Our culture as an integrated system of connections can be summarized by the basic form of a slime mold. While sitting down and watching the simplest of organisms we find very interrelated processes and thinking patterns. In the emergences of life and culture we continue to explore the way things work through looking at basic connections between ants, the human brain, computer programs, city development, and let’s not forget the importance of the slim mold. Is this the beginning of understanding a culture or is culture something that bears no logical explanation for it?
We sit and watch the movements of the smallest and most seemingly uncomplex organisms we can find to try and wrap our minds around people. Our creative abilities and brains are racked are we are forced to change our ideas and explore the finite mind to push forth and discover explanations for everything. I would hope that everything in the world is not explainable though I am one who loves to seek patterns and explanations for the world around me. If we take a look at systems we see patterns that are explained by bottom up or upward down structures. We also are trying to break the way our minds think by discovering new and innovative ways to create and mold society.
The slime mold and the ants show us first and foremost a very unique pattern on life organized. Both of these two organisms can seem to appear very different yet at the core become their own form of organized society. The culture that exists appears adaptive and led but without a dictator or leader. Ants move about and base life off of communication and adaption. It is not the social system that we are used to and is unique to human thinking. Ants follow pheromones and limited “conversations” with each other. It is similar to a picture in a computer game that is explained in the book by Steven Johnson called “Emergence.” There are wind-up toys that the game player sets into motion. Once in motion the other wind-up toys will respond not only to patterns but will change their responses based off the other wind-up toys they encounter. If the computer programmer were to ingrate things like speed bumps, walls or other things the patterns would change not simply based off communication or the encounter with other wind-up toys but also other factors. The ants communicate and take “jobs” based off the need. They must have a calculation system always going about in their minds because they can base this change off what the need is and how many ants are doing the same job. They continue to follow the need and are able to do so very successfully without being told. The system works and everything that needs to happen is accomplished for the ant colony. What a spectacular system put into place for the purpose of the ant colonies existence. How is it that life can survive and how can a leaderless society thrive? We watch and learn as unlike the human view of the “tragedy of the commons,” in the lives of ants there is a systematic organization that works and is collective in nature.
You may be an avid believer in evolution. For you the world evolved from itself and these patterns just worked out from train and error. You believe entirely in chance and in mutations creating the complexity of life as we know it. I believe in a Biblical view of the word and creation. There were times biblically speaking where there was not the existence of a human leader. People were directed from God and other less officially leaders. Man asked for a leader and in the O.T. they appointed a king. However, people still needed to be led. We are reminded in the Bible in the New Testament how selfish we are and there is constant reminders to give to others in need and what a society looks like when it operates as one rather than how it operates when we look to the individual needs. Humans are taught not to be selfish. I watch little children and we spend more time teaching them what is good for society as a whole. Perhaps it is very cultural though I can still tell you even though I want to help others my desires are often selfish. If we look to other tribes and natures and cultures they offer much more community oriented life. There still exists within those systems leaders or people out to do harm or to take something or someone that does not belong to them. What does that look like in the slime mold model? Is the answer for evolutionist in the society that exists amidst the apes? Does the answer lie in man being made in the image of God and having a soul?
We do not teach children to say mine or me. We inherently think about ourselves and what we want. What is so different and what sets apart humans from insects in the way we do life? We have to learn and we have to fight our nature to the core. Perhaps it is an issue of sin on behalf of man. When we act like animals we are told we are acting out of instinct or not to act like an animal because there are higher expectations for the manners that are appropriate for human behavior. The rules are different. What sets the rules and standards and norms of the cultures and society we live in? Why is the insect world and animal kingdom so different? What is it that catches our attention and causes us to react? Is it the Jiminy Cricket called our conscience? Is it the Biblical Holy Spirit that works through us to teach us right from wrong? There are defined rules that most men and women see as inherently wrong and others that will be constant issues we stand and fight for or against. There is something so different and unique about humans the amazing way we organize. Do we have free will or are we simply organized and moving about the planet based off a systematic approach to life that we have yet to understand? Are we less organic and less individualistic then we first thought ourselves to be? Is there a larger combination of things at work?
I have very strong beliefs and arguments but I have to believe that there are some things we do based off the way we are created. A complex structure of genes and DNA that make me up and the amazing circumstances that surround my life will cause me to become a certain person. Mix these with my beliefs, my family, my God, my actions and the way life will treat me. These are going to be so unique for each person how can we every narrow it down to a simple understanding? We can try to find patterns which will be extraordinarily useful in evaluating society. We want desperately to understand the implications that surround the why, the who, the what, then when and the how. Perhaps there is some direction intermixed with free will. Perhaps it is beyond our guesses and understanding. Yet, we continue to explore emergence.
We explore emergence through computer games and programming. We can watch and study people and children and look into the behavior that shapes the culture we live in. We look at actions and reactions and try and create our own order through a system of disorder. There are organized patterns. We look internally. There exists areas that I am interested in where we try and uncover the depths of people and their behavior. The sciences are exploratory facets where we seek complete understanding and answers to questions we cannot define. What if there is not an explanation for manual for everything in life? We want answers but how do you explain the unexplainable and the things that move beyond science and reason?
Meanwhile we study. We watch and wait as we observe and discover new ways of thinking. We study human behavior and watch the lives around us. We look at psychology and study personalities. We watch the cultures in cities and how things spring up and grow around us. There are patterns and some of these are set aside by systems and authorities. Yet, there remains the mystery of emergence and how some systems develop by having a bottom up approach. We seek to leave our mark and to be individual. The systems are learning to develop to us. I cannot explain why certain people and cultures gravitate toward certain areas. Perhaps it is people who seek the change that create the culture. It could be a slow trickle or happen by accident. It could be a divine appointment that moves someone from one direction in life to another. What is the glue that appears magical and holds the systems together? The slime mold was multiple pieces that come together and once there move more like one force.
There are now objects and computers trying to duplicate the human intelligence. These programs try to go beyond our understanding and help us to figure out what in the world is going on here. We continue to observe because we have no other choice. We have systems of advertisement and television that begin to be interactive and try and engage in our personal systems. I have emails and links that load automatically on my computer that offer compelling advertisements for the things I am interested in. I am being watched and I am being studied yet so are you. The world is continuing to move with many forces that drive it. The organization changes and so do the leaders. Systems continue to develop. What is really going on? There is something yet to me mysterious and beautiful in this unknown and I don’t have the answers. Not having the answers I continue to search and in doing so change life as much as life changes me. Am I in a defined system or do I define the system? “If you don’t like the way things work today, change the system.” (Johnson, Emergence, 162) Are we catalysts for change or is it a combination with something much bigger and more unknown going on?
