In the last article, I was waxing on esoterically about being humble. Here, I’ll wax off to reveal the dirty reality underneath.

Reality

Only in the last decade did I learn about complex adaptive systems and holons and SOHOs. (This is a framework for reality as a hierarchy of patterns- each “thing” is made up of stuff. It’s a pattern of other things. And each “thing” is also a part of a greater pattern.) To me, it’s a wonderful framework for reality. And at each level, things function with each other in sort of a “natural” way, and have no real access to the levels above them or below them.

As humans, we’ve studied just about all of the ones below us, and a few above us as well, such as markets, economies, environments and civilizations. But those are just the ones we know. There could be much greater things that we comprise. These patterns could even have something akin to awareness or consciousness. (Perhaps markets <em>create</em> a higher “power” of greed, rather than simply perpetuate it among ourselves. Similarly, some say our ideas, such as “accomplishment”, use our lives for their own purpose and survival…

It’d be wrong to say it’s an anthropomorphic god. Pridefully wrong. It’d be mistaken to think that our “patterns” of love and wanting to build things are similar to that of a larger pattern. We don’t intentionally create our cells. And neither do our cells intentionally create us- not the sort of intention that we call “choice.” (Or do you see cancer as an arrogant, proselytizing cell?)

Creativity

Unlike other things, we seem capable of intentionally acting in ways to create systems “above” us. I say “seem” because the stupidity of some of us may prevent it… (Like many of these stupid people think they believe in goodness and ethics, but can’t even identify lies, or get past their pride in thinking their beliefs are true. Their ability to listen or cooperate is very limited.) And I don’t just mean things like “America.” At some point that was a creation of humans, but soon after we acclimated to it and it became “the drift” rather than creation, at least for most people.

It’s pretty humbling to realize how self-aware I am, and how knowledgable of the workings of reality, and yet at the same time there are huge worlds hidden above, below and around me. And being human, blind spots are everywhere.

Arrogance and truth

Probably this piece will sound arrogant to some. It is in some ways and it’s not. In some ways it’s as arrogant as a proselytizing Christian or Moslem. It’s natural to have a point of view and think one knows some truth. It’s arrogant to believe it. I don’t believe it’s true, but I believe it’s much truer than religions (which are false to the extent to which they claim the truth of their myths). It’s truer because it’s more accurate, fitting the facts better. But that’s reasoning…

(This is all part of a WordPress blog. The software gives it a “readability” score. It says the score is about 73, “which is considered fairly easy to read.” It strikes me as ironic…)