Conditions of and for the functionality of man-made systems

 

In Grammatical Man by Jeremy Campbell we read this:

Information is a word that has never been easy to pin down. In its most familiar sense, information today is news, intelligence, facts and ideas that are needed and passed on as knowledge. But a more active and constructive meaning as something that gives a certain shape or character to matter, or to mind; a force that shapes behaviour, trains, instructs, inspires and guides. Information gives form to the formless, DNA codes are information and form human thought patterns. In this way, information spans the disparate fields of space computing, classical physics, molecular biology and human communication, the evolution of language and the evolution of man. Nature can no longer be seen as matter and energy, but must be interpreted as matter, energy and information.

The universe is a physical system that contains bits of information. Every elementary particle carries bits of information. Electrons carrying information interact in a systematic way to perform a quantum logic operation. A computer and our mobile phones work like the universe because they are part of the universe and to work they must obey the same physical laws. Computers and the universe are information processors. Quantum computing is currently possible because of information, the universe already works this way. (Lloyd, Seth, 2016).  Quantum information processing analyses the universe in terms of information: the universe consists not only of photons, electrons, neutrinos and quarks, but also of quantum bits or qubits. Professor Lloyd says that the universe is a gigantic computer, which processes information in quantum bits (qubits). 

The universe, a computer, the human body, the environment, companies; all living systems are information carriers, receptors and/or transmitters. The information they carry can be understood as meaning, observed and grasped by the human consciousness and processed by its brain. Without the human ability to interpret information and meaning, the usefulness (functionality) of bits of information could not have been observed.  

I made a short Power Point presentation to depict the sciences that form the basis of this theory, which I called the Realimiteit Theory. It means that reality has limits, which I call the boundaries of functionality. So there is a need to define our observed and experienced reality within which we as a living system must live, can survive and evolve. Functionality, therefore, can never be a lie, an untruth, but must take place within the limits of truth. You cannot jump off a high mountain and survive. If you want to cross the road, you will not get far if you only look to the left. If you fall into the water, you have to be able to swim or you will drown, and so on. So reality = the truth.

If you take the slides, I will explain how to read them:

The first equation demonstrates Anthropogenic Entropy (human-induced disorder), i.e. Wrong/False (¬)Perception (P) x (Ankh (life) minus Information) beyond R, Realimiteit) leads to or accelerates entropy. The system is dysfunctional, ungovernable and uncontrollable.

Human Perception + Consciousness (P) is the concluding feedback loop that determines the order, the control and the necessary corrections (control).

Note: the equation for Anthropogenic Negentropy (man-made) order, sustainability: Continuity (Symbol of Infinity) = ((Life; all living systems: symbol Ankh + Information: symbol i) within the limitations/limits of reality or Realimiteit (R) or the boundaries of functionality x Perception (P) via Consciousness verified by Conscience. The living system functions optimally, is controllable and manageable.

Without information (communication) living systems cannot survive because they cannot learn. In fact, it is information that gives universal energy and matter its functionality and ensures evolution - survival. This also applies to our DNA which is both; the messenger and the message.

When human-made living systems (organisations, companies, industries, politics) are governed within the limits of functionality or limits of reality, they can be controlled by all relevant information and therefore maximally, but not completely, controlled in a non-linear universe. If the limits of reality are exceeded, such systems will inevitably fall into entropy (disorder) and become uncontrollable.

This is the Realimiteit Principle which, when adhered to, is the key to returning living systems to homeostasis and autopoiesis (self-preservation), i.e. within the realm of reality or the limits of functionality, no longer harmful to human or non-human life, the environment or social cohesion. 

Physics confirms that the universe consists of energy, matter and information and that these are inseparable. Information cannot be separated or divorced from our physical world and reality. Information creates order and structure. Like energy, heat, pressure or the speed of light, information obeys the universal laws of physics. 

Desired goals can only be achieved and sustained if they exist and remain within the natural limits of functionality that depend on cognition: the mental act or process of acquiring knowledge through thought, experience and the senses, i.e. interaction with the environment through a continuous exchange of information. We conclude that the conditions for man-made organisations or systems are learning and adaptation. Non-learning, the refusal to allow information in, means that such organisations and organisms die because they stop communicating. 

The 2nd and 3rd slides represent feedback loops; if you follow the line of the information flow from left to right, you can see that it sometimes crosses the boundaries of functionality and enters the entropic (disorderly) zone. You can then add information to continue within those boundaries to achieve your goal. Because this is a dynamic process, the learned information will have to be put back into the system again and again in order to learn. So follow the line to the left again and repeat the process. You also have to build requisite variety; requisite variety in your system that consists of knowledge, capacity, skill, information and tools which are so-called amplifiers and dampeners. This is needed as a risk management system.  On slide 2, you can see that the information is steadily going beyond the boundaries of the functionality. This creates an information deficit, which means that by definition (symbol ≙) entropy (disorder) follows.

Slide 4

Here I symbolise that there are two realities; a linear reality and a non-linear, complex reality. At present, virtually all human-made living systems are linear and causal. They are supposedly reactive and cause-and-effect designed and operational. They do not take into account enough a non-linear complexity that is for the most part unpredictable because there can be countless causes that we cannot know or control.

One tries to regulate and control the linear world by means of rules, laws, police, army and power, i.e. by force. But this falls short because then you can only control a small part of reality and you will always be too late because this can only work reactively and never proactively. 

This is why our society is in a state of continuous disorder (entropy) and those in power think (wrong perception) that by exerting even more power (force), they can regain control. But this has been tried for 6000 years and has, apart from enormous suffering and blood, ultimately yielded nothing (look at the state of the world = information). 

So it is of enormous importance that we allow and learn a different perception, because the insights and sciences to do this are available. Here is a list of new scientific and logical probabilities;

1.           Relativity eliminated the Newtonian illusion of the absolute

2.           Quantum mechanics eliminated the dream of a verifiable measurement process. Mechanistic thinking had played tricks on the human mind. It gave people the illusion of being objective and in control (looking in from the outside), but subjectivity (the observer effect) is confirmed by Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Consciousness.

3.           Chaos Theory eliminates the fantasy of deterministic predictability, but discovered that order from chaos is a natural phenomenon.

4.           Systems theory: everything is interconnected and interdependent (the observer effect)

5.           Cybernetics. Norbert Wiener, Stafford Beer and Ross Ashby et al. understood and used this notion of non-linearity and came up with the solution of the required diversity, namely maximising learning and the use of information to control and direct energy and matter through the human mind and actions. Von Foerster talked about always maximising the number of choices or options. Paul Pangaro talks about "conversation".

6.           Claude Shannon, Rolf Landauer and Seth Lloyd argue that information is "physical" and cannot be separated from universal reality. Information is the solution to "uncertainty".

7.           The term butterfly effect had to be introduced into science to understand chaos and complexity theory as unpredictability (non-linear effects).

The discovery of the conditions of and for functionality of man-made systems is vital for all life on earth. I hope you will take this analysis to heart and that politicians and business will apply these insights. The added value is inexhaustible, because it allows us to redesign and rebuild all currently harmful systems. You can use it to plan for the long term, to make investments, to predict that systems that prohibit or censor information will implode, and to optimise management and operational systems because the functionality improves. It means that you can know in advance that forced targets will always be unachievable.  You can trust it and lose your fear and uncertainty. It can prevent revolutions, famines, wars and ideologies.

My company TankTerminalTraining already works with this theory to enhance our customers' functionality and control their processes. Rules and regulations can never handle the complexity.

Share this message (information) with everyone so that human perception (perception) can improve, because as Carl Gustav Jung once said: 'the world hangs by a thread and that is man's perception'.