May This Force Be With Us
At the end of the 19th century, physicists were starting to think that everything there is to know about the physical world and its laws has already been discovered, until two major revolutions shifted the very foundations of physics: relativity and quantum mechanics. I have reason to believe that we are on the brink of the greatest scientific revolution yet, a turning point of the magnitude that we never experienced before. Even more than that, I believe that this breakthrough will hold the key to finding permanent solutions to everything that is hurting us today.
Before you roll your eyes assuming that this is another head-in-the-clouds utopian fantasy — please, suspend your disbelief, and allow me explain.
What we know we don’t know
Right now, in this moment, as you are reading these words, you are experiencing different reactions, emotions, thoughts, and opinions — everything that gives you a distinct awareness of your own “I” — your consciousness. How and why your consciousness comes into being is one of the greatest mysteries of our lives, and to this day we have more questions than answers. What is it, really? Where does it come from? Does it have a higher purpose, or was it an evolutionary accident?
We know that it is rooted in tangible physical matter — an organ that fits in the palm of your hand, and from it — or more specifically, from interactions of billions of brain cells — the immaterial conscious mind arises in a profoundly mysterious, almost magical way. Each cell has its role, its own character, and it is connected to its neighbors through different mutual relationships. When each of these cells is doing its job of connecting to its neighbors, out of these relatively small (albeit molecularly complex) transactions — our entire being is born!
The ever-evolving mind with its flexibility to learn, create, feel, and form original thoughts — something that has created the unique YOU arises from these simple interactions of cells that are essentially tiny insentient sacks of molecules.
How awe-inspiring is the qualitative distance between one single cell and the human mind! Hold this thought for a moment, let it really sink in. What brings it into being is the incredible and mysterious force that I want to talk about. This is a phenomenon of nature called emergence: the appearance of a unique complex behavior on a large scale from small-scale relationships between simple elements. This is an undeniable pattern of nature that can be observed from the atomic level to ecosystems and galaxies.
Nobody, not even the most brilliant scientist can engineer or even predict the macro-phenomenon that will emerge when a complex system of interactions is launched into action. This, however, is the revolutionary breakthrough that will change our destiny as humanity: Discovering this force in our own interactions, and consciously learning how to work with it in order to reveal the higher order emergent phenomenon that currently awaits in potential.
Where we are today.
Humans have been studying laws of nature since prehistoric times, and devising ways to use them to our advantage. We have mapped out the laws of Newtonian motion and the puzzling behaviors of quantum particles. We harnessed chemical reactions, and gravitational and electromagnetic forces. We can fly across the globe in a matter of hours, we can heal the sick, generate light where before there was darkness, and communicate with anyone anywhere on the planet instantaneously! This impressive list goes on.
But! Despite all our advances, collectively we are still a very unhappy species. Depression is on the rise even among kids, our world is plagued by animosity between countries, races, people of different political views. Crises abound in every layer of our lives, from families where divorce rate is on the rise, to climate change, to global pandemics, such as the Coronavirus epidemic that is unfolding right now.
All of this is happening because there is still that one law of nature that we have not even started to understand and master in our lives. It is the same law that is responsible for emergence of something great and intangible from local interactions of simple elements like brain cells — only in this case, WE are the elements being acted upon, we are the ones building the emergent phenomenon through interactions between us. Everything we see around us, everything we read on the news emerges from billions of connections between us. This is the emergent outcome of our relationships.
Yet what we observe is only the tip of the iceberg. What is really happening (and what could happen) is something even greater — much greater!
Remember again that gap between a single cell and the emergent conscious mind. Now try to imagine the same qualitative leap that exists between cells and minds but applied to us, with us being the interconnected cells, and the great emergent phenomenon ensuing from our interactions. Imagine what could be possible, what Nature has in store for us if we realize the full potential that lies therein!
Why hasn’t it emerged yet?
Here is where consciousness comes in. I will venture to assert that none of the elements that play a role in all other emergent systems have free will. The cells in our body, the ants in their ant colony, the trees, insects, animals, and air and water currents of an ecosystem. We are unique. We are the only animal that I know of that changes from one generation to the next and evolves and develops itself willfully and consciously. Each generation wants to be different from their parents, to reinvent itself. We are conscious, and we can choose.
Yet we have one major disadvantage compared to everyone else in nature. All elements of nature are altruistic. We may not feel it, but they instinctually relate to each other in perfect harmony, take only whatever they need, and contribute whatever they can. Our body and its cells and organs are a perfect example. They follow the program instilled in them by nature.
What program is instilled in us? I firmly believe that our consciousness is given to us in order to allow us to use our free will in order to learn how to use this law of nature correctly, to unleash this emergent property by forming correct relationships between all of us. Right now, we are like cells in a body that are only concerned about themselves — and the emergent phenomena that ensue are crises, wars, natural disasters, pandemics, and the like.
We cannot help it, it is our nature. Humanity had experimented with altruism by force in the past (Communist USSR, for example), but it did not work, because this is something we cannot force or direct from above. No emergent system of nature has a centralized ruler decreeing its behavior. The only thing we can change — the only thing anyone can change about any emergent system — are the rules by which the elements interact with each other.
So what can we do?
We are all connected in a web of billions of daily interactions. At the time that I am writing this, we are in the middle of a COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, and even though we’re on the same team, and even though we know that the best way to be safe and contain the infection is to help others to stay healthy — we’re nevertheless buying more sanitizers, gloves, and face masks than we need, leaving medical professionals who take care of the sick at risk, and others exposed as potential carriers and spreaders of this infection. We should be taking care of each other, but instead we are becoming suspicious and protective of ourselves at the expense of others. We cannot help it. It is our nature.
So what is the solution? First, we can start by being honest with ourselves about our own nature. We do have strong self-serving instincts, for whatever reason nature made us this way. If we didn’t, we would all be happy by now, living in a loving abundant world. As a counterweight, though, we also know that there is a great force of nature with enormous potential to help us, and even small changes to our behaviors will result in an indescribable qualitative leap (remember the gap between the cell and the mind?).
Then we need to educate ourselves and actively try to work on relationships between us. All of us! We need to make the psychology and practice of correct human connection a mandatory curriculum in schools, and as part of routine training in workplaces and government offices around the world. All means through which public opinion is molded such as shows, movies, music, social media and the like should be directed to set an example of positive social relationships, where diverse individuals with different opinions listen deeply and genuinely to each other, make concessions to the other, and try to help everyone around them succeed rather than lowering others in order to shine against the backdrop of their misfortune.
Isn’t that still idealistic?
Perhaps as a global action it may seem like a lot, but this is the amazing part: we are not lifting the weight alone! What if we simply need to start trying? As an experiment, let us try — even on a small scale, starting with our own life. It may seem like an impossible dream, but what if just one small step from us is all that it takes, just one small shift in the rules of interactions between the elements of this emergent system that is humanity? This law of nature is designed to help us succeed if we are aligned with its laws, but we may need to start trying soon, the dire state of the world is pressuring us to do something, and for all our endeavors — it is the one thing we have not yet tried.
Additional materials for the curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIYiOM7IHho
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3410/03-ever-nf.html
http://theconversation.com/emergence-the-remarkable-simplicity-of-complexity-30973
https://www.michaellaitman.com/articles/activating-the-network-of-human-connection-for-good/
