Crises

 There is much talk about crises these days, leading to the notion of a meta-crisis:

Evolution and Values

 In listening to a number of narratives and explanations of evolution, I think we are caught in a Darwinian trap. An implicit assumption in evolutionary theory is that "success" equates to propagation through time. Has an organism figured out how to continue to exist? This makes longevity / time the highest value. However, from the perspective of the infinite / reality / multiple universes / ...., it is the creation and experience of diverse, unique (?) experiences that is perhaps a higher value since that is what infinity continues to do to the best of our current knowledge. Each moment of experience has a "value" to infinity that is "immeasurable". Otherwise, why would it have been created? All our narratives of what is important are part of the infinite experience set of infinity. We make stories about valuing this over that, often forgetting that creation has given existence to all that exists. And perhaps the value of existence is higher than our notions of longevity or having more time or other artifacts of creation.

Combining Models - Vervaeke, Wilber, McGilchrist

 In Vervaeke's Awakening from the meaning crisis work, he mentions 4 ways of knowing:  1) participatory; 2) procedural; 3) perspectival; and 4) propositional. We can look at this model in light of Wilber's Integral model, and McGilchrist's left/right brain model.

Participatory is a strong relationship dynamic between Wilber's upper left and lower left quadrants with a lesser relationship to the right quadrants.

Procedural is a strong relationship between upper left quadrant and the right quadrants.This can be generalized to a tribal, city state, civilizational level as a relationship between lower left and the right quadrants.

Perspectival is a meta relationship to the quadrants, i.e., what is the agent's viewpoint in the quadrants. One can see "it" from a single quadrant view or multi quadrant view. Or various combinations of some or all the quadrants perspectives.

Propositional is the left brain map / model of "it" / reality. And actions can be based on this basis alone.

System Boundaries and Limits

 

One of the models I came across was classifying cooperation, altruism, selfishness, spite in an "economic" geometry. I have some thoughts about expanding this geometry.

Meaning Crisis ?

 These thoughts arise out of watching Vervaeke's Awakening from the meaning crisis and numbers of conversations and dialogues on such topics. One of the themes in these conversations is the loss of the sacred. And one could say Nietsche's notion of "God is dead" is along the same lines. And an attempt to create a new or reawakened sense of the sacred. Or in Vervaeke's term, creating a "religion that is not a religion". The notion of sacred is a bit of a concern for me. One way to look at the sacred is that it creates a veil ( of our own making ) with which we blind ourselves to what is beyond whatever our version of the sacred is. The sacred is useful in terms of the neurological states it allows us to experience. And of course, the side effects of those states can be quite beneficial.

Another way to think of the meaning crisis is that there is a mismatch of the values we ( as a result of the culture we are in ) get programmed with and our basic biology. Part of our biological frame includes empathy, a sense of fairness. Our current cultures put a high metric on economics ( a mode of having ). This is a maladapted metric to our biology. Hence, in the process of making money we may feel a sense of meaninglessness because of the mismatch of that metric to our biology / neurology. Another factor to keep in minds is that this sense of empathy, fairness is an evolutionary addition to our biology. It seems to be present in other primates, mammals, ....? What are the earliest indicators of this biological feature in evolution?