1 - First Principles for Solving the WorldView Puzzle

Date: 9/9/2024

Thread: 1 - First Principles

What is the real cause of conflict? Why can’t we stop hurting each other? What makes us feel the need to act out violently toward one another, both as individuals and countries?

We have been doing this for several thousand years, since the beginning of civilization. History is seemingly a never-ending procession of wars. One might say that it is part of human nature, that it is built into our genes, and that we cannot help ourselves. If that is the case, then unless we change our genetic structure and remove the “violence” genes, we are doomed to endless violence. Let’s hope that it isn’t.

The need to defend ourselves is at the core of our genetic heritage. All ecological systems rely on any one biological entity killing and consuming others in order to survive. This is true, but we are humans, Homo sapien sapiens. We are capable of complex thought and activities far beyond those of our nearest genetic ancestors. While it is true that we have certain anatomical structures, such as our hands and full bipedal motion, that allow us to outperform other primates, it is really our brains that enable us to compete at much higher levels.

But does our proclivity for conflict and violence end with our brains? When one person shoots another with a gun, it could be the result of rage or hatred, whereby the higher functioning parts of our brain are not accessible. When that is the case, it is referred to as manslaughter under U.S. law.

However, when the killing is intentional and premeditated, it is classified as first-degree murder. Mass murder is defined as the killing of four or more people in a single event or a very short period, typically in one location. When countries engage in the killing of each other’s citizens, it is referred to as war. Historically, killing people during a war often connotes attributes of honor and valor for those who participate in it.

Why is there a virtual reversal in our attitudes toward killing by individuals compared to killing in the name of countries? While countries have physical boundaries, their true existence lies in the minds of their citizens. Countries are a set of concepts and ideas rooted in beliefs that shape a worldview. It is the collective worldview shared by most of the populations of each country that is at war with each other. Human bodies have simply been the means through which the conflicts between worldviews are resolved.

Planet Earth from Space

Origins of Worldviews

We all have collections of ideas and beliefs that shape how we see the world—often called our belief systems or worldviews. So, where do these beliefs come from? A huge chunk comes from our parents or other parental figures, along with the people around us as we grow up, like family, friends, teachers, and religious leaders—rabbis, priests, pastors, imams, and so on. We tend to hold onto these beliefs really tightly. Why's that? Well, it probably has something to do with our ancient hunter-gatherer roots. Our ancestors operated in tight-knit groups, banding together for food, shelter, and protection against threats, both animal and human. This instinct to stick with small groups is still in us, but remarkably, we've built complex social structures that reach across the globe and beyond!

Expanding Perspectives in a Connected World

We can’t find the answers we’re looking for by clinging to the beliefs we currently hold, especially since that hasn’t worked out for us in the past. Life’s meaning isn’t found in outdated ideas that no longer benefit us. This doesn’t mean your current beliefs are without value or truth; it just means we need to expand our perspective to embrace a more inclusive worldview.

Humanity is at a pivotal moment in our journey. For the first time ever, we have a global communication system in place. About half of the world is now connected through the Internet! We can access the entire tapestry of human experiences, which is both amazing and overwhelming. This flood of new ideas can leave us feeling adrift, as we struggle to make sense of it all without a solid framework to guide us. It’s like we’re staring at a giant puzzle that needs solving!

The Erosion of Holistic Education: From Universality to Specialization

Our way of understanding ourselves and the world has become so mixed up that nobody even bothers to fix the inconsistencies. It's like everyone has just accepted this chaos as the norm without questioning it. R. Buckminster Fuller once defined Universe as “the aggregate of all humanity's consciously apprehended and communicated experiences.” (Intuition, 1972 Doubleday, New York. p.131). It’s such a straightforward idea, yet it carries so much depth.

Universities were originally envisioned as places that embraced the big picture, where knowledge was unified and universal. The term "university" itself suggests a harmonious blending of ideas, a celebration of everything that connects us. However, over time, this ideal has faded, and universities have drifted away from their original mission. Today, it seems like the name should come with a disclaimer: “Specialize at your own risk!” Students are now encouraged to narrow their focus to such a tiny slice of knowledge that they often end up knowing a great deal about just a little. As a result, we've lost a crucial skill: the ability to weave diverse strands of knowledge together and see the full tapestry of understanding.

Reintegrating Humanity's Experiences: Bridging the Disconnect Between Worldviews

Reintegrating all of humanity’s experiences into a clear and coherent worldview is no small feat. Each of us is trapped in our own perspective, identifying so closely with it that we can't tell where we end and our worldview begins. Changing our worldview feels like altering our very identity, even though it's really just a collection of ideas passed down from family, friends, teachers, peers, and, of course, social media.

Deep down, we all understand that no two worldviews are exactly alike, shaped by our unique experiences, upbringing, and values. In this sense, we are all islands, separated by vast oceans of understanding, cut off from one another. With each passing day, as we become more entrenched in our own beliefs, we've lost the ability to connect our perspectives, leading to a profound struggle to bridge the gap between ourselves and others. This disconnect is not just an individual experience; it resonates widely, fueling misunderstandings and miscommunications. At its core, this disconnect is at the heart of all conflict, as differing views clash and collide without a means to find common ground.

The Impact of World War II on Belief Systems

Before World War II, people around the globe held clear and distinct beliefs that were deeply ingrained in their cultures and societies. Major religions, with their rich traditions and teachings, alongside the advancements in science, played a pivotal role in shaping these beliefs. As a result, individuals experienced a profound sense of confidence and certainty in their understanding of the world around them. These guiding principles provided a framework through which they interpreted their experiences, made decisions, and navigated the complexities of life. The interplay between faith and reason created a tapestry of perspectives that unified communities and fostered a shared sense of identity.

World War II shattered cultural walls as people from diverse backgrounds were thrust into both working together and clashing with one another. After the war, returning to our old local beliefs was no longer an option since many had encountered, often violently, the beliefs of others. As a result, everyone's perspectives had to broaden, but there wasn’t a proper way to help them make sense of these new experiences.

From the '60s to the 21st Century

As we stepped into the swinging 60s, a whirlwind of counterculture ideas shook up everyone's perspective on life. Traditional ways of thinking were crumbling, and universities jumped on the bandwagon, weaving these fresh, avant-garde ideas into their courses for the rest of the century. Suddenly, multiculturalism took the spotlight as the go-to worldview in education. The main idea behind multiculturalism? No single culture or belief system reigns supreme; all are seen as equally valid. But this cultural relativity left many feeling adrift, as the absence of a definitive anchor made life feel a bit aimless. A sense of unease began to spread like wildfire across the globe.

Stepping into the 21st century, multiculturalism transformed into a complex form of identity politics, which ultimately created deeper divisions among people, particularly regarding issues of race and gender. This significant shift not only led to heightened awareness of individual identities but also resulted in the emergence of an ever-growing number of arbitrary groups, each competing against one another for recognition, legitimacy, and resources. The landscape became increasingly fragmented as these groups sought to assert their unique narratives, often at odds with one another, further complicating social dynamics and fostering an environment where collaboration became more challenging.

Impact of Technology on Worldviews

With the unprecedented rise of the internet and rapid advancements in computing technologies, a vast number of individuals with access found themselves empowered to express their thoughts and opinions to the billions of users connected online. This phenomenon effectively democratized the dialogue, granting a platform for voices that were previously unheard and allowing anyone to participate in discussions on a global scale. However, this newfound power also posed challenges, as it began to overshadow the hard-earned expertise of professionals who had dedicated significant time and effort to attain recognition and accreditation in their respective fields. The balance between layman's perspectives and expert opinions grew increasingly tenuous, leading to a shift in how information was perceived and valued in society.

Moreover, advanced computer algorithms and data processing technologies have created a serious dilemma: we can now encounter simulated personas that speak and act convincingly, blurring the lines of reality. This technological leap presents a critical turning point for humanity. We find ourselves at a crossroads: we can either slide into a totalitarian, Orwellian "Nineteen Eighty-Four" existence or choose to unite in a more inclusive and positive worldview.

It's Time to Create Our Unique Perspective on the World

Dominant historical worldviews have been imposed on the general population, shaping beliefs and perspectives in ways that leave little room for individual interpretation or personal growth. However, we now find ourselves at a unique juncture in history, where access to all of humanity's recorded experience is available to us. Applying critical thinking to this immense body of experience empowers us to break free from the constraints of obsolete worldviews. This moment offers us a valuable opportunity to explore and formulate ever better worldviews, allowing for a richer understanding of our experiences that reflects the complexity of our collective identities and the world we inhabit.

We’ve reached an impasse in our efforts to cultivate a broader and more inclusive viewpoint of the world surrounding us. It's surprising to realize that there seems to be no standardized approach available for us to enhance and effectively manage both our personal perceptions and our collective understanding. To the best of my knowledge, there doesn’t appear to be anyone actively engaged in building such a comprehensive framework. What adds to the concern is the underlying assumption that it is beyond our grasp to construct a thorough, cohesive, and consistent worldview that can truly embrace the entirety of human experience. This presents a significant challenge for us, and it sits at the very heart of what this blog aims to investigate and unpack.

Splinters In Our Minds

Splinters In Our Minds, or SIOM for short, is an effort to construct a comprehensive, integrated, internally consistent, non-contradictory worldview that accounts for all of humanity’s recorded and communicated experience. This will be a very lengthy process so be prepared for a long series of blogs. Each blog will be associated with a particular thread and there will be many threads and sub-threads. The concept of using threads allows us to focus on multiple topics concurrently and move from one thread to another. Multiple levels of sub-threads will also be used to further refine topics. Readers can read the blogs in the order they were written or focus on a particular thread or sub-thread.

SIOM defines a new process for acquiring understanding of no less than everything we know about. Our world, our universe, is a puzzle. Our experiences are the pieces of this puzzle. This puzzle is, of course, enormous. There is only one initial assumption and that is that there is only one world, one universe and not one for each person. Each of us has developed our own worldview and they have become as varied as there are people. The worldviews used by humanity in the past no longer suffice. They are filled with contradictions and inconsistencies. SIOM seeks to resolve those contradictions and inconsistencies. To do so we need some basic rules which all must follow.

SIOM introduces a refreshing approach to understanding everything around us. Think of our world and universe as a giant puzzle, with all of our experiences, past and present, serving as pieces of the puzzle. There’s a simple starting point: we share one world and one universe, rather than each having our own personal version. Although we all develop our own perspectives, leading to countless variations, the old worldviews we relied on just don’t cut it anymore—they’re riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. SIOM aims to untangle those issues by establishing some fundamental principles and rules that we all need to follow.

Determination of Truth

The Scientific Method is our best tool for figuring out certain kinds of truths, and it's been polished and perfected over the past few hundred years. It involves a sequence of steps. First, you make some observations about the world around you, then you devise a question based on those observations. Next, you come up with a hypothesis, which is basically your educated guess to explain what you’ve noticed. Now comes the exciting part: you set up one or more experiments to test your hypothesis. After running the experiments, you gather all the data and analyze it to see if it confirms or disproves your original hypothesis. Both inductive reasoning which draws general conclusions from specific observations, and deductive reasoning which starts with a general premise and work toward a specific conclusion, are used.

The problem with the Scientific Method and inductive and deductive reasoning is that there are large sets of human experience for which experiments and the gathering of resulting data cannot be done. Simply put, the experiences will not comply with the experimentation process and so they are dismissed or ignored by the scientific community. SIOM will make every effort to find a scientifically sound explanation for any given set of human experience but if that is not possible then we must move on to a more inclusive method for determining truth.

Abductive reasoning is a form of logical inference that starts with an observation or set of observations and seeks the simplest and most likely explanation for them. Unlike deductive reasoning, which guarantees a true conclusion if the premises are true, and inductive reasoning, which generalizes from specific instances. Abductive reasoning involves making educated guesses or hypotheses. It is widely used in fields like medicine, law, and science. For example, doctors use abduction to diagnose diseases by identifying the most likely cause of a patient’s symptoms.

There are those who find truth by way of faith and believing and SIOM will fully explore religious faiths and beliefs as part of humanity's experience. However, blind faith and blind belief is not useful because it requires us to exclude large segments of human experience. SIOM is always inclusive in its process and religion has played an enormous part in the development of humanity so it will be a part of our inquiries.

Formal Rules for SIOM

Inclusion

 All of humanity’s all-time recorded and communicated experiences must be included.

Verbal communication, except when it is committed to writing, is excluded because there is no permanent record which can be examined by others. The communication of an experience from one person to another in a conversation is not sufficient for inclusion and would be considered anecdotal. So the dream you had last night is anecdotal but the study of dreams as recorded in the many books on the subject would be included.

People do, of course, lie and deceive or they may be mislead by others into thinking that something is true when it is not. Therefore, it is inevitable that such untruths are part of peoples' belief systems. As an ever increasing amount of human experience is reconciled into an ever increasingly integrated, consistent and non-contradictory worldview we will find that these various forms of untruths will be revealed since they won't fit into a coherent model.

Two or more sets of experience cannot, in fact, contradict one another because we all live in a single Universe. Apparent inconsistencies and contradictions will be identified as “splinters” and put aside until our understanding grows and they resolve themselves.

Human Experience Cannot be Dismissed, Denied, or Ignored

Dismissing, denying, or ignoring a set of human experiences because you don’t agree with it, or like it, or it contradicts your current worldview is not allowed. By not permitting the dismissal, denial or ignoring of human experience the SIOM participant is thereby required to account for it. If the experience cannot be accounted for then it is treated as a “splinter” and is added to the list of splinters until the understanding of how to account for it becomes apparent.

Accounting for Human Experience Cannot be Delayed Indefinitely

The satisfactory incorporation of a set of human experience cannot be delayed indefinitely by claiming that with sufficient time a given solution will be found to be true when at the present time it cannot be shown to be true.

Deconstruction and Reconstruction

The rules just set forth will be applied to all of humanity's recorded and communicated experience. As we attempt to incorporate each new set of human experiences the effort will require SIOM participants to deconstruct and then reconstruct their worldview. This will be a challenging process for most people and the process of deconstruction and reconstruction may generate an emotional response that can drive people to break one or more of these rules. Therefore the challenge ahead of you is to be on guard for such emotional responses. Reconciliation of apparent contradictions is the goal.

Informal Rules for SIOM

Let the Game Begin!

Treat SIOM as if you were playing a game. We are working to put together an extremely large puzzle with many pieces that do not appear to fit together. Don’t worry if the information being provided isn’t immediately integrated into an enhanced worldview. In many cases information may not be integrated for many months or even a years. So let go. Relax. Enjoy the process.

Patience is a Virtue

Have patience. Exercise control over your emotional reaction to the content presented within SIOM. It will be challenging. It will make you think. You will be triggered to react in an emotionally negative manner from time to time. The material which needs to be covered is very large and it will take years to do this. So, give this the time and patience it needs to have a positive effect on your life.

Take a Break

Walk away for a while if it becomes too much for you. The SIOM process will require you to incorporate large amounts of new information into your existing worldview. The intent is that this will cause you to deconstruct and reconstruct your worldview many times. This is hard. If you feel overwhelmed, then take a break. You need to allow yourself time to process the new material. You should feel no shame in taking a break.

The next post is Episode 2 - Gods of the Bible by Mauro Biglino, Part 1

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