I think we’re all familiar with mental models (although I think they are far more than “mental”) and the natural, ongoing processes and loops by which they are refined and updated.
We have many, many models—I could say we carry around a world of models within us—a model for each thing that is a “thing” to us, an agent, a force, a person, an object, a system, a self, an organization, a relationship, etc. The human navigates using maps for all things. We have no access to the territory, but this does not mean there is no territory, just that we have no direct access to it. If we do, perchance, experience real territory, we will not be able to share our experience of it without using maps.
Humans teach and train each other. We form sociopolitical groups, tribes, and organizations and establish and live according to agreements with each other. We honor these agreements to the degree that they stabilize things and allow us to build together across population and generations. These agreements are in place because they work, and long-standing agreements and cultures have resilience and longevity to the extent that they have 1) a depth of strategies to use across a spectrum of seasons and circumstances, 2) defenses and protections, often internalized in the minds and nervous systems of its population, and 3) have processes in place to discuss, adjudicate, resolve differences and conflicts, adapt to new situations, and assimilate new information.
Occasionally, circumstances, conditions, or information arises that significantly challenge a mind’s* deep models—models that inform, explain, or justify existential things like what are we are doing here, why are we doing this, what is this all for, and what are the “rights” and “wrongs”—the values—we need to order to live together and cooperate like we do. When this disruption occurs, it seems fairly apparent that the organism or mind will experience something colloquially referred to as “the Dark Night of the Soul.” Foundational models, assumptions, and agreements fall apart, and “reality” falls apart as it was understood by the community or mind.
Without an understanding of this natural process, human mind might get stuck in repetitive cycles of recoiling and retreating, instead of abiding the storm and trusting that, if it survives, it will pick up the pieces of what’s left and build again, hopefully something more resilient, but this can depend on the extent of the damage and what’s left that’s either worth salvaging, or that ends up getting salvaged out of convenience or necessity.
What I’m describing here is the process of the evolution of mind. It mimics biological evolution, but facilitated memetically/culturally among humans it can happen much more quickly than random mutation-based biological kind.
Understanding these processes and this phenomenology of human mind is what I believe constitutes “gods.” Intelligence or entities that are integral to human organization and allow us to build and develop what we do across populations and generations—storing and transmitting technologies and knowledge to each other as protected, sustained, and perpetuated by cultures and corps/orgs/states.
By “mind” here, I mean either an individual mind or mind at the collective level. Both are things, but the latter is more covert, more driving, harder to see and discuss (see The Matrix.)
I think we’re all familiar with mental models (although I think they are far more than “mental”) and the natural, ongoing processes and loops by which they are refined and updated.
We have many, many models—I could say we carry around a world of models within us—a model for each thing that is a “thing” to us, an agent, a force, a person, an object, a system, a self, an organization, a relationship, etc. The human navigates using maps for all things. We have no access to the territory, but this does not mean there is no territory, just that we have no direct access to it. If we do, perchance, experience real territory, we will not be able to share our experience of it without using maps.
Humans teach and train each other. We form sociopolitical groups, tribes, and organizations and establish and live according to agreements with each other. We honor these agreements to the degree that they stabilize things and allow us to build together across population and generations. These agreements are in place because they work, and long-standing agreements and cultures have resilience and longevity to the extent that they have 1) a depth of strategies to use across a spectrum of seasons and circumstances, 2) defenses and protections, often internalized in the minds and nervous systems of its population, and 3) have processes in place to discuss, adjudicate, resolve differences and conflicts, adapt to new situations, and assimilate new information.
Occasionally, circumstances, conditions, or information arises that significantly challenge a mind’s* deep models—models that inform, explain, or justify existential things like what are we are doing here, why are we doing this, what is this all for, and what are the “rights” and “wrongs”—the values—we need to order to live together and cooperate like we do. When this disruption occurs, it seems fairly apparent that the organism or mind will experience something colloquially referred to as “the Dark Night of the Soul.” Foundational models, assumptions, and agreements fall apart, and “reality” falls apart as it was understood by the community or mind.
Without an understanding of this natural process, human mind might get stuck in repetitive cycles of recoiling and retreating, instead of abiding the storm and trusting that, if it survives, it will pick up the pieces of what’s left and build again, hopefully something more resilient, but this can depend on the extent of the damage and what’s left that’s either worth salvaging, or that ends up getting salvaged out of convenience or necessity.
What I’m describing here is the process of the evolution of mind. It mimics biological evolution, but facilitated memetically/culturally among humans it can happen much more quickly than random mutation-based biological kind.
Understanding these processes and this phenomenology of human mind is what I believe constitutes “gods.” Intelligence or entities that are integral to human organization and allow us to build and develop what we do across populations and generations—storing and transmitting technologies and knowledge to each other as protected, sustained, and perpetuated by cultures and corps/orgs/states.
By “mind” here, I mean either an individual mind or mind at the collective level. Both are things, but the latter is more covert, more driving, harder to see and discuss (see The Matrix.)