Okay, we’ve already looked at this a little bit, but let’s go further with it now.
What’s the definition of a living force? Here’s my take on it: It’s a force that emerges within a field whereupon the new emergent force isn’t a direct sum of subcomponent forces exerted in that same field. In addition, a “living force” exerts forces back into the field(s) of the subcomponent forces that caused the living force to emerge. Living forces transcend multiple force fields.
In addition to transcending multiple fields in a downward manner, living forces also transcend multiple fields in an upward manner. We can believe that’s true because higher-level living forces aren’t random in nature – they have characteristics of intelligence which allow them to create design and achieve growth. To better understand that, please consider the following.
Living forces exerted by multiple lower-level subcomponents contained within a higher-level living system transcend multiple fields and are part of what determines the forces exerted from the higher-level system. In addition, new living forces emerge at the higher system level and add into the mix thereby affecting the resulting forces exerted from the higher-level system. At the same time, the net sum of living forces at the higher system level transcend back down and affect the living forces exerted by the subcomponents. It’s a continuous and fluid spectrum of interaction. Here’s a concrete example illustrating what I’m trying to say: We the people have exerted the living forces needed to cause our government to form and grow. The forces that we exert today as individuals are part of what determines the forces that our government exerts today. At the same time however, new forces emerge at the government level and those new forces add into the mix and also affect what the government does. In addition, the net sum of living forces at the government level exerts forces back down into the subcomponents (i.e., we the people) that caused the higher-level system to emerge.
Living systems exert living forces that transcend multiple force fields. Perhaps mankind will eventually develop a new definition of “life” that’s based upon living forces.
What's the difference between living forces and non-living forces? Let’s take a look at non-living forces first.
Imagine forces A1 + A2 in field “A”. Those two forces add together and determine a new emergent force A3 located in field A. Force A3 doesn’t exert any new forces back on forces A1 and A2 and cause them to be different; A3 is simply the net sum of A1 + A2. To better illustrate that idea, imagine two people standing in front of a heavy round table – they’re pushing on it attempting to move it across a carpeted floor. The forces exerted by the two people add together and cause a net force A3, but neither person feels the net force A3. The net force doesn’t change either of the forces exerted by the two people. As the two people push harder and harder, the net force A3 eventually grows past a certain threshold whereupon the table moves across the floor and a new equilibrium position is reached (i.e., a new steady-state position). In this example, we can clearly see that force A3 didn’t change the subcomponent forces (i.e., A1 and A2) that caused A3 to emerge. In summary, force A3 isn’t a living force.
Now let’s consider a living force and how it’s fundamentally different. Imagine the same exact scenario described above wherein A1 + A2 = A3 in field A, and once again force A3 isn’t a living force. In this case, however, let’s say that forces A1 and A2 represent electro-chemical forces exerted by neurons in your brain, and in addition to determining a non-living electro-chemical force A3, those electro-chemical forces also cause a higher-level entity to emerge (i.e., a thought), and the new entity exerts a new force B1 in field “B”. (Please keep in mind that forces A1 + A2 cause force B1 to emerge without determining force B1, since forces in different fields don’t add directly with one another.)
Because living forces transcend multiple force fields, force B1 is able to interact with electro-chemical forces in field A while also interacting with thought forces in field B. Here’s the point I’m trying to make: Force B1 is able to interact with the forces in field A that caused B1 to emerge, and therefore B1 is a living force.
The beauty of living forces, is that they aren’t about reaching equilibrium or steady state, like force A3 that moved the table to a new resting location. Living forces are about something different: they’re about growth and life.
By understanding that living forces transcend multiple force fields, we can begin to understand how thoughts cause the neural wiring inside a physical brain to change, thereby enabling a person to learn. We can also begin to understand how living forces cause intelligent growth across the spectrum of 3-D scale.
Forces A3 and B1 in the scenarios described above are both “new” forces. (Neither of those two forces previously existed, so they’re new.) Living forces are a subset of new forces, for each moment of time.
In order for society to begin believing that living forces exist, and for us to become comfortable teaching that principle to our children, we need scientists to develop an experiment that proves living forces exist.
The experiment needs to do two things; first it must sense a force that emerges from a higher-level living system; a force that’s not simply a higher-level force resulting from the direct sum of subcomponent forces located in the same field. Once that higher-level force from the living system is identified by scientists and a method is developed to measure the force, the experiment needs to show how that force propagates in a top-down manner, not in a bottom-up manner (like predeterministic forces), and how that new living force adds into the net sum of all forces and thereby affects the path of reality. Scientists need to design an experiment that proves that a living force is a component force in the net sum, which thereby proves that free will exists at that particular living system level. What would that experiment be like? Let’s brainstorm for a moment and see if we can define a few of its characteristics in order to provide scientists with something to work with.
Here’s one way the experiment could work: Scientists could develop a totally new method for sensing forces exerted at a “tree level”, perhaps using some type of special electronic interface that somehow senses and measures the forces exerted at the tree-level. That would allow scientists to indirectly experience the tree-level forces through specialized instrumentation. After developing the interface, the scientists would carefully evaluate how those tree-level forces propagate, and verify that the forces that emerge at the tree system-level then propagate in a top-down manner and affect the subsystems comprising the tree.
If scientists could develop that “tree” experiment, mankind would open up a huge new field of understanding; we’d realize that living forces exist all around us at many different system levels, including the subsystems that comprise our human bodies.
Say what? Am I dreaming here? Will it ever be possible for mankind to sense the forces exerted at a “tree level”? What does that even mean for a tree to exert tree-level forces in a “tree field”. How long will we need to wait for mankind to design and realize that new experiment? Fifty years? One hundred years? Ten thousand years? Will mankind ever be able to prove living forces exist?
Well, perhaps the experiment exists already. And not only that, you can perform the experiment right now for yourself while reading this text. Sounds kind of like Dorothy and her desire to go home during The Wizard of OZ story—she wanted to go home throughout the adventure, but she didn’t know how. Then it turned out that she had the ability all along—she just needed to understand how to utilize the capability she already had. Well, like Dorothy’s desire to go home, mankind has been dreaming for long time about how to prove he has free will in the strong sense and his path in life isn’t predetermined (i.e., you have the ability to do more than simply make a choice, you have the ability to make a choice that isn’t predetermined). And just like Dorothy, every human being has always had the ability at any moment to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that he can exert living forces and he has free will in the strong sense.
Here’s all you need to do:
Think right now about five different ways that you can move your body. Imagine them in your mind. There are many different moves you can choose from, and I won’t mention any within this text; it’s simply up to you to come up with five and to imagine those movements in your own mind. Now, while you’re thinking about those five different ways, choose one of those movements, and DO THAT ACTION—MOVE YOUR BODY RIGHT NOW THE WAY YOU’VE CHOSEN.
There, you just proved beyond any reasonable doubt that living forces exist and that you have free will in the strong sense.
You just performed the same exact experiment that we dreamed up for the “tree level”, except that you substituted a different living system in place of the tree. A tree doesn’t have to be used for the experiment. We could use a bush, a mouse, a grasshopper, or a human being. The experiment simply needs to utilize a subject that’s a living system. That’s the fundamental requirement. Using a human being as the subject allows us to take advantage of the fact that all of the measuring “instrumentation” needed to sense the higher-level living force is already in place—fully developed. We don’t need a special electronic interface to sense the forces exerted by a human thought. Each of us already has a totally awesome interface that allows us to perceive of “thought forces” exerted in our own mind.
Okay, let’s look at this a little more seriously and analyze it to make sure the human experiment is really equivalent to the desired tree experiment. The first challenge that we thought scientists would need to solve when developing the tree experiment is to develop a method to sense the emergent forces exerted at the tree system-level. To do that, we thought some kind of electronic interface would need to be designed. Okay, so what’s the equivalent of that challenge in the human experiment? Well, we’re currently conscious of our own thoughts, so the interface already exists to perceive of the high-level emergent forces at the living system-level (i.e., our own human level). Okay, so we’ve shown that the perception part of the experiment is satisfactory—we’ve met the requirement of perceiving of a higher-level force that emerges at a living system level.
The next step of the tree experiment would be to verify that the high-level forces exerted at the tree-level propagate in a top-down manner, unlike bottom-up predeterministic forces. Okay, for the human experiment, we verified just that. After thinking of five ways to move our body, we decided on one of those ways and based upon our conclusion reached, we exerted forces back down into the electro-chemical level of our body. Here’s the sequence of events: 1. Thoughts interacting with one another in your mind. 2. Conclusion reached. 3. Forces exerted back down into the electro-chemical level. 4. Short propagation delay. 5. Body movement. The higher-level force from your thought propagated downward into the electro-chemical level and caused your body to move.
Well, there you go, we’ve shown that utilizing a human as the living system is equivalent to using some other type of living system in the experiment, and we’ve proven beyond any doubt that “living forces” exist for human beings. Humans have free will in the strong sense, and our paths in life are not predetermined. (Note to physics scholars: A proof of living forces based upon words is a step in the right direction. A proof of living forces based upon hard science (i.e., an innovative lab experiment) would be much more significant.)
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Before leaving this section, let’s do a quick mental experiment (one that’s kind of fun) to help you understand how living forces are likely exerted by many different system levels, not just the human system level.
Imagine for a moment that you’re an alien from outer space and your references are very, very different from a human being’s references. In fact, as an alien you have no clue about what it’s like to be a human—no more clue than what it’s like to be a dolphin or a tree. You’re an ALIEN. Now let’s say that you’re taking a close look at a particular human being through special instrumentation that you developed in your flying saucer, and you’re trying to figure out if the subject has free will like you do. You examine its brain carefully and you see all kinds of activity happening in there; electro-chemical events similar to what happens in your own slimy green head, but since you don’t know what it’s like to have a human thought, you conclude that everything you’re looking at is simply predeterministic in nature. You believe that the human’s actions are all predetermined just like the actions of all the other subjects you’ve examined so far on planet Earth (i.e., the activity within a dolphin and a tree is also totally predetermined as evidenced by your examination of the processes within those systems, and how all of the matter and energy appears to abide perfectly by the laws of physics).
Okay, now let’s step away from the alien’s perspective for a moment and go back to our own human perspective. When we look at a dolphin or a tree, aren’t we looking at those subjects much in the same way as the alien looks at us? Aren’t we concluding that there aren’t any “living forces” or free-will forces present in those systems, simply because we can’t relate to what it’s like to be a dolphin or a tree and what it’s like to exert forces at those system levels? The point I’m trying to make here, is that it’s likely that living forces exist at many, many system levels across the spectrum of scale (i.e., 3-D size ranging from very small to very large emergent systems), and it’s time for humans to stop discounting that possibility. Let’s stop projecting arrogance into the universe from our ignorance, and let’s open up our references so we can become more respectful of other systems at various scales all around us.
In summary, just as you acknowledge that your fellow humans have free will, it’s also important to acknowledge that animals and plants exert living forces (i.e., free will forces) as well. In addition, let’s expand our horizons and realize that many, many subsystems that emerge within our bodies are also capable of exerting living forces.
(Just a humorous side note… humans actually are aliens from outer space… It’s just that we’re so used to our own human references that we don’t consider ourselves to be the aliens. Instead, we believe that aliens exist on other planets and we’re the only normal beings in the universe. Seems a little like mankind thinking the Earth is the center of the universe, and the sun revolves around the Earth, huh?!)