Emergent Properties of the Human Condition

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

Here is my thesis for the evening — drilling down into the individual will summon forth emergent properties of the human condition. The idea occurred to me while reading The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity by Byron Reese. Santa left me The Fourth Age under the Christmas tree. It is a sign of the times that I am just reading this Christmas present. I love books for Christmas as Santa well knows.

In The Fourth Age, Reese argues that we are on the doorstep of tremendous change for humanity due to technological parabolic change. I am all ears to the argument as my readers know. One key phrase Reese uses in his analysis is “emergent.” And I quote Reese, “If you hold the view that your self is an emergent property of your brain, then we have to keep the question open, because emergence is not understood well enough to know if it can be replicated mechanically in a predictable way.” p. 210

Those who dwell in the land of artificial intelligence (AI) are fond of the word “emergent” to describe nascent reality, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. See Emergence and Emergentism and Emergent AI Abilities. There are sparks of intelligence which arise from the sediment of computational programming. The sparks of intelligence surpass the rote narrow programming that goes into AI design.

Similarly, might there occur similar sparks of emergent intelligence as one focuses more and more on the narrow underground river of the human condition. Perhaps, from an intense study of the human condition below the strata of dogma and slogan words will emerge properties greater than the parts of the human condition.

What do I mean? Here are five emergent properties that might arise from a test probe of the human condition.

Understanding.

Right now, I am listening to Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. Whenever I listen to this music, I am transported away to something eternal about me and my soul, memory and what my life has been. Mere words fall short…what emerges in my consciousness as I listen to the genius, the immortal divine in the musical notes of a master composer. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750). In 2019, Bach was named the greatest composer of all time in a poll conducted among 174 living composers. Say his name if you are so inspired this moment. Could it be that, as I better understand myself while awash in the genius of a German composer long gone, focusing on the human condition would call forth emergent ideas and visions about understanding, that the human condition is best understood as an emergent kaleidoscope of comprehension, that the purpose and meaning of the human condition is comprehension. One could envision philosophers enthralled with an emergent property of the human condition as no more, and no less, than profound comprehension.

Connection.

In Hinduism, there is the human condition. And below the human condition lies the true or eternal self. Self-knowledge is the portal to the self or the Atman. It is the inner essence of one’s self, a core timeless element of reality which transcends all space and time. Is it possible that philosophers who devote a lifetime to study of the human condition might conclude the Self emerges as a divine spark of intelligence comparable to emergent properties in the realm of artificial intelligence? In other words, below dogma and slogan words lies the human condition. Below the human condition lies the bedrock of the Self or Atman.

And, most divine of all, we discover that we are all individuals and the lasting emergent property is our common connection in the Atman? That the debates between the individual and the collective misread our most profound connection in Self or the Atman? Just a thought.

Meaning.

Without meaning, what is the purpose of the human condition? In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl reviewed the human condition during the nadir of the Holocaust for meaning. What gave man meaning? Why did some lose all hope while others clung to life when all seemed lost? I would suggest Frankl’s vision of meaning represented an emergent property that occurs when one is driven to study the human condition with intense rigor and scrutiny. Meaning emerged from the horror of the human condition in Nazi Germany. The emergent property was meaning which resulted in Man’s Search for Meaning becoming one of the best selling books in the 20th century. In a 1991 survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club, Man's Search for Meaning was named one of the ten most influential books in the US.

You Are Not Alone.

In an age of social media, people are more lonely than ever. I attribute this paradox to the rise and dominance of echo chambers far and wide. We are exposed to different realities, thus we feel increasingly alone. If one is a natural-born non-conformer, one will not find one’s tribe on Tik Tok or Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter). These platforms are driven by algorithms to reward the conformers, the sensational, the emotional, the outrageous, the scandalous. A full plunge into the human condition will startle many. Life is nuanced and complex beyond anyone’s comprehension.

An emergent property could arise from an intense dive into the human condition which simply reflects the aim of great writing, an assurance that you are not alone. None of us are alone in our desire to make sense of the world.

A Closing of the Great Divide

An intense study of the human condition sans dogma and slogan words could close the great divide in the public square. An emergent property might be study after study and book after book about the millions of ways in which we are all the same from birth to the grave. Absent an ideological agenda, I feel rich reflection about the human condition might usher in an information shift in the public square. A closing of the great divide might be an emergent result greater than the sum of the parts we now see in the public square.

Conclusion: I do not have a crystal ball. However, the idea that emergent properties can be applied to the study of the human condition makes sense to me. Think of emergent properties in the context of AI. Programmers program AI with A, B, and C. Behold and to everyone’s surprise, the programming results in X, Y, and Z. Could it be that we should perceive study of the human condition in the same way? That intense study of us as a human species might produce unexpected, and unforeseeable, emergent properties that turbo charge our understanding of us, that bring into clear focus our connection at the level of the timeless Self, that we live again in a search for meaning, that we know we are not alone in a world of dogma and slogan words, that we usher in the future where harmony is valued over disharmony.

These are my creative thoughts this evening. Let’s not be shy about transporting the ideas of emergent properties from the world of AI to the world of the human condition.