On the Edge of History

So. Saddam is dead.

The stronger chimp has killed the weaker one – law has triumphed. The Law of the Strongest, the Law of the Jungle. Don’t ask, whose support carried Saddam, the poor selfish boy, to power, don’t ask, whose weapons killed his victims, just jump and scream and enjoy a hanging!

Don’t bother about guilt, don’t bother about the scaring similarity between Saddams strategies and the methods of the leaders of our western world, both in politics and industry – don’t bother about your own support for your own ruthless alpha-chimp, don’t bother about the daily betrayal of your colleagues and neighbors just to pick up some crumbs here and there, your boss doesn’t want any more.

Don’t bother about the fact, that justice is not a moral thing you can learn by priests. Justice is a state, a state of highest efficiency in an information processing system. You can’t decide by power or by religion, what is just or unjust. You can’t – and even less the highest alpha-chimp:

Friedrich Nietzsche
One pays heavily for coming to power: power makes stupid.

And alpha-chimps are the most stupid of all chimps – they even lost the ability to recognize themselves in the mirror (a characteristic sign of having developed an Ego).

Yes, Justice is all about the Rule of Law, but not the Law of the Jungle.

It's all about the Laws of Physics and Information and they show us that the architecture of information processing systems limits the intelligence - and when you are near the top you have to change the architecture if you want to progress. The last change in architecture was language - language betters the communication and "condense" the "organism" we call human group. Now, regarding globalization, it seems as if the whole humankind starts to become an organism of interactions - too big to survive without order. And greed doesn't provide a useful order, it isn't even able to provide the own survival (as i've read the American Bosses earned much money by firing American employees, but lost massively power over the same time they got richer by selling Know How – the intelligence and knowledge, the core of the information processing system of the American economy – into other countries for 30 silverlings, so endangering their own ability to feed their own greed).

Regarding Global Warming and the Extinction of many, many species, building all together the intertwined cycles of Gaia – the foundation of human life and culture – there is only one thing clear: we are living on an Edge of History, we are living in important times for the survival of the species “Homo Sapiens Sapiens”, the last branch of the once so big tree of the “Hominidae”.

If we have a chance to survive, we only have it when we follow the path of the last survivors of Hominidae – the path that evolution has shown us (since hundreds of thousands of years!)

The Puzzle of Human Society by Robert Boyd, Science Vol. 314, p. 1556:
”In other primate species, access to resources is usually regulated by social dominance. Dominant males monopolize mating and dominant females get better access to food, sleeping sites, and so on. There is little dominance among human foragers, and access to resources is more egalitarian.”

Behaving as our global companies and politicians like the Bush Family, Scaifes, Kochs, Murdochs et al and all the other HaveMores do (selfish, greedy and ruthless) – is just "other primate behavior" - not specific to humans, a true regression in evolution. Seems to be just a matter of time when they get back their pelt.

Specific to humans is lesser dominance and better access to resources for everyone – and it does make sense: keyword “Justice”.

Because each and every step in evolution is a step in bettering information processing:

· The great difference between plants and animals? The Modus Operandi of information processing: Plants only depend on passive processing (DNA), animals need more to master the requirements of movement, they need a real-time-system: the neurons (active processing).

· The subsystems of brain? Bettering of information processing (aka communication), inside the body, introducing "standard procedures" like emotions and instincts and the last step – the Ego as controlling and monitoring system of a high intelligence, type: active processing.

And the very last step of evolution, of bettering communication (language), shows the tendency where to go: language isn't an advance in communication inside our body, inside our own isolated self – language builds the next step and so the next step in evolution will be to strengthen this "new body", a way evolution showed us:

Leaving dominance and greed behind us, they are just part of our apish past and we should get over it, because we now live on the Edge of History.

We are the Chosen – the species to do the step in evolution which can show up as too hard to climb: The step which changed the face of Earth as it happens the first time, as it connected isolated elements of passive processing systems to groups, as it created the variation of complex bodies.

But the architecture of passive processing is much simpler than the architecture of active processing, so it is much easier to combine subsystems to working organisms – that’s one problem Mother Nature has to solve regarding active processing systems, developed enough to be combinable.

The other is – again – Physics, because each and every system has its apex of intelligence, where the gradient of the Gain cost function of intelligence changes from being positive to being negative, meaning that the system can’t gain more intelligence without starting to lose control.

The passive processing system shows that again – look at the similarity in the genetic code of mammals: The genes are 85 percent the same (of mice and men). Yes, sure, the dynamic nature of information allows greater diversification by the “rules engine” (the cell), but fact is, that since the “invention of the mammals”, the potential of the passive processing system of DNA seems to be exhausted...

because information processing systems have to control the processes to avoid complexity changing into chaos, have to protect and preserve the identifiability and repeatability of information, and because each additional element adds usually more than one additional interaction to the system, the chains of action to be controlled increase at least in the magnitude of the added interactions.

Or in other words: It soon gets really complicated.

And so...

efficiency is the magic word. Because the higher the efficiency, the lesser the work to be controlled to manage a given input to get a wished result. The better you approximate this “divine” state, Physics proves to exist with the Principle of Least Action, the lesser efforts you have to waste to get what you want – and to be controlled and monitored.

It’s just – (more or less) simple programming, problems of Load-Balancing and Virtualization and SOA.

Justice. You have to find the “just state” of your system, then you can manage the highest amount of input with your given resources which leads (listen, alpha-chimps! Greed greets!) to the highest amount of output for more than just a moment.

Just do, what humans like to do, when they try to argue against information or information processing systems (like self-organisation or Gaia), when they discuss about goals and intentions, about wishes and decisions to denigrate the theories about information processing systems as anthropomorphism, forgetting that Physics always “choose” states and “decides” what will happen. Each and every physical law allows just a few results – choosing states, the Principle of Least Action – chooses states. You don’t need wishes and dreams to choose and decide, you just need physics.

And to build complex information processing systems you need “justice” in a universe of conservation of energy, where you need access to energy to be able to do the work you need to do to get what you want. It’s simply because resources are always more or less critical.

And so...

we need more efficiency, more Justice to be able to do the next step of evolution. That’s why Mother Natur programmed the “new direction” in the human brains, that’s why humans are “less dominant and more egalitarian” than their “lower siblings”, the apes. It’s because Justice is not a myth of religions, but a physical, therefore measurable (and programmable) state of a real interacting system.

The next Step.

The Edge of History.

Will Mother Nature be able to manage the complexity, will we be able to stand the demands – or will we prefer to be apes, the lower level of lesser complexity and easier way of life?

We are the Chosen – will we miserably fail – or will we leave dominance and greed behind us, will we get over an apish past, which may have been useful...

at its time?

So stop hanging the Saddams of the World, the Rich and the Powerful, the Ruthless and the Parasites – they have to live behind bars as other chimps, they should never be allowed to jump, scream and violate humans to play their “Banana-Heap-Game”, but it is not necessary to kill animals just for fun.

The Edge of History.

And it is not our decision, where to go, at least as long as we don’t love doomsday or believe in stories of Rapture or Valhalla – we just have to be intelligent enough to see the way and to follow it.

The Way to the Stars.

Happy Celebration!

Happy Christmas – for the Christians, Happy Hanukkah – for the Jews, Happy Eid Al Fitr – for the Muslims and Happy Winter Solstice for everyone else on the Northern Hemisphere! (Just forget the inaccuracy of the dates for a moment)

When the light conquers darkness, when the sun comes back and the days become longer, hope also returns. Forget SAD – everything goes, even the greatest threats can be mastered...

greed, selfishness, ruthlessness, exploitation of Earth and people, carelessness for the future, stupidity based on focusing just on the next moment, on the next prey to grab...

isn’t that the “spirit of christmas” and most other light-festivals to get over that?

So again to everyone on the Northern Hemisphere:

Happy Winter Solstice!

It is Happening

Again, it’s happening, kids.

The fact, that we just don’t like it, will not change anything.

The long predicted “Decline of The Superpower” seems to have started:

"The only tangible asset that can shore up the struggling greenback and, therefore, the American economy, is oil. The US would be signing its own economic death warrant if it leaves Iraq.

But America will leave Iraq; the battle is already being lost and the forces arrayed against the superpower are increasing by the day. The Bush administration has sown too much bad faith and, now, even long-time allies are backing away. Expect to see a slow decline in the next 5 years of American power; a wasting away that parallels the complete dissipation of America’s moral authority. The world will not be ruled by the jailors of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo; and you can take that to the bank.”

And regarding the reality-haters (until) now ruling America, not intelligent enough to accept the power of Reality, it isn’t amazing, that “it” truly happens:

''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

A ruling class, too stupid to see, that nothing will ever beat Reality and that self-overestimation is the best way to fail. But how can pampered rich sons, never forced to pay for the own mistakes, learn Reality?

''Expect to see a slow decline in the next 5 years of American power''

How true – and it happens slowly, silently, not really worldshaking...

not the big bang the breakdown of a superpower should cause...

How Dangerous is the Dollar Drop?

”The perils of a currency crash are not nearly as great as they were in the days of the dollar's absolute dominance 30 or 40 years ago. Globalization has led to the development of a number of growth centers in the world economy which share the burden of turbulence

Gone are the days when an American finance minister could boast: "The dollar is our currency, but it's your problem." ”

Why did you do this to us?

The carnage in Iraq is going on. A nation, ruled by a dictator, but able to feed her children, to protect (at least most of) her citizens – and to respect her daughters and mothers – changed to a barbaric place of rapers, kidnappers and hangmen.

Not on her own. This happened not just “by accident”. It was caused. Caused by intent, openly prepared with big tam tam, accompanied by warnings that violence will create nothing else than destruction and suffering – and hate – and that the whole Middle East will explode.

And it happened. But the ones wanting the war earned much money, some of them even could avoid bankruptcy and were able to please their shareholders, lead them straight into the seventh heaven of greed. Alas, the mental preparation for war was based on high hopes and ideals, not on greed and selfishness – and many people don’t think of greed as a truly “high ideal”. So to show the mount of money as result of the war might not be enough to please the American people in the face of the carnage and damage the war had caused – at least it might not be enough for most of the american taxpayers, who earned nothing by the war than increase of charges and duties.

So to secure the profits – and not to forget, to avoid claim for compensations! – the war had to keep “smiling”, had to stay shiny, had to look like the White Knight, not like the ugly Grim Reaper, who eats children and destroys toys and bombs weddings.

Remember the ban of king George W. Bush to show the pictures of the coffins of the dead soldiers from the Iraq War, the aversion of main stream media to tell you the truth about “collateral damage” and “KIAs” – to show you that a “KIA” is not something anonymous, not just a “TLA”, but had a face, a mother and a father, often little sons and daughters and “collateral damage” simply means killed and maimed children, brides and cheering families?

It’s because history says: “You elected George W. Bush, so you bear responsibility for his deeds, America”.

It’s because information tells you the truth and helps you to decide the right things (remember Bertrands Paradox?) – and so your fuhrers must try to hide some information from you.

Verboten.

It’s verboten to show you the results of what is done in your name, so that you function like the puppets the puppeteers do love so much.

Verboten.

And so, all is fine, America, isn’t it? You are not guilty of killing children and your own sons, because you “didn’t know that”?

Your are so sensitive, America.

But how about the little fact, that you could have known it if you would have cared? And how about the little fact, that you must pay reparation if you accept guilt?

Yes, in the end, after the last hope was gone to save Iraq, you voted (some of) them out of office, America.

But what’s next? Quo vadis, America? Keeping your eyes closed because you are so sensitive, because you have to protect your children from ugly pictures?

Yesterday i watched a TV report about Gordian Troeller, a deeply democratic and rebellious movie maker. Having experienced the terror of Nazi-Germany and the mostly not heroic reactions of the attacked he stubbornly fought against dominance of any kind (you see, why he is my hero?)

And he spoke into the camera about the fall of Dachau – he told about the “nice landscape” and that artists had lived there – and he told about the trains full of starved people covered with snow, obviously even having tried to drink the blood of others to survive. He had to stop talking because of the memory and with a poker face he added that the Americans then decided to force the Germans to look at what they had allowed to be done near their homes, done in their names.

And he spoke into the camera about the people, shaking their heads and saying: “Oh, we didn’t know that”.

And with his poker face he spoke into the camera how they pretended to be “shocked”.

But then he spoke into the camera about the fine lady, covering her nose with a handkerchief because of the “bad odor” of the tortured bodies.

And the sensitive german lady said to the Americans:

Why did you do this to us?

“That’s how i end this story”, Troeller said into the camera.

Why did you do this to us? – said the Germans forced to watch the “KIAs” and the “collateral damage” done in their names.

Really sensitive people.

Love

Love, romantic love – the thing, i don’t understand (until now).

I understand brood care: Protection of the offspring. I understand Sex: Learning of the Race. I understand courtship: Males charging, females submitting because of the Control of the Gene.

Everything you can see in animals.

Like spite and altruism, love – between man and woman – can’t be found in chimps. They are good mothers and sometimes even male chimps care for some lonely youngsters, but they are not really well known as the romantic lovers, because to multiply you don’t need love. Rape does it “as well” as the brute domination of females of many lower species (or human cultures) show.

But i remember dogs – the difference between sympathy and sex. I guess it was Konrad Lorenz observing an undying friendship between a male and a female dog, living together all the time...

as long as there wasn’t the time of rut. Then the female had to obey the law of the gene and to mate with the man choosed by the genes. But afterwards – she came back.

And of course...

i remember Konrad Lorenz and his graylag gooses, i remember parrots who are told to live together forever and who deeply mourn about the loss of the other – both really intelligent birds.

And there is the fact of the most intelligent birds (crows and ravens), some more intelligent as three-year-old human children – who are monogamous.

With brains just as big as nuts crows are able to use traffic lights – to open nuts. Do you know that? The Crow puts a nut on a crosswalk during the red phase, hops away at yellow and comes back at red to eat the nut, opened by the cars during the green phase.

Wow – i love that. It’s an absolutely great demonstration of how active processing works.

And it’s a great demonstration that intelligence doesn’t depend on big brains but (i bet) on the ability of brains to develop and maintain standing waves, for which it may be more important to be well intertwined (remember the bigger brains of the Neandertal people?) So it might be that birds living in a 3D-world simply are more apt to understand dynamics (information) than apes and their successors.

And the social intelligence of gooses, parrots, crows and raven shows something like love – love between man and woman.

So it seems as if this special kind of love has something to do with high intelligence and social behavior, supported by the fact, that the hominid males are (as far as i know) the only male mammals able to live in social groups and that spite and altruism, the emotions to protect justice and therefore the wellbeing of the group, are a “late invention” of hominids, (nearly) not to be seen before the human species.

Fine.

But why love? What’s the evolutionary advantage of romantic love, of a love between man and woman for a whole life?

An advantage, temporary monogamy wouldn’t provide?

Is it just because of the high intelligence of active processing, based on individual experience and so creating unique individuals with individual demands and individual needs and individual wishes, so that a bottom-up creation of a lasting couple is as special as the individuals themselves?

But where’s the evolutionary advantage of lasting couples?

The education of children? No, not really plausible. Yes, human children are all “premature births” because of the big brain, they have to be educated and protected for many years. But as Bachofen suggested: to care for the children you don’t need fathers, mother-brothers do the job as well – and brothers never divorce. Would fit very well to the observation that humankind didn’t know about fatherhood before agriculture and livestock breeding. So why should male persons care for children without a reason to do so? Look at those men of our days able to repudiate a child they had pretended to “love” for years – as soon as they learn that the genes of the child are not “made” by themselves.

Triggered love? IF Genes of the child are from me THEN switch on “love” ELSE switch off “love”?

That’s not the true meaning of love.

No, actually, mother-brothers are the better social choice for mothers who just want to care for their children.

Next try: Mothers. They have to love because it is the payment of Mother Nature for the brood care. Why? Because brute force doesn’t work together with high intelligence. Remember the pleasure principle? So it might be that the pattern of love in women isn’t quite precise and therefore able to include male adults – but why should male adults love them back? Ever watched pubescent boys treating their mothers, ever thought about the reasons for initiation rites, the social “cutting the cord”? No, this ansatz doesn’t work either.

Philemon and Baucis.

So where’s the evolutionary advantage of an everlasting love?