I'm going to review here for my own edification some of the foundational pieces of Thomas Campbell's My Big TOE.
Two concepts form the foundation of it.
Absolute Unbounded Oneness
The first is mystical. "Mystical" means laying outside the bounds of what can be defined by our knowledge as science has discovered and clarified it. That which is mystical is either inaccessible to our minds, or is yet to be discovered by science. He (rightly, in my view) dismisses the idea that there is no beginning to existence as without basis in science, mystical in itself, and worst of all illogical. The alternative is that there is a beginning, but beginnings "belong to the next higher level of causality and are beyond the purview or scope of a subsystem's own causal logic" (vol.1, sec. 2, chap. 24).
The idea is this: that the "engine" or "source" of our reality (the physical universe and individual consciousness) is a "primordial consciousness," called here an Absolute Unbounded Oneness. The AUO uses the Fundamental Process to interact with itself toward new states of existence by changing its undifferentiated oneness.
The second idea is not mystical.
The Fundamental Process
It is that there is a Fundamental Process of Evolution that determines how things happen. It states that the conditions (constraints) within an internal or external environment push entities to explore all opportunities and possibilities for change, then this process--executed from the inside by the evolving entity--inextricably and statistically moves each entity towards immediately profitable states and continues to evolve the winners. Its tools in trying each available state are trial and error, spontaneous change and choice, random events, and encouraged behavior. As long as there are profitable opportunities, the process continues to iterate and the entity continues to evolve. The Fundamental Process enables (and necessitates) change in a direction (growth and learning) as opposed to random, directionless, and purposeless change.
Some terms (p. 192):
Entity: A well-defined, self-contained (bounded) interactive system.
Change: Evolutionary motion
Evolution from external pressure: Cumulative results of the sum total of the dynamic interactions between an individual entity and everything else (which in aggregate constitutes its external environment) [simple biological systems primarily evolve by responding to external pressures]
Evolution from internal pressure: Cumulative results of the sum total of choices or selections that an individual entity makes relative to all available internal configurations and states of being [consciousness primarily evolves by responding to internal pressures]
Progress: change within an entity or group of entities that is in some way immediately beneficial or profitable to that entity.
Profit: change that leaves the entity, its group, or both in a comparatively better, stronger, more functional, capable, and successful position relative to its internal and external environments.
Constraints: What the internal and external environment will support, encourage, or discourage. Constraints define the criteria for profitability and are the source of evolutionary pressure that pushes every evolving entity forward.
The application of the fundamental process
How does the Fundamental Process apply? Natural, spontaneous, or evolutionary changes tend toward the most profitable next-state to occupy (entities move towards their evolutionary goals).
For non-living/non-growing things: minimum energy states are the most profitable. Inanimate matter's evolution (interaction with its internal & external environments) consists of moving toward the lowest available energy state, leading to disintegration and increasing states of entropy. The entity will naturally follow the path of least resistance toward the lowest available energy state if it is not impacted by external energy forcing it to do otherwise [e.g. a radioactive atom will naturally decay left alone, but mountains form along fault lines due to absorption of external energy]. These entities do not have the capacity to remember experiences, and thus cannot decrease entropy by some process of self-improvement.
For living/growing things: These things are in a state of becoming and can naturally and spontaneously decrease their entropy. It eventuates in different movements and patterns, but operates essentially the same way in organic beings, consciousness, organizations, and technologies. For carbon-based lifeforms, profit has traditionally been based upon the constraints of survival and reproduction. For technologies, profit is both literal and based on internal constraints [usefulness, design, engineering, parts availability, manufacturing, quality] and external constraints [feasibility, economics (raw materials, supply & demand, price, distribution), business (marketing, managing, financing)]. In any case, it amounts to increased self-organization toward a purpose: evolutionary profitability.
Intermediate/stagnant states
Note that intermediate states can generate (branch to, or be the potential seeds for) new states. Also, states that no longer hold potential for (do not support) profitable growth may persist or be recombined with others with which they are redundant. Potential is generally maintained in the event that new initial conditions appear.
How do complexity, specialization, & organization arise?
- Simpler entities band together cooperatively to form more complex entities and systems that are more powerful and thus more profitable for all participants.
- Groups of entities in an interactive synergistic environment integrate, thus becoming one complex thing--a system that evolves as its parts evolve.
- When systems of systems evolve, complexity and specialization increases; entropy is decreased by evolving higher orders of organization.
The evolutionary process
1. Explore all possible states
2. Assess which states are profitable
3. Explore those valuable states while letting the losers (states leading to reduced profitability, self-destruction, or dead ends) go
a. Losers
i. remain as they are
ii. degenerate if there are no more unique possibilities to explore that are also good investments
4. Continue to explore potential states and growing (decrease entropy) until they "run out of evolutionary gas" (entropy increases or remains the same)
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