THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GALT
The World According to Galt
Part I. Introduction
These writings are not intended as a submission for scientific debate,
nor as a deliberate exercise in intellectual musings, nor in the
establishment of any sordid formations of cult or coventry. It is,
however, a vision, carved out of the philosophy of one John Galt,
crafted and offered specifically toward the seeding and nourishment of
the individual mind.
Let it also be known that these writings do not promise answers to the
most endearing questions one may formulate, but, rather, attempts to
relate John Galt's own revelations, that, by themselves, provide less
definitive answers, than they do to provide stepping stones to clarity
and to the formulation of more relevant questions. At best, these
revelations offer, for himself, definitive direction in his own
conscious journey through life. Hence, in all instances of revelation
projected out by these writings, know that by their very nature admit
to their inability to transmit and imprint, as if by some mystical
electro-magnetic biochemical process, John Galt's own vision into
another's mind. That you, the reader, are wholly responsible for the
development of your creations, your visions, your revelations, and,
perchance, awaken, too, some day, to the discovery of your own mind.
Let us begin, now, with your own personal journey into discovery.
Philosophy begins with the discovery of one's own mind. Philosophy is
one's mind defining itself. Philosophy defines for him his life, his
values, his reasoning, and connects for him the particulate accumulation
of concepts and ideas, diffused by a never resting engine of sensory
perceptions, coagulated by lifetime experences of joys and tradgedies
and infinite yearnings, and all intermingled in a dynamical dancing with
one's own eminations. Philosophy emerges out of this calamity and into
a wholeness of conscious and becomes for him, then, that which defines
him.
Know that true philosophy cannot exist outside the realm of an
individual mind. That all such claims to the contrary are the product of
human invention. Indeed, man is an inventive creature, but to truly
engage philosophy is an individual's journey into discovery. In Chapter
One, I shall construct an important paradigm that underscores these
writings and provides the framework to my own philosophy. In Invention
and Discovery, the distinction between these two concepts cannot be
emphasized more and is critical to the philosophy and its'
comprehension. In these writings, I shall attempt to convey my
discoveries, culled out of the scientific and historical records and
infused with my own knowledge of things. They shall further be raised
above the calamities and foibles of mere human invention and highlighted
as emblems to a mind of reason and to the spirit and courage
prerequisite in his pursuit of truth.
Invention has more to do with the piecing together of fragments in order
to achieve a purpose or goal or utility, or, perhaps, nothing at all.
Invention is not limited as a characteristic of man. Indeed, all nature
invents. It is represented from random mutations in the biological form
to elemental and molecular formations out of the cataclysmic starbursts
in the cosmos. Invention has more to do with trial and error, with the
creation of things out of the existing elements, forms, and forces in
nature. Inventions come and go and, over time, more often fail to
obsolecence. It is only on rare occassion, however, does invention lead
to, become, or play a role in discovery. Inventions are the stepping
stones to discovery in all nature, not exclusive of man. Indeed, man's
own inventiveness, his incessant creations and fumblings, have led to
many of his profound discoveries. Countless more, however, have ignited
catastrophe and have laid the foundations of stone to his own
imprisonment.
Discovery, unlike invention, tends to emerge out of the apparent chaos
to reveal itself as a coalescence and a compatibility in the natural
formation of things toward the higher and more complex forms.
Discovery, in man, comes as revelation. Whether it is derived of science
or of the experience of God, for man, discovery always requires an
individual to experience it. Since one man's discoveries are invisible
to another, each man, hence, must experience by way of revelation and
come to his own discoveries. As is evidenced in man, being a component
in nature, it follows that nature is on her own voyage of discovery.
This has led me to ask whether Man is nature's invention or whether Man
is her discovery.
In Chapter Two, I shall reveal my answer, define
biological life and its preeminent form; Man, then proceed to one of his
most recent and startling discoveries; that of the mechanism of
nature's own inventiveness, the source of her creativity. Specific to
biological forms, it is known as Natural Selection. Extended to all
things, it becomes the process of Evolution.
Evolution is the creative inventor and catalyst of change and operates
on all levels throughout nature and the observable universe. It
conjures things out of the wisping clouds of fragments, that, perchance,
cystallize into new formations out of the infinite template of
possibilities in a forever embrace into being
Natural Selection, as in all processes of evolution, is a recurring,
random interplay of events. The process is one of invention, the
production of variable offspring by way of random mutations.
Successful forms, then, pass themselves through to their offspring in a
continuum of streaming life. It is the modis operandi of CHANGE in
biological life. In order for life to succeed, it must adapt to its
environment. However, the environment to which life adapts is not a
static one. Indeed, life must adapt to a CHANGING environment.
Evolution is a dynamical process. It can be argued, then, that the
changing environment, by way of probabilities, has already stamped
itself into the genetic code of life. It has increased or decreased the
chance of success in certain life forms even before their emergence into
the world. Know that as an individual, the environments you help to
foster, are defining the genetic code of your unborn children. This
submechanism in evolution is often referred to as Feedback. But it
really all depends on your point of view. Do not, however, attempt to
escape this responsibility.
In Chapter Six, I shall venture into the hard
realities of man's various and imposing social environments; past,
present, and potential. But, before we proceed, several chapters in
preparation are required.
Man invents to bring advantage to himself. This is in his selfish
nature and is true of all living creatures. Man further invents to
reduce the `events of chance' in his attempts to create predictable
outcomes. This characterestic, as well, is not unique to man as all
life forms are known to develop what are called `systems'. But, it is
in the extensions of this ability that profoundly distinguish him in the
kingdom of life. No other creature on Earth is known to be so deeply
minded of his own presence against what has past and is not now or to be
so expansively forward looking against what will be and is not, yet.
This unique trait about him, this obsessive behavior in him to see the
result even before it happens, that is, to plan, to scheme, to concoct,
has catapulted Man out of the cave and into dominion Man, then, by
default of the capability of this `power of mind', is the only creature
on earth known to be driven to invent `closed systems'. Closed systems
contain `all essential information' , real or imagined, that offer
then, quite indigenously, `absolute' control and predictability to
desired outcomes.
In Chapter Three, "God and the Complete Story", man invents closed systems
that provide for him defineable beginnings and defineable ends. He
drives to define himself within a `complete story'. It is a `complete
story', precisely because that is what is required if man is to find
purpose...a purpose to replace the one that has become lost to him. And
what has become lost to him is what all living forms in all nature have
done and continue to do - to `struggle to existence'; to struggle for
life. So as man achieved dominance on earth, his struggles abated and
his original and only purpose diminished. Ironically, it is this same
drive to define purpose, in whose `closed systems' are infused with
misinformation, and wielded at the expense of `new information', then
that drive becomes, potentially, the object to his own enslavement and,
then, to new found purpose...to struggles against himself. These closed
systems are not better represented than in the larger schematics found
in the histopathology of inventions from the mythical storytellings of
great omnipotent and controlling Gods to the abject and aberrant
philosophical treatise of school teachers. And the drive to invent
`closed systems', at any expense of information, no matter the cost to
reality, is so deeply engrained within him that not even the sanctuary
of science can escape its' grip as it is best represented in the
founding theoritical constructs of cosmology. Know, then, that in all
these grandiose inventions, the common drive is to shine a light of
purpose on him; to `complete man', to give him a beginning, to control
and predict him, and, then, to finish him...less to fall into an abyss
of meaninglessness.
In the world of Galt, his own grandiose schemata are directly
antithetical to closed systems. In his world, nature is alive and
teeming with life; life struggling ever onward to its own benefit in a
dynamic of a vibrating and ever changing and free nature that surround
it. He knows life's struggles are his own. Galt's world is an `open
system'. In his mind, the difference between one's summit of knowledge
and what he sees as `potentiality' to a `temporal and harmonious embrace
to being' is derived God. Here, God is not made of fiction nor made of
stone. Rather, God is `missing information'. That is not to say God is
absence (absence, of course, does not exist) nor is God the information
that completes a story (fact or fiction), but, rather God is the
`missing information' itself and `missing information' are the
probabilities that exist specifically in relation to a set of
information that is `discernably incomplete'. In this sense, God exists
and becomes the precursor to its own resolution that is invention; and
invention the catalyst in the machinery of change that is evolution.
And what evolves, then...what emerges into being becomes, itself, a
component in a `new set of information' that must then beget to the
discernment of new `missing information', that is, new Gods in a
dialectic of a perpetually changing universe.
My own description of God does not, in itself, define God, but, rather,
attempts to reveal God. This identification of God is quite contrary to
the popular notions of God imposed by most all religions, past and
present. What religions generally do is to define God, his powers, his
authority, his benevolence, even his family and his own image. The
trouble with religion is that in any open system once the `missing
information' is resolved (either by fact or by fiction), then God ceases
to exist and becomes information. In other words, defining God is
equivalent to its own negation. But religions are closed systems, not
open. Religions define God not as `missing information' but as
`information' in the form of a `complete story' that goes mostly to
order, control, ideas of permanence, etc... The paradox for religions
is that we live in a universe where change or perpetuating `new
information' is axiomatic. We live in an open universe, not closed.
Religions must be aware of this paradox and as proof, I submit, they
would not have invented Faith.
Religions, by their very nature, must prevent `new information' from
wrecking their `complete stories'. To a large extent, they have
succeeded. What has prevented the penetration of `new information' is
perhaps one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated upon man quo man.
Faith stiffens up against any encroachment of `new information' that is
likely destructive to the `complete story'. Faith is blindness. Faith
stagnates. Faith goes to the abdication of reason and directly to the
eradication of one's own mind.
In quantum physics, the electron has also been known as the `God
Particle'. Once a specific characteristic is measured, it then becomes
an `electron with a specified measurement'. God is negated and new
information discovered. However, when coupled with the always present
discernability of `missing information', the electron retains its name
as the `God Particle'. We see, then, that Galt's God is an elusive and
changing nature, there and not there, discernable, yet entangled, and,
just perhaps, a necessary component in the `grand scheme of things'.
These characteristics of the electron is not confined to the quantum
world. Indeed, it's best representations are more easily identifiable
on a macro scale. It is not by accident that the `free world' engages
God and precisely because the `free world' and its `free markets' are
open systems; not closed; and the result, more unpredictability than
predictability; more chaos than order; more incomplete than complete.
Yet, the `free world' is, by factors of exponentials, the most
progressive of any systems in the world and precisely because the `free
world' allows God, that is, allows the discernment of `missing
information', that begets change. Hence, the free world is a breeding
ground for invention and that, my friends, goes to an acceleration of
its own evolution. Many such examples abound. But, If you want to
experience God, perhaps the best place to begin is to `see' the God
particle in the eyes of your fellow man. In Chapter Seven, "The Potential
for Civilization", I shall reveal what is perhaps the single most
important event in the social environments of man having occurred only
half a century ago; the discovery of man's natural Right to Life,
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
We live in a time of man's evolution that is so accelerated that, for
most of us, we begin to recognize change only when it is already
beginning to fade. The world for man, in only a few decades, has
changed dramatically. All the great philosophical questions, the host
of dichotomies he has struggled with for so long, have been answered or
are rendered meaningless against the currents of surging new
information. Whether man is basically good or evil has become for him
now a matter of probabilities. We know, for instance, that
altruistism is fictional. That the source of his own `free will' has
been identified and the old questions related to determinacy rendered
meaningless. The great epistomological questin of how it is we know
what we know, nonsense.
Man has come so far, so fast that even his most cherished and once
thought of as unbreakable tools of knowledge are failing when applied to
the avalanche of discoveries emerging out of the world of science and
technology. Mathematics loses itself in black holes. Logic succumbs to
quantum states. Reductionism disappears along a narrowing path to
infinities. These are but a few examples of man's inventions succumbing
to `loss of information'. All of man's knowledge tools are dependent on
the scope of information available to them. And it is when further
information becomes inaccessable that we see our inventions falling away
on the normative curve of utility. These inventions, however useless
they may now appear, nevertheless, remain, as most inventions do,
important stepping stones to discovery.
And, speaking of discovery, out of all the knowledge tools of man, only
one stands alone, unscathed still after more than two milleniums by the
resultant cascade of new information, and precisely because it revels in
it. This tool does not ignore information, nor does it dismiss paradox,
enigmas, and other such quandaries. Rather, it embraces them. It is
the underlying strength in man that drives him to accept what is even as
his tools fail around him. It compels man to pursue, to explore, to
seek new information, to develop new tools, to invent, to resolve. All
living creatures abide by its rule and it is there where it is revealed
as the essential survival mechanism. It defines for life reality that
is required in life's own unending struggle to survive. And in Chapter
Five, "Aristotle and the Instinct of Man", I shall reveal how this
discovery will one day take him to the furthest stars. In all life, it
is derived as instinct. And in man, the sole difference being that he
has discovered it, a lawfulness in nature, and so defined it for himself
as A is A.
JOHN GALT |
