Principles
The coherence of the cosmos is accounted for by natural interactions, with patterns exhibited according to basic operating principles. The modus operandi of producing Nature is energy emergently shaping a mirage of matter which constitutes the actuality fabricated in the mind. Various oddities which physicists have uncovered indicate an underlying complexity utterly outside our experience of the world.
The order in Nature implies an architecture with bases upon which phenomena arise. Operating principles include diversity, continuity, entanglement, desire, and ignorance. These principles rely upon witnessing awareness provided by consciousness and mentation as a processor: the seeming existence of minds.
That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason; there is nothing more excellent than the universe; therefore, the universe exercises reason. ~ Stoic philosopher Zeno of Citium
The reason for existence is simple: existence is a theater of amusement for Ĉonsciousness, which is the unified field which begets individual consciousnesses. The operating principles and constructs of Nature are arranged to provide maximum entertainment. A core thematic element is struggle, which is essential for every riveting story.
Diversity
A universe of singularity would be nothing. Existence requires diversity. To compose Nature, coherent energy patterns localize and appear as quanta, through which complex forms emerge.
Diversity defines every aspect and scale of existence. Nature loves variety. Physics has its plethora of subatomic particles, emergent from distinctive energies. Chemistry is of elements and compounds of astounding assortment and complexity. Biology has lineages (clades) and hierarchies (taxonomy) that include species, populations, and individuals – where, despite any classification imposed, every organism and each cell is unique.
Sex evolved to increase diversity and does so most flagrantly. In an intricate display of entanglement, evolutionary biology shows continuity in lineages and diversity incubated by deviance.
Biodiversity is infinite. ~ American taxonomist Terry Erwin
Some 30 million different plants and animals live on Earth now (though that variety is precipitously declining owing to human environmental desecration). Over the history of the planet, that species diversity soars toward the billion mark; which is how many microbial varieties there are now.
In affording expansive expression, space is the medium of diversity.
Variability
Topological defects play important roles throughout Nature. ~ American physicist Michael Ray
At every scale, coherence employs templates. These templates instantiate as localized, information-laden energy patterns, some of which manifest in particulate form (quantize).
Defects engender diversity by divergence from templates. Defect production may seem an odd algorithm for variety generation, but it works. Instantiations which resonate well through time themselves become a new template – templates evolve.
Quantum physics models suggest that Nature should be quite different than the how it is. Only by unaccountably breaking symmetry in the models does matter manifest as it does. The breaking is a blot on a mathematical perfection.
Each particle of matter is itself a defect artifact. Quanta are formed via defects in the fields which generate them.
Every particle is an unnecessary defect in a smooth and featureless field. ~ Brian Skinner
Further, interactive properties arise from defects. Superfluidity at the quantum level comes via defects which alter the flows of vortices.
Unique properties amongst complex liquids arise from a highly ordered defect structure. ~ Mexican biochemist José Martínez-González et al
Small flaws may produce outsized effects, and so alter fundamental properties or dynamics. Dislocations in a crystal lattice determine the strength and hardness of materials.
Genetically identical cells grown under the same conditions display extensive variability in their potential to grow and differentiate. They have the intrinsic ability to generate emergent, self-organized behaviour that results in the formation of complex, multicellular, asymmetric structures. ~ Swiss cytologist Prisca Liberali et al
Biological diversity arises from statistically breaking symmetry. Cells individually decide their fate.
New species arise from changed environmental conditions, or from preferences away from the norm, such as in mating or food selection. Speciation is a process of population symmetry breaking: a minority group becomes a new population by finding the norm unacceptable.
Consistency
The course of Nature cannot be limited by time, which must proceed in a continual succession. ~ James Hutton
A jumble of ongoing incoherency provides no basis for stability. Without continuity, there could be no consistency or predictability.
Without continuity, each instant is an isolated event, each thought fleeting and unrelated, each precept without relevance, each person a stranger, every event unexpected. ~ American psychologist Anthony Greene
Continuity is incremental moment-by-moment manifestation: the current instant entangled with the moment before. A vector of time is the perceived medium for continuity. Disorientation would be de rigueur if time did not seem to flow continuously.
In life forms, continuity comes from remembering a past, and its temporally vectored converse: the future, toward which organisms feel compelled to survive. Continuity offers opportunities for comprehension, problem-solving, goals, and planning.
Despite its necessity, continuity is an illusion, in that only the present instant exists. Sense of continuity comes from memory recall, which a problematic device. The mind tailors memories to suit the situation, not for veracity. As such, memory is frequently a shimmering mirage, even as it is commonly taken as gospel.
The seeming stability of the outside world reassures us of continuity, but, as perception is entirely within, that assurance of continuity is unassured. Nevertheless, we commonly take continuity for granted and count upon it, even as our life experiences repeatedly point out the hazard of doing so.
Continuity is the temporal aspect of consistency. There is a spatial aspect as well. The harmony of consistency is attained by keeping the locations of objects in space in memory.
Topographic memory is vital to creating a comprehensible world. We have all experienced distress at not knowing the current location of a desired object. Life would be inoperable if such were an environmental norm.
Categorization plays an essential role in achieving a sense of continuity. All objects decay in time, foods especially quickly. Categorization affords recognizing the same object in different states. Learning about processes and phase transitions is only possible via categorization.
Entanglement
Diversity among entities is entirely relational. Manifestation is a matter of interactivity. Nature would be a nonstarter if everything were in its own little bubble, unable to interact with its environment. So, everything is entangled.
Quantum Entanglement
The theater called Nature is accomplished via entanglement: by bosons acting upon fermions. Meanwhile, these elemental actors are hosted by hordes of virtual particles, demonstrating extra-dimensional entanglement.
Nonlocality is a spatially brazen entanglement: synchronous behavior among spatially separated matter, what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” Nonlocality has been demonstrated at the quantum and atomic levels. Spooky action either involves faster-than-light extra-dimensional communication, which physics cannot explain, or spacetime itself is a mirage, which means that the foundation of Nature is beyond actuality.
Universal nonlocality is profound evidence that our universe is fundamentally interconnected as a unified entity. ~ English cosmologist Jude Currivan
Ambient Entanglement
In being all about bonding, chemistry is a study in entanglement. The ambient world of matter is molecular. Molecules are ongoing collaborations among chemical species.
Life is an entangled diversity at every level. Populated by legions of proteins working together, even the simplest cell is brimming with intertwined complexity. Multicellularity exponentially entwines synchrony with variety to achieve macroscopic life.
All life is dependent upon the habitat in which it lives: an entanglement of the organic with the inorganic. Beyond biomes and ecosystems, the Earth itself is enmeshed with all that lives in or upon it, as encompassed in the term ecology. The sporadic mass extinction events that severely shuffle life on Earth melodramatically illustrate the point.
English environmentalist James Lovelock coined Gaia to characterize the entanglement of Earth: the inextricable entwining of geophysical dynamics with biotic interactions at the planetary level. The systemic gyre of Gaia was scorned by reductionist scientists, who religiously refused to countenance ecology on a global scope. But ample evidence supports Lovelock’s gyral theory. Microbes were shaping the atmosphere eons before manmade climate change.
Planets depend upon their suns, the light and warmth of which are processes of physics and chemistry that produce matter and recycle it, thus providing for the next generation of stellar formation. The swing of star systems is an interstellar ballet, as is galactic kinesis, and so on up to the largest cosmic structures.
Consider phenomena at every scale as processes, not objects, and you may readily perceive that existence is defined by entangled interactions, not the more apparent diversity of bodies.
Evolutionary Entanglement
Evolutionary arms races are well known. Predator and prey (or pathogen and host) adapt to each other’s respective defenses and offenses, sharpening their skills to survive. That pertinent adaptations transpire is beyond doubt. How the information required is acquired for evolutionary adaptations is an enigma.
From viruses on up, many parasitic organisms manipulate host behaviors to their whims, so that they may better propagate. While hundreds of such instances have been seen in a wide variety of species, how parasites manage to acquire the fine-tuned acuity to effect host manipulation is inexplicable.
Plant Metabolites
Plants produce different classes of secondary metabolites to achieve explicit ecological effects. Regardless of type, the chemical mechanics of metabolite production are selfsame: attach specific elements onto carbon rings.
The issue is determining which molecules might be efficacious for a precise effect. In retrospect, the ecology of effective interaction in secondary metabolites looks obvious. But hindsight brings only bewilderment when considering how plants knew which formulas to concoct.
Metabolite creation was not a trial-and-error exercise. It instead arose, as does adaption, from goal orientation.
Producing sugary fruits to attract seed carriers seems simple enough, but plants package seeds specifically to target consumers that will eat and disperse them. Part of the packaging plan includes skins that facilitate the intended aim of maximizing reproduction potential. A further detail is having the skins advertise their conditions, so that fruits are not eaten before the plant is ready for them to go to market. These are non-trivial decisions. Failure to anticipate can mean wasted potential and loss of life.
Constructing noxious metabolites is an entirely different challenge. Warding off herbivores involves knowing what is seriously unpalatable to those that pose the greatest threat.
Plants produce molecules that mimic the hormones which control animal reproduction and development. They package these poisonous parcels in precise places where a threat may arise: leaves, stems, and/or roots.
Insects follow one of 2 development plans. Plants know the key to both and produce specific hormones that deter development.
Chemical deterrents that alter the life cycle put a profound hex on an herbivore; a legacy that affects a predator population over a considerable expanse of time.
Those same metabolites which keep herbivores at bay become medicines for animals which are plagued with the same problem: being chewed on by little critters. Even with rise of synthetic drugs in the late 20th century, 2/3rds of new remedies still come from the secondary metabolites of plants.
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Biological entanglement is beyond dispute, most strikingly in antagonistic and parasitic relations, and more subtly in microbiomes. The teleological intelligence by which adaptations are achieved remains mysterious and can never be discerned empirically.
Mind Meld
It involves interbrain communion that goes beyond language itself. ~ Spanish neurobiologist Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
We all know how being with someone can affect mood, especially lively conversation. Whether bird, bat, or human, brainwaves synchronize during communication. The entanglement is energetic.
Communication creates links that go far beyond what we can perceive from the outside. ~ Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
Synchronized Heartbeats
Women have a strong link to their partners – perhaps more empathy. ~ American psychologist Jonathan Helm et al
The power of love is never to be underestimated. Calmly sitting apart from each other a few feet, the heart rate of females rapidly adjusts to that of their male partners. The heartbeat of an infant instantly synchronizes to its mother when she shares a smile with her little loved one. (Babies who don’t tune in to their mothers grow up to be less empathic.)
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Physiological synchrony has been found in a variety of relationships and environments. ~ American health physiologist Chad Danyluck
The Theory of Everything
In 1865, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell opened the door to modern physics with a field theory that unified electricity, magnetism, and light. A half-century later, Einstein’s relativity theories rendered the platform of existence – spacetime – as irreducible. The quest for the unification of Nature continued over the next century. The theory of everything was solved only by enshrining entanglement as the lynchpin mechanism. Physics theories affirm existence as an interwoven fabric.
Information
Everything in our reality is made up of information. ~ Serbian-born British physicist Vlatko Vedral
Once inured to matter, and to what it took to put matter to work (energy), physicists in the 21st century have increasingly cottoned to the concept that physics is ultimately about information. This arose from trying to reconcile the quantum realm with the cosmological. It is an implicit acknowledgment that reality is fundamentally immaterial.
A century of physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. Regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals. ~ Israeli physicist Jacob Bekenstein
A key issue is how information is encoded to present the 3D spatial world which we perceive. Interfaces at the different scales of existence illustrate the problem.
Interfaces
Space and time will end up being emergent concepts; i.e., they will not be present in the fundamental formulation of the theory and will appear as approximate semiclassical notions in the macroscopic world. ~ Israeli physicist Nathan Seiberg
The principle of continuity suggests that reality is scale-invariant, but that is not the case. Discrepancies exist at the different phenomenal scales, of which 3 are most pronounced: 1) quantum, 2) ambient, and 3) cosmological.
Quantization
All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter. ~ Max Planck
In studying heat radiation, German physicist Max Planck discovered that energy always emits or absorbs in discrete units: quanta. From that he derived a constant that stated a quantum’s energy: Planck’s action quantum. The Planck constant is the energy level of the smallest possible localized coherent energy field.
In essence, Planck’ action quantum defined the minimal limits of existence. Space has a minimum: the Planck length. The temporal equivalent is Planck time: the least duration.
Planck discovered that every phenomenon naturally takes granular form. Quantization is the interface between nonexistent energy and manifest matter. Though energy defines actuality, Nature is made of bits. Continuity has its limits.
Thermalization
Chaos is a totally classical concept; there’s no idea of chaos in a quantum system. Similarly, there’s no concept of entanglement within classical systems. And yet it turns out that chaos and entanglement are really, very strongly and clearly related. ~ American physicist Charles Neill
The dynamics of Nature involve an intricate, instantaneous weaving that creates variety while sustaining existing patterns. Diversity is engendered while continuity is ensured. This seeming paradox embodies both chaos and entanglement.
The link between the quantum and classical scales occurs through thermodynamics. In their evolution, quantum systems thermalize – interactive patterns laced with chaos. Thermalization is also a driving force in the classical domain. Diffusion of energy is key in connecting the ambient with the quantum realm, from which our observable world emerges.
There’s a very clear connection between entanglement and chaos in quantum and classical systems. Thermalization is the thing that connects chaos and entanglement. ~ Charles Neill
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The quantum arena begins with subatomic phenomena. It ends at the atomic.
The ambient scale ranges from the molecular to planetary phenomena. Classical (Newtonian) physics characterize this realm. The microscopic realm, which is the province of microbial life, is where the ambient scale starts. The world we perceive is in the middle of the ambient scale. The planetary gyre of Earth (Gaia) is at the end of the ambient realm.
Relativity is the primary theory that guides astrophysics in studying cosmological dynamics. Gravity is the predominant phenomenal effect at this scale, most severely and cryptically exemplified by black holes.
Dynamics at one scale affect others to varying degrees. Quantum effects strongly influence chemical reactions but are otherwise subdued in the ambient. Gravity is practically nonexistent at the quantum scale, tangible but typically tame at the ambient scale, but powerfully potent cosmologically.
Scale-dependent interfaces hint at the glue that renders Nature a piece, albeit Matryoshka-like upon close inspection. The issue is of frames of reference, and how one scale creates effects at a different scale. This essentially goes to information sharing: how an output at one scale shapes activity at another.
The information corresponding with genes create a symphony of biological traits that an organism has. The essential information transfer involved is not molecular, as precocious knowledge illustrates. As with a brain, DNA is a material, but ultimately symbolic, representation.
Molecules
Ordinary matter is made of molecules. Molecules are subject to thermodynamic phase transitions between solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Exactly how matter manages transitions – between fermions, atoms, and molecules – remains a mystery.
Thermodynamics is fiendishly complex, as incisively illustrated by the mathematics which characterize it. There is an entanglement of interactions, and a sharing of information to coherent action that is inexplicable. 4d interactions are only part of the story.
Atoms bond together in numerous ways to form molecules. Bonding may be fluid or robust. There are a tremendous variety of molecular affinities.
Though the electrons of the atoms in a molecule are the primary actors, atomic nuclei, at relatively great remove from the atomic electron cloud, influence bonding interactions. Albeit neatly classified by chemists, molecular bonding behavior has enigmatic oddities and intricacies.
Colossal clouds of alcohol float in the frigid vastness of space, defying the cardinal rule of chemistry: that reactions rates slow as temperature drops. The proffered explanation for cosmic booze is quantum tunneling. Somehow the everyday chemistry that seems so predictable in the lab is shunted aside by extra-dimensional forces, which create vast stills in space. Quantum tunneling is shorthand for activity dimensionally beyond examination: the interaction cannot be explained empirically.
Similarly, our understanding of the makings of matter is incomplete. Atoms are made up of parts which do not neatly fit within the constructs which physicists have devised for them. The Standard Model (SM), which characterizes quantum phenomena, is just a sketch. Its math is suspect, with workarounds to ward off infinities and break the symmetries which insistently appear. SM is an approximation at best, just as classical physics was apt only for a curtailed scale.
The Spectral Gap
The most intimate level of existence is the boundary between something and nothing. The spectral gap is the energy difference between the ground state and the 1st state of excitement in a physical system.
Mathematically modeling the spectral gap is central to quantum physics. The central issue is whether there is a quantifiable gap in the spectral gap, or whether it is gapless (perfectly continuous). The Planck quantum of action suggests discrete discontinuities, but certain transitions indicate otherwise. It looks like the spectral gap is itself situational.
The spectral gap plays a key role in various manifestations of the material world. That there is a small spectral gap in the energy needed to shove an electron from a low-energy state to a more excited one is the central property for semiconductors.
When the spectral gap closes, a phase transition becomes possible. A material becomes superconducting with a closing spectral gap.
Mathematically characterizing the spectral gap has proved insolvable.
There exists no algorithm to determine whether the spectral gap is gapped or gapless. ~ English theoretical physicist Toby Cubitt, Spanish mathematician David Pérez-García & German mathematician Michael Wolf
This means a general method to determine whether matter described by quantum mechanics has a spectral gap, or not, cannot exist; which limits the extent to which we can predict the behaviour of quantum materials, and potentially even fundamental particle physics. ~Toby Cubitt
The Standard Model assumes a spectral gap. That is nothing more than wishful thinking.
The reason this problem is impossible to solve in general is because models at this level exhibit extremely bizarre behaviour that essentially defeats any attempt to analyze them. ~ David Pérez-García
Gas–Liquid Interface
A phase of matter is characterized by its organization of atoms. The atoms in a solid arrange themselves in uniform patterns.
Contrastingly, atoms behave disorderly in gases and liquids. At one moment atoms may be locally packed, then disperse an instant later.
Gases and liquids are fluid, as both flow when under stress. Unlike gases, liquids can form a free surface: a coherent interface layer.
The interface between gases and liquids at the atomic level can only be explained by incorporating a hierarchy of resonances (wave synchronies) during the spontaneous symmetry breaking (Goldstone mode) that naturally occurs between atoms during van der Waals interactions (distant-dependent interactivity). There is a subtle, hidden, atomic order in the seeming chaos of fluids converging.
A microscopic theory of correlations in the interfacial region between gases and liquids originates from recognizing that the correlation function displays, in addition to a Goldstone mode, an unexpected hierarchy of resonances that severely constrain structural properties. ~ English physicist Andrew Parry & Spanish mathematician Carlos Rascón
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The mathematics within human comprehension only provide a crude view of Nature. Modeling the fundamental interfaces for phase transitions, and between phenomena and noumenon, have proved intractable.
Features at every scale of observable existence are only roughly approximate at another. Sometimes interactions at one scale create anomalies at another.
Semiconductor Sandwich
Lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO3 (LAO)) and strontium titanate (SrTiO3 (STO)) are 2 mundane semiconductors: putting up a fair amount of resistance to electricity running through them. Neither has magnetic properties. But when LAO and STO are layered together, they become both conductive and magnetic.
At the interface of these 2 materials, elemental units of magnetism – local moments – form. The moments interact with conductive electrons to create a magnetic state which arranges the moments into a peculiar spiral pattern at the ground state. How this quantum phenomenon arises is a mystery.
It’s like taking 2 pieces of bread and putting them together and having the sandwich filling magically appear. ~ Indian American physicist Mohit Randeria
Photosynthesis
At the ambient scale, photosynthesis is a chemical reaction that produces energy for sunshine autotrophs. The astonishing efficiency of photosynthesis owes entirely to quantum coherence; how it happens is hardly apprehended.
The photosynthetic system of plants is Nature’s most elaborate nanoscale biological machine. ~ Indian molecular biologist K.V. Lakshmi
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Life on Earth began as soon as environmental circumstances permitted. The conditions may have been severe, but life then was as it is now: an act of will.
Abiogenesis
No matter how minute an organism may be, or how elementary it may appear at first glance, it is nevertheless infinitely more complex than a simple solution of organic substances. ~ Russian biochemist Alexander Oparin
The numerous atomic bonds that orchestrate molecular dynamics differentiate by energy level. Why they form the way they do, and in such variety, is not entirely understood. The most vital chemical bonds of all – those that afford life – we utterly fail to comprehend.
Reproducing the spark that differentiates organic compounds from even the simplest life eludes us despite much study and experimentation. The sophistic idea of “primordial soup” has not been abandoned, but its explanatory power is increasingly seen as inadequate, as something fundamental goes missing in all attempts to stir organic goop to life.
The underlying problem is complexity. Although we have no idea of the minimal complexity of a living organism, it is likely to be very high. It could be that some sort of complexifying principle operates in Nature, serving to drive a chaotic mix of chemicals on a fast track to a primitive microbe. ~ English physicist Paul Davies
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While physics raises uncertainties as a matter of principle at the quantum scale, evolution illustrates the opposite.
Evolution
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. ~ Ukrainian geneticist and evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky in 1973
In effecting phase transitions, evolution is the dynamic interface to variety in both the inorganic and organic realms. Life diversifies via evolution. Populations of organisms attune themselves to their habitat in various ways.
Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming into new species. ~ Arab writer Al-Jahiz, in the mid-9th century
Underlying the plethora of forms and behaviors are consistent trends. Evolution may seem predictable.
The evolutionary path is repeatable and predictable. ~ Canadian evolutionary biologist Peter Andolfatto
Traits have repeatedly emerged which aim at precise functionality: ways to sense, maneuver through, and manipulate the environment. Vision, vocalization, and flight are examples of such convergent evolution. There are many others.
Adaptation necessarily relies upon acquisition and transfer of information, from ecological interaction by an organism to the molecular level, where the data are encoded.
There is more to inheritance than genes. ~ English evolutionary biologist Kevin Laland et al
As with other phenomena where physicality falls short, molecular genetics alone is insufficient to explain evolution. Evidence indicates that DNA merely provides recipes for proteins and other biomolecules which are manufactured within cells.
Genes don’t exist. They are merely a conceptual construal to correlate a trait with nucleic acids such as DNA.
Biological traits include behavior patterns which are manifestations of the mind. Such patterns are heritable yet explaining mentotypic traits via nucleic acids is impossible. Molecular genetics cannot account for mental patterns.
Just as the idea of energy is necessary to account for matter in motion (or even the very existence of matter at the quantum level), the idea of egenes – energetic genetics – provides an explanation for heritable conveyance of traits which molecular genetics cannot.
As coherence quantizes, the implementation of inheritance is intelligence which takes molecular form but is not the manifestation per se. With this in mind, genetics (more properly, egenetics) makes sense.
Beyond molecules, it is critical to comprehend that all physical appearance is a but a ruse for energetic (noncorporeal) intelligence. This observation applies for all perceptions, which are ultimately nothing more than symbolic representations.
Besides mentation, there are at least 2 interfaces which evolutionary biologists have been unable to explain: how adaptive advantages (for a habitat) are translated to actionable intelligence at the molecular level; and how genetics encodes development, both form and function.
(Yes, geneticists have done remarkably well identifying genes associated with specific phenotypic traits or developmental pathways. This has been done by disturbing certain genes and seeing abnormal results. It does not explain how genes were organized in the first place for a master plan of organism development. (Just because you can break it does not mean you can put it together.))
The conventional answer to these quandaries is the vacuous term natural selection, coined by English naturalist Charles Darwin in 1859 – though the concept dates to antiquity. Darwin’s hypotheses regarding evolution have been disproved. Having undergone a series of mechanical revisions since Darwin’s time, natural selection is used mostly as a hex against any evolutionary theory embodying teleology (goal orientation), which is exactly how adaptation must transpire.
Natural selection is the main evolutionary mechanism. Evolution is not moved by any mystical force. ~ Venezuelan American biologist Aldemaro Romero Jr.
As Romero’s remark exemplifies, evolutionary biologists reject teleology because it invokes an unobservable force; the same sort of religious objection Einstein, and other physicists in his generation, had in discovering the nonempirical implications of their physics theories.
Nature is not embarrassed by difficulties of analysis. ~ French engineer and physicist Augustin Fresnel
The failure of biologists to explain evolution by biomechanical means alone indicates that an invisible, but natural, force of coherence is behind evolution. Nature does not select: it proposes.
Evolution exhibits an identifiable driving force. ~ Israeli chemist Addy Pross
Given that evolution is apparent in every aspect of existence we observe, it is reasonable to suspect that Nature itself undergoes evolution, which implies that coherence learns and evolves.
Nature herself has a memory. ~ American anthropologist Walter Evans-Wentz
Desire
Desire propels life. All desire is aimed at enjoyment. A most abiding desire is the will to live: to continue the entertainment. Life could not have evolved or be sustained without this will. Multicellularity could not have arisen without reliable relations between cells – dependability ultimately based upon will to live.
The mind uses desire as a tool of enslavement: forming attachments based upon what mind instructs is important and keeping focused on attaining an endless stream of imagined satisfactions.
Ignorance
Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind. ~ Morpheus, in the movie The Matrix (1999)
The Collective comprise the great bulk of humanity, defined by their convictions and constrained by their fears. Though their belief systems vary widely, the Collective are burdened by a selfsame ignorance: belief itself.
Ignorance has 2 facets: perspective-ignorance (pignorance) – a wrong worldview, and fact-ignorance (fignorance). (Loose usage of ‘ignorance’ herein intends pignorance.)
The delusory pignorance of the Collective may seem mysterious: why pignorance clings and perpetuates.
Enlightenment as a norm – life without suffering – would deliver a dearth of entertainment. Nature is the cabaret of Ĉonsciousness; hence, pignorance serves a purpose.
Inevitably, we are all captives of our present personal perspective. ~ American psychologist Baruch Fischhoff
Pignorance engenders diversity in decided points of view, as faith in the mind’s mutterings congeal into persuasive perspectives, each bent to individual predisposition. Beliefs deliver contention when met by countervailing facts or opponents, causing internal dissonance or social discord, respectively.
All stories are of conflict and their resolution, for good or ill. The vexation of pignorance generates entertainment.
Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves. ~ Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Pignorance generates challenge, which is itself a diversion. The mind feeds on difficulty.
People are attracted to what is difficult and complicated. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
The mind uses memory for problem-solving, skill acquisition, and as bait to keep its resident creature in pignorance. The mind is both an all-purpose tool and subjugator, plying emotions and memories to keep its captive in thrall.
The trump cards of ignorance are emotions, with fear as the ace. The poignancy of emotions intensifies the experiences of life, rendering them vividly real. Emotional attachment creates a feeling of investment. Fear of loss promotes a sense of jeopardy.
The Collective constantly seek to satisfy their minds, but the mind is insatiable. Brief moments of satisfaction are all that may be managed. This gyre drives desire.
As long as your focus is on the body, you will remain in the clutches of food, sex, fear, and death. Find yourself and be free. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Socially gleaned beliefs and superstitions apply some salve to a mind easily troubled. Conformance to tradition brings a sense of belonging, which is a comfort in itself.
Lies are the source of meaning, belief, and hope. ~ Titus Abrasax in the movie Jupiter Ascending (2014)
All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention, if only one can first conceive of doing so. ~ English novelist David Mitchell
As social creatures, solace is not commonly found in solitude; quite the contrary, as the mind preys upon those who believe the follies of the mind. Thus, pignorance among the Collective remains irreducible, as it is collectively self-sustaining.
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Grace is within you. If it were external, it would be useless. ~ Indian guru Ramana Maharshi
At the personal level, pignorance has its own gyre of self-organized criticality. The mind retains mastery, which results in suffering, upon which the mind feeds. This narcissism of mentation may drive one toward enlightenment, if only as a means of escape. The Collective struggle against an incomprehensible but compelling force: their own minds.
Life is just one damn thing after another. ~ American philosopher Elbert Hubbard
It’s not sure that life is one damn thing after another. It’s one damn thing over and over. ~ American poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay
