Philosophy/Religion

[icarus_chained]

Seeking Absolute Order: A Perfectionist's Guide to the Universe

 Just my little joke, maybe. But that ... is what I'm trying to figure out, here. Because I am a (recovering) perfectionist, and one of the ideas dearest to my heart is that there is some kind of Universal Order, some pattern by which the universe can be understood, in its entirity.

This thing is also the result of a geography lecturer that asked me to think about how I think, about how people think as a people, how ideas change over time and inform each other ... followed by an hour sitting on the river bank watching leaves tumble slowly beneath the surface of the water, and thinking about watching things. In short, it is the result of waaaay too much introspection in a short period. But.

I've reached, or at least approached, some conclusions. They are based on the acceptance of some ideas, which may or may not be actually feasible. But they are necessary:

1) The idea that things only exist as a matter of perception. That is, that they must in some way interact beyond themselves. Because possibly a thing can exist if nothing or no-one knows about it, if it affects nothing else at all ... but for practical purposes it might as well not. This is complicated, because it suggests that, for example, the universe only exists because we percieve that it does, but practically speaking, for us, that is exactly the case. So I'm just going to take this idea as basis for the moment. Besides, if a thing exists which does not affect anything else in the universe in any way whatsoever ... it's not really part of the overall order anyway.

2) Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal. Or, that the act of observing changes the observed. Illustrated by Schroedinger's cat. But also fundamentally linked to the above concept. Because if things only exist because they are perceived, then how they are perceived changes how they exist, naturally. This is complicated by who, exactly, does the perceiving, which is another issue that I reached interesting (to me) conclusions on.

3) The idea of Order itself. Order is, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the 'the arrangement or sequence of objects or events in time', or, among other things, 'the munber of elements in a finite mathematical group'. Order is, to my mind, basically a pattern. A reason for things to happen the way they happen. And an Absolute Order is a pattern that encompasses every possible sequence of actions in the universe, through time. But an important aspect is that it is ... finite. Of necessity. I'll ... attempt to explain why.

4) Infinity/Finity. And boy is this thing complicated. I don't understand infinity. I don't. For example, can anyone tell me, if something starts, but never ends ... is it still infinite? This is important, because it's the issue of absolute infinity, or whether something can be infinite in one aspect, and still have boundaries in another. And the existance of such physical entities as circles would seem to suggest that it can. I think. Whether or not this is actually true is an important part of my overall question.

Now. The actual idea. Absolute Order:

Order is a pattern. For a thing to exist, in practical terms, it has to be perceived. Therefore, for Absolute Order to exist, there has to be something capable of perceiving it, right. Which is why the concept of chaos exists, because most entities cannot perceive the whole pattern, myself and pretty much everyone I know included, so chaos is what we much live with on a practical basis. Therefore, for us, there is no Absolute Order, only chaos. So far.

The question I have is if it will ever be possible to perceive Absolute Order. If a single entity can ever see all of the Universe, and understand it. If we can aim for it at all.

Theoretically, I'm pretty sure the pattern exists. I'm pretty sure that the universe, including life, including choices, including the paths taken by sentient entities, is composed of a pattern of interlocking processes, and the individual events, from large to small, are the results of confluences of processes and materials/individuals meeting in certain ways at certain times. I'm pretty sure there is a reason for everything, that chance/chaos only exist because we cannot perceive those reasons as yet, because the pattern is far to vast for us to comprehend. We can have an idea that it is there, but as far as we are able to work with it, it might as well not be.

So for humanity, for me, Absolute Order only exists as an ideological entity, as a theory, not as a physical reality.

But is it real to other entities? Can it ever be real to us?

This is where the ideas of infinity/finity and heisenberg's principal come in.

The pattern only exists, is only real, as long as it can be percieved, yes? If we take it that the act of perceiving something changes the thing perceived ... badly phrased. If we accept that we only percieve something based on a degree of selfawareness, that we know we are perceiving it, then the thing we perceive is altered by our perception of it, at least for us. It is not objective, it is subjective, and will change from entity to entity. For an Absolute Order, that cannot be. Because the pattern is regular, it drives everything. It has to be. So there can only be one, unless we take the view that every person/entity has their own universe, and everything that happens inside it happens on their whim.

Anyone see where this is going? Anyone want to mention the G-word?

If there is to be an Absolute Order inside a universe, independant of the multiple chaos's/interpretations of those inside it percieving it ... then it has to be perceived from one of three positions (I think). This is where my logic gets real fuzzy, so be warned.

1) By an entity outside the universe, where their perceptions do not directly influence what takes place inside it. This is only possible, however, if something exists beyond the universe. If, in other words, the universe is in some way finite. This possibility is also interesting to me in that it deals with the idea of zero, or nothingness, or something beyond the universe that is not of the universe, so is nothing that exists as we understand it.

I call this one the Alien God theory, and if it is the case, then humanity can never perceive the Absolute Order unless it goes outside the universe itself. Muse on the nature of life and the afterlife here at your own leisure.

2) By an entity inside the universe whose self-perception is so complete that it can understand not only how the universe works, but how it's own perceptions interact with the physical realities of it. In other words, that it can separate where it stops and the universe begins, so can percieve the Absolute Order as something separate from itself.

I call this the Internal, or Self-Aware God theory, and I like it because it suggests that it is possible for mankind to perceive the Absolute Order, provided we first achieve absolute self-awareness (and size). Or Enlightenment. Of course, we'd also have to achieve some method of perceiving all the universe at once, to see the pattern, which would also be greatly helped if the universe was in some way finite. Which may be a problem.

3) By the universe itself. In other words, that everything that is, exists as part of one vast, self-aware entity called the universe. That Absolute Order is the ultimate expression of life, of self-awareness.

I call that one the Universal God theory. And ... I do like it. It allows for the universe to be infinite, because the universe can know all of itself, because it's present for all of itself. It does mean that humanity can't see the pattern, unless one of the other two theories are also in operation. But, thing is, they could be. The Universal God theory allows for the existence of Absolute Order without necessitating an independant observer, allowing it to exist while at the same time allowing the possibility for other entities, without or within the universe, to eventually percieve it.

That's about it, really. I've meandered through science, geography, philosophy, physics, and a few other things, ended up on religion, and I think, in the end, that I've decided that life, the universe itself, is my God. That humanity lives in chaos, but can certainly aspire to Absolute Order, Absolute Understanding. That godhood is self-awareness, and that is what was meant by humans being created in god's image, if you take the Christian outlook (I was raised Catholic, in case anyone's wondering). 

I can't see the pattern. I don't know if a soul exists through to an afterlife. I don't know that I will ever be able to achieve any of this. But I do know that as long as I believe this, I can sure try. The aim of the game is to live, and to absorb, to perceive, to be part of, as much of life as possible. It's the only way I can see to ever hope to achieve enlightenment. That, and the ability to stand back, and recognise what's going on around you as separate from yourself, in some way.

Sounds fun.