Patterns, Control and Shoretz
Alexander Liss
Disorder
of Suppressed Desires
Mitigating
Deficiencies of Mind
Suppression
of Desires and Reinforcement of Bounds.
Growth
in System with Self-Reflection
Variety of phenomena could be uniformly
described with concepts of Patterns and Control.
One can discern a Pattern in a system, when
one:
1. defines characteristics of
phenomenon
2. divides them into two groups
3. classifies changes of values of
characteristics belonging to first group, while values of characteristics
belonging to second group do not change, as a state of the system and all
together as a pattern.
Control
is moving the system from one state to another with relatively small effort.
The effort is defined as small from the point of view of one who controls. For
example, it could be small level of energy needed to move the system from one
state to another, or a small mental effort.
One concept, which allows definition of stable states, is still missing. For example, in mechanics a state is stable, when minor changes of system's parameters do not change its state, as in case of a ball in the depression in the ground - minor changes of ball's mechanical parameters do not cause ball's movement out of this depression.
This concept should capture the plurality,
multiplicity of similar small actions, for example caused by similar objects
moving and acting, where we cannot differentiate between objects, but analyze
consequences of their collective actions. For example, perpetually moving water
molecules push small particles in water, or bacteria in some area collectively
change environment, etc.
We call this the Shoretz.
In
the presence of the Shoretz, some states are stable and Control is moving the
system from one stable state to another.
Different
sets of characteristics can be used to describe the system and different sets
of states can be defined as stable and different groups of Control actions
could be used to move from a state to a state. Hence, the entire conceptual
construction of Patterns and Control depends on a model of the reality.
Biological Evolution is clearly observed in
bacteria, insects and other organisms with short reproductive cycle. It is
explained with "random" changes in state of organisms (particularly,
genetic mutations), survival of organisms, which are in balance with existing
circumstances (environment), and reinforcing the "acceptable" state
of organisms.
The concept of "random" changes
(the Shoretz) is central to this model.
In a market-based society, there is a large
number of producing and consuming entities. Market-based
society could exist only, when these entities produce in excess of what is
consumed. This excess creates a push of what society produces on society's
consuming side. This push utilizes society's trading system and assures dynamic
equilibrium between society's producing and consuming sides.
The "excess" has to be produced
randomly, because there is no precise knowledge where it could be
"pushed". This is a vital Shoretz part of the Market.
It is already obvious that various and
growing in number consuming desires of members of market-based society are a
basis of healthy operation of the market. This causes the Shoretz of
consumption.
Changing society in a changing environment
needs descriptions of its environment, descriptions of itself and descriptions
of its possible actions - intellectual descriptions.
Different
descriptions logically contradict each other and people accepting one
description have tendency to suppress and even destroy contradicting
descriptions. However, the society often has to make difficult decisions and it
needs the variety of different descriptions to choose a fitting one at moment
of decision-making.
Hence, viable societies adopt Pluralism - a
system of protection of variety of descriptions. This is usually expressed in a
form of protection of freedom of speech. With such protection, members of the
society engage in perpetual generation of descriptions. This is Shoretz.
Highly
developed system of consuming desires hardly could coexist with poor satisfaction
of intellectual desires. Hence, a stable state of market-based society usually
includes Pluralism.
Changing
circumstances require frequent changes in social structures; otherwise, a
society arrives into a severe conflict with reality, which is resolved through
rapid and painful drastic social changes (revolution, war).
Experimentation
with small social changes could be initiated by a narrow social group. However,
such narrow approach rarely leads to sufficient degree of experimentation. In a
viable society, these small social changes are initiated by a broad group of
members of society. This is another form of Shoretz, which existence is assured
by Political Freedom.
Highly
developed system of consuming desires hardly could coexist with poor
satisfaction of desires to affect social structures. Hence, a stable state of
market-based society usually includes Political Freedom.
It makes sense to define the Shoretz of
Desires in general. Different forms of it cause the Shoretz of:
This Shoretz of Desires is important for
well-being of a person and of a society.
This
Shoretz could be suppressed through despotism, hard living conditions, bad
experiences, illness, etc. Such suppression leads to diminished growth and
viability of individual or society.
Desires
are constructs of a Mind: a new Desire is build on Patterns of existing
Desires. A new Desire is added to a pool of existing Desires and often causes
recognition of new Patterns.
Hence,
left unchecked, the Shoretz of Desires has tendency to grow. It is actually
used as an engine of growth.
In
the case of absence of bounds on growth, it is reasonable to assume that the
incremental change in number of Desires is proportional to number of Patterns,
which could be recognized in the current body of Desires in a given period, and
this one in turn is proportional to the current number of Desires.
This
means that number of Desires growth exponentially.
This
theoretically exponential growth of number of Desires is a foundation of
theoretical exponential growth of wealth produced in a market-based society and
exponential growth of wealth per capita.
Theoretical
speed of growth is not observed because of bounds imposed on the body of
Desires.
There
is a natural association between a Desire and examples of its satisfaction.
Satisfied Desires shape a new Desire and strengthen it with hope of
satisfaction.
In
vibrant societies, public knowledge of examples of satisfied Desires is broadly
supported. It is customary to know, what kind of Desire a neighbor have
satisfied and want the same. It is customary to observe rich and want to emulate
their satisfaction of Desires on a smaller scale.
Hence,
rich people play a vital social role, when they experience new forms of Desires
and satisfy them. Some of these new forms of Desires eventually migrate to
other strata of society. Note that in medieval European society, rich
(aristocracy) were main driver of market economy.
The
body of Desires (Desires of society or Desires of individual) is bound by
available Resources needed to satisfy them. Actually, a "Resource"
should be defined as a bound of the body of Desires.
Importance
of Resources is defined by the degree to which it limits the body of
Desires.
As
the body of Desires changes, the importance of Resources changes. Some of them
fade away - they stop being a bound and hence stop being a Resource. For
example, flint (stone) stopped being a Resource, when society moved to metal
with its tool making. Hunting grounds stopped being a Resource, when society
moved to agriculture.
There
are Desires, which being satisfied could cause dangerous destabilization of
society or biosphere. A society is often aware of this danger and places
special Hard Bounds on Desires. These bounds often manifest themselves as moral
limits. Unlike bounds-resources, they could be violated, but consequences of
such violation are severe.
Different
social groups exist in different circumstances; hence, they have different Hard
Bounds (and different moral values). However, there is a large degree of
similarity between Hard Bounds in different groups and this similarity grows
with diminishing detachment of these groups from the rest of society.
A
stable society has a mechanism in place, which suppresses creation of Desires
going beyond Hard Bounds.
Mechanisms
supporting Hard Bounds are effective and there is perpetual temptation to use
them or similar mechanism to support additional Bounds.
Parents
set Bounds to shape behavior of their children in a way convenient for parents
(and often not useful for children in their future life).
A
religious institution sets Bounds to make itself stable and able to shape
society in a long run.
A
government sets Bounds to be able to direct will of a society as a whole to
achieve some goals, which it sees as important for a society as a whole.
An
Ideologue sets Bounds to create an artificial social structure and modify
social behavior the way he sees proper.
Management
in a firm sets Bounds, which create an artificial structure (the firm), which
manifests itself as a relatively independent social entity.
Groups,
which can either generate stream of information (rogue political groups) or
filter it (media outlets) create and maintain temporary Bounds to shape
decisions of society.
These
are Artificial Bounds. By their nature, they channel energy of Shoretz of
Desires in direction convenient to their creators. Being artificial, rather
sooner than later, they cause conflict with reality.
A
driving desire of a living being is to expand. This desire could be suppressed,
but as soon this severe suppression is lifted, this desire emerges.
The
desire to expand is translated into desire to loosen restrictions. There are
many ways, how this loosening could be done:
Bounds-resources
are put into a system, which replaces a Bound with a set of more manageable
Bounds.
Hard
Bounds are a subject of perpetual discussion, especially by each new generation
learning them, and some Bounds, which are not Hard Bounds, but artificial ones
pretending to be Hard Bounds are eliminated.
Artificial
Bounds are in the process of perpetual reintroduction, and in a viable society,
there is a process of perpetual removal of them. This is a special conscious
process, because creators of Artificial Bounds put a lot of efforts into
maintaining and regular reintroduction of these bounds.
Introduction
of a Bound causes contraction of the body of Desires and dramatically reduces
speed of its expansion.
Let
say there is a body of Desires and a Bound is introduced, which removes a half
of this body.
Desires
in remaining part, which relied in their definition on Patterns supported by
the Desires in removed part, disappear.
Speed
of growth of the body of Desires is proportional to a size of current body of
Desires. Hence, it also drps in half.
This
shows that it makes sense to remove all unneeded Bounds.
It
also explains seemingly disproportional reactions of the market to introduction
of additional restrictions.
A
person raised in oppressive environment could exhibit symptoms of a particular
disorder, when the person
·
does
not have own Desires, and because of that is passive and seeks someone with
Desires to ride them;
·
does
not violate moral boundaries, but in the same time does not see much harm in
their violation, because does not have emotional experience of their analysis;
·
has
undeveloped emotions, because there is no experience of emotional behavior: it
was not many occasions, when own Desires caused emotions and emotions occurred
only in response to Desires of others.
This
is a Disorder of Suppressed Desires.
Because
creation of Desires is natural and automatic, the cause of this disorder is in
presence of too large number of (reinforced) Artificial Bounds in the person's
body of Desires.
The
treatment is simple: removal of Artificial Bounds. However, the first step of
such treatment should be removal of reinforcement of Artificial Bounds, which
often difficult to do on one's own.
Various
natural and artificial systems use Shoretz as a driving force. They shape it to
achieve their goals.
An
ecosystem, a human society and an engineer designing a new product face similar
problem: finding acceptable solutions and among them optimal solutions. For an
ecosystem and the human society, the goal is minimization of efforts, while
maintaining balance among different sides of oneself and balance with limited
resources. For the engineer the goal is minimization of cost, while providing
all needed functionality.
They
all have a possibility to test different variants of solution, discard
unacceptable ones and improve on promising ones.
In
the ecosystem, this is biological evolution - a variant is a set of unique
creatures in given circumstances and their interactions. In the human society,
this is market - a variant is a particular set of producers and consumers,
goods and services in given circumstances with various trading interactions.
The engineer computes a variant of the product for given set of parameters
using a product's model.
The
Shoretz allows trying of variants. These variants expose hidden bounds and lead
to an optimal solution.
The
process goes in parallel with changing reality - as hidden bounds change the
optimal solution is changing. The ecosystem is stable, the economy of human
society is stable and the engineer has a good model, when hidden bounds do not
change fast. In this case, the optimal solution changes slowly in long periods.
Still,
there are moments, when a small change in hidden bounds causes a large change
in optimal solution - the system flips the state, but this is a separate
subject.
In
the ecosystem, the hidden bounds are defined by resources of the ecosystem's
location and most of all by limitations of biological creatures comprising this
ecosystem.
In
the market, the hidden bounds available resources, but most of all by structure
of the relationships between market participants, particularly by law,
regulations and culture.
For
the engineer, the hidden bounds are defined by limitations of nature, but most
of all by limits of engineer's imagination and creativity and limits of
knowledge allowing comprehensive modeling.
Carefully
designed limitations on one's activity, which have nothing to do with limits
imposed by available resources or limits assuring stability of society, create
a system running into a perpetual conflict with the Shoretz of Desires. Each
time a Desire comes in conflict with such limitation, the process of analysis
and reexamining of the nature of limitations and current one's understanding of
reality emerges.
This
process causes destruction of rigid logical schemas, which have come already
into conflict with ever changing reality.
This
is an important tool of monotheism.
Some
use it consistently and develop fine tools of control of own actions.
Others
try to protect themselves from a possibility of going beyond limits by
suppressing certain classes of Desires. People engaged in such activity gather
together and reinforce such suppression. After a few generations, they become
quite good at it. The result is a Disorder of Suppressed Desires.
A
Model of the world, which a Mind creates for itself, or which science creates
for benefit of society, or a model of an existing ever changing complex object,
which a specialists creates for particular decision-making, require updates, as
the world and knowledge about it is changing.
There
are two types of information, which could be used for such model update.
One
type of information consists of descriptions of reality structured according to
points of view of creators of such descriptions. This is often called
"observation".
Another
type of information comes from decisions made on basis of the model, following
actions and consequent evaluation of discrepancy between model's prediction and
results of actions. This is often called "experimentation".
Descriptions
of reality have unknown validity. Large number of such descriptions allows some
validation of all of them on basis of validation of some of them and comparison
of all of them with validated ones.
Analysis
of discrepancy between reality and model's prediction requires large number of
"experiments" to arrive to a valid update of the model.
Hence,
one needs Shoretz to setup a process of perpetual model update. One type of
such Shoretz is a Shoretz of Descriptions (some made by others, some made to
improve the model); another type of Shoretz is a Shoretz of
"experiments" (some are caused by actions, which are initiated using
the model as a part of routine decision-making, some are caused by
"small" actions initiated to gather information for the model
improvement).
The
Mind creates and updates this way the Internal Model.
In
the scientific community any scientific description (the model) is in a process
perpetual attempts to improve it based on new scientific data and in a process
of perpetual comparison of its predictions and results of experiments.
A well-managed model of an existing object is a subject of a process of perpetual update the way it is described here.
In
the system driven by Shoretz, Control is done by waiting for the moment, when
the system moved by the Shoretz appears in situation that a small action could
flip it into another stable state and performing such flipping.
As
a result of such flipping, new bounds could be created (and reinforced) and old
bounds could be destroyed. Many control actions aim for these changes in bounds
and could be described by their goals:
Breeder
creates a new bound in the society, which causes selection of desirable
features in particular type of creatures.
A
psychotherapist destroys an Artificial Bound in person's Mind, which limits
person's Desires and hence limits person's activity.
A
politician convinces society of need for some social changes and gets a mandate
to implement new bounds and destroy old ones.
A
Desire is suppressed at the moment of its creation, when it is weak.
If
an "owner" of the Desire realizes early, that the Desire violates a
bound, then there is a good chance that it is suppressed.
From
this one could arrive to a simple rule of reinforcement of bounds. A bound
should be associated in a multiple ways with large number of other bounds. This
increases the chance of early detection of violation.
Creators
of Artificial Bounds know this trick. Such reinforced Bound is difficult to
destroy: the destruction requires preliminary analysis and removal of all
associations of this Bound with other Bounds.
A
favorite bound to associate an Artificial Bound is a Hard Bound, which
manifests itself in moral values. This produces a powerful feeling of guilt in
one, who violates or even thinks to violate an associated Artificial Bound.
Another
trick is in creation of very large number of associations with other bounds,
including other Artificial Bounds. The very number of them creates an
impression of something rooted in reality.
Artificial
Bounds, which have regular if weak reinforcement, acquire status of
"ancient" ones, with an impression that they must be rooted in
reality, because they survived for so long.
One
cherishing freedom should know and recognize these tricks.
A system with self-reflection (with a model of
itself) could engage into a perpetual buildup:
1. Studies of Patterns of oneself
2. Defining Control actions
3. Incorporating Control actions
as elements of oneself
4. Studies of Patterns of new
oneself, and so on.
Life
could be defined as such system with self-reflection and perpetual buildup.
Growth
of complexity in such system is natural.