RE: What "the message" was (for me)
First of all, I love the picture you used for this. Did you draw it?
I've got to know how it works too, mostly because I can't get past the question, "What is the purpose of all this?" I'm ok if there's no purpose. I just want to know that. It will help with decision making. ;-)
I think what you've written is a highly likely scenario. It's already beginning to integrate a lot of formerly contradictory ideas in my head. It brings up more questions, though, which is what happens every time I move closer to understanding.
Why does the universe behave consistently enough that we're able to discern "laws?" Are we already part of a larger self-organized intelligence, but not aware of it? If so, do our actions have any significant effect on it? Could there be vast thinking machines, already in existence, watching our progress and waiting to link to us? Is it possible that we or any of our components are self-replicating machines made by other intelligent beings? They may have been forced to choose more readily available materials than metals and plastic.
You've already addressed some of these questions in your stories, so maybe you wonder about these things too.
I do think there's a degree to which any large population of humans already is essentially a single contiguous mind. The fidelity and throughput of communication between humans exceeds by many times the chemical communication between cells.
Nobody denies that the 37 trillion cells in your body are coordinated enough to be considered a gestalt, larger entity named rebelmeow. So why isn't, say, the United States a superorganism with humans for cells? Isn't war just two superorganisms trying to kill each other?
Anyways, fascinating thoughts from you as expected. This is why it's always a treat to read your reflections on stuff I've written.
Thank you! I feel like I've won the lottery that I get to read your stuff every day.
I did not realize this:
I know ants seem to have some kind of collective intelligence. When you watch an individual ant, it seems as dumb as a rock, bumping into things over and over while trying to complete a task. But as a group, they create these amazing structures. I used to think that was pretty mind blowing, but I guess it's much like human society. If an alien talked to the average human being, it would wonder how the hell our species created toasters, much less wireless technology. At what point, though (and how?) do you get an individual ego that thinks of itself as the whole? Do the ants living on my back sidewalk think of themselves as "Bob?" ;-)
Forests also exhibit emergent intelligence, passing on chemical signals to one another in a neuron-like fashion in response to fires and other stimuli.
https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other
Anywhere you have organisms in groups, capable of some form of communication, they seemingly form networks of their own accord. This pattern is found at very small scales, like the cells in your body.
It is found at larger scales like forests, ant colonies and human societies. It is found at yet larger scales like those described in this article. It is a quality of fractally structured systems that they contain the same repeating patterns at very scale. This is simply a consequence of forming by optimizing process (evolution).
Naturally occurring optimizing processes like evolution perform a kind of procedural generation, and the results of procedural generation are always, always, always fractally structured (usually containing spirals as well, which is why both of these patterns appear throughout nature)
I wrote more about this topic in these two articles:
https://steemit.com/religion/@alexbeyman/to-christians-who-accept-evolution-is-nature-obviously-the-work-of-an-intelligent-designer-the-authors-of-the-bible-apparently
https://steemit.com/money/@alexbeyman/how-capitalism-is-like-evolution-and-socialism-is-like-intelligent-design
I've actually read both of these articles, the older one probably from a link in a more recent article. One of them has my favorite quote (ever) about capitalism:
I'm coming to understand emergence better the more I learn about it, but I'm still struggling with ego-sense. Buddhism points to the sense of self as an illusion, and when you look at emergence, that makes sense. But I can't help wondering why humans have developed a subjective sense of "I" or ownership around the individual organisms that make up our bodies. I wonder whether other networked groups also develop this subjective sense of me-ness around the whole.
I guess one way to look at this is if aliens wanted to establish a relationship with humanity, could "Humanity" have a conversation with "Alien race A?" Oh holy hell, our leaders would talk to each other. So Trump is our ego, and I just answered my own question. The ego is a part of the whole tasked with outside relations. Ha ha, I can totally see Trump having a sense of ownership over the whole of humanity. Hopefully, we'll eventually develop a more united sense of national identity and a better spokesperson for it.
I haven't watched the tree video yet, but it reminded me that I watched this video a while back. It's taking some time to integrate these ideas into a coherent understanding, but you've been very helpful with that. Thank you for the great conversation!
If so, we wouldn't be directly aware of it any more than a single cell in your body would be aware of you. Insofar as a single cell is aware of anything, I mean.
Likewise. I meet such thoughtful and fascinating people on Steemit.
P.S. The information you wrote on fractals was also really helpful. I sensed from taking psychedelics that the fractals were showing me something fundamental about the nature of reality. I just didn't understand what. It's starting to make sense now. This is why every time I look at our highway system, I think of blood carrying nutrients through the body. It's the same repeating pattern at a different scale.
Funny you should say that. Highways are artificial of course but their layout is governed by a planning process which seeks the path of least resistance. Which is to say, which will cost the least. Cost is the constraining factor being worked against, whereas in the case of blood vessels it's metabolic cost, and in the case of crystallization, it's temperature.
https://trid.trb.org/view/689139
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/881008/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898122107001897
Optimizing process (freeway planning) working against constraints (cost) equals fractal patterns. It's spooky how universally this seems to apply.