Social Fractalism

By Ted Hall, Biofractal Evolution Center; www.biofractalevolution.com Social Fractalism is a term coined by myself to describe the application of Dr. Bruce H. Liptons theory of fractal evolution to social theory. In the next few years, I believe youll see this new ism emerge as the alternative of choice to Social Darwinism, which is the current ideological basis of the social sciences. Some scholars will tell you that Social Darwinism is no more, that it had its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and then vanished from the ideological stage. Incorrect. If it disappeared, it disappeared in name only. Classical Darwinism morphed into neo-Darwinism, eugenics into genetic engineering, and Social Darwinism into a number of socio-political ideologies that may be grouped under the rubric state socialism. State socialism mandates complete control of the citizenry by the State. The political implications/ramifications of Darwins theory are covered thoroughly in my book Over the Bones of the Dead. At present, the necessary point is this: As Darwinism remains to this day our orthodoxy in biology/evolutionary science, all mainstream socio-political theories may be considered parts of the body of literature called Social Darwinism. Invariably, mainstream socio-political theories are based upon what is regarded as the orthodox biology/evolutionary science. What about Marxism? you ask. Marxism was developed concurrently, more or less, with the development of Darwinism. Nevertheless, in that Marx embraced Darwinism, quite fervently, as a support to his theory of societal evolution through class struggle, I think it fair to classify Marxism as a species of Social Darwinism. Indeed, Karl Marx self-styled himself the Darwin of sociology. In contrast to Darwinism, which maintains that competition is the mainspring of evolution, fractal evolution regards the mainspring of evolution as co-operation. Dr. Lipton recognizes the importance of competition as an inevitable factor in evolution; but, in his view, it is by no means the major factor. Volumes can, and will, be written regarding applications of Lipton science to social theory. (The sooner the better!) At the moment, Id like to indicate, briefly, just a few of the many potential applications. Information Ethics As evolution is all about increasing awareness/consciousness/intelligence, any effort to suppress or obfuscate correct information is counter-evolutionary. Likewise, any effort to impair the information processing capability of humans is counter-evolutionary. Persons and organizations engaging in such contra naturam activities do so at great risk. By mucking up information or human super-computers or the planetary super-super-computer, they are placing themselves in opposition to the prime directive of nature, which is to increase intelligence. They are generating, and signing, their own death warrants. Humanity and War Humans are components of the intelligence (nervous) system of planet Earth. The intelligence system includes the immune system, and thus it may be said that humans are the immune cells of the planet. The immune cell, Lipton has remarked, is the cell of evolution, as it is the only cell in the body having the mission of knowing the unknown. In terms of the Lipton paradigm, modern war is the planetary equivalent of AIDS, i.e., it is the planetary version of what we identify, in the individual, as autoimmune disease.

Civilization Our early ancestors were not born into civilizations, but into aboriginal tribes. Ab-original means, literally, from the original. What is the original? Existence. The life visions of aboriginal peoples were (and are) drawn from close observation of existence itself. The holistic nature of existence did not go unnoticed by the aboriginals, and thus the belief that We are all related is common to their life visions. I term the said life visions aboriginal holism. Aboriginal holism, I maintain, is the sub-foundational paradigm underlying all civilizations. What distinguishes civilizations? The character of any given civilization derives from the specific foundational paradigm, or paradigms, on which it is based. A foundational paradigm is, by definition, a separatist paradigm, i.e., its a paradigm with a message distinctly different from the message delivered by holism. Such as: Sure, were all related, but we cannot possibly include those useless eaters on the other side of the mountains. Lets do Mother Earth a favor and rub out the useless ones. Generally, the march of civilization is a march away from aboriginal wisdom and toward more and more predatory habits of thought and behavior. This view, I should say, is not original to me. I follow the lead of the American social theorist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929). Veblens classic Theory of the Leisure Class is still widely available and well worth reading. (Read leisure class as predator class.) A good word is describe the march of civilization is deracinatory. Deracination is the process of being uprooted. Civilizations become, as they progress, more and more uprooted--uprooted from nature and from the ancient aboriginal wisdom. As the march progresses, modes of predation, especially war, gain greater and greater honorific value. Consider the case of the civilization we call Western Western civilization is built on four foundational paradigms, each more deracinatory than the previous, which is clearly indicated when we track the theme of war from paradigm to paradigm.

Separatist barbarian paradigm: The conquest of neighboring tribes is a justifiable form of war. Greco-Roman polytheism: War is the entertainment of the gods, and those who prove valiant in war gain the approval of the gods. Indeed, valor in war is the fast track to acquiring the status of demi-god. Judeo-Christian monotheism: The extermination of those odious to God is holy war. Becoming a holy warrior is the fast track to salvation. Darwinian no-godism: Life is war, a struggle of each against all. Those who would survive should seize upon whatever advantages they can, as even an advantage small as a grain of sand can tip the balance, can mean the difference between life and death.

The downside of these deracinatory paradigms (especially the last) is obvious: The West is well on its way to self-destruction. There is an upside, however, and it is this: The deracinatory march of the West has given us, in addition to death and destruction, the technological capability of confirming scientifically the correctness of the aboriginal vision of existence. We are all related. This confirmation marks an end-point in human intellectual evolution. After the new holistic vision of existence registers in common thought, its a whole new game here on Earth. War Zone Earth will be history, and Peaceable Kingdom Earth will be born

God Theory as Frequency and Primal Wave What are human beings? According to Lipton, we are the end product of multicellular evolution. We are the most intelligent multicellulars walking around. Notice, I didnt say swimming around. For all I know, dolphins and whales might be more intelligent than we. Next step in our evolution? Multiscience. That a word coined by the essayist-poet Delmore Schwartz. It means simultaneous awareness from multiple perspectives. Physically, what are we? Every cell in our body, Lipton tells us, is the structural and functional equivalent of a computational bit, i.e., every cell is a microprocessor. Our bodies are composed of trillions of microprocessors. What does that make us? Super-computers. What is the purpose of our computer-bodies? Our bodies are terrestrial exploration vehicles, Lipton suggests. Who we really are, he says, is not in the body, who we really are is running the body. Where does the real me reside? In the environment, Lipton says. Thus is the God question opened up again, despite the best efforts of many Darwinists to close it. For me, the question was settled some time ago, when I understood and accepted the new physics view that universe is a sea of frequencies. Everything that is resolves into frequency. That being the case, God may be definable as the original frequencythe primal wave. As everything that is had to have derived from the primal wave, God is also definable as all that is. Intelligent Design What about intelligent design? Existence, it seems to me, may be resolved into two processesdata (intelligence) transmission; and consciousness, which is data reception and processing. Every life form may thus be described as an intelligence designer. How intelligent any specific life form is depends upon its frequency reception/processing capability. The higher the ability, the more intelligent the life form.