Difference between revisions of "A guided tour through the Omega Research Wiki"

Revision as of 22:27, 27 May 2011

Guidelines

(*) This Guided Tour is the easiest way to get to know the essentials of this Wiki, the easiest way to satisfy your curiosity, starting at the level of detail you prefer. This page is for your efficiency and comfort.

The contributions on this Wiki greatly differ in detail, in length, in depth and in thoroughness of scientific underpinning of arguments and proof. This Guided Tour helps you to choose the sequence of articles that suits you best. Do you want a better overview first or are you looking for a better underpinning of arguments and of the presented data? You can follow your preference at any place during the Tour. You may decide to dig deeper into the subject you are immersed in, or, reversely, you may return to the surface and look for a better and broader overview. The Guided Tour will give you such moments of choice during reading. For your convenience we have marked the articles and contributions with asterixes (*), (**), (***).

• (*) Quick and Efficient: Stands for an overview article, short, superficial, quick and efficient. These articles are best to start out with. They are the ones that the Guided Tour brings you first.

• (**) Some more detail: Stands for reading one level more deeply. These articles give more thorough argumentation, but do not lead you into the depths of scientific corroboration and lengthy underpinning of presented data.

• (***) More depth: Research level; stands for articles with so much detail that you might also find them in scientific publications and papers. The arguments given in these articles are best suited to help you decide whether you buy the viewpoints given or not, but they require more time and scientific patience from the reader. They contain more references to other sources of information. They are less efficient reading, but these are the articles that decide where we stand at the end of the day. In the Guided Tour these are the articles that you are guided to in case your curiosity keeps pressing on and doesn't let you "off the hook".

What is this Wiki about ?

This Wiki is about the way humanity will survive this nuclear era, survive the methods and tools for mass destruction that have become available and about how humanity will manage to enter its next phase in evolution. This next phase is a phase with less mass unhappiness and suffering, a phase in which the need for large scale wars and the all overruling need for the systematic suppression and neurotisation of people has disappeared.

This Wiki provides quite some data that have not yet been known before, data that point out to us how to survive and how to create a more agreeable world.

However, this Wiki does not serve as a kind of "saviour" tool. It is shown on this Wiki that humanity will discover these data, these truths, unavoidably and automatically by itself anyway, whether they are presented at this place or not, and why this is necessarily and unavoidably going to happen that way.

The only thing this Wiki is doing for you is to bring understanding at a timely moment, in order to make adaptation to the new situation easier and make it happen more smoothly. This Wiki can serve as a midwife, making the birth of a new era easier and on a personal level help you to find your way out of the clutches of the old power structures that made the lives of all of us so miserable for thousands of years.

Before following your curiosity and dive into the contents of this Wiki, it is good strategy to first check if these novel insights are what you personally really do need, if this is what will suit you. If you have been reading already the pages with the "Disclaimer" and you have decided you want more, please continue, otherwise we advise to read the Disclaimer first (click here).

Why visit this Omega Research Wiki ?

(*) You may visit this Wiki because you are concerned about your personal well being and you have searched the label "enlightenment".

Or, you may have heard of the novel scientific insights (Reversal Theory) about our emotional and motivational make up and wish to find out what advantages these insights might have for you, overcoming the usual human blindness for the self and for our own functioning.

Also, you may be concerned about the dangers of nuclear self destruction by mankind and want to find out about the roots of war and conflict.

Whatever the reason of you visiting this Wiki, all these subjects are dealt with and you will see that neither of these issues can be understood without understanding the others as well at the same time. It is the total, coherent, picture that brings clarity and understanding, an understanding that neither of the separate parts of information could possibly bring alone.

As a start you might read the "4 page summary Point Omega". Without going into details, that summary indicates how four very different phenomena hang together, forming one grand coherent picture explaining the why of the present human situation, personally and collectively.

• The first point is that in general we humans are very little aware of how we function, how we feel, how our emotions are triggered and why and how we interact with one another. There is an avalanche of scientific psychological research data showing the existence and the working of these blindnesses in detail. It is indicated here why it has been an evolutionary necessity in us humans that such blindnesses evolved and have been and still are ruling our lives until this day.
• The second issue addressed is one of the basic and very important characteristics of our emotional and motivational system, which is the phenomenon of emotional "Reversals". Whereas one of the most basic parts of our biological make up, we are in general fully unaware of these mechanisms. And that is highly peculiar for a species that prides itself for its "superior" intelligence. But it is easy to understand in the light of the above mentioned all overruling human Self-blindness.
• The third issue is the finding that the world of Homo sapiens is not ruled by human persons, but rather by impersonal meme level power structures. Here we deal with the consequences for us human beings.
• The fourth issue summarizes the changes that can be expected to happen in the near future and the reasons why these changes will happen. These changes can only happen together, not separate from one another. The occurrence of these changes together is labeled with the term "Point Omega".

In case you want to read this 4 page summary now, click here (*). Otherwise, just read on.

Many jig saw pieces, needed to make our picture complete and create full understanding

(*) There are very good evolutionary reasons why humanity up to this moment in time has never been able to solve the most pressing questions and riddles that have presented themselves to us during many thousands of years. Once we have understood the grand picture and once we have studied and checked also the details, it will be understood why this is so, that the things that really mattered to us, all the time stayed hidden from view, hidden from our capacity to understand, covered by superstition and misunderstanding. To get an impression of all the factors and issues that play a crucial role in this grand, integrated understanding of the human situation, it seems best at this stage of our investigation to make a little tour through the different realms of human problems that, afterwards, will appear to be of importance for understanding the whole picture.

A major problem for humanity has always been the issues of war and peace. Some philosophers have pointed out that a well oiled and fair operated society that manages to maintain peace within its realm, basically is a "project postponing evolution" or "a conspiracy against evolution". What they mean is that humanity, just like any other animal species, is subject to processes of natural selection and that without being subjected to such evolutionary selection processes, a species cannot survive. Genetic drift and genetic pollution would in that case reduce the quality level of that society's members to such an extent, that eventually, within a limited number of generations, it would not any more be able to meet the competition with neighbouring societies and sooner or later be overwhelmed and replaced by another societal structure that is still backed up by more genetic vigour. In other words, the longer and more just and fair the peace has been, the more the average quality level has dropped and the sooner competing societal structures will take over. And when that happens, we are facing war, starvation, mass destruction, enslavement, genocide, or any combination of these unpleasant phenomena.

If we want to get to grips with issues of war and peace, we will therefore at least have to understand how all this works. Many issues of such selection and competition mechanisms are well known and investigated at length in scientific areas like (behavioural) genetics, population genetics, economy, etc. However, this type of knowledge has rarely been applied to thinking about the fate of mankind itself. For instance, population genetics theory has quite successfully been applied in matters of cattle breeding and such, but the implications for the human species has always been kept in taboo spheres. These are issues one "should not speak or even think about". So, many notions and tools that we would need to get a better understanding about matters of war and peace are in principle readily available, if we only put ourselves to simply use them, breaking eventual taboos where needed.

Genetic pollution (**) is one such issue. It can easily be understood and estimated as to quantity of damage, what genetic pollution is doing to any society that has managed to establish a certain measure of fairness and justness and peace.

What is not generally known yet, also not in scientific research communities on these subjects, is a certain type of selection pressure, operating within any socially living group of mammals, that causes certain specific social selection cycles with a certain life span. In other words, this type of internal social selection pressure works as a built in time bomb in any social structure in socially living mammals. The evolutionary advantages can easily be understood. Here we will limit ourselves to just mention the phenomenon and point out that elsewhere on this Wiki (***) this social selection mechanism causing cyclic changes in social structures is described in more detail (***), including arguments from scientific research.

In short, two major factors that are often overlooked when investigating issues of war and peace are these two factors: genetic pollution and the 'life cycles of social structures by internal social selection forces'.

The latter mechanism is producing the quickest limiting effects on the life span of any project that is trying to maintain peace, fairness and "justice". The effects of genetic pollution work a bit slower. So, here we have one population genetic mechanism, that is virtually unknown yet, even in circles of professionals (although these mechanisms have already been published more than 30 years ago), but which is rather easy to understand. However, if we want to asses its effects on human society and on our own lives, we also have to dive into the mechanisms of our own social interactions and social reflexes that motor the selection processes in question.

For a complete understanding we therefore also need to know how human beings deal with their own social relationships and what is triggering which effect. We also need to know to what extent such social reflexes are similar or different from those in other animal species. Looking into that matter, we quickly stumble across another issue that is crucial to our understanding and that is the quite peculiar human capacity to be blind for one's own and to a lesser extent be blind to other people's behaviour (*). It can be shown experimentally that human beings have a conspicuous incapacity to asses their own and each other's behavioural intentions, qualities and capacities. This in turn has consequences for the workings of the above mentioned involuntary internal social selection pressures in human social structures, causing limited lifespans of any social structures involved, and with concomitant turn over catastrophies (***) going with it, in the form of bankruptcy, revolutions, genocide, etc.

So, we need to know also about the specific blindnesses (*) humans are saddled with, that make the eons old and still unhampered selection pressures possible to continue operating in spite of humanity's high level of intelligence. Therefore this Wiki contains also contributions about Amathology or the science of ignorance (**). Without an understanding of the mechanisms of ignorance, innate as well as imposed from without, we cannot hope to come to grips with matters of war and peace, nor with matters regarding human unhappiness and suffering. We need all the bits and pieces to understand the essentials of our situation.

More jig saw pieces, needed to create full understanding

Investigating these phenomena, we also want to know how human understanding can enhance or moderate or change the various mechanisms studied. Therefore we need to know how human learning and development can be of influence on such selection reflexes as mentioned above. To what extent can human beings overcome the innate and culturally amplified blindness and ignorance (**) and start to come to grips with social reflexes that in general, unchequed, lead to mayhem and disaster ? This Wiki contains the details of a still rather novel and little known theory of learning (*) (although also already published more than 30 years ago), based on Reversal Theory and explaining how the contageousness of human development as well as of human neuroticism works and how human development and growth is influenced by social interaction.

The understanding coming forth from this novel theory of learning, the CEL (***) (Cognition Energy Learning model), indicates that human development and learning is ruled by very strong positive feed back loops. Such loops do cause so called "developmental traps". That is, once a person has entered a series of positive learning spirals, his or her development is becoming more likely to develop positively in the future also. And reversely, once a person has ended up in a series of negative learning spirals, his/her further development is likely to become more and more hampered. This is a mechanism within persons. A similar effect can be found between people, mental and developmental health in a group of people having a strong positive effect on the developmental chances of individuals belonging to or dealing with such a group of people. But the reverse also holds.

In summary: "Unpersons unperson persons" and "Persons re-person unpersons". These "positive feed back loops" in human learning and development, either in a healthy or in an unhealthy direction, and the concomitant developmental traps, do have strong implications for societies that have ended up in structures of repression and misery, which is mostly the case. And the reverse also holds, i.e., for societies that have managed to organise and escape from collective unhappiness and disaster (which happens only very rarely).

Thinking about war and peace, it is clear that we also do need the information from these particular lines of research.

Having touched upon the mechanisms of human learning and development we are dealing with human suffering and misery on the one hand and human enlightenment and liberation on the other hand, either in individuals or in whole populations. It is argued on this Wiki that, once we have acquired a rather complete overview of all these different but intertwined mechanisms, we discover the likelihood of a transition in the functioning of the human species, that is looking like what the catholic scholar and priest Teilhard de Chardin was writing about, "Point Omega", a transition point that is estimated to be rather near in time. From Teilhard de Chardin we have therefore borrowed the label for this Wiki.

Looking at these issues of human learning and development and of the peculiar and specific human blindnesses, the question arises how these states of affairs have ever been able to be ESS's (Evolutionarily Stable Strategies). How can it be that a certain species, Homo sapiens, does have certain capacities for learning and development while most of the specimens in most large societies do not "realise" those potentials at all, but only develop into truncated, limited phenotypes, neurotic and relatively miserable ? In this Wiki it is postulated that this is indeed a phenomenon that is highly unusual, if not for evolutionary reasons generally impossible in the animal kingdom, but that in the case of human evolution we are facing a unique species in a unique situation in which this strange anomaly does make evolutionary sense.

The point is that Homo sapiens has escaped the so called "upper intelligence limit". That is a boundary that usually limits the evolution of intelligence in any phylum in the animal kingdom. Any intelligence above a certain functional level, becomes self-defeating and stops being an ESS, because intelligence above that level usually bites its own tail. A high level of intelligence namely, enables individuals to find short cuts to proximate behavioural gratification loops, bypassing the more simplistic, but more costly, behaviours that ordinarily were designed by evolution to gratify those needs, while at the same time producing behaviour favouring ultimate procreational goals and results. Thus intelligence, if above a certain level, causes a mismatch between proximate and ultimate behavioural systems. They stop running parallel. Intelligence enables an individual to "misuse" or "shortcut" proximate need-gratification loops, creating more easy gratification methods, but thus avoiding the risky or costly behaviours that evolution had meant to be be triggered by the innate needs in question in the first place, in order to optimise procreation. For that reason in animal species there is in general a limit to how far intelligence can develop. Above a certain level it becomes indeed self-defeating.

The fact that Homo sapiens escaped this intelligence boundary explains why we have such conspicuous awareness blocks regarding our own behaviour. This unique type of "blindness" must have been introduced in our genome before the high growth of intelligence could take off. So, it is probably an adaptation that is millions of years old. This peculiar characteristic of us humans plays a crucial role in a number of other mechanisms that we need to take into consideration when we want to understand the present human situation. This specific blindness for the self (*) is a strong moderating factor for a number of the other mechanisms discussed on this Wiki.

Another important factor on the level of human awareness is the selection pressure in favour of docile behaviour and against intelligent enquiry that started some 10.000 years ago at the beginning of the agricultural revolution. From that time on the ordinary (human) autonomy was gradually replaced by the influence of meme level power structures. All mechanisms as discussed above must be seen in the light of the evolutionary struggle, not between people, but between impersonal power structures, a struggle in which we human beings are merely the carriers of the meme sets struggling for survival and supremacy. In this struggle the main requirement for us humans is to be docile and reliable carriers of meme sets, cultural sets of ideas and recipes that are "making" a culture.

How to put all jig saw pieces together ? Three missing bits

(*) Before we can hope to put all these bits and pieces together in a comprehensible way, we need to fill out a couple of "gaps" in the tool set that we have available for tackling the perennial problems humanity has been struggling with since time immemorial. These "gaps" are concepts that are so basic for our understanding that missing them is like trying to read a book while not knowing a significant number of the characters used for printing. And that just doesn't work.

Many concepts introduced on this Wiki are new, but easy to explain and to understand. However, three of these new notions, that are basic for being able to understand some of the most important mechanisms involved, take more effort to grasp and understand.

One of the three is the CEL, the Cognition Energy learning model (***) as developed by van der Molen (1984, 1991), based on the Reversal Theory by Apter and Smith. Without this model of learning and development the issue of contagiousness within and between persons cannot be fully understood, nor the consequences for the wider issues of misery versus well being as well as the issues of war and peace. Whereas very basic to all human affairs, for most people this learning model is rather counter-intuitive, this counter-intuitiveness being part of our innate "blindness for the Self" (see below). Therefore we need to pay some attention to this learning theory in order to overcome that part of our innate blindness and to be able to grasp the broad picture.

A second concept playing a crucial role is the also relatively novel model of social selection pressure and population cycles that cause the life spans of social organisations to be only limited. Understanding this mechanisms is also rather crucial for understanding processes of war, peace, survival and decay.

A third phenomenon that is large and by unknown until now, but that is of great importance to us if we wish to grasp the essentials of our present evolutionary predicaments fully, is our "blindness for the Self". This typically human incapacity to consider its own and each other's behaviour soberly, poses strong blocks to a rational and purposeful approach in solving the most pressing present day human predicaments and challenges. These blocks stem from various sources, innate as well as induced or enlarged by external causes. It can be argued that these human blindnesses have evolved because of the unique evolutionary situation we are in, being the carriers of unprecedented levels of intelligence in evolution.

We suggest to now first dive into these three missing conceptual tools, before starting to glue all the different jig saw pieces together for achieving a full understanding of how the whole machinery works.

Missing piece #1: the C.E.L. (Cognition Energy Learning model)

(*) “Reversal Theory” (***) (developed by Apter and Smith) explains the emotional and motivational dynamics that form the basics of our learning process. The basic principles are explained on a different page with graphs, pictures and examples.

For more details see there (**)

Since these mechanisms of emotions and motivations are the very basis of our behaviour and thus of our very existence, awareness of these mechanisms is of crucial importance. It is striking and highly peculiar, that awareness of these mechanisms has not always already been our normal state. On the contrary, our cultures invariably have taken care of blinding us specifically for these basic aspects of our existence, utilizing and enhancing the already innate specific human blindness for the self, establishing and maintaining numerous structures to consolidate that blindness. Becoming aware of the reversal mechanisms in our emotional organization is therefore a key to any attempt of mankind to (re)gain autonomy.

Once these basic mechanisms of collecting and digesting experience, and from there the dynamics of learning, are understood, it is much easier to optimize instructional and educational methods, helping to enlighten mankind. In fact, this very theory can render the tools to boost self-actualization processes on a massive scale. It enables people to effortlessly enhance and stimulate general developmental processes in one another. Click here for more details. (***)

Before diving into the details of Reversal Theory it is good to realize that whereas the mechanics of the motivational reversals are basically very, very simple from a purely technical point of view, they are nevertheless very difficult to grasp for most people. This is because of clear evolutionary reasons, resulting in the unavoidable specific human blindness for oneself. Click here for more details. (*)

(*)The CEL explains how animals with an open ended learning capacity do have an emotional and motivational system that is designed to maximize the use they can make of any surplus energy available. In case there is not enough energy available, this system directs the individual to seeking cover, safety and rest, in order to restore as quickly as possible the internal energy balance. However, if there is energy available, the individual is pushed to spend that energy, also in case there is no problem to be solved at that very moment, on acquiring new experiences an thus gather more knowledge of the world around. The CEL is organized in such a way, that automatically that surplus of energy of an individual is directed towards those areas of experience where the individual does not yet have sufficient knowledge and experience. In those areas the individual still can learn something useful, because there is not yet full mastery. Only by the time that in that specific area of the world around, in that specific area of experience, there has been gathered enough experience and also enough knowledge, that area in question is "mastered". By that time that area is experienced as "boring" in the paratelic state and will therefore not be further explored when sufficient energy is available. From that time on the energy will be spent on more exiting areas of exploration. In that way the CEL directs any energy surplus towards experiencing and learning particularly about those areas of life where the individual can profit most of expansion of its knowledge.

The CEL explains how this system contains a set of positive feed back loops. The result is that in case a person is already in a state of equilibrium in terms of telic / paratelic balance over time, the likelihood of learning more and integrate further experiences well, is high. In case an individual only has a limited level of skills and does not have a well balanced telic / paratelic equilibrium, the likelihood of learning well from subsequent experiences is also much lower. Basically, one could say that the CEL-like organisation of our behaviour is very unfair, the lucky birds learning more rapidly and effectively than the unlucky persons. In case differences in skill and well-being already exist, the CEL-like organisation is likely to amplify such differences in the future. One could formulate this as a strong internal "contageousness" of the learning system. For more details click here (***).

Between people a similar contageousness exists. The CEL explains(***) how emotional and physical support from other people may help to restore the emotional balance in the supported individuals. And such restored balance in turn stimulates an easier emergence of paratelic states. In tense and neurotic people the paratelic states are in general too little prominent. Their frequency is too low. Social support and help can cure that. So, also between people the CEL shows that there is a high contageousness. Living in a group of self-actualizers heightens the chances to enter in optimal learning spirals also and find ones' way towards self-actualization. And reversely, living in a group of neurotics with truncated behavioural systems, one will find less social support and help and as a consequence one will not be able to restore the telic/paratelic balance easily and one is more likely to stay trapped in neurotic and truncated behaviour patterns oneself.

It is pointed out in the pages about the CEL that present day humanity is in general trapped in negative learning spirals and operates on a level that is far below what would be possible in terms of our genetic endowment. If human beings would be more often well balanced, they would be more often self-actualizers and not be stuck in truncated and less effective behaviour patterns. On the whole our civilizations appear to be trapped in a system that blocks the full expansion of human possibilities and that keeps us bound in a mild neurotic misery. However, the CEL indicates that, from a technical point of view, the opposite would also be possible, and also would be stable in itself. For reasons that are now easy to understand, our evolution has directed us towards this one of the two basic options, the unpleasant one. We shall explain elsewhere (*) why this is the case and why this strange situation could not have been avoided at this stage of the human evolution.

For more information about Reversal Theory and the Cognition Energy Learning model (the CEL) click here (***). Otherwise continue reading.

Missing piece #2: Social Selection and Population Cycles

(*) There exists a behavioural mechanism which thwarts any systematic attempts to prevent and put a permanent end to conflicts between social groups and organizations. Essential in this mechanism is a certain kind of social-role blindness, a peculiar unawareness of what we are doing on the level of social-role interactions, whereby attraction or repulsion are effectuated.

Other elements of this mechanism are involuntary incrowd–outcast selection reflexes and a personality 'trait dimension', which may be described as a `readiness to comply with a submissive role'. This dimension is correlated with a great amount of social behaviour and a small amount of thing-oriented, individualistic and explorative behaviour. It is, by definition, of great importance for the distribution of social roles and for the social structure in a group; it determines, for example, the likelihood of drifting into an outcast position versus the likelihood of assuming or maintaining a compliant and socially accepted subordinate position. Knowledge of this personality trait dimension and of its effects in social groups and structures may increase our understanding of a wide range of intriguing and sometimes disquieting phenomena. These phenomena range from educational and organizational strategies to the often catastrophe-like collapses and turn-over phenomena in companies and other social structures, and from the way social roles and positions tend to be distributed up to the resulting evolutionary consequences.

From a purely biological point of view, differences between individuals are to be expected in any socially living mammalian species in the following situations where choices have to be made: readiness to comply with a submissive role; sociability versus thing-orientedness; compliance versus self-will. Individuals make up their mind all the time about these "choices". It can be argued that the underlying biological organization must, from an evolutionary standpoint, be very old and elementary. What is importance here are the consequences of these behavioural differences on the level of social interaction. A life span theory of social structures and organizations can be shown to be one of the implications.

It can be shown that the way these interpersonal differences are behaviourally organized (and the way our awareness tends to be blocked in these respects) have far reaching consequences; an increase in our understanding of the life cycles of social structures might be by far their most important result. Such understanding enables us to map the processes underlying periodic catastrophe-like turn-over phenomena and to learn how to control their decreasing efficiency and violent backlashing on any level of organization.

The duration of social-structural cycles is predicted to be roughly inversely proportional to speed and intensity of selection for the trait under discussion. In an industrial company the intensity of selection and the take-on/dismissal percentages are much higher than, for example, the selection intensity and the immigration/emigration percentages in the much larger units of political states. Therefore the average cycle periods are likely to vary from a few decades in companies or in political parties, to a few centuries in political states, or even to one or two millennia in whole civilizations. The small-scale turn-over cycles with a relatively stronger and quicker selection effect are superimposed, therefore, on the larger-scale turn-over cycles with a longer life span. Thus, individuals may be outcasts in terms of some small-scale social structure while at the same time being totally accepted incrowd members in terms of some larger-scale social structure. The small-scale cycles may be seen as the ripples on the surface of the long range waves of the large-scale cycles, What happens with a person at the social-role level of a sports club is not necessarily parallel to what happens to him at home or at the level of the village community, and what happens to a person on the level of a company does not at all need to be parallel to what happens to him on the level of the political state. In fact, being an incrowd group member on some small-scale level of organization may be vital for a person to keep functioning properly in case of struggling with an outcast position on a larger-scale level of organization.

If it were possible to manipulate these – hitherto involuntary – selection mechanisms, it would be possible to stop or to speed up population cycles at will. This might for instance be relevant for personnel management in industrial companies or for measures on the level of political nations. The latter might be of particular significance in our nuclear age, since population cycles on this broad level tend to be worked out and consolidated by means of war and other economic strangling techniques. Mankind as a whole, up until now, has been able to afford this luxury of genocidal praxis, but war and economic asphyxia, nowadays, threatens to come close to total nuclear destruction. It would be worthwhile, therefore, to take the pressure off the dynamic population cycles kettle and to search for a way to replace or short-circuit nature's hitherto applied selection tricks with which it powered our evolution and our spatial spreading. It seems about time to substitute alternative and less dangerous mechanisms for it.

For more detailed information about these selection forces in social groups and the resulting periodic turn over catastrophies click here (**). Otherwise continue reading.

Missing piece #3: Human Blindness to the Self; blocks to a rational and purposeful approach; strange effects from human evolution

(*) Whereas in principle nowadays the technical means are available to tackle the above mentioned basic causes of periodic war and disaster, including the two causes mentioned above, there does not seem at present to be any broadly carried willingness to tackle these problems on a significant scale.

The notion of genetic pollution is taboo if applied to human beings. The concept is only being applied to cattle. Likewise, one may expect a strong resistance to applying counter measures to the automatic selection forces in favour of sociability and compliance and against self-will and creativity. Such an intitiative also would encounter a number of strong taboo's.

In us humans there are a number of strong built in factors that cause an unwillingness to consider the above mentioned issues and a range of other "sensitive" issues. We will mention four of these blocking factors here below.

One block, stemming from some million years ago

(*) 1) The first block is stemming from the innate tendency to not use our intelligence on our own behaviour. In fact there is the above mentioned strong built in block against utilising intelligence on the Self. As pointed out elsewhere on this Wiki (*), this is an awareness block that must be some million years old. It was an adaptation for our hominid ancestors who grew more and more intelligent, living in circumstances where high intelligence did pay off very well. As pointed out above, this adaptation, this block on the use of intelligence on the own behaviour, this blindness to the self, helped circumvent the ordinary upper limit to intelligence that holds for any living animal species. Normally, in any reasonably intelligent animal species, intelligence cannot evolve beyond the point where it enables individuals to find short cuts to emotional satisfaction, avoiding the energy and time-consuming behaviours that would result from reacting "without thinking". The latter behaviours are the ones evolution has produced as best ways to survive and procreate, but if they get short-cutted by easier, more "clever" ways to short-term satisfaction, procreation is endangered and the too high intelligence level, enabling such short cuts, bites in its own tail and will be weeded out. In humans the evolution towards higher levels of intelligence than that specific, general maximum level, only became possible after innate blocks had formed that made the utilisation of intelligence on the own and each other's behaviour very difficult. And that was the "Blindness for the Self" we are facing now.

So, if we wish to regard and study the conditions to organise peace and stability for the long term and abolish war and political disasters, we would at the very least have to come to grips with this typically human innate blindness structure. If not, we will continue to live and interact like monkeys, but ............. monkeys with nuclear power.

Three more blocks, stemming from some 10,000 years ago

(*) 2) The second block is because moreover, there has evolved, since some 10.000 years, cultural systems that wield complex taboo systems, serving to maintain their power over people. These meme level power structures among other things have a system of taboos that prevent us from investigating our own behaviour, thus strengthening the already innate tendency to steer clear from meddling with the own and each other's behaviour. These taboos help to keep us even more stupid than we already were for innate reasons.

So, if we wish to understand the basics of the problems of war and peace we also will have to be willing to overcome a multitude of current cultural taboos.

3) The third block is stemming from us being saddled with a culturally induced level of neuroticism that prevents us from too much intelligent investigation of anything and, subsequently, also of our own behaviour. The more neurotic, the less space for intelligent investigation and the less danger for meddling with the norms imposed by the meme level power structures that are geared to help these impersonal power structures to survive and to spread. A higher level of neuroticism reduces the level of useful output of people, but on the other hand it does enhance the malleability of people and the possibilities to manipulate them. And that is a major and crucial advantage to the power structures in charge.

So, if we wish to tackle and understand our problem effectively, we also should try to overcome our culturally induced neuroticism, which is not easily done on the individual level, but which might be far easier to influence on the population level, by purposefully and collectively reducing the neuroticising external factors.

4) The fourth block is stemming from us maybe having lost part of our intelligence as compared with some 10.000 years ago. From the time the agricultural revolution began, there was a premium on docility and on fitting into large organizations. From that time on the impersonal meme level power structures took over command and these power structures were served better by docile subjects than by highly creative individualists. These power structures use a variety of techniques to keep their subjects under control. Among these tricks are systems of lies and superstition that increase the dependency of the subjects on the power structure, reducing the individual's capacity to deal with the environment at hand independently themselves. Adaptation to such systems of counterfeit and superstition is more difficult when one is highly intelligent than when one is somewhat dull and mediocre. Intelligence makes adaptation to superstition and fairy tales difficult for reasons of cognitive dissonance. Therefore it is likely that since the agricultural revolution there has been an on average a negative selection pressure on intelligence. Intelligence would pay off for members of the ruling class, which is always a minority, but it would often be a disadvantage for the survival chances of subordinate members in the power structure in question, which is always the great majority.

It would be worthwhile to find out if we can find data on the growth or decrease of average intelligence during the last 10.000 years. It might be an explanation for the finding that modern man has a somewhat lower brain volume than our ancestors from before the agricultural revolution.

Whether true or an unwarranted hypothesis, this lower intelligence than what we had before could perhaps be another, fourth factor making it difficult for us to tackle the perennial problems of humanity effectively.

Whether or not this fourth factor is valid also, at least the first three factors prevent us from intelligently and soberly investigating the phenomenon of genetic pollution in human gene pools and the effects of cyclic changes in groups and social organisations, let alone develop the remedies.

Obviously, we are saddled with some serious handicaps.

If we want to do something about understanding the predicaments of humanity and find remedies for the perennial problems, we obviously need to break through this multifacetted structure of ignorance and blindness that has evolved for very valid evolutionary reasons.

We cannot do much about blocking factor 1). The innate blindness for our own behaviour is very old and deeply and solidly ingrained in our system on a genetic level.

If blocking factor 4) is correct, than this is also something that we cannot hope to change within a few centuries.

Blocking factors 2) and 3) however, are different. If we decide, we can tackle both blocking factor 2, the taboos, and blocking factor 3, artificial neuroticism, purposefully and diligently, and we can do that right now.

For more details about the above mentioned awareness blocks one may refer to the article "Eating from the Forbidden Fruit" (**).

Approaching the problems anew with a better tool box

(*) Now that we have added three missing items to our tool box, 1) the basics of human learning and development, 2) the built in selection cycles motoring periodic catastrophy and disaster and 3) the human "blindness for the Self", we can try to tackle anew the eternal basic problems that have plagued humanity since time immemorial.

When investigating human history, it soon becomes apparent that it is impossible to avoid war and disaster from happening for longer periods of time. In fact, well organized societies have as their primary goal to prevent the individuals to make each others lives miserable by unpredictable violence and arbitrariness. The state holds a monopoly on the use of violence and sets rules for its subjects who enjoy a certain protection and peace in return for abiding to the rules. However, no matter how well designed a political structure is set up and ran, it always appears to work for only a limited period of time. Sooner or later, but invariably, uncontrolled violence breaks out again, whether internally or with neighbouring states.

It can be argued that these periods of break down, disaster and misery are beneficial for the human population, because in such circumstances everybody has to rely on himself more than otherwise and selection forces resume their task. Mother nature thus makes the badly needed corrections in terms of the necessary selection forces, that had been set aside in the fair and just and well oiled society with "more or less" (relatively) equal chances for everybody. Maybe this is just how it is and and is it biologically impossible and undesirable to organise eternal peace, and was it never meant to be.

Maybe this is the case. In fact it seems to be so, but nevertheless there is however a novel problem for humanity, which is the technological revolution and the means of destruction it has produced. We are now living in the nuclear age and we have acquired the potential to destroy the human population a couple of time over. Maybe this is a bit exaggerated and even in the case of a large nuclear shoot out there will always survive some people in some remote corners of the earth. But even if that is true, than still it seems totally unacceptable to let such a nuclear shoot out happen at all. Humanity would at the very least be thrown back to primitive circumstances and large areas of the world would become uninhabitable for ages. Obviously that is not what we want. But, how to prevent further full swing wars ? We should find out about its causes and reasons one way or the other, and rather soon than late.

In the literature on war one finds a wealth of overviews and theories (see e.g., van der Dennen, 1995), but to date there does not seem to be one single theory of war and peace that is convincingly explaining it all at the required level of understanding. We hope to show on this Wiki that this is not very surprising, because a couple of major factors / principles / mechanisms are missing from all these theories and overviews, principles that are absolutely indispensable to acquire a full understanding of our human situation.

Two technical reasons that prevent long lasting social equilibria

(*) One of these two factors we described above. It is in the cyclic selection forces and concomitant changes in social structures, automatically causing periodic turn over catastrophies. This mechanism, up till now large and by unknown to researchers in the field, is in itself enough to prevent any long term political structure to bring peace and well being in the long run. Sooner or later the internal selection process will have proceeded that far that a turn over catastrophy cannot be avoided any more, signalling the end of the utopian, or more down to earth, political arrangement.

From this mechanism we can derive one certain and indispensable condition in case we want to organise an end to periodic war and destruction. And that is that we have to become aware of this automatic selection process and to introduce some counter selection pressure. This is in principle easy to achieve and in fact it is on a small scale already applied in the practice of business organisation and selection advice (see e.g. the application of the KAI, Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (***)). So, it has already been shown that it cán work. In principle it should not be very difficult to also implement these techniques on a larger scale like political states.

Another factor that would make it impossible to establish and maintain ever lasting political structures with peace and harmony for all, is the phenomenon of genetic pollution. This phenomenon does have a different genetic effect on the population in question, but its long term effect is similar. It also makes a long lasting structure of peace and harmony impossible. This automatic biological effect on human populations can however also be countered with well directed measures. Parents in general wish to have healthy and successful children. Well, the technical means to achieve that are available and laying ready on the shelf nowadays. Also, there is no need any more to have unwanted children. No matter the resistance from the churches, methods for birth control are spreading all over the world and will not be stopped from becoming "normal". The technical means are available to counter the effects of genetic pollution without the least measure of compulsion. Mankind would then move from evolving gradually towards a higher level of consciousness into a situation of "evolving consciously". For more details about the effects of genetic pollution click here (**).

Times are changing

(*) What is more is that there seem to be developments in operation that "just will do it for us" with regard to taboos and induced neuroticism. In order to see that more clearly, we have to take a closer look at the details of how the meme level power structures exactly keep us trapped and bound in slavery and in stupid blindness. Once we have a clear picture of how that works we also can recognise that many of the tools of repression of the power structures that keep us bound, are becoming unstable through recent technological developments.

We live in the middle of an information explosion. People are flooded with avalanches of information they can choose from. Also, they can find through internet information on most subjects they care about. Power structures used to lean among other things on important information privileges, depriving their subjects of most of the information available, thus preventing initiatives from that side quite effectively. This privilege was a powerful tool for power structures to maintain and consolidate their power, but through the new internet developments this highly powerful weapon is dwindling away fast.

Taboos therefore can sooner and easier be unmasked for what they are, as mere stories of power structures full of do's and do not's, that dwindle away under scrutiny. The information explosion produces ever more scrutiny, so these power tricks gradually but surely lose their grip on humanity.

Second, birth control is spreading quickly all over the globe these days. This means that an ever higher percentage of the children is being born "wanted" and planned. That, in turn, means that in more cases the parents are prepared for the arduous task of bringing up the child successfully. And that, in turn, means that the child in question is more likely to receive proper amounts of love and attention that are needed for an optimal development (according to the CEL theory (***), describing the effect of sufficient "strokes" (***) on children's development). This implies that less and less children are being brought up to become neurotic individuals with truncated behaviour patterns. A higher percentage will be able to "self-actualize", which implies more individuals being able to escape the clutches of the power structures that are trying to subdue them into a mild but steady state of slavery, contaminating also their neighbours and colleagues in the process.

Third: nowadays, there are a number of serious threats for the (pleasant) survival of mankind that force more and more people to think over thoroughly the human condition and the options that we have. There is mass pollution; there is the nuclear capacity to destroy the human species large and by or completely, waging war is nearing more and more to potential massive self-destruction; there is massive overpopulation; etc., etc. These urgencies trigger more awareness about our own situation and our own functioning than has been usually the case, due to the innate blocks to be aware of and to think clearly about our own behaviour and our own (social) situation. Such increased awareness therefore sooner or later undermines the ultimate power of the meme structures in charge. In short, we gradually start realising that "we have no choice but to start understanding ourselves".

Fourth: like neuroticism, self-actualization is very contagious. The communication explosion of this era reduces distances. Through the internet all sorts of groups emerge with increasing ease. Self-actualizers, historically a small minority, therefore also can easier find their likes nowadays. Critical sizes of self-actualizing groups can therefore develop easier and can eventually trigger chain reactions of contagious self-actualization. That will undermine the usual thoughtless and massive subservience to power structures. We will return to this aspect below.

All these recent developments reduce the stability of the classical mechanisms by which power structures acquired stability and longevity. Gradually, many of the millennia old fundaments of power start crumbling and falling apart.

The above trends for instance loosen the taboo networks that keep human thought locked up and that are put in place and maintained by the local power structures in charge. As a result, the inborn as well as the induced unwillingness to consider the important issues for the human species are loosening up and more and more people start to direct their intelligence to the questions that really do matter. And one thing that they then automatically will stumble across, is details of how the power structures operate and maintain their power over us.

Another thing that the above modern trends bring closer, is a weakening of the artificially induced neuroticism in us humans that made us more stupid than what would be natural to our genetic endowment. So, this weakening of our neuroses is making us more clever and intelligent. That also induces a more intelligent investigation of what rules us and keeps us down. And that is bringing us closer and closer to a mass reversal from neuroticism to states of self actualization (point Omega).

In order to see how these effects come about, a better understanding is necessary of how the human system of emotions and motivations operates. We should therefore take a closer look at the mechanisms of the CEL (Cognition Energy Learning model). As explained in the chapters on the CEL(***), our system of experiencing, learning and development entails strong positive feed back loops. That means that truncated and neurotic behaviours induce "positive" feed back loops, resulting in "negative" learning spirals in people, in themselves as well as in their neighbours. On the other hand, complete and fully actualized behaviours induce "positive" feed back loops resulting in "positive" learning spirals in people and in their neighbours. In short, psychological well-being and self actualization are highly contagious, just as are neuroticism and lack of skills are contagious. Until now, mass neurosis and misery has been the usual state of these two basic possibilities, induced and stabilized by a multitude of tricks, wielded by the power structures in question. But it is precisely those tricks, inducing neuroticism, that are becoming unstable and wavering. The result seems to be a gradual growth towards the point where the artificially induced mass neuroses cannot be upheld any more and where they will reverse into their opposite, causing "positive" feed back loops in the wholesome direction, producing an enhanced growth and development to mass health, vigor and actualization (Point Omega reversal), instead of the customary positive feed back loops producing neurotic misery. (Click here (***) for more information on how the CEL mechanism will trigger a mass psychological chain reaction.)

In short, it looks like most of the mechanisms that have kept us down in misery, slavery and ignorance are losing their power these days, making it more and more probable for humanity to reach a critical percentage of self-actualizers, which will trigger a mass reversal to positive feed back loops in the wholesome direction instead of in the usual direction of neurotization, fear and mass stupidity, the "Point Omega reversal".

What will human society look like after Point Omega ?

(*) Happiness is a rather subjective matter. One gets used to everything, even hanging, the pun goes. There is much truth in this saying. People are primarily just aware of changes happening to them. People compare. Steady states tend to become "back ground noise", gradually disappearing from awareness. A neurotic person in general has no idea, or only vaguely, that he/she is functioning below normal level and is feeling more than average anxieties. Reversely, a self-actualizer, if he/she has grown up like that, and does have little experience with stressful and neurotic states of mind, generally has no clue as to being a self-actualizer. To him/her it seems to be the usual and therefore the "normal" situation.

So, whereas human beings will tend to grow towards higher levels of skills and stability, they will not so much report higher states of "happiness", simply because they use their own usual state as a reference point, not knowing anything else. However, in such states there will be way less misery, as objectively measured. There will be more real equilibria and more structural stability. Also, there will be much more room for creative exploration and innovation. And since the gradual human evolution towards a higher consciousness will reverse into "conscious evolution", there may be a myriad of directions to choose from, in which directions we may steer our own evolution.

Below, we summarise a number of the characteristics that we may expect after Point Omega in terms of the jig saw puzzle pieces as listed in the above paragraph of "Many jig saw pieces, all needed .....................".

Superstition, taboos and false belief systems will disappear. The power structures will be seen for what they are, for how they operated and exerted power over us. Inducing ignorance and superstition will not work any more. Instead, sobriety and unhampered intelligence will rule and be considered as "normal", not as inexplicable "strokes of genius".

Problems of war and peace will be much easier to handle and because handling them will finally be based on a thorough and complete understanding, there will be large and by world wide consensus about how to deal with issues of war and peace. Competition will express itself on completely different levels from that point on. The physical dangers of large scale wars will be history, liberating huge amounts of time and energy for more useful issues.

Genetic pollution will stop being an automatic source of periodic catastrophical collapse, disaster, destruction and genocide. People will have started breeding consciously and will automatically generate a sufficient counter-force against genetic pollution.

The cycles in social structure of growing and aging, with the concomitant turn over catastrophes like bankruptcy, revolutions, genocide, etc., will be history, since the previously automatic internal selection forces in any social structure, will be insightfully countered by purposeful, compensating selection forces.

Our inborn weakness, hardly being able to observe ourselves and each other objectively, the characteristic "blindness" for the Self, will be mollified by our awareness that this weakness is an innate human trait, but that we can intelligently and purposefully add sufficient awareness about the social and psychological mechanisms that are ruling our daily lives. Such initiative will not be hampered any longer by all sorts of cultural taboos and other tricks, blocking such awareness, the stings being removed from the meme level power structures. "Amathology", or the science of ignorance, will be a standard ingredient for psychological education. This also means that the extent to which human beings are able to understand one another and assist to one another, will move to a completely different and unprecedented high(er) level. The positive feed back loops in the "wholesome" direction, resulting from that, will in itself already stabilize mass self actualization.

Human unhappiness and suffering, as objectively measured, will be reduced to an unparalleled low level. However, this will not imply that the same holds at a subjective level. That is a completely different matter because subjective emotions are strongly relative and have a strongly "myopic" character.

Human intelligence will be able to increase again. The advantages for the meme level power structures have ceased to exert their evolutionary power in favour of on average low intelligence. Selection pressure in the opposite direction, in favour of a higher intelligence, stemming among other things from our present day high-tech world and the need to be able to cope with it, will exert its full pressure without being slowed down or counter-effected by the pressure in favour of moderate intelligence from the meme level power structures in charge, needing docile "sheep" as its reliable carriers.

The selection pressure in favour of extreme docile and uncritical behaviour will have evaporated.

Thus far a short listing of some of the changes we may expect after Point Omega. (For more information on these changes leading to (*) and to be expected after Point Omega, click here (*).)

With this short and far from complete listing we have come to the end of the guided tour through this Wiki. You may dive deeper in the data and arguments supporting this story by using the links in the above texts or in the short summary of this article below.

In summary .....

We will now summarize in short the highlights of this guided tour through the Omega Research Wiki and provide further links to other articles and chapters on this Wiki.

This Wiki aims at providing a better insight in how we humans tick, in how our societies are run and about how we could avoid huge (e.g., nuclear) disasters. We have ended up in a rather dangerous global political and environmental situation. How can we survive ? And how can we make our fellow beings survive ?

In view of everything that is known and scientifically established, it should not be very difficult to (re-)organize our societies in such a way that the most crucial and common human problems and dangers are overcome and disappear. It is argued on this Wiki that the major problem is to mobilize all available knowledge and to remove the taboos and superstitions that until now blocked the intelligent use of the knowledge already available.

Four phenomena are indicated that are generally missing from our world view, but that are crucial for being able to understand the essentials of the present human situation.

1) The dynamics of human learning and development, based on "'Reversal Theory' (*)". The organization of the dynamics of emotions and motivations implies a strong contageousness of psychological health, but also of neuroticism. This holds within individuals as well as on the social level. Without a solid understanding of Reversal Theory (***) and of the CEL (Cognition Energy Learning model) (***), the reasons for the present human situation and the possibilities that we have instead, can never be well understood.

2) Within social groups and structures there is an automatic and up till now unhampered selection pressure in favour of sociable adaptation and against creative individualism. This results in a limited life span of any social structure or institution. Social structures always carry a time bomb within, fueled by automatic social selection cycles (***). When social structures collapse at the end of their life span and are replaced by fresh, smaller structures, the turn over catastrophes go by the names of dissolution, bankruptcy, revolution, war or genocide. Since this mechanisms always, since primordial times, has been the engine behind the periodic reshuffling of the gene pool and the concomitant catastrophes, it is absolutely impossible to understand even vaguely the source of much of human misery, let alone to be able to do something about it.

3) The typical human blindness for the self (*). This is the incapacity to utilize our intelligence for understanding our own and each other's behaviour. This is a consequence of the higher than "normal" human intelligence and it developed since some million years ago, when one line of hominids escaped from the ordinary evolutionary "upper intelligence limit".

4) Since the agricultural revolution, some 10.000 years ago, the power in human societies is in the "hands" of impersonal meme-level information structures. These meme-level power structures (*) compete with one another and cause an evolution on the meme level that is running much faster than the gene-level evolution of our physical properties. This causes a structural friction in us humans (*), being subject to selection pressures on the meme level that leave the gene level adaptations lagging hopelessly behind. Ordinary human psychological functioning is strongly determined and coloured by this friction.

Other than the above 4 mechanisms, the following phenomena are more commonly known, but often not applied in the context that we need here. These well known phenomena and their application in our context are:

Superstition and ignorance in human society and their evolutionary role (**).

Taboos and their function in human societies.

Genetic pollution (**) and its effects in human societies.

Disfunctioning and neuroticism versus optimal development and well being in individuals; the technical reversibility of these processes and a strong contagiousness (***) in both directions.

Selection pressure in societies in favour of docile behaviour (*).

To the superficial observer it may seem rather counter-productive to carry a mechanism that functions as a time bomb underneath every social structure, being the cause of an eventual catastrophic turn over event. Such catastrophic events normally bring with them large percentages of the population to be expelled or terminated in a direct or less direct way. This seems like an enormous waste of energy, skills and capacity in the system.

However, this is not surprising, since the resulting selection pressure going with such turn over catastrophes more than counterbalances the very proximate disadvantages and misery for the individuals who are in the middle of such a turn over catastrophy. The advantages of such catastrophes for the gene pool are obvious. Many individuals will appear not to be able to handle the changing circumstances during a turn over in the social structure in question. They contribute less to the next generation. The badly needed selection pressure resumes its necessary role. Those who stay in the gene pool, are likely to migrate and recombine in different groups and gene pools. The catastrophes make the genes move through their pool or even cross over to other gene pools. This is very beneficial to the gene pools as a whole. So, this seemingly counter-productive social selection system producing periodic turn over catastrophes, can very well be part of Evolutionarily Stable Strategies (ESS). So it should not surprise us that such a mechanism exists in all socially living mammal species.

However, these cyclic selection processes, that have ruled our social and political lives always, like in any other socially living mammal species, are not affordable any more for Homo sapiens. The turn over catastrophes have become too large dangers to be able to afford them any longer. The technological developments have made war, genocide and revolutions too risky to allow them to carry on unconsciously as it always used to be. We simply have no choice but to start to understand these mechanisms and then subsequently steer these processes consciously and rationally in the desired direction, taking the sting and the pushing power out of the "periodic catastrophy" machine.

This, together with genetic pollution, together always has been the causes of periodic redistribution of gene pools over the inhabitable areas of land, also triggering migration waves. Once understood, we can deal with both mechanisms without much difficulty.

After the agricultural revolution started, a number of other mechanisms were added to the tool box securing the periodic emergence of catastrophy, disaster and misery. These mechanisms are stemming from the demands from the meme level power structures that are ruling human life since. We mentioned, among other things, "superstition", "induced ignorance", "taboos", commonly induced and stabilised "neuroticism", etc., and the mechanisms by which these conditions are induced and stabilised by the meme level power structures.

For returning to the start of this Guided Tour, click here (*).

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