Holigent

“Holigent” What does it mean?

The word holigent is derived from the words holistic and emergent. These words refer to two significant aspects of evolutionary self-organization. The holistic concept has deep roots going back to the philosophers of ancient Greece. The holists, and the most prominent among them, Aristotle, believed that all things, indeed the universe, must be studied in their undivided whole to preserve their unique qualities and to yield true understanding.

Emergence is the essence of evolution by which simple parts self-organize to produce more complex systems with more versatile properties. All living things are the product of the upward mobility of evolution that is propelled through a sustained and unbroken chain of continuous improvements through spontaneous self-organized variations and natural selection. This seems to be (in broad strokes) the sustained success formula of nature.

In simpler terms, holigence is an organic arrangement of parts to create an optimal system that goes on to produce emergent higher order properties. A living body demonstrates this as the heart beats for the heart and for all the other organs, the lungs breathe for the lungs and for all the other organs, and so on. The fully reciprocating relationships among the organs produce life that is a higher order emergent property.

The word Holigent is also used as an adjective that indicates fully reciprocating relationships between the parts and aspects of a socioeconomic system and its supporting resource and environmental elements. A Holigent system is one that achieves its essential most with the least of resources. For example a Holigent community is one that is constructed and functions according to the standards and agreements that conform to the Holigent spirit and specifications that promote quality of life, economic security, social harmony, peace and sustainability.

After millennia of experimentation, human society has no reliable model that would assure our future, and time is running out. The holistic-emergent or Holigent concept is an effort to use the natural self-organizational mechanism, as closely as we can model it, in our attempt to find a formula (a “socioeconomic operating system”) that can help human societies survive and thrive on our endangered planet.

Note on the Trademark

The word “Holigent” is capitalized as a reminder of its trademark status. The Holigent trademark is assigned, at no cost, to Holigent.org to be used exclusively in pursuit of the nonprofit public benefit purpose and mission stated in the Articles of Incorporation of this not-for-profit organization.

A tetrahedron is the simplest three-dimensional structure. It has four triangular planes, six edges and four corners. It need not have balls at its corners or rods to connect the corners; however, it is not only more fun but also helpful to work with such a cartoon of the tetrahedron to facilitate learning about its complex job as it works to model natural self-organization. Keep in mind that while the tetrahedron is a useful tool it is less than perfect in modeling such an abstract process. I encountered the tetrahedron, as a concept beyond geometry, when I was reading Buckminster Fuller’s book Synergetics back in 1987. The simplicity and complexity as well as the beauty and mystery of the tetrahedron parallels that of Nature and helps to explain natural self-organization as well as give primary guidance in forming the Holigent socioeconomic concept. A full description would require and merit a big book which I am working on; however, I will attempt a much condensed narration in cartoon-like fashion, of the intriguing story of natural self-organization with the help of the tetrahedron.

X

The Holigent Tetrahedron

Let’s begin with one corner. The tip of the corner is a point. If it has any dimension it could be a sphere or a polyhedron. If it is a true point it has no dimension therefore it is a virtuality, something next to nothing. We can use an X as a place holder for that something-nothing we can call virtual integrity.

Virtual Integrity

Integrity

By some energetic impulse, virtual integrity bursts to begin to “realize” its Integrity potentiality; however, it is still unavailable for interaction with anything in the universe outside of itself.

Please feel free to use your imagination as we tiptoe at the edge of science to name and explain entities and processes in the twilight zone between something and nothing that might have “existed” in the early primitive Cosmos “before” the Big Bang.

When integrity can no longer hide behind its virtuality vail it becomes perceptible to the universe outside of itself through its projected Affinity – a signal of potential somethingness. Conceptually and geometrically this is a one-dimensional line representing a developing potential but which in itself does not make a sustainable entity.

Now Integrity and Affinity, through this inherently energetic self-organizational process, project a Reciprocity Potential that contains and projects the exchangeable needs and surpluses of this developing potential entity. Conceptually and geometrically this is a purely two-dimensional plane - still just a very brief impulse, not a sustainable entity

Affinity

Reciprocity Potential

At the next stage we have Integrity and Affinity producing a Reciprocity Potential that together project a Fruitfulness Probability. The tetrahedron comfortably accommodates these four internal parts of self-propelled cosmic self-organization. While this stage represents a developed potentiality, it is still not a fully emerged sustainable entity.

Fruitfulness Probability

When two Fruitfulness Probabilities meet and don’t ignore or annihilate each other but exchange their fruitfulness probabilities, they bind and actualize their common fruitfulness. From such a bond emerges a primal sustainable, conceptually and geometrically representable entity. At the primal beginning the bitetrahedral arrangement is the minimal self-sustaining structure.

Actualized Fruitfulness

Imagine Actualized Fruitfulness inflate like a balloon enveloping its bitetrahedral structure. Out of the fruitfulness bond emerges a new property that is different from the properties of any of the parts from which it emerged. This new property envelops the internal bitetrahedral structure forming a more complex Integrity of the next micro level of cosmic construction.

A more complex Integrity will project a more complex Affinity that will self-organize a more complex Reciprocity Potential and project a Fruitfulness Probability. When by chance this bonds with a compatible counterpart it will produce a higher complexity Fruitfulness from which will emerge the Integrity of a higher complexity entity. And this cycle of self-organizational process continues to produce more complex structure and emergent property (quality).

However crude our modeling, the tetrahedron captures the essence of this process of energetic self-organization that is able to overpower the process of disorder (entropy) to build the cosmos. This process is driven by a kind of internal energy that we cannot identify through our conventional knowledge and sensibilities. Nevertheless we may view this as Nature’s building code that built the universe and all things in it (except what is manmade), from its near nothing, simple and homogeneous beginning to its present day diverse complexity.

By capturing, interpreting and applying this self-organizational “building code” in the reorganization of our human world and how we live, work, commute, consume and govern ourselves we could find a formula for true sustainability.

We can say that the Cosmos begins with process, that we can model with the tetrahedron, as it builds sustainable structures, which we can represent with the bitetrahedron. From bitetrahedral fruitfulness emerges higher complexity integrity that begins the next round of cosmic construction process. The “inflation” of bitetrahedral bonding marks qualitative emergence that gives birth to differentiation, evolution and diversity.

The minimum structure of sustainability in this modeling is the bitetrahedron. We need to note that all entities cary their complete history of process and structure in their Integrity memory. This confirms the assertions of some scientists that the Universe is holonomic.

The length of the rods connecting the corner-balls represent economy (the shorter the better) – the amount of resource invested within the structure and in maintaining the bitetrahedral bonds. Economy is a variable aspect that determines the competitive advantage and therefore the longevity and sustainability of a system (animate or inanimate).

In summary, we recognize that the cosmic building code consists of four internal “parts” and four aspects. The four internals are Integrity, Affinity, Reciprocity Potential and Fruitfulness Probability. The four aspects are Process (tetrahedral), Structure (bitetrahedral), Arrangement (holonomic) and Economy (variable).

How closely we follow nature’s building code in forming a socioeconomic operating system that human beings will accept and adopt will determine the quality of life and longevity of civilized human habitation of our planet.

Fruitfulness “Inflated”

Affinity

Reciprocity Potential

Integrity

As we examine the big picture of the Cosmos, it becomes evident that there is a cosmic “magic” at work as the Universe constructs itself. Cosmic construction through self-organization started from simple nonmaterial near-nothingness and has continued for 13 billion years producing a rich and complex material Universe that at least here on Earth culminated with human mind and consciousness. Free-willed human consciousness, however, steps outside the natural rules of sustainability and therefore endangers its own survival. If we are to return to sustainability we must redesign our socioeconomic system to function according to nature’s, sustained self-organizational order. To be able to do that we must “decode” and understand the conceptual principles and mechanism at work in natural self-organization. We use the tetrahedron to help illustrate these concepts.