Today's muse, as biological entities, we have a predisposition to look at the world through a perspective of what I will call vertical integration, this perspective is so deep and pervasive, that it feels almost like it comes from our DNA. That networks are built up from smaller units, that it is the creation of the individual node, if you will, that drives everything, birth as an example. In fact this birth/death cycle has our species so entranced and fascinated (or maybe fixated) because as we humans grow our consciousness, the recognition that we were "born" and that we will "die" is inextricably enmeshed with our developing consciousness, it colors our perception of our universe in profound ways. No one, at least no conscious biological entity, is exempt from this connection of consciousness with life cycle, ergo, its own death.
Let's try to breakout of this "massive gravitational pull" for a moment, and imagine a system where it is the network that drives creation of its nodes. That nodes exist only because they meet the creation needs of a network. If we were to look at everything in this way, of course, we would have to posit that humans exist because we are part of a network, and were created to meet the needs of that network, and at a super macro level, we could even say that the biological system that we see on this planet, exists to meet the needs of a network. This is where things start to get a little Alice in Wonderlandish. But the posit here is that our entire biological system is simply a node on a super network composed of different systems. So our search for "life" should really be a search for other systems, if we can even know them.
What might examples of other nodes look like? Could they be right in front of us, could "light" be a node, could "time" be a node, could our awareness of these nodes only be where these nodes connect with the biological node. Could many aspects of these nodes exist outside of their connection with the biological, so outside of our awareness? What other nodes in this super network might exist? Could we even have an awareness of them if they do not connect to our biological node? And finally, what might this super network, composed of different systems, look like?
Let's try to breakout of this "massive gravitational pull" for a moment, and imagine a system where it is the network that drives creation of its nodes. That nodes exist only because they meet the creation needs of a network. If we were to look at everything in this way, of course, we would have to posit that humans exist because we are part of a network, and were created to meet the needs of that network, and at a super macro level, we could even say that the biological system that we see on this planet, exists to meet the needs of a network. This is where things start to get a little Alice in Wonderlandish. But the posit here is that our entire biological system is simply a node on a super network composed of different systems. So our search for "life" should really be a search for other systems, if we can even know them.
What might examples of other nodes look like? Could they be right in front of us, could "light" be a node, could "time" be a node, could our awareness of these nodes only be where these nodes connect with the biological node. Could many aspects of these nodes exist outside of their connection with the biological, so outside of our awareness? What other nodes in this super network might exist? Could we even have an awareness of them if they do not connect to our biological node? And finally, what might this super network, composed of different systems, look like?
