determination

Gross determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space; but at this stage, higher-order laws (biological and neurological) are primary in determining the sequence of events.

Randomness

A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, location, structure behavior of neurological entities. As the sequence of events is determined by higher-order laws, the amount of randomness increases as does its quality. (An animal will react in a certain way to a stimulus if it is in one motivational state, and will react differently if it is in another.)

Degrees of Freedom

Neurologic organisms do not only react to stimuli, they initiate behavior. Experiments show that even if all inputs to the central nervous system are interrupted, animals will make spontaneous movements. Thus neurologic organisms play a separate and qualitatively unique initiating role in the sequence of events. They manifest a degree of freedom from lower-order causal laws.

Teleology

At the Neurobehavioral level of existence, a telos or goal can be discerned. Neurobehavioral organisms exist and strive to survive and reproduce because this promotes the replication and thus persistence of their DNA.

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PATHOLOGY

Neurological Pathology

Disorders of the neurological hardware

Psychological Pathology

Maldevelopment of behavioral software, i.e. faulty programming. Usually caused by trauma such as lack of mothering, abandonment, physical abuse, etc.

LINGUOCULTURAL EVOLUTION

TIME: 1 million years ago to present

LINGUOCULTURAL PRINCIPLES

LINGUISTIC ALGORHYTHMIC COMPRESSION

Those humans which can use language as an information processing tool and can create a digito-analogic mental representation of experienced phenomena and their causes are more able to survive.

LINGUOCULTURAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES

Protolinguistic Evolution

 Characteristics

Confined to hominid species

The information processing capabilities of the human brain reached a certain critical power which enabled humans to invent language; a new and unique event in the Cosmos.

Only with the use of language did man's accomplishments begin to separate him from other primates.

The first and simplest words were probably just imitations of sounds made by the indicated animal or activity (onomatopoeia) and variations of preexisting primate calls.

Words for new objects often created by analogy to more familiar objects

Words served as a mental tool to organize perceptions and make them persist in memory - thus greatly improving man's efficiency and cooperation.

Proto-language brought about the earliest tool-making advances.

Ideas represented with words are called “memes”. Memes are often organized into systems of ideas. Humans created complex memetic models to explain their world. These early models are called “religions”.

With the evolution of language, memes became the dominant force in human life and behavior. 

Concepts

Memory Control

Behavioral Control

Social Control

Tool Making

Bicamerality

Organizing Principles

Lexicon

Onomatopoeia

Metaphor

Metaphier

Metaphrand

Paraphier

Paraphrand

Analogy

Protolinguistic Pathology

Maldevelopment of linguistic information processing—words can sometimes inhibit appropriate responses

Neurolinguistic Pathology

Disorders of the speech hardware

Genetic Disorders

Acquired Disorders

Psycholinguistic Pathology

Maldevelopment of behaviorolinguistic software—concepts misrepresent the true nature and causes of things, provoking maladaptive responses.

Autism

Linguistic Evolution

Characteristics

Early human mentality is concrete, thoughts take the form of hallucinated voices (right side of brain speaks to left--bicamerality).

With language man could carry out complex learned tasks: building a fire, making a knife - probably by simple hallucinatory repetition of instructions.

The use of words became an extremely powerful tool to organize man's perceptions and actions.

Survival of human species greatly increased by this quantum increase in ability to store and manipulate knowledge

Predation (hunting animals or humans; taking other human's goods) increasingly is replaced by cooperative enterprise with the rise of agriculture.

Meme complexes (memeplexes) became a dominant force in human affairs. Memeplexes are similar to genomes in that they compete with one another for dominance. Memeplexes, like viruses, have weapons and defenses to assure their survival. For instance, a memeplex the orders the killing or enslavement of outsiders with a different memeplex would tend to assure the survival and propagation of that memeplex.

Myth/Religion

RELIGION - The primitive, non-philosophical use of language-based information processing to explain sensory evidence, calm existential fears, fulfill wishes, and provide moral, social and political guidance. Religions are a highly-organized form of memeplex. Because the religious memeplex serves important, immediate personal and political needs, it is tenaciously defended by its believers. They resist any application of the philosophico-scientific tests of truth – non-contradiction, correspondence to evidence and coherence. Religious memeplexes disable the mind’s rational/philosophical faculty and thus the mind’s “immune system”. All religions are relatively inaccurate, non-logical (contradictory) systems of belief.

Statism

The organization, by some dominant group, of various other groups into a single super-group. This requires the imposition of a ideological memeplex.

Technocultural Evolution

Culture evolves as men develop an increasingly complex analogic representation of their experience.

Primitive religion arises as man ascribes all phenomena to the few entities which he already comprehends, e.g. seasons, rain, and fertility ascribed to the activity of some powerful animal or man.

Man worships that which he seeks to influence - that which is crucial to his life - that which he cannot understand

Bicameral voices are believed to be those of gods and kings Language enabled more productive cooperation of large groups of humans -birth of agriculture and industry (Neolithic Revolution) (See Julian Jaynes)

Civilization is born when writing is invented allowing greater organization and cooperation among men

Writing

The invention of writing introduces a new power to linguistic communication, as ideas can be transferred without the presence of a speaker.

Organizing Principles

Syntactic structure

Persistence of successful memes and memeplexes

Linguistic Pathology

Memeplexes False ideas are destructive to the extent that they cause human beings to think and act in ways that do not conform to physical or to human reality.

Religions

Myths

Ideologies

                                                Simple Delusions

Technocultural Pathology

LINGUOCULTURAL MECHANISMS

LINGUOCULTURAL CAUSALITY

Determination

At this level there is still gross determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space; but at this level, higher-order laws (neurological and psycholinguistic) are primary in determining the sequence of events. Memplexes compete with one another for survival. Ideas determine humans’ actions and thoughts and humans are not yet capable of criticizing and improving the ideas that dominate their society.

Randomness

A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, structure, and content of human language and behavior. As the sequence of events is determined by higher-order laws, the amount of randomness increases as does its quality. (A human will react in a certain way to a stimulus if it has one interpretation of events, and will react differently if it has another interpretation.)

Degrees of Freedom

Linguistic humans form word-concepts of internal and external phenomena which allow them a more rapid and adaptive response to events. They escape the more rigid neurobehavioral determination by their much greater information-processing ability. A new behavior or technique, once acquired by one individual, can be rapidly learned by others.

Teleology

At the Linguocultural level of existence it is human society that promotes the replication and thus persistence of the species DNA. The individual's self-preserving instincts are subordinated to the welfare of the society and thus the gene pool. Individuals are controlled by their society's memeplexes.

CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL EVOLUTION

Time:  6th Century B.C. to the present

CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES

Consciophilosophical Information Processing

Those humans that self-consciously and deliberately use language-based information processing to integrate all available sensory evidence into an accurate and system of word-formulas that identifies the causal structure of the Cosmos are more able to survive and pursue their happiness.

CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL EVOLUTIONARY STAGES

The Origin of Consciousness

Characteristics

The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (See Julian Jaynes’ “The Origin of Conscsiousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”

The concrete, hallucinatory, mythic mentality of humankind was dominant in the earliest civilizations (Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian).

This mentality began to breakdown as man became more conscious (aware) of the external world and of himself

This origin of self-consciousness occurred as a result of increasing knowledge, linguistic sophistication, and contact with other societies with different hallucinatory control systems. (acquaintance with the multiplicity and relativism of belief systems)

As the gods no longer spoke to man, he turned to various magical rites in order to make the gods speak. He used different evocative rituals to divine the gods' will and make decisions (augury, astrology, etc.)

Writing

Intercultural Contact

Political Instability

Survival Value of Deceit

Analog Self

Self-consciousness arose as man came to understand which events in his world were caused by his own actions and which were the result of natural phenomena or other individuals. Language thus permitted the creation of a linguistic analog self or "I" by which each individual perceived him/herself as an actor on the world stage and not just as integral part of the natural and spiritual whole of reality. This complete differentiation of acting self from background is also learned by language-using human children during their cognitive development.

One's consciousness is increased by greater knowledge of self through interaction with others, self-analysis, and/or professional analysis.

Hierarchical Mentation

Freedom

With the onset of conscious thought and deliberation, man escaped the degree of determinism inherent in the physical, biological, neurological, and linguocultural (memetic) levels of existence. Mankind is now able to critically evaluate memes and memeplexes and reject those that do not conform to Cosmic reality—that are inconsistent with the evidence, with logic, and with philosophical rules of thought.

Man's freedom of will arose only to the extent that he exercised his capacity to analyze the past and project the consequences of alternative actions. Consciousness and freedom are not on/off phenomena, both are increased as one's knowledge of self and environment is increased.

Choice

Responsibility

Meaning

Isolation

Stimulation of Appetites

Philosophy

Organizing Principles

Logic is the use of language in a way that conforms to Cosmic regularities at the most fundamental level. The philosophical rules of thought are the use of language to conform to higher, more complex causal principles. 

Syntactic Language

Consciousness arose as a result of the increasing discriminatory power of language applied to all experienced space phenomena, external and internal.

Knowledge

One's consciousness is increased by greater knowledge of one's self and one's environment through education in the human and natural sciences.

Philosophic Evolution

PHILOSOPHY - The conscious, deliberate use of language-based information processing to represent all available sensory data and integrate causal scientific theories of Cosmic phenomena into a coherent and efficacious system of linguistic formulas. The truth of every linguistic formula in the system is subject to rigorous and continuous testing. Those formulas are considered conditionally true which accurately correspond to all sensory and scientific evidence and which logically cohere with all other formulas and which prove efficacious to the human pursuit of knowledge and happiness. All sciences--physical, biological, and human--are specialized areas within Philosophy. Philosophy (with its sciences) is an objective, shared human enterprise. Humans pursue it in order to increase their productivity, health, wealth, understanding, wisdom, and ultimately, happiness.

In Ionia (Aegean Turkey), 6th century B.C., Thales of Miletus made the first recorded attempts to explain natural phenomena as the result of mechanistic cause and effect. As a result of the Persian conquest of Ionia, the center of philosophy moved westward to Athens where Plato and Aristotle identified the major questions of philosophy and applied philosophic analysis to every area of life. Plato contaminated philosophy with quasireligious idealism and authoritarianism. With the conquest of Athens by Sparta, Alexander, and then Rome, philosophy retreated into quasireligious sects. In Roman Stoicism and then Christianity, scientific philosophy remained submerged. Only in the Late Medieval Renaissance and French Enlightenment did philosophy again become prominent in intellectual life. The deterioration of the French Revolution into totalitarian terror and Napoleon's subsequent invasion of Europe resulted in the creation of authoritarian nationalism, and cosmopolitan philosophy was repudiated. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, philosophy remained hostage to quasireligious ideologies - nationalism, socialism, fascism, capitalism, and communism. Only in narrow fields of the physical and biological sciences did philosophic progress occur. Some progress occurred in psychology, but ethics, politics, and economics have remained hostage to the dominant ideologies: Capitalism and National Socialism.

Characteristics

Once man had clearly distinguished himself from his environment, he no longer attempted to explain natural phenomena as products of some personality. He began to seek mechanistic explanations instead of anthropomorphic ones.

This resulted in the breakdown of religious domination of thought. Logical reasoning was applied to all aspects of life. Men asked questions and sought naturalistic causes.

In Greek civilization, we find the first conscious, rational, scientific attempts to explain the nature of man, the world, and the gods (Milesian philosophers)

Greek Philosophers raised and analyzed all the essential questions of philosophy--metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, politics, and aesthetics.

Judaism and Christianity and their offshoots have suppressed philosophical cognition, which has not regained the prominence it had in ancient Greek thought.

Authoritarian systems of all kinds also suppress philosophical cognition since it is the primary challenge to their hegemony.

Rationalism

Objectivism

Scientific Method

SCIENCE - An arm of philosophy which concentrates on one discrete category of hierarchical Cosmic phenomena. It seeks to construct formulas which identify significant phenomena and causal relationships within its purview. It uses specialized tools and procedures appropriate to its object of study. It gathers data by observation and experiment. It integrates the data accumulated by forming linguistic and/or mathematic formulas which are rigorously and continuously tested for correspondence to phenomena and for logical coherence. Every science, in both its working assumptions and its formulas, must be informed and criticized by philosophy.

FORMULA - A meaningful combination of linguistic and/or mathematic symbols. Philosophic formulas are those which are an attempt to represent Cosmic phenomena and causal relationships. Scientific formulas are given different names in accordance with the degree to which they have been tested and accepted by scientists:

HYPOTHESIS - A formula which has explanatory efficacy but requires further testing.

THEORY - A formula that seeks to expose the cause of some observed phenomenon. A theory is better developed and has more supporting evidence than a hypothesis.

LAW - A repeatedly tested and universally accepted formula which has proved efficacious in all practical applications.

PRINCIPLE - A formula which is untestable but requires acceptance because it represents a fundamental and necessary basis of Cosmic phenomena.

Secularism

Breakdown of belief in philosophical and religious authority. Discovery of the efficacy of systematic observation and experiment

Breakdown of belief in governmental paternalism. Separation of government and economics. Separation of government and religion. Realization of the efficacy of individual freedom and responsibility. Application of science to production of energy and goods, made possible by freedom from governmental interference in individual ownership and control of property

Elimination of nationalist and other collectivist belief systems. Full realization of efficacy of individual pursuit of happiness in the framework of voluntary cooperation as the basis of morality world-wide. Government limited to protecting individuals from use of physical force/coercion by others.

Individualism

Consensualism

Organizing Principles

Logical Coherence

Objective Correspondence

Prediction

CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL MECHANISMS

Consciophilosophical Causality

Determination

At this level there is still significant determination of all events by regularities (laws) inherent in space; but at this stage, higher-order laws (psycholinguistic and conscious/intellectual) are primary in determining the sequence of events.

Randomness

A certain degree of randomness has not only contributed to these conducive circumstances, but contributes also to the formation, structure, and content of human language and behavior. As the sequence of events is determined by higher-order laws, the amount of randomness increases as does its quality. (A human will react in a certain way to a stimulus if it has one interpretation of events, and will react differently if it has another interpretation.)

Degrees of Freedom

With self-consciousness and philosophic information processing, the individual attains a much higher degree of freedom that existed at lower levels. The amount of freedom varies from individual to individual. A human's degree of freedom (escape from being determined by his past and present environment) is directly proportional to his degree of consciousness and the effort he makes to use his intellectual capacity. His degree of consciousness is partly determined by familial and societal influence. The individual can increase his consciousness through intellectual education and through extrafamilial and extrasocietal relationships.

Teleology

At the Consciophilosophical level of existence, each human is aware of his unique desires and capabilities. Each human strives for happiness according to his scale of values. His behavior is no longer necessarily determined by neurobehavioral drives which evolved by maximizing species DNA persistence. The society is, for the self-conscious individual, now only a means to his pursuit of happiness.

CONSCIOPHILOSOPHICAL PATHOLOGY

Psychopathology

These disorders are the result of developmental deprivation. The individual must pass through all preceding hierarchical levels in its own development. Just as the fetus must pass through stages of growth that recapitulate the evolutionary stages, so too the infant must pass through the developmental stages of non-linguistic, then linguistic human evolution. The inability to progress through all levels of neurobehavioral, linguocultural, and conciopsychological growth prevents the inidvidual from achieving full self-consciousness.

Neurosis

The repudiation of part or all of the self as the result of parental and societal abuse; resulting in self-repression of desires, emotions, and thoughts. Consciousness of self is inhibited and the individual must create a false self in accordance with parental and societal models. All religions and all non-scientific ideologies support neurotic disfigurement of the individual's personality through their false, and thus unhealthy, doctrines.

Inasmuch as the individual is neurotic, he is non-conscious and cannot make full use of the philosophical method. He has lost contact with important aspects of his self and must adhere to false beliefs. He cannot be fully objective. He must resort to fallacious argument in attempting to justify his beliefs. But inasmuch as he is not neurotic he can use the philosophical method to detect some of his false beliefs and neurotic tendencies. Escape from neurosis requires both philosophic deprogramming and restorative experience of his natural self in loving relationships with others.

Sociopathology

Some degree of neurosis is affects all individuals. Societies differ as to the kind and degree of neurosis. This is the cause of all self-defeating personal, social, and political behavior. Political domination is the societal expression of the individual's inner domination by the false self and its ideologies. As the natural neurobehavioral self has been repudiated and is dominated by the false linguocultural self, so the individual believes that society requires politico-ideological control and coercion. This leads to the expansion of societal control to every aspect of life. The agent of control is government.

War

The ultimate sociopathy—the negation of all values that are required for human prosperity and mental development.

Coercion

Next to war in its power to destroy human values. Wherever force is used, natural human relationships and development are perverted.

Slavery

When allowed, certain groups or classes will attempt to enslave the rest of humanity—to use them for their purposes. This parasitism has taken many forms throughout history: violent slavery, feudalism, tax-slavery, and today’s debt slavery to bankers by the mechanism of fractional reserve banking.

Sado-Masichism

From parental coercion and control of infants and children, to the state’s coercion and control of citizens, natural human cooperation is replaced by a master-slave model.


About Me

Let me know what you think.