Dear Howard and Pedro, Please allow me to comment on the complementary visions of the Lucifer vs. the "angelic" scenarios.
Anyone familiar with my work knows that I see configurations of mutually beneficial processes as the driver behind all of evolution. The problem is that this dynamic is, like much of nature, normatively ambiguous. Mutually beneficial configurations exhibit a "centripetality", or the tendency to bring ever more resources into their own orbits. This is a universal, although much neglected, but necessary attribute of all living systems. So one is able to view this dynamic in either its angelic or Luciferian manifestations: At the angelic extreme, Giovanni di Fidenza (a.k.a., Bonaventure) saw the infinite love shared among the persons of the Trinity as the beginning of all creation, drawing all of creation eventually towards Godself. The growth-inducing aspect of mutual beneficence was implicit in Darwin's description of the counterplay between growth and elimination. The growth side of the interaction has subsequently been minimized, and current evolutionary theory emphasizes elimination. <https://vimeo.com/41784061> Of course, induced growth situated within a finite context eventually leads to competition and often to elimination -- the Luciferian side of the same phenomenon. Centripetality also elides into manifestation of "self", or selfishness. (On the human scale, Daryl Domning speaks, not of Original Sin, but "Original Selfishness". :) Induced competition and selfishness then combine to yield Howard's pecking order. And so the drama of the universe unfolds as a struggle between rampant selfishness and kenotic beneficence -- from the atomic scale all the way to universal dimensions. It all begins with mutual beneficence, but it evolves/devolves into complex interplay of phenomena to which we assign contrasting normative values. Peace to all, Bob U. > The Force of History--Howard Bloom > > > In 1995, I published my first book, The Lucifer Principle: a Scientific > Expedition Into the Forces of history. It sold roughly 140,000 copies > worldwide and is still selling. Some people call it their Bible. Others > say > that it was the book that predicted 9/11. And less than two months ago, > on > November 13, 2015, some current readers said it was the book that > explained > ISISâ attacks on Paris. Why? What are the forces of history? And what > do > they have to do with information science? > The Lucifer Principle uses evolutionary biology, group selection, > neurobiology, immunology, microbiology, computer science, animal > behavior, and > anthropology to probe mass passions, the passions that have powered > historical > movements from the unification of China in 221 BC and the start of the > Roman Empire in 201 BC to the rise of the Empire of Islam in 634 AD and > that > empireâs modern manifestations, the Islamic Revolutionary Republic of > Iran > and ISIS, the Islamic State, a group intent on establishing a global > caliphate. The Lucifer Principle concludes that the passions that swirl, > swizzle, > and twirl historyâs currents are a secular trinity. What are that > trinityâ > s three components? The superorganism, the pecking order, and ideas. > Whatâs a superorganism? Your body is an organism. But itâs also a > massive social gathering. Itâs composed of a hundred trillion cells. > Each of > those cells is capable of living on its own. Yet your body survives > thanks to > the existence of a collective identityâa you. In 1911,_[i]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20f > oundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.docx#_edn1) Harvard > biologist William Morton Wheeler noticed that ant colonies pull off the > same trick. From 20,000 to 36 million ants work together to create an > emergent property, a collective identity, the identity of a community, a > society, > a colony, or a supercolony. Wheeler observed how the colony behaved as > if > it were a single organism. He called the result a > âsuperorganism.â_[ii]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%2 > 0and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.docx#_edn > 2) > Meanwhile in roughly 1900, when he was still a child, Norwayâs Thorleif > Schjelderup Ebbe got into a strange habit: counting the number of pecks > the > chickens in his familyâs flock landed on each other and who pecked > whom. By > the time he was ready to write his PhD dissertation in 1918, Ebbe had > close to 20 years of data. And that data demonstrated something > strange. > Chickens in a barnyard are not egalitarian. They have a strict hierarchy. > At > the top is a chicken who gets special privileges. All others step > aside > when she goes to the trough. She is the first to eat. And she can peck > any other chicken in the group. Then comes chicken number two. She is > the > second to eat. And she can peck anyone in the flock with one notable > exception. She cannot peck the top chicken. Then comes chicken number > three, > chicken number four, and so on. Each one cannot peck the chickens above > her > on the social ladder. But each has free rein to peck the chickens below. > Finally, thereâs the bottom chicken, a chicken everyone is free to peck > but > who is free to peck no one. Ebbe called this a âpeck order,â a > pecking > order, a dominance hierarchy. > And in 1976, Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined two new > terms._[iii]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2 > 015.docx#_edn3) He observed that biological life, all of it from > bacteria to bathing beauties, depends on the evolution of what Dawkins > called â > replicators,â molecules that can make copies of themselves. Then > Dawkins > spotted a newer kind of replicator at work. The first biological > replicatorsâ > genes--did their thing in primordial puddles. The new replicator worked > in a > puddle of a radically different kindâthe puddle of the human mind. > Dawkins observed that we see replicators at work when our mind fixates on > a song > we hate and plays it over and over again, no matter how vigorously we > wish > it away. That song is using our mind to make more copies of itself. But > the most important replicators in the soup of the human mind are not pop > songs, theyâre ideas. Dawkins called these mind-based replicators > âmemes.â > Superorganism, the pecking order, and ideasâmemes--thatâs the holy > trinity of The Lucifer Principle. Thatâs the holy trinity that drives > the forces > of history. > Hereâs how it works. Social groups compete. They battle for pecking > order > position in a hierarchy of groups. They strive to be at the top of that > hierarchy and to avoid the fate of the chicken at the bottom. Whatâs > the > main thing over which groups compete? Itâs a badge of group > membership. A > badge of what molecular biologist Luis Villarreal and philosopher > Guenther > Witzany call âgroup identity.â_[iv]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20informa > tion%20science%2012-24-2015.docx#_edn4) That badge? A cluster of memes. > A knot of replicators that live in a sea of minds. The Babylonians > competed with the Assyrians and the Medes. They competed using different > languages. They competed using different ideas of what clothes to wear, > what was > right and wrong, and, most important, what gods to worship._[v]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%2 > 0foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.docx#_edn5) The > eight states that made war in China in from 475 BC to 221 BC also had > competing languages, religions, and philosophies. Rome set itself > against the > Persian Empire using the same tools of group identity: a different > language, > a different clothing style, a different way of worship, and a different > pantheon of gods-- different ideas. And today militant Islamâin the > form of > the Islamic State and whatâs left of al Qaeda--is pitting itself > against the > West, Russia, and China using the ideas of Islam. Using the words and > deeds of Mohammed, words and deeds that are still making copies of > themselves in new minds 1,384 years after Mohammedâs death. > Pecking order competitions between groups, pecking order competitions > based on ideas, are the meat and potatoes of the headlines. They are > the > forces of history. > Where does information come into this? Everywhere. A fact that we shall > have to discuss. > Why? Because communication, sociality, and information exchange are at > the very heart of this cosmos. So are competition and hierarchy. Not to > mention the ancestor of superorganism-ness, the foremother of group > identityâ > the cosmosâ obsession with mobs, gangs, flocks, and massively > integrated > social entities. Social entities that range from protons, atoms, > galaxies, > stars, planets and moons to galaxy superclusters. What do all of these > things > have in common? What do they share with megamolecules, DNA, cells, and > bacterial colonies, not to mention ants, nations, and ISIS? Competition, > hierarchy, and group identity. Superorganism, pecking order, and > ideasâthe > holy trinity of the Lucifer Principle. And guess what else they share? > Information! > > > ____________________________________ > > _[i]_ (file:///C:/cnt/the%20n > ew%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.doc > x#_ednref1) Jürgen Tautz, The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a > Superorganism, Berlin: Springer, 2008, p. 3,. > > _[ii]_ (file:///C:/cnt/th > e%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.do > cx#_ednref2) William Morton Wheeler, The Termitodoxa, Or Biology And > Society, The Scientific Monthly, February, 1920. > > _[iii]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.d > ocx#_ednref3) Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford > University Press, 1976. > > _[iv]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.do > cx#_ednref4) Luis P. Villarreal, Origin of Group Identity: Viruses, > Addiction and Cooperation, New York: Springer, 2009. > > _[v]_ > (file:///C:/cnt/the%20new%20forces%20of%20history%20for%20pedro%20marijuna%20and%20the%20foundations%20of%20information%20science%2012-24-2015.doc > x#_ednref5) For more on the battle of the gods in Mesopotamia, see > Howard > Bloom, The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates, Buffalo, NY: > Prometheus Books, 2016. > > > > ____________ > Howard Bloom > Author of: The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces > of History ("mesmerizing"-The Washington Post), > Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st > Century ("reassuring and sobering"-The New Yorker), > The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism ("A > tremendously enjoyable book." James Fallows, National Correspondent, The > Atlantic), > The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates ("Bloom's argument will > rock > your world." Barbara Ehrenreich), > How I Accidentally Started the Sixties ("Wow! Whew! Wild! > Wonderful!" Timothy Leary), and > The Mohammed Code ("A terrifying bookâ¦the best book I've read on > Islam." > David Swindle, PJ Media). > www.howardbloom.net > Former Core Faculty Member, The Graduate Institute; Former Visiting > Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University. > Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; Founder, Space > Development > Steering Committee; Founder: The Group Selection Squad; Founding Board > Member: Epic of Evolution Society; Founding Board Member, The Darwin > Project; > Founder: The Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of > Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American > Psychological Society, Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and > Evolution > Society, International Society for Human Ethology, Scientific Advisory > Board > Member, Lifeboat Foundation; Editorial Board Member, Journal of Space > Philosophy; Board member and member of Board of Governors, National Space > Society. > _______________________________________________ > Fis mailing list > Fis@listas.unizar.es > http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis > _______________________________________________ Fis mailing list Fis@listas.unizar.es http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
