Chaos, Order, Balance, Necessity
Oct. 17th, 2004 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThis still needs work. But it is a large chunk of my basic Theory of Everything, so it will always need work, Everything (even in theory) being a lot bigger than my brain. This version with illustrations from the Buffyverse mixed in.
So-
Chaos, Order, Balance, Free Will, Happiness and Ethan Rayne.
In the beginning there was Kaos.
The nothing that could be anything.
And then it was.
Everything.
Not just everything you can imagine or everything that seems possible from here, but everything. Every initial condition that can be imagined, from the big bang to a steady state universe to some place where gods got made first.
Some of these everythings continued to be chaotic, to do and be things with no discernible pattern. Others developed rules, processes, cause and effect. Order.
(Order doesn't like it that Chaos was first.)
Kaos is the beginning, Chaos is the after that, the unpredictable but no longer infinite and empty.
(Not that I always remember to write it that way round.)
In some universes everything is perfectly orderly. The whole existence of them, beginning to end, is determined by their starting conditions. If life exists there, it exists without free will. Absolute predestination, no choices available.
In other universes there comes a point where someone or something can make a choice. Where they have more than one option, and the true ability to decide which one to do. In those universes, free will exists. Sometimes it doesn't keep on existing. Sometimes what the free will chooses, knowingly or otherwise, is to go back to predestination. Sometimes the choice never comes up again. Ordered universes, with just that one hint of chaos.
Some of the chaotic universes involve people apparently making choices all the time. They can choose to breathe, to be plaid, or to turn into small fish. Absolute freedom of choice. But no will, because whatever they choose, something random is going to happen. Total chaos, not enough order to sustain free will.
To have true free will there must be choices, and there must be consequences.
Chaos and Order in some kind of balance.
If this universe is unbalanced to the point where we have only the illusion of free will, knowing it would be useless. We can't do anything, with or without knowledge.
If this universe is perfectly balanced, if in every instant we have true choices and they have true consequences, it is crucial to be aware of this, or we'll be wasting our free will by never exercising it. Not recognising freedom, not using will, might as well be in one of the unbalanced places. Then it would strengthen free will to wake everyone up to the existence of their freedom and ability to choose.
If a universe is partially balanced, if only some people have free will, then those people might be able to make choices that give others true free will too.
If the universe has an excess of chaos then will needs to be strengthened, the ability to predict and therefore decide what will happen. If consequences are random except for those consequences chosen by particular people, then those people could choose to make a more ordered oasis in the universe. Somewhere that everyone who chooses to be a fish can stay a fish, for instance. Or, closer to home, somewhere that everyone who chooses to build a home doesn't get it burnt down at random intervals. Use free will to extend will to others.
If a universe has an excess of order then the truly free willed can use their choices to extend freedom. If one person has the 'magic' of letting someone choose to wear color instead of black, they could offer their services and therefore extend the choice. Or if the main cause of every effect in a town was one person with all the power, someone who knew that and knew how to get rid of him could free the town.
Not everyone perceives the same things. They'll look at a situation and see it completely differently. Two people could look at Sunnydale and decide it needs opposite things. One could think it needs more order, so that the choices (say, choosing to go home after dark) reliably lead to the consequences intended (getting home, alive, in one piece, and in the same state of metaphysical being you had when you started the journey). Another could think that choices are limited, so an increase in chaos is needed to give people more freedom. If all the choices are in the hands of the monsters, for instance, then maybe everyone should be a monster, and thereby get a choice. Lots of free will involved there. Especially if they chose which kind of thing to be, say by the costume they picked out to wear.
Both of those plans could have the effect of spreading and strengthening free will.
Why is having more free will a good thing?
I reckon true free will is necessary to attain true happiness. Not just pleasure, that is easy and happens a lot. True all the way through complete happiness, that everyone is searching for but few if any ever find. If your freedom or will is restricted, if you can't choose or can't attain the desired consequences, then you won't be able to get to true happiness even if you know the way.
Knowing is an important part of free will too. You cant will something to happen if you don't know enough to want it, or to figure what will happen when you choose a thing. Ignorance messes everything up. In Buddhist thought it is one of the three poisons, the one that makes the other two. Decrease ignorance, increase the chance of happiness.
So, if most people live in ignorance of the breadth of possibilities in their world, if they don't know about the monsters and the magic and the way their lives interact, then they cannot have true free will and cannot achieve happiness.
Having a magic spell change half the town into monsters should do a lot to dispel ignorance.
Of course so could picking up the right books, but most people just don't choose to do that.
I think Ethan is crazy. He thinks things most humans would never think, then goes out and does them. Pretty much the definition of crazy. But it is possible he is helpful, in the grand scheme of things, to increase the chances of happiness by increasing free will. We know he understands about the necessity of balance. We don't know if it is this particular order-chaos balance he meant. But if it was, and if he reckoned the people of Sunnydale needed more choices and less ignorance, more freedom, more Chaos- I don't think he was wrong.
Of course neither were the people trying to make sure everyone could get home at night. But by keeping everyone in ignorance while they did it, they were perpetuating an error and limiting everyone's free will. That part I can't see as right.
So-
Chaos, Order, Balance, Free Will, Happiness and Ethan Rayne.
In the beginning there was Kaos.
The nothing that could be anything.
And then it was.
Everything.
Not just everything you can imagine or everything that seems possible from here, but everything. Every initial condition that can be imagined, from the big bang to a steady state universe to some place where gods got made first.
Some of these everythings continued to be chaotic, to do and be things with no discernible pattern. Others developed rules, processes, cause and effect. Order.
(Order doesn't like it that Chaos was first.)
Kaos is the beginning, Chaos is the after that, the unpredictable but no longer infinite and empty.
(Not that I always remember to write it that way round.)
In some universes everything is perfectly orderly. The whole existence of them, beginning to end, is determined by their starting conditions. If life exists there, it exists without free will. Absolute predestination, no choices available.
In other universes there comes a point where someone or something can make a choice. Where they have more than one option, and the true ability to decide which one to do. In those universes, free will exists. Sometimes it doesn't keep on existing. Sometimes what the free will chooses, knowingly or otherwise, is to go back to predestination. Sometimes the choice never comes up again. Ordered universes, with just that one hint of chaos.
Some of the chaotic universes involve people apparently making choices all the time. They can choose to breathe, to be plaid, or to turn into small fish. Absolute freedom of choice. But no will, because whatever they choose, something random is going to happen. Total chaos, not enough order to sustain free will.
To have true free will there must be choices, and there must be consequences.
Chaos and Order in some kind of balance.
If this universe is unbalanced to the point where we have only the illusion of free will, knowing it would be useless. We can't do anything, with or without knowledge.
If this universe is perfectly balanced, if in every instant we have true choices and they have true consequences, it is crucial to be aware of this, or we'll be wasting our free will by never exercising it. Not recognising freedom, not using will, might as well be in one of the unbalanced places. Then it would strengthen free will to wake everyone up to the existence of their freedom and ability to choose.
If a universe is partially balanced, if only some people have free will, then those people might be able to make choices that give others true free will too.
If the universe has an excess of chaos then will needs to be strengthened, the ability to predict and therefore decide what will happen. If consequences are random except for those consequences chosen by particular people, then those people could choose to make a more ordered oasis in the universe. Somewhere that everyone who chooses to be a fish can stay a fish, for instance. Or, closer to home, somewhere that everyone who chooses to build a home doesn't get it burnt down at random intervals. Use free will to extend will to others.
If a universe has an excess of order then the truly free willed can use their choices to extend freedom. If one person has the 'magic' of letting someone choose to wear color instead of black, they could offer their services and therefore extend the choice. Or if the main cause of every effect in a town was one person with all the power, someone who knew that and knew how to get rid of him could free the town.
Not everyone perceives the same things. They'll look at a situation and see it completely differently. Two people could look at Sunnydale and decide it needs opposite things. One could think it needs more order, so that the choices (say, choosing to go home after dark) reliably lead to the consequences intended (getting home, alive, in one piece, and in the same state of metaphysical being you had when you started the journey). Another could think that choices are limited, so an increase in chaos is needed to give people more freedom. If all the choices are in the hands of the monsters, for instance, then maybe everyone should be a monster, and thereby get a choice. Lots of free will involved there. Especially if they chose which kind of thing to be, say by the costume they picked out to wear.
Both of those plans could have the effect of spreading and strengthening free will.
Why is having more free will a good thing?
I reckon true free will is necessary to attain true happiness. Not just pleasure, that is easy and happens a lot. True all the way through complete happiness, that everyone is searching for but few if any ever find. If your freedom or will is restricted, if you can't choose or can't attain the desired consequences, then you won't be able to get to true happiness even if you know the way.
Knowing is an important part of free will too. You cant will something to happen if you don't know enough to want it, or to figure what will happen when you choose a thing. Ignorance messes everything up. In Buddhist thought it is one of the three poisons, the one that makes the other two. Decrease ignorance, increase the chance of happiness.
So, if most people live in ignorance of the breadth of possibilities in their world, if they don't know about the monsters and the magic and the way their lives interact, then they cannot have true free will and cannot achieve happiness.
Having a magic spell change half the town into monsters should do a lot to dispel ignorance.
Of course so could picking up the right books, but most people just don't choose to do that.
I think Ethan is crazy. He thinks things most humans would never think, then goes out and does them. Pretty much the definition of crazy. But it is possible he is helpful, in the grand scheme of things, to increase the chances of happiness by increasing free will. We know he understands about the necessity of balance. We don't know if it is this particular order-chaos balance he meant. But if it was, and if he reckoned the people of Sunnydale needed more choices and less ignorance, more freedom, more Chaos- I don't think he was wrong.
Of course neither were the people trying to make sure everyone could get home at night. But by keeping everyone in ignorance while they did it, they were perpetuating an error and limiting everyone's free will. That part I can't see as right.