by Antonin Tuynman (reprinted from steemit)

Whenever we feel unhappy or uncomfortable, whenever we are suffering, this is usually due to the fact that we have a divided Mind.

In the book "The Praxis" Dirk Bruere lucidly describes how the Mind can become divided against itself when it has to exclusively choose from more than one option. When our "wants" are in competition with our "needs" and "oughts" we're in trouble, leading to stress and dis-ease. Temptation is that state according to Bruere where there are two desirable yet exclusive options to choose from.

This is Hell, we are pulled in different directions, and I'm pretty sure that everyone has felt that feeling more than once in his or her life. When we have no direction, we are lost in Limbo. And as our mind is not integrated in such a state, we lack integrity.

The symbol of Chaos is a set of arrows all pointing in different directions for a reason...

Conversely, when our mind is integrated, we are integer. We are whole. There is an Indo-European etymological link between "whole", "holy" and hail and health.

When we are whole, we are healthy and have a clear direction and focus. We are integrated and in union with the higher Logos of the universe.

In my book "Is Intelligence an Algorithm?" I describe how both the differentiation in all possible directions in order to give rise to a diversity of natural building blocks and the integration to combine these building blocks in higher order complex systems are required to generate all phenomena we observe.

From a plethora of elementary particles, 61 were selected to build the atoms. From a very selected group of atoms, a diversity of organic molecules was generated. From these only a limited set build the macromolecules that gave rise to cells. Cells differentiated in many ways to be integrated in complex organisms and organisms diversify in tasks to build societies.

Thus the ontogenesis of all composite complex things and life forms is a process which involves both heaven and hell: Both differentiation in all possible directions as well as one pointed integration.

For this reason I have adopted the following symbol for integration:

In other words reality cannot be heaven alone; it must be a mix of heaven and hell to give rise to the beauty of versatility we observe in nature. A mix of cruelty and compassion.

That said, in humans there is generally a desire to develop to a higher spiritual ideal of more integration, of an all-inclusive compassion towards all life forms.

Yet we are bringing this planet to a catastrophe of a manifested Hell by our "exclusivity attitude". As the so-called "tragedy of commons" shows, we'll give priority to selfish tendencies, when we see that others do so too, in the fear of missing the boat. Imagine a pond has a limited amount of fish, which could lead to a sustainable fish supply for the community if everybody takes just one fish. If you don't regulate this, there will always be humans who defect from a consensus agreement and will take more than one fish to have an advantage over the others. This is where Hell starts. The egocentric tendency to consider yourself of more value than others. Soon other members defect and the pond is emptied beyond repair. This is what we are doing to our planet, by usurping more than our fair share: If all people would live like Americans we'd need 4 planets to feed all. If all people would live like Europeans we'd still need two planets. Clearly, the Western lifestyle is not sustainable in terms of present day organisation. Next time someone is boasting that they made an "exclusive deal", you might blink twice.

So although differentiation and egoism are intrinsic and vital ingredients of existence, they can become Hellish once they start to become parasitic and destroy everything in their paths going in all directions.

Unfortunately, a lot of modern developments in technology are creating as many possibilities as possible (combinatorial chemistry; massive data crunching), without an accompanying ethical code. There is screening, without appropriate pruning. Nanoparticles, that may be great to patent for an industrial application, might be highly toxic. There is not much eye for a standard toxicological testing, when you're the boss of a multinational. And then there are plastics. Nobody ever worried about their degradation. And now we start to drown in our own shit. Have a look at the damage islands of plastic waste in the seas and oceans cause to flora and fauna. It makes me start crying.

And what about Bitcoin? Has anyone really thought about the massive energy consumption it causes? Use solar panels say the supporters. Has anyone really pondered that solar cells also wear out and the waste that is going to create, apart from the pollution caused by the toxic materials used in solar panels?

True intelligence will be to find the right balance between differentiation and integration. One which is overall integrative, but which allows a certain sustainable degree of differentiation at lower levels. When we are no longer led by fear, greed and jealousy, when we sense no regrets or remorse if we have to abandon an option, when we start to realise that together we form an interdependent whole, perhaps we might start to become focused and one pointed to find an exit from our Malthusian predicament. It's still my hope that we can do better than bacteria in a Petri dish, although the clock is ticking and it's not even eleven o'clock anymore. It's five to twelve.

We need to rapidly change our ethical code, if we wish to survive. I see only one, in which people could become caring, loving beings, that do not exclude this or that group for reasons of racism, sexism, classism or any other discriminatory reason:

That is the spiritual journey inward to discover not only your internal wholeness, but your interdependent link to everything that is. Once we start to feel and sense other as self, we start to feel a union with all that is. This spiritual sense of the mystical union, of being one with all that is, is the only way to realise that acting selfishly to gratify your ego in a short-term manner is not to your own advantage. We depend on each other and will continue to do so. Only by adopting an all-inclusive sense of wholeness and connectedness with everything that is, we might be able to choose the sole direction of long term sustainability forwards.

And this will require giving up some of our privileges. Is not the terminology "privilege" a perversion in itself? We will need to make sacrifices and adopt a more parsimonious style of life if we care about our children and the generations that will follow them.

Now is the time to awaken from the Hell we are creating on Earth and to choose the sole right direction out of this conundrum of multifarious multiplicities. One of sustainable all-inclusiveness; One in which respect for life and long-term sustainability outweighs short-term profit.

Antonin Tuynman studied Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, achieving both an MSc and a PhD. He worked as a postdoc researcher at the "Université René Descartes Paris V" in Paris. Since 2000, Tuynman has worked as a patent examiner at the European Patent Office (EPO) in the field of clinical diagnostics. He lives in the Netherlands.

 

Is Intelligence an Algorithm?

Discover Nature’s algorithm of Intelligence to learn problem-solving from intuition to artificial intelligence.

Paperback £11.99 || $19.95 AMAZON UK  /  BARNES & NOBLE  /  INDIEBOUND

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