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What is a System?

A system has two aspects, its transcendent aspect is as a transitory pattern of transcendent information that conditions the flow of transcendent information. When the system is perceived from an empirical perspective by another system within the common network of interacting systems, then it is experienced via its observable attributes, which result in information that flows into the observer system's inputs. This results in an experience of a manifest form, which is the empirical aspect.

Subsystems interact to form supersystems; i.e. patterns dynamically merge to produce larger patterns. Whilst the transcendent patterns are what they are the empirical forms exist only in the eye of the beholder. A system may interact with other systems that are considered to lie 'within' different supersystems so it may be considered a subsystem of either, thus there are no absolute system boundaries. Different observers may observe different interaction channels and thereby resolve different system boundaries thus they experience very different empirical forms.

Why should we care to clearly know what a system is?

We are systems formed out of interacting subsystems and we interact to form supersystems. All manifest forms are systems. All events and processes are system interactions. Our transcendent part we call our 'soul' and our empirical part we call our 'body'. The empirical universe is a construct of the experiential aspect of systems and behind this perceptual veil there is an information theoretic aspect. Some call this the quantum realm, spiritual realm, Brahman (Vedic), Hundun (Daoist), Heaven (Christ) and so on.

Everything that is and everything that happens is the experiential aspect of a unified transcendent process. This is analogous to the way that a virtual reality is the experiential aspect of a unified transcendent process.

Understanding the nature of systems leads us to an understanding of ourselves, of the universe, of what is happening and how we should respond in order to harmoniously and effectively participate in the process of evolution that is underway.

What fundamental questions can it help answer?

A deep understanding of the nature of systems can help answer all fundamental questions except one, and it can explain why it cannot answer that one.

There is only one true mystery – What is the true nature of the fundamental reality generative process? A manifest form cannot approach this via enquiry; e.g. a sentient AI character in a virtual reality could realise many things about their situation all the way down to the computational process itself, but they cannot realise that the computer is a particular machine sitting in a particular room, they can only ever know the computer from within. Similarly, we can systematically comprehend all the general principles of our reality right down to the fundamental reality generative process and we cannot enquire beyond that.

Holism is a metaphysical paradigm that focuses on the whole and comprehends the parts as discernible features – objects of perception – within the whole. Reductionism is a metaphysical paradigm that focuses on the many parts and their interactions and envisages the whole as the product of the many parts and interactions. Unified system science can comprehend both paradigms and show how they relate to each other. Similarly it can unify duality and non-duality. Transcendent and empirical. Subjective and objective. For these reasons I propose that a unified system science could provide a useful conceptual framework for the development of a unified awareness that can flower into a new consciousness for humanity.

Best Wishes,
John Ringland

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Excerpts from brainstorming notes related to SMNDesignView

For more information on SMN see SMN on Anandavala.

I am exploring the idea of developing a Netbeans 6.0 module, either as a plugin or as a rich-client application.

Things to consider:

I need a good vision of what I am building before I start designing it.

What is it that the SMN functionality seeks to provide the application user? What will people want the whole application or plugin to do?

What sorts of things will people want to be able to do with the GUI and with the model and with the simulation space itself via the GUI? How best can the GUI facilitate this?

If developed as a plugin then how will the SMN functionality be integrated into the rest of Netbeans?

If developed as a rich-client application then how will it come together as a single whole application?

How best to implement the matrix itself? As some kind of table? It needs to be programmatically controlled and not set in the code – we may want more or less rows or columns, we may want different types of elements altogether (e.g. instead of text fields they are buttons perhaps).

The matrix-view is a small window that allows for detailed access, but for large models we need a lower resolution but broader scope view, we could have subsystem / supersystem viewing levels for the matrix. One could view systems at the atomic scale, or as a single whole system, or at many different levels between these. The designer can click on systems (either by row, column, vector element or rowOp) and choose to collapse all sibling subsystem and show only their supersystem. Or they can drill into a supersystem and show all or selected subsystems.

The state vector needs to be represented somehow in the matrix-view so that the system designer can visualise the current state of the model. The multiple system viewing levels apply to the state vector as well.

Whether an SM or an SV element, at each level there is some screen graphic to represent it to the designer. If the element is an atomic system it shows a text field to display and edit the data. If it is a conceptual system then there is an icon that displays the subsystems as small squares within the element.

When the designer double-clicks on an element they drill into the system and reveal all subsystems. There is also a right-click option on elements that brings up a dialogue box for selecting which subsystems to show.

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Excerpts from earlier brainstorming notes that are still relevant

For more information on SMN see SMN on Anandavala.

In the matrix/vector view the designer can click on any matrix or vector element or any matrix row to receive a dialogue presenting a range of ways that they can interact with that element. E.g. Change an SVElement's data value or define a rowOp or select a pre-made virtual system from a palette and deploy that within the model.

There is a palette on the side of the interface – when you click on an SVElement the palette displays the list of all known components that can usefully go into this element. When selecting a row it shows all the predefined rowOps. If some element is already selected the designer can click onto the object within the palette to insert it into the element. There will be some means of selecting multiple elements and then clicking on a palette object.

When the object is inserted into the element the designer can click on the object to set its properties and attributes. There is some means to select and deselect systems for viewing. The matrix and vector adapt accordingly with rows and columns appearing or disappearing. This gives control over what is shown in the limited viewing space of the matrix/vector view. For a large model you couldn't fit it all comfortably into a web browser window and having to scroll over the whole flat model would be cumbersome and disorienting. Instead have it so that the view registers with various systems and synchronises with their state. Only when registered is there a row/column and vector element for this system.

These viewer-objects (row/col/svElem) can be arranged in any manner that suits the designer – they can be moved around easily – just right-click on a view-object (i.e. element, row or column) and then click “move to” and then click the view object that is in the destination location and the selected view-object is inserted in the destination location. The other view-objects adjust around it. In this way the designer has a controllable view into the model through which they can edit the model.

As described so far it has no allowance for coding of new systems but only the reuse and re-configuration of pre-made sub-systems presented in a context sensitive palette for insertion into the model and then customisation. If the application is developed as an IDE plugin (e.g. Eclipse, Netbeans, etc) then the IDE allows the designer to code the atomic systems in various programming languages and the SMN plugin can incorporate these into its system palette.

We start with very simple systems and using these we build more complex systems, which are then added to the palette. Then from these we make even more complex systems and so on.

If the palette can draw on any web repository of SMN systems then the range of available sub-systems can grow rapidly through collective development. www.Anandavala.info can provide an initial open virtual space and open system repository. People can create and play with systems in the open virtual space and they can save their creations to the repository so that other people can reuse them. This could become an open-system development community (rather than open-source).

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Here's a posting to let you know what I'm up to lately. Like I said in the post on What exactly is SMN and how does it connect with other technologies? I've been focussing on concrete implementations lately, rather than on discussions. One project was an artistic collaboration with Glistening Deepwater, called Mystic Visions. I've explored quite deeply into semantic and web 2.0 technologies. I've implemented the core algorithm for SMN in Java and the system simulation engine now has full functionality and the models can be imported or exported as XML files (this is still in further development but will be available for download soon).

But the current project on my mind is the idea of a System Oriented Modelling Paradigm. To give you some idea of what I mean, below are some excerpts from recent design documents – they are just a brainstorm at present. If these ideas make sense to you and you want to get involved then contact me – it will soon be released as an open source project.

The project involves an analysis of general computational processes and general systems, which re-orients system modelling practices upon a coherent metaphysical foundation rather than on a commonsense naïve realist foundation. Traditional modelling practices are seen in a new light and minor optimisations are proposed that can considerably extend the potential and overall functionality of designed systems. A detailed example is given in the context of software engineering.

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There are technologies that could replace our dependence on oil, coal, gas and nuclear but for financial and geo-political reasons they have been suppressed. However the motivation is growing amongst various power structures to release these technologies.

This is where AERO comes in.

From the website: http://www.aero2012.com/en/about.mhtml

This is the latest initiative by Steven Greer, the founder of The Disclosure Project. Quoted from its website: "The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. We have over 400 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology, and the cover-up that keeps this information secret.

See this video of a recent (2007-08-20) presentation by Steven Greer about AERO and the imminent disclosure and large scale development of energy technologies and the social impact of this, it is well worth watching:

For other related videos see the sidebar at google videos.

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This is a very simple and very brief distillation of some very profound ideas. If you think about it the profundity will grow exponentially :)

Check it out... Three Metaphysical Perspectives.

Some Intriguing Mathematical Properties of the Mayan Calendar

This is a brief mathematical analysis of the cycles of the "Tun" or the transcendent Mayan 'calendar'. The analysis reveals some very interesting numerical properties, which show that it is certainly not a random concoction but in fact describes a complex and finely tuned process.

The general process relies on a system of cycles where each cycle is 20 times shorter than the previous cycle. Hence it tends asymptotically toward some point in time (year 2012). The cycle periods become shorter and shorter so that as the cycle number tends to infinity the cycle period tends to zero, i.e. the cycles become infinitely fast.

The so called 'calendar' is not a description of linear time like contemporary calendars, it is a model of cycles of creative activity. Hence it describes an evolutionary model where each creative cycle unfolds and produces the basis for the next cycle of creation. In such a process each cycle becomes faster than the previous one, as is seen throughout biological and human history. Initially there were long stretches of time between innovations but as the reservoir of innovations builds up the process of innovation accelerates. This process has been accelerating very noticeably especially in the last few decades.  More >

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I have recently begun to take a new approach, not focusing on explanations but instead on concrete demonstrations, instead of producing essays about ideas I'll focus on producing concrete products such as ontologies, software, etc.

I have also been looking into ways to get the message across. I have decided to look into developing SMN and thereby giving the mass consciousness what it wants - this will help to get its attention.

Understanding New Technology

First a quote from an article about XML, B2B and The XML/edi Group...

/quote
Gerry Galewski, a philosopher on information technologies, gave a provocative explanation on why it often takes years to truly appreciate the full potential of new technology:

"... when a breakthrough in technology is achieved, it takes us a while as a culture to figure out what we really have. New developments are culturally assimilated often based on what has come before. We can't help but place the new developments within an historical context.

"Here's an example: In 1844 Samuel Morse invented the ability to transmit information coded into electromagnetic pulses. He sent the first message of dot dash dot dot dash from Baltimore to Washington DC, and therefore people called this telegraphy.

"That first message Morse sent was 'What hath God wrought.' Telegraphy became ingrained into the cultural consciousness. It was easy to understand and deploy.

"Fifty years later, Marconi made a technological breakthrough. He broadcast electromagnetic waves through the air. But what did he send? The ability to modulate a signal was well understood. But Marconi sent dot dash dot dot dash. That is what was ingrained into the cultural consciousness of the time. So people called this wonderful new tool, simply "Wireless Telegraphy." Within their frame of reference, they didn't know what they really had. It took another twenty years for Lee Deforest to apply practical knowledge that had been around for decades. Deforest had the Eureka event, and gave us radio.  More >

Did you know we all have blind spots! See for yourself. Just cover one eye and stare at the central smiley, but observe all three, then slowly move your face closer to the screen.

                                  :)                                                                      :)                                                                     :)

At a certain distance (about 15cm) the left eye cannot see the left smiley and the right eye cannot see the right smiley.

These are localised points of blindness and their dimensions are apparent if you rotate your head.

These blind spots occur because at the point where the optic nerve attaches to the retina there are no retinal receptors.

This means that there are holes in our visual perception. But these holes don't show up in our experience! This is an important fact. Think about it!  More >

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Ontologies

My discussions over the years have left me totally frustrated at how twisted and confused the language is - most of the important words are literally back-to-front and people are thinking about the world in an inside-out manner. It's no wonder that the world is a mess... And it's very difficult to use a twisted language to disentangle a twisted language.

I've decided to try a different approach - I'm giving up sentences and essays entirely for a little while and building ontologies. I'm always trying to find ways to more effectively express simple but uncommon truths and the technology of ontologies has advanced considerably in recent years.

By simply writing essays or ebooks it only gets through to those who are already open to the ideas and meanwhile the mass delusion continues to grow rapidly and drive the entire civilisation toward annihilation. Most of the communications within mass culture are the psycho-babble of the collective ego and any words of wisdom are just a vague gnawing conscience way back in the collective mind that is mostly just ignored. That conscience needs to find some way of making its wisdom heard even in the midst of mass collective insanity.

I'm exploring one likely method - it involves a recent synthesis of computer science, the internet and philosophy. It's related to the "semantic web" and its essence is the construction of ontologies - philosophical structures that define "that which exists" and the relations between the things that are believed to exist. Very advanced computerised methods are being developed to determine implied ontologies and to use ontologies to structure information.

Every belief that is held or every utterance that is made relies upon an implicit ontology that gives it meaning. The ontology is just the lowest level of beliefs that structure every other belief that is built upon them. Beliefs are only recognisable as true or false in relation to their ontological foundation so if the foundation is false all later beliefs are false but they will seem to be true. The materialist ontology relies on a series of assertions of belief that are actually proven to be false - and only so long as people don't notice this fact and continue to operate upon that foundation they will continue to believe in fantasies that seem to be true. Meanwhile there are other ontologies that don't rely on spurious assertions but on well verified facts from information theory, system theory, quantum physics and direct personal experience - but most people are too attached to their false beliefs to be able to seriously consider these more rational alternatives.

As an example of how ontologies and beliefs interact, take the phrase by the Buddha "with our thoughts we make the world" most materialists cannot comprehend this because they believe that "the world" is an "external material context" and that we are just material objects within it so our thoughts cannot "make the world". But if one uses a more accurate ontology where "the world" is just a subjective impression formed by our minds and which by naive realism we assume to be an "external material context" then it is obvious that with our thoughts we make the world. It is also obvious that to think of ourselves as objective material objects in and objective material universe is not a rational position - it may or may not be true but on the current evidence it is purely an irrational belief. What we know for a fact is our mind made worlds - beyond that we should avoid irrational belief systems and approach the situation rationally.  More >

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I've been busy building a system theoretic ontology in OWL - I doubt if that'll make sense to many people - I'll explain another time - but below is a very uplifting story I came upon on the net here - it's also a great metaphor for many things.

Hope in the midst of loss

[This is the story of] the river Arvari - which till the early Nineties had dried up. Today, it flows quietly in the scorching heat, despite scanty rainfall during the past three years.

How the people of Rajasthan, which has no perennial river running through the State, brought back dead rivers - Rupa, Sarsa and Arvari in Alwar districts - to life for their own benefit is a story that needs to be told and retold, as a lesson to others in practising simple traditional wisdom.

It is a story of people who did not give up facing the environmental problems in their area - chronic drought, degraded land, distress migration and poverty. Neither did they get bogged down by the administration.

The ecosystem of the Aravalli range, which earlier sustained the region, has been ravaged since the Seventies. Monsoon run-off washed away the top soil, crops failed regularly, women trudged long distances to fetch a mere pot-ful of water, not a single blade of grass could be seen for grazing cattle, aquifers emptied. Through the Seventies and Eighties, Aravalli lost 40 per cent of its forest cover and each year, four per cent of the Aravallis was becoming a wasteland, according to reports.

The fate of the entire region was such that, recall old-timers, the richest and the poorest of the villages were the same as far as their economic condition was concerned. Ecological destruction had caused economic and social degradation. Yet nothing was more dramatic than the transformation of the villages along the banks of the dried up Arvari in the following years.

It was in October 1985, when five young men arrived from Jaipur to Kishori village in Thanagazi Block in Alwar district - declared a "dark zone" by the State then, owing to lack of water. They belonged to Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), and NGO. Though not quite realising it the men had actually come to the right place at the right time.  More >

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Commonsense, Fascist Regimes and the Ego

Whilst talking about commonsense realism and truly overcoming it, are two very different things it is still very useful to talk about something when there is extreme misunderstanding about it.

To give an example - talking about the dangers of smoking and actually quitting are two very different things however if a person believed that smoking was totally natural and normal and there was no reason to quit then first they need to overcome that illusion before they have any chance of actually quitting and becoming healthy. Talk can be a vital preliminary to actually doing.

So I'll clarify commonsense realism a little more by talking about commonsense in general. Commonsense is just a blanket term for whatever unquestioned belief system is dominant at the present time.

At various times it has been commonsense to keep slaves or to beat children or to oppress women or to carry a sword or to wear high heels or to smoke cigarettes. Commonsense is a collective trance that changes over time according to its own dynamic.

Furthermore, civilisation is a communal understanding and commonsense is the foundation of that understanding. It is a subtle dogma that maintains a regime. See The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis and Collective Meditation to Counter the Collective Ego.

Every regime has its dogma which is a set of beliefs that are protected from reason by a culture of denial. The nature of a regime is determined by the nature of its commonsense.  More >

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Psychological Manipulation

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. Throughout the 20'th century vast resources and great minds were employed in the research and development of psychological manipulation. For example, the CIA's program of research in behavioural modification called MKULTRA [FR, FR]; it was a top secret project and little is known of its real depth and scope but some indication of the nature of this project can be seen from this archive of almost 20,000 pages of declassified documents [FR], also see these other archives [FR] and here is some information on Russian efforts [FR]. Such projects were a major initiative throughout the 20'th century because the technology became available and the motivation was irresistible. When the minds of the masses are ideologically placed in the centre of power, research into the technology of mass manipulation became critical and enormous effort was expended in perfecting the science of manipulation. With trillions of dollars of vested interests and the power of vast nation states dependent on the minds of the population through their spending and voting choices, a means had to be found to control the minds of the population, this is simple pragmatism and market forces. The motivation is obvious, who would let their corporate empire and imperial aspirations be left to the whim of the masses? Especially when it is certain that competitors will be vying for control; every sensible power broker had to get involved or otherwise be left behind. It essentially became an arms race in psychological weapons that can be used against the population.

A degree of social conditioning is vital and leads to social cohesion but when it ceases to serve society and starts to dominate and manipulate society it starts to destroy society and to erode the very foundations of our civilisation.  More >