“Jeffrey S. Wicken, of Pennsylvania State University, feels that this hunger is characteristic of all evolving complexes of components–from genes and memes, to massive ecological systems. He says ‘For any evolving system, innovations and strategies that focus resources into the system, while at the same time stabilizing the web of energetic interconnections of the system, will be selected for’.”–Howard Bloom, The Lucifer Principle

The method by which the system does this is perhaps better explained by epigenetics. As Slater pointed out earlier in EarthWalk, a system “extrudes a bit of its own circuitry” into the environment. That circuitry evolves behaviors that allow it to better adapt, and it then returns to its “parent circuit”.

In nature and biological systems, this is performed by the virus, which “cuts and pastes” from the DNA of different species, and then enters an organism, where it begins replicating itself by linking up with the DNA of the organism itself, causing alterations in both the intelligence of the organism and its reproductive processes, thereby creating adaptation by a process of “internal competition” between two reproducing systems. The virus informs the organism, but the organism fights to reject the virus, neutralize it, and retain its original processes. Two basic results emerge from this “competition”:
1.The organism has expanded “intelligence” by enlarging its “database” of information regarding its environment. It has created antibodies which will not allow the same virus to infect that organism in the future. The organism, “knows its enemy”.
2.The organism, not by any conscious process, but by the very act of self preservation, has adapted to its altered environment, and now will evolve behaviors or strategies that act accordingly.

In sort, the description above, by Jeffrey Wicken, fits the “learning process”.The system has stabilized itself, but it has enlarged its “knowledge” of reactions within its environment to maintain that stability.

But just as genes have “uploaded” themselves into the human body as a survival strategy, with the brain acting as ‘decision-maker” for that strategy, so are humans themselves embedded in a “superorganism” that acts according to the same processes described regarding the virus.Slater describes this parallel of the virus altering the organism’s strategies as parallel to the “prophet”, who is cast out from his culture, learns new methods of adaptation, and is allowed re-entry, where he spreads his message to the culture.

As Slater points out, the culture can either accept his message, which will cause new behaviors that will allow for adaptation to the environment, or they will probably kill him. However, even in killing him, they have “absorbed” the information he has provided, and it becomes part of the culture for future reference, even though the prophet himself is rejected. In the bible, for example, the word “witness” and “martyr” mean basically the same thing. If you “witness’ or inform, your information might lead to your death, but the information is retained since the information itself is what caused the hatred leading to your death. You message has “informed” by eliciting a behavior(killing you). The system, at present, has become “immune” to your message. This ensures that prophets had better be very sure of what they’re saying.

The system has “selected’ and incorporated innovative strategies, both at the cultural and biological level, by a method that is very similar. The genes of the organism or the memes of the culture will then proceed to replicate and spread with minimal change, altered only to the degree necessary by adapting to viral information(or prophet).

Innovation is minimized at both biological and cultural level because we, as individuals, seek to belong. Our reproductive success is based on our social acceptance as much as the acceptance of our mate. If we are too “innovative” in our approach to life, we will be “estranged” from opportunities for reproduction. In this way, the culture acts as a “superorganism” to “select” those behaviors that maximize overall “fitness”. As Dawkins pointed out, when Darwin wrote of “survival of the fittest”, he really meant “survival of the stable”. It is the reproductive stability that the culture will act to “select” as a “superorganism”. The culture will not only act to screen jarring information, it will retain immunity to excessive change, just as your own body will “select” certain viral or bacterial invaders and then use the information they provide to greater immunity against future change.

Therefore, just as the genes have “uploaded’ their replicative process into our more complex bodies and brains, so have we been “uploaded” into a cultural system that operates in similar fashion to select innovative strategies that both maximize and stabilize the reproductive process.

Unfortunately, this causes certain negative effects, as we become part of systems that seek to preserve themselves by exerting greater control of their own environment. As Bloom writes:

“Superorganisms are hungry creatures, attempting to break down the boundaries of their competitors, chew off chunks of their opponents’ substance, and digest and re-distribute it as part of themselves”.

“From whence comes wars and fightings among you?…(James 4:1).

It is our “intelligence” and adaptivity that results from “chewing off chunks”, allowing for further adaptation to the environment. The problem of excessive growth occurs when we start “renouncing the self” in favor of the superorganism, when we feel it “good” to give up personal responsibilities in favor of the superorganism in the form of church OR state. As Reed Kinney, author of DESO, Decentralized Economic Social organization and Neo-New World writes:

” Hitler did not reach power single handed. The conservative industrialists of Germany began planning WWII in 1918 (http://www.amazon.com/The-Arms-Krupp-Industrial-Dynasty/dp/0316529400#reader_0316529400). The directives of expansion were already in motion, and the same impersonal institutions, manned by sick men, selected Hitler, from among various men, to lead them into war. The institutionalized mechanization for expansion drove Germany into war. If Hitler had not been selected, another “leader” would have “taken the reigns.”

The superorganism at work, extending, adapting, selecting, using innovative strategies, now increasingly supported by the minds of highly successful men, to select innovative strategies for the expansion and stabilization of the superorganism.

Nature’s way of testing any self replicating device is competition. That which succeeds to replicate itself is that which succeeds to replicate itself. A tautology, but a very successful one, building over time new strategies to ensure greater success.Innovative strategies that focus resources into a system, acting to stabilize that system. That amounts to a “learning machine”. This means we are no longer talking about simple systems of negative feedback, like a toilet or a thermostat, but a system that focuses innovative strategies that stabilize the system are selected for. This means that such a system will increasingly be reaching “outward” to ensure both stability and equilibrium with its surrounding environment.