Background - Epiphenomena
An epiphenomenon is something happens when the whole exhibits properties that cannot easily be deduced from the parts that make it up. Such properties are called "emergent". The world is full of epiphenomena that we take for granted. For example, the complex behavior of water - even the fact that it can exist as a liquid - cannot be deduced from quantum mechanical properties of the H2O molecule. This is even more so of epiphenomena like hurricanes and tornadoes and emergent properties like turbulence. Yet nobody would claim that hurricanes and tornadoes are not *real* -- it's just that we can't (at present) create a firm bridge between what we understand of the molecules that make up hurricanes and tornadoes and what we understand about water molecules.
When it comes to living things, epiphenomena are the rule rather than the exception. A colony of bees is a common example: the "behavior" of individual bees makes little sense at the "bee" level and perfect sense at the "colony" level. Our own bodies are even better example of epiphenomena. Human consciousness is an emergent property that happens when you have a few billion neurons talking to each other.
The premise of this blog is that human social organizations have emergent properties that closely mirror properties we normally associate with independent living things. These organizations have properties of their own that cannot be fully accounted for - certainly not *expected* from a study of the humans that make up the organization.
I claim that it is useful to consider these human organizations as alive in their own right. Whether this is true or not depends, to a certain extent, on your definition of "alive". Objects don't "have" some mysterious "soul" that makes them "alive". We consider objects that share certain characteristics as "alive". The main characteristic of human societies is that they fight vigorously for their own continued survival, often at the expense of the individuals who make up that society. In this fight, societies ("dragons") react to stimuli from the outside world, strongly distinguish between "self" and "not-self", consume resources in the specific attempt to increase the chances of the society to survive.
Striving to survive is what living things do - what they all have in common.
On a certain level, this is all pretty obvious. What is frequently missed is the fact that the fight for the dragons to survive only happens to coincide with the desire of ordinary people to survive. The "welfare" of the dragon is not the same thing as the welfare of the citizen. Like bees and neurons, ordinary people are assimilated into the dragon. The survival of individual bees or neurons is irrelevant to the survival of bee colonies and people. The goals of these dragon are poorly understood, if they are understood at all, by those who try to explain world affairs, which is chiefly a battle between dragons, not individual (assimilated) human beings.
The "dragon" is an emergent entity. To understand the dragon, it is at least fruitful to think of it as alive, since we are all very familiar with living things. The dragon is not like anything else in our experience other than a big, dangerous monster.
A key insight is that dragons do not somehow absorb the wisdom of assimilated humans. Within the dragon, individuals are rewarded or punished as humans (they can get rich or be killed for example). The dragon as a whole suffers from "tunnel vision". It is preoccupied with its own survival and the vicious fight with perceived enemies. Compared to "biological" living things, dragons are primitive. Every ting alive on Earth\ has a 500 million year pedigree. Dragons have a very short evolutionary history. They are weak and extremely vulnerable to changing conditions. Their existence crucially depends on the assimilation of human beings. Humans occasionally think for themselves and strike out on their own. For this reason, it is not surprising that dragons spend so much of their energy and resources ensuring that humans will not think for themselves, but regard their own welfare as identical to the welfare of the dragon.
When it comes to living things, epiphenomena are the rule rather than the exception. A colony of bees is a common example: the "behavior" of individual bees makes little sense at the "bee" level and perfect sense at the "colony" level. Our own bodies are even better example of epiphenomena. Human consciousness is an emergent property that happens when you have a few billion neurons talking to each other.
The premise of this blog is that human social organizations have emergent properties that closely mirror properties we normally associate with independent living things. These organizations have properties of their own that cannot be fully accounted for - certainly not *expected* from a study of the humans that make up the organization.
I claim that it is useful to consider these human organizations as alive in their own right. Whether this is true or not depends, to a certain extent, on your definition of "alive". Objects don't "have" some mysterious "soul" that makes them "alive". We consider objects that share certain characteristics as "alive". The main characteristic of human societies is that they fight vigorously for their own continued survival, often at the expense of the individuals who make up that society. In this fight, societies ("dragons") react to stimuli from the outside world, strongly distinguish between "self" and "not-self", consume resources in the specific attempt to increase the chances of the society to survive.
Striving to survive is what living things do - what they all have in common.
On a certain level, this is all pretty obvious. What is frequently missed is the fact that the fight for the dragons to survive only happens to coincide with the desire of ordinary people to survive. The "welfare" of the dragon is not the same thing as the welfare of the citizen. Like bees and neurons, ordinary people are assimilated into the dragon. The survival of individual bees or neurons is irrelevant to the survival of bee colonies and people. The goals of these dragon are poorly understood, if they are understood at all, by those who try to explain world affairs, which is chiefly a battle between dragons, not individual (assimilated) human beings.
The "dragon" is an emergent entity. To understand the dragon, it is at least fruitful to think of it as alive, since we are all very familiar with living things. The dragon is not like anything else in our experience other than a big, dangerous monster.
A key insight is that dragons do not somehow absorb the wisdom of assimilated humans. Within the dragon, individuals are rewarded or punished as humans (they can get rich or be killed for example). The dragon as a whole suffers from "tunnel vision". It is preoccupied with its own survival and the vicious fight with perceived enemies. Compared to "biological" living things, dragons are primitive. Every ting alive on Earth\ has a 500 million year pedigree. Dragons have a very short evolutionary history. They are weak and extremely vulnerable to changing conditions. Their existence crucially depends on the assimilation of human beings. Humans occasionally think for themselves and strike out on their own. For this reason, it is not surprising that dragons spend so much of their energy and resources ensuring that humans will not think for themselves, but regard their own welfare as identical to the welfare of the dragon.
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