the box

The Box.

Within which all things exist. To emphasize the scope of the idea, one could even place conceptions of the universe, infinity, absolutes, God (perhaps) inside The Box.

The pervasive medium through which thought is allowed to explore the totality that exists within it.

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Is the universe a dualistic manifold? If entropy is the necessary counteracting function to that of evolution's necessary promulgation of life, does entropy exist outside of evolution, or does it cohabit with evolution as a dependency?

It seems that repulsion is needed to hold the fabric of existence together, acting as an incentive creating, motivating force; that which evolution strives against.

If so, as evolution evolves toward greater complexity, as embodied in what seems to be it's apex evolutionary achievement (technology, or humanity... Obviously these things are interdependent as of now), in virtue of evolution's absolute stake in the proliferation of life, is it possible that entropy could be suspended, then utilized, harnessed for its own gain? Couldn't it be argued that entropy is a technology of evolution, a functioning system on the globe of the universe, like a river, with which its societies tap into discoverable irrigation and power generating technical systems? What agency the universe must possess, to extend it's immanence through to its constituent phenomena. Some will use this line of reasoning to posit God. In this discussion I am forced to concede to a Conception of God; to find it embodied in a single being however is manifestly underwhelming as a belief system.

What are we faced with in this paradigm that motivates us, specifically? It is difficult to avoid the moral domain, but we must maintain the metaphysical stance for as long as we can. The moral domain is merely another box.

Yet, there is this complexity, that in one sense feels intricate and designed, but in another, chaotic and random. Human reason seems to operate so as to bring the design, and perhaps the designer to the forefront of consciousness. What is consciousness but a free filter, with space and time as its axes, shaping perceived reality into very distinct fabrications that allow for meaning and propositions. As it slides its perceptual modalities from one axis to another, the design is altered, and through different patterns arises nuanced understanding of the universe. Through these intellectual localities we bring into existence ideas that span the disciplinary spectrum. The Free Filter moves and the output is thus sociological, or physical, or economic.... But what is it that describes the operating systems of that spectrum? Metaphysics becomes that domain of forcing the general into the domain of the specific. These manifold intuitions become processing tools with which consciousness shapes the chaos into designs. Meaning is made by extrapolation from the general to the specific and vice versa.

Nonetheless, we must contend with the entropic: in this discussion I will expand the meaning of entropy to mean more than its common physical definition, and for good reason. First, physics, by its own definitional nature is presupposed as a fundamental absolute domain. It provides for, in one sense, the grounds upon which the rest of the universe exists and operates. One could say physics is the set of algorithms that informs the operating system's behavior. The platform. Entropy thus, insofar as it counteracts what might as well proceed ad infinitum, the force of life, as it were, is an expanse of negative forces against the pervasive thriving for progress. For example, one could perceive Entropy expanded to include the limitations of reason, the unanswerable questions of reality, the paradoxes of rationality, the morally depraved, sociopathic, randomness of destruction, mortality itself.

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If technology is driven, as it were, by the engine of evolution, that is, evolution could be cited as the entity that co-opted humanity, using its ability to reason, to implement the procedures which gave rise to technological development*, mustn't we consider the unintended consequences, as if evolution is a decider of things, of such a developmental paradigm; what of the impact of technology on humanity itself... There are abundant examples of the benefits of this growth, and there are many detriments... But what of the more insidious effects; what of those resulting phenomena that portray themselves to perception and society as positive, and in virtue of that illusion, humanity is driven toward more and more self deception, facilitating an ever expanding positive-seeming negative feedback loop;

and to feed into the previous discussion of entropy, perhaps it is merely a necessary application of reason (reason as evolution's tool, perhaps even primary tool to create "extentionary" technology) to create illusions and negative feedback loops, so as to ensure the thriving of the machine. After all, systems detest most those free radical elements perpetually intent on subverting the system. It would be interesting to posit the idea that humanity acts at the whim of evolution, that freedom of the will is merely a necessary function of consciousness, and conscious beings similar to our iteration act in ways that overall generate for evolution technologies to expand its reach. One could even venture into the intellectual frontier, and suggest that perhaps those malicious elements of society are necessary, perhaps to create a mirroring through which consciousness collectives can self correct.

The brain is an interesting machine; it operates in seemingly plausible schema in order to ensure that it's own limitations are not the focus of consciousness. If the brain had perception visual representations of all of gaps in perception, we'd see more incomprehensible images than coherent ones. But the brain is constituted in such a way as to fill in these gaps using patterned assumptions, givens, tautologies. Interesting that evolution would develop a fault eliminating technology to allow it's agents to proceed unthwarted toward it's technological destiny.

It is increasingly difficult to get beneath the driving forces of technology because those forces ride on the backs of hidden agendas and motivations.

But back to the main point; first, evolution seems to have a purposive drive, insofar as life is its goal... to establish stability enabling conditions for the propagation of life, so to continue perpetuating it's goal. Again, we have to make many very substantial assumptions regarding humanity's role; first, it is a result of evolution, because humanity is composed of living creatures, and of course humans have evolved to adapt to their environs using the intellect combined with brute force and the utilization of tools. It has to be at least tacitly assumed, to some degree, until further verification is realized, that evolution is making adaptive technologies of its own, and the resulting phenomena of the intellect are necessary extensions of that evolutionary creativity.

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What of the sociopolitical/economic realm? First, it is naive to attempt a real disentangling of these three tripartite mechanisms, as it were... Culture can be removed to some extent as a generally held constant aspect which changes as kind of an outlier. Perhaps. But we mustn't err in thinking of these domains as independent from one another. The social paradigm is generated by, and at the same generates the political environment: this dynamic in turn generates an emergent economic paradigm. None of these elements are static. The multi-fold aspects of each adjusts to the varied aspects of each and thus the system operates as a kind of collective machine. The complexity becomes much more intense when one zooms into each domain to examine the phenomena that occurs on the level of the agent. There is a top down bottom up interchange that does not trade influential moves, but constantly influences the agents within the system while being influenced by those same agents. Hence the necessary interdependence between what a community buys, for example, and the agenda of the local political structure to both capitalize and respond to the activities of the community.

To assume that markets operate by some absolute order, as an entity in and of itself is to deny the necessary effects of socio-politics on the psychology of communities. Some effects may be difficult to measure in direct quantitative-qualitative domains of analysis, but it is naive to disassociate the effects of policy on consumer trends. It seems counter-intuitive to redirect the focus and try to understand markets as a strictly agent-market relationship. Society has staple productive attractors, food and entertainment, but even those are intertwined with the power mechanisms of policy, food and drug dogmas, movies and music derived from pro and anti nationalistic concerns. Thinkers might be a bit too narrowly oriented when they suggest of the paradigm that it is merely markets, and the reactionary pursuit of orienting policy around trends. Again, policy and politics are driven by agents with as much stake in the social order. Legislation itself cannot be like what markets are claimed to be, removed from and objectively gazed to engage society. They are driven by subjects with agendas; of course to assume this is to assume something fundamental about human nature, that minds cannot be absolutely objective, unless perhaps they can escape bias and engage in truly scientific rationalism. It's a tall order to be truly a scientist about society and the people in it and the people that govern it.

So we return to the grand idea, The Box within which we all exist and all things exist. It is moved and adjusted by the gaze alone, the gaze of the intellect, and refocuses on different landmarks of its infinite-like topography. Each landmark brings to the gaze a specificity that cannot be observed when looking at The Box as a whole. Indeed, we see what we want to see and make associations accordingly. We can control our analyses and create ever more refined boxes, and as a result our gaze discovers connections within that extrapolate naturally to connections outside of the box currently under examination. The Box is super-dimensional; within it we can posit infinite dimensions... But infinity itself can paradoxically fit within its own confined box through which the gaze can focus. It folds, it expands, it rotates. It is in gravity and in time, but it is also in the mind, and in concepts gravity and time can mutate, trans-morph.... We cannot allow ourselves as open minds to be captured by a specific position in The Box, a specific sub-box... We must entreaty our intellects to explore the confines of each box under the strict assumption that it connects, in virtue of it being in The Box, to anything else. Every sub-box is linked necessarily to any other. We entertain paradox and perfection, discord and harmony. We entangle and disentangle.

This is The Box.

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