There are perennial questions here concerning the proper role of governments,
celestial or earthly. There has been much debate in the fertile
middle ground between
monarchy and anarchy concerning what needs to be regulated and how.
The idea
here is to entertain the possibility that fantastic structures
can come into existence
without a pre-established law or plan.
Modern and some ancient theories concerning our world can be more
complicated than the world they describe! Why should one adhere to
a belief system that is stranger than the real world? Our rich, beautiful
and sometimes terrifying world can be derived without invoking a pantheon
of gods or for that matter anything supernatural. Rare and extraordinary
events
can have ordinary trivial seeming causes. This claim, of course, needs
to be
demonstrated and proved or it is just another grandiose statement.
A scheme that attempts to describe the world by positing cosmic laws
or a
law-giver is at risk of assuming the pre-existence of things more difficult
to
understand than the world itself. According to Occam's Razor, a proper
theory
should not introduce additional mysteries in an attempt to solve a
problem.
Occam's Razor cannot always be applied. In mathematics, there are some
simple
questions with very complicated answers that involve the creation of
entire fields
of research. So perhaps only a complex theory can begin to do justice
to the
complexities of life.
There is evidence however, to the contrary. Complex phenomena can be
generated
from very simple and localized interactions. From Darwin's blind watchmaker
and
Adam Smith's invisible hand, advanced communities and civilizations
can arise with
no central planning whatsoever. The complexity emerges from thousands
of trivial-
seeming steps. One can test this sparse idea by running simulations
of the real world
on a computer. Programmers have learned that tiny and meaningless algorithms
can
by themselves generate intricate and (to some people) beautiful designs.
One can play
with a few lines of code and cause drastic changes in the results.
A little tweaking
here and there can make virtual civilizations rise and fall.
Although these simulations are in effect just toys, they create the
suspicion that
many of our approaches to answering the big why questions are top heavy
with
unnecessary assumptions. If one can be more economical in one's thinking
and
let go of excessive baggage, than why not travel lighter. Why make
life more
complicated than it already is? We live in a rich and delicately interconnected
world. Could all of this complexity have arisen from simple idiotic
steps? One
can test this hypothesis by letting a computer unconsciously take all
of the idiotic
steps. With all of the cheap and powerful computers now available,
variants of
this hypothesis have been test driven billions of times. A tiny piece
of computer
code, an algorithm for a trivial seeming task, is allowed to work on
a simple
initial state over and over until a history has been built up from
thousands of
almost identical steps. The patterns or designs that are generated
are not explicitly
stated in the original program. If a complex form emerges, its cause
is nowhere
to be found. The form has arisen from almost nothing, a meaningless
algorithm.
From a mindless algorithm, one can create a world that looks like it
has an
intelligent plan. For an in depth 992-page cookbook for creating such
worlds,
explore the soon-to-be-released book by Stephen Wolfram titled A
New Kind
of Science.
It is written by the creator of Mathematica, a program that breaks
down intractable-seeming higher mathematics into trivial steps. From
the outside,
Mathematica looks like a pre-eminent work of genius. From the
inside, it is a
business that has created and sold millions of copies of its expensive
program
to academics that could not imagine such a product being possible (especially
from a private business). For Stephen Wolfram, it is proof that marvelous
living
and breathing things can result from thousands of little steps. Persistence
pays.
Look back on one of your more productive days and ask yourself, what
is the
hardest thing you did that day. Wasn't it something that for you was
quite easy?
Wasn't the whole day comprised of lots of easy steps, albeit, thousands
of them?
The hardest step might have been a particular decision, or dealing
with indecision.
Perhaps you prayed for advise, or simply put your problem in God's
hands.
No worries!
Each day there are tasks to do, usually too many, but individually they
are easy
if they are broken down into small steps. The tasks that are already
laid out can
be managed; the tasks that are undecided pose a distinct challenge.
This is where
you get to exercise your free will and assert yourself and be who you
really are.
What could be simpler? The hardest thing we do is live with our decisions
and
the decisions of others. With each decision, a choice is made to take
a step, to act.
From that juncture, thousands of more steps are taken to carry us to
a plateau that
was once unimaginable. To reach these new levels, one simply has to
act with a
resolute faith that tiny and tenacious steps can lead to great results.
The new
horizons need not be completely thought out in advance. They don't
have to be
built into the program.
Where does inspiration fit in this, the moments of "aha", the light
bulbs? Inspiration
is a memory. It is how we choose to package a string of events. What
seems like
inspiration or a miracle to one person is to someone else hard work
or even just play.
From hard work and play, the seven man-made wonders of the of the ancient
world
were built, bit by bit.. How about natural wonders, like geese flocking
thousands
of miles. How can such a pattern come into existence? From hard work
and play
is the answer, from taking survival seriously, but not too seriously,
one wing beat
at a time. The migratory patterns come into being through millions
of very short range
actions taken with scarcely a thought towards the big picture. If tiny
gnats can swarm
about without bumping into each other, then why shouldn't a flock of
geese be able
to hold a formation without a formal leader. Ditto for many of our
own social patterns.
They can come into being and thrive with much less government intervention
than we
might think. There is no need to assume that natural phenomena are
created from a
different set of principles than man-made phenomena.
Today we know that colossal man-made monuments, machines and structures
can be
built from thousands of careful steps. Our awareness of the hard work,
training and
preparation that goes into a project or a work of art adds to our appreciation
of the
wonder that is created. In our assessment of natural wonders, we are
not so perceptive
of their history and origin. Supernatural schemes are invented to explain
what is
natural because one cannot think of any rational or simple way in which
our marvel
rich world could have come into being. Who but God could make the first
flower?
Who but God could have destined the United States of America? We presume
that
the answers to big why questions hinge on vast and all-powerful cosmic
principles,
equations and laws ordained by God or gods, or by necessity, or worse
by fiat in a
smoke filled room of conspirators.
Often there is a schism in people's minds between the man-made
world and the natural
world, as though they had separate origins. A butterfly is divine,
a concrete drive is artificial.
Nature reveals the glory of God, whereas unregulated capitalism is
unnatural and amoral.
The split between what is natural and what is artificial is ill founded..
Where do we draw
the line between what is artificial and what is natural? Can one really
leave nature and
later "go back to nature"?
What if the same secret could cause the formation of a new flower, or
a work of art,
or the construction of a bridge? From a distance, a perfect sunset,
a successful business
or a happy marriage can all seem to be imbued with something magical
and supernatural.
Where is the real magic? A careful inspection of these wonders could
show us that each
of them is created from thousands of trivial seeming steps. "The devil
is in the details".
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". "One small
step for man, a
giant leap for mankind". We have all heard these sayings. We know they
are true. But
then we tend to forget them and go back to imagining schemes and miracles.
Why?
First of all, it is sometimes hard to swallow the Puritan work ethic.
Hard work
hurts and our bodies rebel it (although an indolent lifestyle can do
one's body
even more harm). The second reason is that is often incomprehensible
that entirely
new and amazing things can come from ordinary events and people. We
can't imagine
that our little steps can bring us to new horizons, or in other cases,
wreck havoc for
generations to come. It is sometimes hard to realize that tiny and
unnoticed missteps
can be the cause of an immense tragedy. We rather invent elaborate
excuses and
scapegoats.
When the physicist Murray Gell-Mann was asked what he thought was the
most
important discovery over the last 1000 years, he emphatically stated
that it was
our discovery of tools for eliminating superstitions. When our
false notions have
been swept away, the real magic that needs no magic becomes obvious.
When the
power of tiny and persistent steps is properly harnessed, it can carry
us over hills
and into a new valleys were we can laugh and say, "It never had to
be so hard".
Complex world's can be generated from thousands of unorganized steps.
Just do them and be patient. Paths are made by walking. Trust in the
magic
without magic.
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