The Logic of the Philosophy Generator

Required reading: http://www.anti-socialengineering.com/2012/05/defining-constituents-of-paradigm.html

There are some things about these topics defined by the Philosophy Generator that can be said for certain, we will call these things rules. In the Philosophy Generator we have letters to symbolize ideas and lines to associate those ideas with others. Our concern with these lines, that is to say, the reason for which we examine these associations, is to extract their origin.

So it can then be said that, for the PG, if we are in agreement that a.) The terms defined are all inclusive and mutually exclusive. (For instance: It is true that there is no S that is N, nor N that is ~U or there is no P that isn’t either X or S unless it is also L) and b.) The definitions and associative links are accurate and relevant (IE. If we are correct, complete and theoretically sound); then we have every right to draw conclusions from the rules created by the Philosophy Generator.

So let's do that.

1.) Paradigms, are groups of associations built from either experiential or social norms or some combination thereof.

P > (X v S) v (X . S)

If it’s P then it’s (X or S) or (X and S.)

Our ideas about everything are determined either by us or for us. This, in and of itself, is quite enough of a pill for some people to swallow. What I would consider a very obvious fact can be nothing short of unbelievable to others. This is the foundation upon which every other conclusion we’ll make is built.

Other philosophers, some friends of mine, would contest this starting point and if they were able to either prove or disprove the existence of “free will,” might think they could crush my argument and win the day. The question of free will asks, “Are we able to exercise control over our decisions or is everything determined?” The Philosophy Generator says the answer is “Both.”

You do have the ability to direct your choices, both consciously and unconsciously and you have determined traits that must be followed. There is a boundary set here determined by the rules of existence. As such, the options within the boundary are finite but those options are numerous, indeed seemingly infinite. The idea of will, is definitely in play and part of the Generator, the idea of freedom is not relevant to the discussion.

Ultimately, it is because Determinism insists that “events” (and therefore “ideas,”) are caused by the needs of their predecessors that brings “freedom” into the equation. This is a causation that you can follow back as far as you care to. It is another one of those things that a person could devote an entire career exploring, many have. To put it simply, answer: “What situation could possibly arise where you wouldn’t choose what you must?”

Free will, in my opinion, is a mere question of responsibility, either you have it and take it, or you don’t, the necessity of it is a matter of opinion. Despite our inability to know if we are the originators of our own thoughts or in control of our own beings or destinies we can understand the differences between paradigms built from either experiential or social norms. We can understand that we succumb to our will through our behaviours and that our motivations can be hidden from us. Our reality must be that we can only know what it is possible to while taking comfort in the exponential growth of what being possible encompasses.

2.) There is no such thing as a paradigm that is a naturally occurring social norm.

S > ~N

If it’s S then it’s not N.

Social norms must be developed into a paradigm that is then shared. In contrast, an experience can just “happen,” without the development of any paradigm, except the one being built by the experience itself and any new immediate associations. To argue that a grouping of individual experiences collect into a social experience is to defy our definitions. A group of individuals is not an individual any more than a grouping of individual experiences is one social experience.

A social norm is also built entirely from influence, an experiential norm is exactly the opposite, it cannot be both. To say the words “there is no such thing as a naturally occurring social norm,” may seem obvious, even trivial by our definitions, until one considers the truth of what this means.

3.) All social norms are engineered. Social norms that can’t be experienced are not natural.

S > L

If it’s S then it’s L.

(L .~X)>~N

If it’s L and not X then it’s not N.

A learned social norm is gained through instruction or influence. Instruction and influence are methods to design an outcome and that is engineering. It may or may not be a conscious effort to learn it on your part, or to teach it on their part, this is not at issue as one can be aware of being instructed without knowing of motives as easily as one can pass on lessons learned without understanding the possible implications of the lessons and vice versa.

Intention does have its place in our considerations and will be given its due diligence soon enough. It is not our place to speak to the motives of the engineers, nor may it even be possible. For what if we have engineered a particular paradigm ourselves? It is certainly possible for an individual to concoct any number of incorrect ideas. (How many times in your life have you improperly deduced what someone seemed to be implying?) It might seem that this “Accidental Engineering” seems ill-defined, perhaps impossible, but we are not speaking of blueprints or locomotives, only paradigms. Our thoughts and ideas are “built” from something: What we have learned we have contrived, this is what we have built in our minds, either by ourselves or with others, either intentionally or not, either with awareness of it, or not.

Ultimately we will find that the judgement of the source's intention or associative effectiveness is up to you. The only thing to be concluded by accepting this rule as a reality is that everything we have learned outside our experiences has, at the least, the same likelihood of being necessary as not and, if we are able to point to engineering, it is probably because we have discovered some result to have been engineered.

Every paradigm we can build from experiential norms has the potential to be influence free as a natural necessity. We can have “engineered experiences,” by learning things either through observation, (influence,) or through lesson, (instruction,) but we can also learn things on our own. Once someone else’s paradigms are involved, it must be a social norm and the potential for necessity is diminished. If experiencing the social norm is impossible, if it is a lesson that you can neither test nor prove, the opportunity for potential necessity becomes zero. This is not to call into question the worth of any particular social norm, it simply means that one loses the opportunity to prove the paradigm natural by its lack of any experiential quality.

In a very real way the influence of social norms is the most predominant threat to your happiness, authenticity, productivity and promotion. Regardless of the motives of the influencer it is your awareness or lack of it that will determine your ability to adjust, absorb, deny or combat any particular paradigm. If you aren’t aware of any particular paradigm’s influence on your own ideas, if you cannot even realize its existence and/or power, you are unable to do anything other than succumb to it. Sometimes this inability will pose no threat to you or your ideas about things, such as in the case of someone teaching you how to play a particular game. Contrast this idea with the more detrimental and powerful realization that someone has been playing games with you. Whether it’s a friend, employer, teacher, advertiser or government, influence is everywhere, without contemplation and evaluation you have no way of knowing if said influence is worthy of adoption.

Let us not fail to notice the relevance of the implications made by the fact social norms cannot be considered N. This is not a comment on the “naturalness” of societies to adopt particular behaviours based on biology, habit or necessity. (For instance, it’s highly unlikely that, considering our current evolutionary model of existence, homosexuality could move to becoming the preference of the human species. However, it is quite easy to imagine a biological scenario where this outcome would be more likely.) When we say that a social norm cannot be naturally occurring we mean that the universality of necessity is an individual’s experience. Any determined social necessity would be a matter of opinion, or it would already exist.

4.) Nature provides what is necessary, which is good.

N > U

If it’s N then it’s U.

We needn’t get into a definition of eudaemonia beyond that of our previously stated generalizations of “good” and “bad” to express the importance of this rule. It should be stated that we are, in this rule, like in all possible comments on the Philosophy Generator, speaking only of paradigm. To argue that all possible natural phenomena are “natural” or that all natural phenomena are “good” is not our concern. We are not seeking to debate any “Naturalistic Fallacy,” nor at this point, even what “good” is. For the most part, it is for you to decide what is eudaemonic.

When we speak of N, we are only saying that there are paradigms that fit into our definition of what N is. Other, learned paradigms we can, or at least could, have an opportunity to change. With N, we have no choice. Like many philosophical concerns we are more impressed by what the statement doesn’t say. As stated previously, naturally occurring experiential norms are required by us. There is no need to evaluate that which existence insists upon. (Which, incidentally, is a great definition for “nature.”)

We need only evaluate that which we can dismiss as not being N, such as L. N is safe. Therefore, as N is necessary and automatically eudaemonic, it seems that it is only the things we learn that can pose any threat to our potential for U, for goodness, for rightness.

The reason we are unable to simply state that all possible experiences are not automatically eudaemonic is that we are just as able to trick ourselves as we are to be programmed by others. One would think that we would be less likely to fall prey to our own illusions and delusions than to those of someone else.

Let us compare two naturally occurring experiential norms that share a human commonality and convenient illustrative properties: Fear and love. Surely we can all agree that these paradigms, whatever they might be for each individual, are extremely universal and naturally occurring phenomenon and this is true not only of humans. However, when we consider the irrational or damaging behaviour we exhibit in the name of fear and love, how can we doubt emotive potential to expose our weaknesses. Consider the man who wants to punch his ex-girlfriend's new beau in the face and the patriot who joins the army, are they not moved by their emotives?

Defining the Constituents of Paradigm

Required Reading: the Philosophy Generator 

At the top of the generator is Paradigm. This is divided into two possible sources: eXperiential and Social, the differences of these must be fully understood before we can continue. An experience is something that only you can have. That is not to say that only you can have one but rather that only you can have yours. An experience, essentially, is data recognition. Information goes into your nervous system through your five senses and is processed into an experience. There are no experiences to be had without information. Even two experiencers processing “the same data” will do so differently. What is information? It’s easier to answer than you might think. Everything is information. Granted, this three word sentence deserves probably an entire tome to itself. We don’t need to examine how everything is information to gain the insight we seek. We also needn’t concern ourselves with a computers’ ability to process information to understand that there is a difference between it and what we are capable of. Truth be known, a coffee table is having the experience of a being a coffee table. It is chock full of “coffee table information,” right down to the molecular level. We can see, feel, smell and even taste the table if we require some data from it. We cannot be the table any more than we can ask the computer what being a table is like. 

 

These are the conundrums of philosophy and they can be pushed to the utmost. (What is a thing anyway? An object? Anything? There are things. Things exist. There are not things that don’t exist. Is “love” a thing as much as a “table” is? It seems ridiculous to even want to contemplate such statements, yet here we are...) If you find yourself inclined to wonder about such things it is entirely possible that you have already asked yourself whether or not I am referring to paradigms themselves, or the ideas that the paradigms represent? This ages old question was named by Immanuel Kant as “The phenomenon of the thing vs. the thing itself.” Kant explained that we can’t get to know the thing itself because we “get in the things’ way” by sensing it. The “thing,” in actuality is a product of the “thing” and our perception of it. For our purposes, despite the apparent importance, this question is irrelevant. We can consider both the ideas of our paradigms, (the associations,) and the paradigms themselves, (the combination of associations,) separately or together. For instance, it’s likely that no one would waste any time arguing that knowing fire spreads and destroys was problematic, but they might argue against the merits of arson. The difference being that a piece of your “fire” paradigm, while actually attached in some way to your “arson” paradigm, it is not representative of your complete thoughts on either subject. 

Bertrand Russell commented on Plato’s thoughts on this subject as well. Using the terms I have chosen, Russell says that any association is a “Particular” and any paradigm is a “Universal” built out of “particulars.” He goes on to differentiate these as “the characteristics of” and just “of.” For example: “A just act” or “a red thing” versus “Justice” or “Redness.” Physicists too talk about the phenomenon of observational interference right down to the subatomic level. Suffice to say, I don’t think we’ll be breaking any new ground here today. Just know that, in terms of paradigm, the thing is the idea and vice versa. 

 

So let us end our questions of experience with the following: “An experience is YOU, processing data. That is all.” We, unlike a coffee table, are able to think about that process but that doesn’t make the coffee table experience any less real. The philosophy generator doesn’t concern itself with coffee tables or computers because their paradigms are unilateral. We want to wonder about ourselves, as choosers.

Experiential Norms, that is, paradigm that are set by your experiences, are what I refer to as being X in the philosophy generator. These are the norms of existence. They are both the naturally occurring and observed lessons of life that you can know, left to your own devices. X is the essence of existentialism. Of all the possible thoughts and experiences, free of influence, everyone can only have their own. They may or may not lay claim to their experiential norms, depending on their awareness of them, but they still have no choice but to have them, short of some vegetative state. 

They cannot also have someone else’s experiences, (these must be shared.) One can have experiences similar to someone else, as for most of us love is, wholly or in part, similarly reciprocated. One can see the same movie as one’s date and while still having quite similar experiences, it certainly cannot be called the same experience, in the strictest sense.

Experiential norm is to experience as social norm is to influence. Experiential norms are the associations made up independent of influence of someone else’s paradigms. Social norms are, in the most general terms, the opposite: Paradigms that you have made directly from the influence of others. These are the products of interactions with others. You may or may not be having an experience to build such a social paradigm, the condition being met for it being S and not X is that you couldn’t have had this experience alone. For instance: love is an experience that you sense, have, feel and definitely can properly define as being a paradigm built from X, yet, it simply cannot be without S. You require someone to love. The same could be said for the love of nation or pumpkin pie. It turns out it doesn’t matter: unless you are a nation of one or invented pie these are examples of social norms. Love is an abstract paradigm that can be made up of many associations from both sides of the philosophy generator. An example of a more concrete variety, such as “fire hurts” while possibly built from experience, (burning one’s self,) could also be Social (having been instructed.) We are not yet ready to define what “love” is, nor do we need to in order to make our point: Whether the paradigm being considered is seemingly as complicated as “love” or as apparently simple as “fire burns” it can and often will be built from both S and X. 

It could be that you’ve learned of fire from benign associations such as those previously mentioned or you could have watched your parents burn to death when you were four, sometimes it’s not what we learn but how we learn it that speaks to the power of the paradigm. There are also, as in the case of the child who watches his parents die in a fire, possibilities for influence to build paradigm, despite the intention of the parents themselves. Whether or not influence is intentional and regardless of it being subliminal we only care to be aware of it, controlling any power it might have over us. It is to be expected that certain extreme paradigms are more influential than others, there is no reason to suffer from indefinite interference unless you lead the unexamined life. We must continue to ponder the two essentials: Influence and experience.

Our next term in the generator is L, for learned. To learn something is to absorb, develop and remember a paradigm. It is the processing of new data. There are many different ways to learn things and two very different L’s in our generator. In the simplest sense, you can either learn something, with or without the influence of others. Every Social norm, every S paradigm is a Learned paradigm. So where you may have learned from first hand experience that fire is hot and what a burn is, it is unlikely that you would develop the idea that an offering to the God(s) should be a burnt sacrifice, without having some sort of Social influence. (Yet, at some point, obviously, someone must have ultimate authorship of the idea.) An area where the definition of a social norm is such as this, becomes easy to recognize as being social. If, for instance, you were taught by someone else that iron could be heated to the point where as, when pressed against an open wound, cauterization could occur, this too would seem to be an SL paradigm. It can be, but there are multiple levels of associations possible for this “Cauterization” paradigm: You could have just “heard about it,” and had no direct experience with it, IE: you never saw it work, never had it happen to you. You could have required it to save your life and very painfully experienced it directly. Either way, it is a Learned paradigm. 

The difference is Social norms that can be experienced fall into the L that resides in the middle, connected to both S and X, experience and influence. Social norms that cannot be experienced must go into the L on the right side of the philosophy generator, dangling by themselves, products of only ideas. At some point in time, one individual came to understand the utility of cauterization, how is irrelevant, but for him, that was a learned experiential paradigm. When he shared that information with someone else and so from then on to unknown numbers of others, it became an SL.

Compare the discovery of cauterization with the realization that someone at some time developed the idea that burning a living creature alive might, in some way, influence unknowable yet feared forces for the better. It could very well be that the initiator of this “Sacrifice” paradigm did experience the idea as some sort of epiphany. Perhaps it was even a religious experience in the convincing sensory format of booming voice, burning bush. This, for that person, would be no less of an eXperiential norm. That is not what we are contesting, but rather that because the experiencer cannot share the direct experience that it must be defined as a Social norm. One cannot, at least as far as we are yet aware, deliver said booming voice or burning bush for others to assign as XL in the same way one can demonstrate cauterization. Therefore, we must take the bearer's word on the matter which, by definition, is what makes it and keeps it SL and furthermore, un-experienceable. It is, at the least, possible for cauterization to be XL. It can be said that the direct link to the source is what determines whether or not a learned social norm can be experienced directly and thus be more easily authenticated and evaluated.

Before we move on to the next symbol “N” let’s take just a moment to be clear on the difference between learned social norms and learned experiential norms. We will, as per the standards of a doing philosophy, plumb the depths of each of our definitions soon enough. Having no proper understanding of words such as “experience” or even what it means to “know” something, one might think that there must be learned paradigms that are picked up by groups of individuals, simultaneously. For example, if we imagine a tribe of island dwellers, cut off from any other peoples, viewing, for the first time in their tradition, a solar eclipse. All of the tribe is seeing it at once and for the group, the eclipse is an learned social paradigm that they cannot recreate, but they each, individually had the experience as an XL. Contrast this with asking Bob if he loves Sally and vice versa. A recounting of love is as abstract as tale of a solar eclipse, yet because we are able to go to the source we can experientially learn the reality of what love means to the lovers. We cannot ask the moon what it means by passing in front of our sunlight, nor can we make it do so. If we live in a time or place where no one can rightly explain what an eclipse is, we have no hope of understanding the reality of the phenomenon. 

Even if we can fathom the scientific nature of an eclipse, in our times and positions, we still must define our understanding of it as a Social norm, unless we have experienced one ourselves. Now imagine that you are that primitive island dweller and you are being told by your elders that you must sacrifice a virgin to the volcano so that it doesn’t swallow the sun again. The relevance is revealed in the trust you have for the source and when you have experiential doubts as to someone else’s social norm, evaluation is all you have. One can only know something through experience, otherwise it is essentially a belief. This distinction, as it will turn out, creates the opportunity for Anti-Social Engineering. All belief must be evaluated.

What is it we mean when we say an association, idea or piece of an idea is natural? By the requirement of the Philosophy Generator it must be, at least, be exclusive of something learned. We already know, or are expected to know that which is natural. We are all creatures of instinct. There are certain things that we are “hardwired” to know, to accept, to use. While it can properly be argued that there are natural paradigms that can be learned, it must not be that this is the case for the philosophy generator, as it already has a category for learning, both with and without influence. It could be that you consider learning baseball as natural as learning to love, it isn’t. Nature provides what we need inherently, the needs we create are unique, special and extraneous. As these provisions are separated in life, so are they in the Generator.

So let’s now examine the far left of the Philosophy Generator’s footing, where Paradigm is proven eXperiential and finally determined to be Naturally occurring. (Synonyms for which we can accept autoNomic or Necessary.) This category, by its associative ties, cannot have any social aspect to it. The types of paradigms that fall into this category are the things that without, we would not be possible, or if you prefer, the “Intrinsic Essentials” of a species. For eg: 1.) Pain hurts. (Pain has a purpose, it is a warning system to protect from harm.) 2.) Many species offspring are loved. (So they are cared for and protected. 3.) Lion’s roars are intimidating. (So you avoid them.) 4. You must hold your breath under water. On and on the list goes... 

 

It does seem somewhat of a misrepresentation to suggest that all natural systems, or even species have any particular necessity that remains inherent in all members. So I’ll remind you that we are particularly interested in the human psyche and the social interactions that stem from it as I gently prove to you otherwise, none the less. For, despite there being life forms on this planet that surely couldn’t care less about one or more of the four above proposed necessities, I submit that, for all those beings and more, there will always be a set of rules that existence will either insist upon or will come to accept. (For instance, a fish isn’t going to care too much about holding his breath underwater but it has its own set of problems when the net pulls it up.) Thus when sourcing paradigm to be a naturally occurring experiential norm, one can confidently claim that to class as such, the association must be, if not necessary, then universally adopted or exemplary. 

So that while the bio-mechanics of life tell us that “fire hurts,” it is also no less instinctual or reasonable for us to behave exemplary, such as we care for our young and generally don’t eat our spouses. Naturally occurring experiential norms develop necessary paradigms, because we have determined this in our definitions we may now all but completely disregard them, for what reason could we find to make evaluating them valuable?

It should be coming clear that we only really need to take a good look at our learned paradigms. Before we can continue it is of the utmost importance that we can appreciate the value in knowing the difference between the two types of learning illustrated by the philosophy generator. We must understand that no one can be teaching us these paradigms for them to be experientially learned. (For if someone was teaching us, while this would be an experience we were having, it must be considered in the S column, as it is not self-sourced, it is influence.) This might seem clear now but it is easy to forget later that these learned experiential norms are not the same things as learned social norms. Keep in mind the root letters of these concepts and what those letters symbolize. A learned experience is done on your own without Social interaction. Learned experiential norms are the lessons that experience has taught us, the things we’ve come to understand, alone. Remember, just because it’s learned doesn’t mean it’s taught and just because you believe it doesn’t mean you know it to be true.

Learned experiential paradigms are secondary to our Naturally occurring norms because all humans have N, they are necessary! The development of experiential paradigms, by the limitation of not being N means that each individual person is going to have unique results. So while N tells you pain hurts, L tells you that fire is hot. Where X and N say offspring are loved L teaches that you can love a spouse, a nation, a God. Where experience and nature say Lion roars are scary, a learned understanding can explain that where there are lions, there is meat. Finally, having to hold your breath underwater could lead to learning that said lion won’t chase you into said water. We will shortly come to find that all paradigm can be connected in some way, with only the limitation of a Social norm that can’t be experienced. 

 

The philosophy generators’ ability to classify paradigm and source provides a valid method to help evaluate the worth of a particular opinion, moral or position. Even from within our strict definitions and encompassing scope, the device is not an “answer machine.” The mechanics of the PG will not always provide you with definitives. So, in our philosophy as in our lives, we must exercise our Assignee’s Prerogative. Once we begin examining the rules our definitions create the generators’ utility becomes expanded somewhat. Let’s look at the chart again as we begin to discover the byproducts of the rules of our definitions.

 

I must point out that we are, at this time, dismissing defining the final term in the generator: U, save to say that it, through a complexity requiring its own definition, for now will be put as “that which is good, right or true” and specifically not the opposite. If you prefer you may think of U, for now, as being generally positive and ~U as being generally negative. U stands for eudaemonia which is a Greek word and idea, first commented upon by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics

The Psychology of the Philosophy Generator

 Required Reading: The Philosophy Gererator

The reason we are even capable of asking “of what are my thoughts made?” is through our understanding and facility of Superego, Ego and Id. It would be impossible if we weren’t beasts able to “step outside” to examine ourselves. (Incidentally, I believe that this fact alone makes our existence deserving. We have been able to achieve the opportunity for perfection.) 

 

Ego is the mediation between the conscious and the subconscious. It is your perception of reality, both what you experience and think about and what is beyond your understanding, but no less influential. Your ego knows your consciousness and feels your subconsciousness. That means that basically you are your ego, built out of your paradigms. Your Id is your innate primary instincts. Thoughts of fight or flight come from the id, beyond your subconscious, past what you’ve leaned in this life, to what all humans (all creatures) are pre-wired to know. (I know there is an argument for plant life having id, and even ego, but there is also an argument for animals having superego and we don’t have the time, nor the need, to cover everything.) It should be noted that humans add to our id as we go, it is not purely a device of instinct. Paradigms, as we build them, store them and think about them, become part of our consciousness. The memory, (thought) becomes a part of our operations and then is forgotten, an imperceptible piece of the filter through which we view all future paradigm, a place to react from. All additions to the id, however, there are products of our experiences and as such, may or may not be eudaemonic. We of course presume that the exemplars we accept are worthy and that they steer us correctly, but how many of us ever consider the presence of the phenomenon? 

 

Superego is the term used to indicate the conscious determination of ego. It is the little voice in our head that asks us “What do we think we’re doing?” when we’re doing something wrong. Where ego knows our consciousness and only feels our subconscious, the superego knows both. Where the ego can be faulted by a misinterpreted bias hidden in a memory, superego knows that bias already and can compensate for it. By understanding and exploring superego we discover all our secrets, all our “why’s.” Assignee’s Prerogative is a method to appreciating your superego, your “rule construct.” (It has been said that your superego is like your parents, tagging along inside your brain.) When we say, “I am ashamed of myself,” the superego is ashamed of the ego. By deciding the worth of paradigms based on full disclosure of what those paradigm are and why they came to be, we have created the possibility for a Superego type Awareness. The next achievement to strive for after mastering your superego is superconsciousness, the recombination of the conscious and subconscious minds. (Or perhaps with a Universal form.) But I’m digressing to the point of sounding like one of the purveyors of Authentic Self from the non-empirical camp. Let’s agree that it is possible for our determinism to stem from a place of thorough contemplation and that our biology is responsible for us being able to do so.

Id, in the generator falls into the category of experiential norms, or, as “id paradigms” are experienced and expected, they are natural experiential norms. They are unavoidable and therefore, we cannot change them ourselves. They have to be changed biologically within the totality of the species. This is beyond our control and examination of these automations, while perhaps fruitful in creating an understanding of self, will never lead to associations your ego has formed. The examination of naturally occurring experiential norms is pointless, they are always necessary. (With the possible exception of social engineering or some other unknown reprogramming of the id.) Ego and superego, obviously run the gamut the generator has to offer, can equally steer us right or wrong and can be experienced by yourself or shared through the influence of others. Having an understanding of paradigm, knowing the importance of contemplating source and hopefully, beginning to have an appreciation for philosophy, let’s take this opportunity to dive into the philosophy generator. It is through this simple device that our argument becomes evident and by discovering the products of our definitions we are enlightened to its utility.

Sitting on the fence is comfortable.

Today, while "using" facebook, I noticed an add that read something like, "Carl Sagan's dream was a world of rational thinking." Below was a picture of "the DNA fish" (as opposed to "the Jesus fish.")

I clicked it to discover that the DNA fish, is an actual moniker for an organization working toward the dissemination of science to (at least,) the folks on this planet with computers and access to the internet. 


I'm a huge fan of Sagan, his work and what he was able to accomplish in his life, for we mere mortal men and women. I stand firm by my conviction that he was one of the most important men of the twentieth century. Everyone should read "Pale Blue Dot" and "Demon Haunted World."


Obviously, I'm also a fan of reason and understanding, so I wish all the best to "the DNA fish" whatever that might be, and for whatever it is worth. However, I do have my own fish to fry with both Sagan and the DNA fish, same as I do with any extremists.


There are things in this universe that continue to be unexplainable, Sagan leaves no room for the possibility of magic, if I may. It's not that he isn't open, for instance, to the idea of God, he just doesn't pretend to understand what that means. But he also thinks that to believe in nonsense is counterproductive. Why can't we believe our nonsense and not let it interfere with progress? The same complaints could be said of anyone who claims that we all must reside on either side of the following equation: we evolved from monkeys or God created us.


Obviously this is not a balanced statement. There is more room for play between those to options than between any liberal/conservative dichotomy. The fact that there are people existing, firmly entrenched in either of these camps means that we need work, still.


I'd like to suggest that everyone who finds themselves believing anything that they might find classified in one extreme or the other, simply examine why. For instance, why couldn't we just, for instance, believe whatever the hell we want about the religions of our choices and yet work toward our own futures despite those thoughts. 


So many of our problems are produced by our inability or refusal to be forward thinking creatures. If this is true we have no one to blame but ourselves.

A summary of the book

Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self by Brian Taylor
When one does philosophy, one dismantles strings of concepts into their respective parts to examine both the parts themselves and the relationships the parts have with each other. This semantic reduction provides us the best possible opportunities for finding truth. This was exactly the type of skill Brian Taylor needed to write his new book Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self, postpaper publishing, ISBN: 978-0-557-99909-5http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/postpaper

The book began as a series of blogged essays in a response to the “Authenticity” movement presented by the like of Eckhart Tolle, Andrew Cohen and to a lesser extent, Dr. Phil. These men, and others, were coming to conclusions on the idea of authenticity that were, among other things, subjective fallacies, rife with interpretation and possibly counterproductive. On the other side of the coin we had skeptical guru Michael Shermer or perhaps Richard Dawkins making up one half of the “four horseman of the non-apocalypse.” These men, “scientists,” were and still are guilty of the same faults as their spiritual counterparts, interpretations rather than knowledge. Brian Taylor wanted to know, “Are there any actual answers in the arena of the self and its power?” As it turns out, reality is far stranger than ever before known and we actually know so much less than we think we do, if it can be said that we know anything authentically, at all.

After four years of research into our ideas about the self through the ages, the sciences of the self and what the self is, this book comes to the conclusion that the modern self, you and I today, are not only manipulated, but that manipulation is sought out, required and pre-programmed. This is a book about how we are all being intentionally hyper-manipulated without our knowledge, by whom and to what end.

To “anti-social engineer” is to counter this phenomenon of modernity through critical consciousness, dubbed “assignee's prerogative.” This self direction is aimed toward eudaemonia, which is an Aristotelian idea roughly meaning “happiness and promotion,” and it is further suggested that virtue is found in the mean between excess and deficiency, in these concerns. This sounds rather simple in such a paragraph form, rest assured, chasing the meanings and relationships of these ideas to any philosophical depth requires a maze of rabbit holes and someone to guide you through them. Taylor is nothing if not thorough in this regard.

Entertaining, personal, conversational, exact and profound, this book has a strange undercurrent, almost a charge running through it. Most clearly defined in it's most opinionated moments, there is a subtext, not a call to arms but to a social contract. Taylor says, throughout the book, that it is specifically battling social engineering, the command, hidden or not, “think this about that.” Yet, he too wants us to think a certain way, a centrist “golden mean,” a path of no extremes. Making an argument against his ideas is difficult, regardless of the talking points he uses. (These vary from possible moral objections we may hold for prostitution or murder, to social norms such as supporting the troops or the war on terror.) In his most controversial moments, when objectivity is at its thinnest, the author's existentialism shines through and he suggests it's better to not claim to know something than to suspect something incorrectly. The exception to this rule is when the social engineering is secret, malicious, degenerative or merely in error.

There are things that we can do anti-social engineer our hyper-manipulated selves and Taylor spells these tasks out clearly. Firstly, social engineering, be it delivered by a television commercial, ideology, civility, social construct, etc. is to be expected and recognized. Then Taylor presents us his Philosophy Generator which is described as “a dismantling of paradigm” and a way to determine if any particular social engineering is more persuasive or manipulative. If we are able to first know what it is we are deciding, then do our best possible thinking on the matter, which is what working through the Generator is for, we should be able to be confident in our decision, whatever it may be. Furthermore, given the standardization of awareness, contemplation and centrist philosophy, it should be expected that the same benefit experienced by individuals would transfer to societies.

The book ends with a chapter called “God wears a yellow hat.” It is concluded with a list of 24 interesting intentions, (23 actually, one of them is missing,) this list is not meant to be a complete index of the topics discussed, but rather an indication of the book's scope. The war on terror, the war on drugs, food transportation, consumerism, capitalism, communism, false flags, rehumanization via technology, God, 2012, patriotism, culture, globalization, human rights and religion. There is an entire chapter devoted to a reasonable discussion between the two sides divided over the conspiracies associated with September 11, 2001. This book discusses conspiracy as it dismantles thought, which is a strange dichotomy. Taylor seems to want to convince us that he is a reasonable man, with a reasonable method and if such a man can find a reasonable conspiracy, we can take the suggestion from the fringe to the mainstream. He may be right. However, this is not a conspiracy book, this is a book about thinking.

One comes away from the experience of reading this book enticed to do more and this is the goal. Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self is about taking responsibility and looking ahead, prudently. It doesn't want to take anything away from you, you're entitled to have your beliefs as the author has his. We need our beliefs and we even need social engineering, these things are part of a natural, healthy species. The dangers of our beliefs are represented by the lack of awareness of them and the inability to think critically about them. Taylor argues that, if in fact we are not thinking well about the things we believe, we are not living up to the reasonable purpose we have as human beings. This appreciation of hyper-reality and our place in it defines our authenticity and is the promise expressed by the 21^st Century Enlightenment.

Link to Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self (free pdf)http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_69/9255000/9255625/2/print/Anti-Social_Engineering_the_Hyper-Manipulated_Self-1.pdf


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