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I will be editing this over the next few days, but I wanted to get it up today
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The Most Important Law in Physics: the Purgatory Principle
The most important law in physics bridges the chasm between
the fundamental laws concerning how our universe works and actual states of
being. On one side of this bridge, you
have mathematical tools like Maxwell’s equations, the thermodynamic relations,
such as entropic drift, and the mass-energy equivalence of e=mc2. One the other side, you have the mental
foundation of lived experiential reality, that is, the realm of psychology,
meaning and mind.
I call this law the Purgatory Principle. Because it bridges the physical and mental
realms, it isn’t technically physics. Nor
is it strictly mathematical, though it is logical. The Purgatory Principle, however, makes a
statement about the fundamental nature of the universe, one that derives from
its physical aspects.
It can be stated in the following expression:
(U & M) x T ==> (G) v (E)
The notation is a hybrid derivative from mathematical, boolean
and computer languages. A simple way to put it is as follows: as technology increases, one of two paths
will be taken, a vector toward either Good or Evil.
It will discuss the variables much more below. U stands for the universe. M stands for mind, the mentality of the
persons controlling the technology. The
operator “x” indicates that greater technology tends to have an increasing and overwhelming
effect on the type of government taken, as so whether Good or Evil is chosen.
The U: Big Bang, interactions,
particles, life, evolution
I use our own universe as a prototype for the U. In
accord with current understanding, the genesis of our universe was a Big Bang
phenomenon. An initial faster-than-light
expansion occurs. Then stars coalesce to
burn and ultimately die, that is, go nova or supernova. In the process, they churn out the elements
that combine to create life. This
churning takes place in the heart of shrinking stars, and follows a fusion
process that merges single protons into larger units. Dust clouds from the death of the stars condense,
via the pull of gravity, to form planets, which are the potential breeding
grounds for life, seeded as they are with the essential elements.
More details on the nature of U (skip if you aren’t
interested)
Various sorts of particles and interactions are part of the
process of bringing about life. In
addition to gravity, there are other ‘glues’ or force/energies in our universe,
such as the electromagnetic and strong (nuclear) force. In addition to the protons, neutrons and electron
shells that make up the elements in the atomic chart, there are smaller, subatomic
components, such as quarks.
Essentially the universe starts from scratch and proceeds to
set the conditions for life. When life
emerges, it proceeds through the process of evolution, which is both
cooperative and competitive. However, it
is important to note that evolution, in large part, is brutal and vicious. It requires, for instance, that many living
organisms hunt and devour each other to survive and breed.
The M:
language-rich, tool use, intergenerational build up
The essential trait of any U under the Purgatory Principle is
that life will emerge from a cocktail of chemistry and physics and, following
evolutionary routes, eventually reach an M-state. M stands for mind in the sense of a language-rich,
tool-using species, one that can transmit knowledge from generation to
generation and build up increasing technology, which is represented by
increasing the T-factor.
“Language rich” is meant to differentiate between various
kinds of language, such as advanced
communications used by bees and ants, by crows, whales and elephants,
and language of yet another magnitude, say, the english language.
We are M
Human beings are M-class creatures and what we have done is astounding. Our universe is about 14 billion years
old. In the last couple hundred thousand years,
give or take, we have proceeded from basic stone ‘tool kits’ to more advanced
stone working, including arrowheads, and onward up through iron, steel,
gunpowder, advanced chemical and nuclear tech, computers, the internet, and
much more is coming: AI, robots, precision
genetics, nanite (molecular) machines and onward, ad astra, literally, to the
stars.
It has been theorized that a fusion-powered spaceship could accelerate
to 50%-80% the speed of light (orion project, wiki).
Accelerating rate of tech advance
The tech (T) increase is accelerating rapidly here on Earth
under our M. The shift from basic stone
tool kits to arrowheads took maybe a hundred thousand years. Way back when, the hunting bow was a
world-changing invention. Now, in merely
250 years or so, the Industrial
Revolution has taken us from steam power to being on the edge of mobilizing
fusion power.
Either Good or Evil wins, once Technology reaches a
certain point
This is the crux of the Purgatory Principle. Increasing power means increasing might. From our current vantage, an admittedly
primitive one, there is no hard limit in sight for how much technological power
could reshape reality. For all we know,
there may be no limit to technological advance.
Total omnipotence may be possible.
Ideas shape behavior, which in turn shapes the world. The strength of those ideas, via the behavior
they impel, increases as technology becomes more able to affect the world. As technology reaches more godlike levels,
the ideas driving the technology become determinative.
In terms of value systems, there are two mutually exclusive
ideas: Good or Evil.
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Side Note
For those willing to stomach another expression, the above
explanation can be written out as follows in this “Mind-World Lemma”:
I ==> B (+T) ==>W
Ideas affect behavior, which in combination with tech level, affects the world. An example is the idea of carving the faces of four US Presidents into the side of a mountain. This manifests in behavior, coupled with the know-how, to bring about a massive change in the face of Mount Rushmore. Another example, on centered in ethics, is the idea of Manifest Destiny or the idea of Black people being Children of Ham. Both of these ideas, backed by the necessary power, led to genocide, slavery, and generally massive slaughter, cruelty and atrocity.
The Purgatory Principle is an expansion of this basic
formula.
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Good and Evil seek to eliminate each other
Ultimately Good or Evil will win out, in any given universe,
if the T factor (technology) becomes powerful enough. Good and Evil seek to eliminate each other. Why?
They are incompatible idea sets, diametrically opposed. Good, for instance, seeks truth and education
to facilitate flourishing, health and virtue, while Evil relies on deceit and
ignorance to keep people oppressed, close-minded and obedient.
Which of the two will emerge as victorious? It depends on the M factor, that is, the maturity
of the people who control the technology.
What worldview, what foundational ideas, will those in power
embrace, when technology allows them to optimally bring out those ideas and
instantiate them in perpetuity?
What is Good?
I have discussed the nature of Good and Evil extensively in
previous blog entries. Both are
empirically verifiable and measurable by tangible effects; that is, they are
definable by scientific standards.
For instance:
A good management style, one that brings good effects, is adaptive, rational, science- and psychology-inclusive, and centers on flourishing of both human and environment. Given our rising tech powers and related knowledge of brain and ecosystem, the result could be a relative utopia, a world where humans live in relative security and edification (1).
Good is, furthermore, associated with real democracy: a truth- and compassion-based government
system that embraces equality and human rights.
Equality is an empirically measurable standard, verifiable by common
sense (the Golden Rule), by jurisprudence (equal justice under law) and by science
(the Human Genome Project and many other studies). (2).
I say “real democracy” because it is a common tactic for a
country to claim it is a democracy when in fact it is not. An embrace of lies and deceit is part of an
Evil government. So is co-opting beauty
as a façade. An example would be taking
beautiful music and playing it before a dictator gives a speech that is full of
hate-mongery while claiming to promote freedom.
This kind of twisted, specious and vile rhetoric is the norm today
across much of our primitive, barbaric world (circa early 21st
century).
What is Evil?
As with Good, Evil as fully and scientifically measurable by
its effects:
An evil management style fosters … wanton disruption of global pillars of environmental stability, such as weather patterns and ocean currents, as well as toxicity, both physical and mental, and wanton potential for extinction of species, including our own. Such effects are brought about by a management style that is irrational and nonadaptive; a style that is myopic and disordered, driven by insecure ego; one that fosters ‘lemming effects’ whipped along by obsessive fear and greed (1).
Evil is associated with totalitarian systems such as
Hitlerism and Stalinism. It invokes an
ignorance- and fear-based form of government that relies on ‘Big Lie’ loyalty
tests. Fear is essential to control and
cower the populace, and also to provide scapegoats, which take the form of abhorrent
scourges like racism and sexism.
There is no equality in an evil governmental system, whether
in law, society or economy.
Plutocracy and kleptocracy are twin pillars that support a
grossly unfair and imbalanced pyramidal hierarchy of wealth, atop which sits a
monarchic, charismatic dictator who is emotionally immature (god king complex),
deeply insecure (narcissism), cruel and unconscionable (psychopathy) and who,
as well, seeks total control of the population via the thrasymachian infliction
of might-makes-right.
These kinds of rulers are common in our day and age. We call them “strongmen” which is a
euphemistic misnomer. A better name for
them is enervators. The reason is that
they are in effect a kind of parasite, sucking the wealth, health and vibrancy
of a country into their own bloated, dysfunctional scheme for
self-aggrandizement (APP ref).
The complexity of the T factor
The Purgatory Principle allows that technological power can
increase to the point where an entire universe can come under the sway of a
Good or Evil governmental system. This
is an ultimately scary thought. Given
the lack of limitations on T’s potential, a single civ, in theory, can colonize the
entire the cosmos, starting on its original planet and expanding from there, as
tech increases to allow it.
It may turn out, though we are not certain at this time, that
technology has limitations that cannot be exceeded. Full domination of an entire universe would
require speeds of communication and travel that we cannot comprehend in the
early 21st century--and which maybe are impossible to attain, given
the makeup of our universe (limitations in physical laws, chemical and
cosmogonic phenomenon, etc.)
However, at our current and increasing level of
understanding of how things work, we can begin to see how an entire planet could
be taken over by a single Good or Evil regime.
The following scenario illustrates the danger.
The Darkcraft Scenario:
Evil triumphs once and for all
For evil to ultimately triumph on Earth, a few conditions
need to be met.
(a) One Evil country becomes completely dominant other
others. Let’s call this country Dominot.
(b) Dominot controls and monitors every citizen so precisely
that rebellion is impossible and obedience is guaranteed.
Bringing about (a) and (b): robots, AI, and brain implants
Military robots invade and subdue a resistant country. With blanket surveillance (aerial drones,
insectoid drones, aquatic drones) and ‘hunter’ sensors, no one is able to
hide. Human body heat is targetable even
through thick walls and dense foliage.
Once everyone is rounded up, the next step would be to an
enforcement implants directly in every brain.
This allows for constant monitoring and punishment. Coupled with perfected techniques of
propaganda and indoctrination, a carrot and stick approach, optimized by highly
advanced psych ops), complete assimilation would be achieved.
It’s likely that the level of technology required for the
Darkcraft scenario will be developed, give or take, within two hundred years,
maybe less.
Reflections on the threat
The point of the above scenario is this: even if the Purgatory Principle is hampered
by limitations in technology, which would restrict its ability to apply to an
entire universe, it still applies at the planetary level.
The Purgatory Principle should make us think very
carefully.
Our tech level is accelerating fast. Very soon, the tech level horizon needed for
Good or Evil to ultimately and irrevocably triumph on our planet will be
passed. As of this writing, narcissistic
dictatorial leaders have assumed the throne in the most powerful countries in
the world, including China (Xi) and the United States (Trump). Other countries with nuclear weapons that
have dictators, or similar enervators, include North Korea (Jung Un), India
(Modi) and Israel (Netanyahu). As technology advances, and it will, these sorts
of leaders will use it to increase their control, including surveillance (AI),
police power (robots) and propaganda (future-tech psychological operations).
What we can do now:
lightcraft
As I’ve written in several blog entries, ethics can and
should be seen as a technology [3]. This
is not so much different than seeing medicine as a technology. Medicine used to be faith-based. Now it is largely tech-based (although the
anti-vaccine movement here in the USA is
taking us backwards a few steps).
Ethics as technology is grounded in science and reasonable
philosophical thought. The term I use
for the practice of using ethics-as-a-technology is lightcraft.
As a technology, ethics can have higher and lower levels of
effectiveness, the same as medical technology, which is improving all the time. If we focused on improving ethics tech, it
too could advance rapidly.
I like to describe the goal of lightcraft as getting home: a society of honesty, mutuality, and
equality. Mutuality means mutually
beneficial relationships. This includes
our relationship with our environments, such that both humanity and the
environment benefit, including thriving ecosystems and populations of diverse
wildlife species.
Ethics advances by overcoming ignorance
Fear, hate, and greed, the core of evil, rely on ignorance. They require keeping people harnessed in a
culture of lies. We live under the
hobble of a mental virus in our brains, one that goes all the way back to the
beginnings of the Agricultural Revolution.
The Agricultural Revolution initiated patriarchy, slavery and war. This gave rise to despotism, the ‘god kings’
on thrones who rule through Big Lie loyalty tests, centered in fanaticism. This is the mentality that dominates our
civilization to this very day.
How does it continue?
It exploits our ability to transmit knowledge from generation to
generation to infect each new generation with a bad set of ideas. We are trapped in a negative,
self-sustaining, generation-to-generation indoctrination loop.
I call this self-replicating, generation-hopping mental
virus the Ignorance Vortex. For Good to
win on our planet, we must dissolve the ancient pattern of acculturation that
traps us in crippling ignorance [ref].
Conclusion
Given the way the universe is set up, Evil is bound to get a
head start on any planet. A sentient
species discovers farming, food amasses in silos, and the battles to own it
begins. Slavery, patriarchy and war show
up and dominate the means of cultural transmission and inculcation.
We are, to this day, hostages of the Ignorance Vortex and its
self-replicating reinforcement techniques, while have had a long time to settle
in and sophisticate. Generation after
generation after generation.
Although must people don’t seem to fully realize it, human
beings, circa 2025, live under incredibly barbaric conditions that hail back to
original social control techniques used in ancient Sumer: fanatic religion with obedience enforced by
loyalty tests and the threat of torturous force. The Assyrian kings tortured their enemies in
the most hellish was possible, and bragged about it in stone, proclaiming
themselves god. We’ve progressed
somewhat from this, but given how far we could go, if Good rather than Evil was
predominant, we are incredibly primitive and dysfunctional.
That said, much progress has been made in the last few hundred
years. In 1920, women gained the right
to vote in America. An astounding
advance. Slavery was banned worldwide in
the 19th century. Very
recently, in 2015, gay marriage was made legal in the USA. This stunned many people I know. We never thought it would happen in our
lifetimes.
It took the Romans 500 years to get rid of the utterly evil
practice of crucifixion. Today, cultural
changes toward equality have, and are, taking place far more rapidly.
It could be so much better for us. We could live vastly more wonderful, happy,
flourishing, fulfilled lives. This isn’t
mythical mumbo-jumbo. This is
ethics-as-a-technology. A method to advance
to new levels of social and ecological planning, by marshalling the strengths
of science and philosophy. Better
systems of education. Better methods of
acculturation. More stable positive
social systems and modes of governance. More psychological maturity. More emotional competence. It is all doable. The knowledge and techniques, in fact,
already exist.
The main obstacle is that ignorance-based governance
actively works to maintain ignorance.
Donald Trump, a wannabe dictator, infamously said, “I love the poorly
educated.”
Either Good or Evil will win on this planet. Soon the technology level will reach a
sufficient level to allow an irreversible permanent transformation.
Now is the time to
choose. Impossible as it might seem, ethics
needs to be front and center. Social
movements can vastly transform society.
Ten years from now, one thing is fairly certain: cultural will be significantly different from
what it is now.
Without advanced ethics tech, we cannot properly manage the
godlike powers we are developing.. They
will control us instead.
Every so often, a flock of “.edu” addresses comes to my blog
to read my essays. I urge everyone, including
those working at universities, to consider the Purgatory Principle. Every tech advance you make can be used by either
darkcraft (maintenance of ignorance-based government) or lightcraft.
For those of you working on AI especially, I ask you: what
will it be used for?
There will be only one victor, in the end: Good or Evil.
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