When we zoom-in to identify the structure and function of the neuron, the cell many species use to manage information
and as such forms our brain, we can identity two fundamental 'goals' of neural behaviour where these 'goals' reflect
the notions of transcendence (aka transmutation) and transformation. The development of the neuron has led to a
dynamic reflected in rhythms and arhythms of neural process that is reflected at all levels of neural expression,
from neuron to human society in general.
At the level of collectives, the transcendence/transformation 'drives' are reflected in the concepts of Idealism
(Transcendence) and Materialism (Transform). These concepts are more often interpreted as opposing one another
whereas they in fact serve one another in that oscillations across the neurocognitive areas of our brain reflect
the characteristics of transcend/transform and are summed to produce 'mind', with different degrees of oscillations
emerging as noticeable biases in individual as well as collective behaviours.
Thus the apparent differences regarding the 'source' of individual expression in the socio-political emphasis of
Karl Marx (sociological roots, even distribution of energy) or J.S. Mill (psychological roots, hierarchic distribution
of energy) are in fact hard-coded into the human brain - they are rooted in the neurocognitive processes that generally
function unconsciously in us all and as such are recruited and abstracted to serve as 'mind'.
Through combinations of nature and nurture 'biases' in perspectives can emerge due to misinterpretations as well
as failure to recognise the distinct 'differences' in goals where the transcendence function serves to differentiate
and exploit to achieve transcendence, whereas the transformation function is more attuned to integration and so
to 'fit in' with the local context (and so protect the species) rather than assert its own context (a trait of
transcending); thus the transformation emphasis is on developing 'good' habits to conserve energy as compared to
the transcendence emphasis on expending energy, to reach the 'top' and then 'transcend'.
The flow of data through the dendrites of a neuron (dendrites are the primary input area of a neuron) is not
just 'pure' input but more so filtered input in that within the 'cloud' of dendrites are encoded species-level
instincts and local level habits.
The encoding of habits and instincts in the immediate input areas of the neuron allows for immediate, 'mindless'
processing of data and so response to stimulus where the stimulus is 'in' the context; there is no need to 'think'
once something has been identified and habituated, we just 'react' to the stimulus.
As such, context is the root of change, e.g. weather conditions, can affect hormone productions that affect the
filtering processes of neurons and members of the species start to grow winter coats or molt for summer and this
is all done on autopilot.
This reactive emphasis reflects the PUSH nature of context; often experienced by the individual where circumstances
put them in an 'unknown' context and they start to behaviour in ways their conscious self does not understand,
it is "why am I thinking/behaving like this!?". These sorts of situations reflect 'instinctive' or 'habit'
behaviours which are, or appear to be, uncontrollable, the person feels as if 'something' is pushing them.
We can speculate that thousands of years ago this combination of consciousness plus 'mindless' context-derived
'push' could easily elicit the notion of being manipulated by 'spirits' in that lack of clearly identified concepts
such as instincts, habits, and the general principles of evolution would force an anthropomorphic perspective.
At the neuron level we associate this processing of data, where habits can be created/refined to maintain the 'push'
emphasis, with the concept of transformation. In transformation the core does not change, the outer self does in
response to a context.
This transformation process reflects direct input-output of data, 'mindless' stimulus/response and the encoding
of instincts/habits at the input level favours their use as forms of protection in that they ensure conservation
of energy through their efficiency as well as immediate 'intergration' with a context. Furthermore, the 'collection'
of local habits would be reflected in the development of identity, both personal and collective, and so beyond
that of being a 'species member'. As such a hierarchy of identities emerge all dependent on context as their instigator
of expression and so with the concept of transformation comes the socio-psychological temperaments of security
seeking as well as identity seeking (and so individuals as well as collectives can develop these temperament biases.)
In the process of survival it is necessary to avoid becoming too dependent upon habits and a method to deal
with this is in the neuron's link with synchronisation. This process, besides ensuring groups of neurons work 'as
one' also has the property of 'slicing and dicing' habit data where the synchronisation links, in the form of excitory
and inhibitory controls applied to the neuron's cell body, the source of neural firing, can be 're-sequenced' and
so instinct/habit behaviours can be presented 'out of context'. This process allows for the experience of 'insights',
new perspectives that can be useful in survival, in escaping 'habits' where the specific context requires a non-habitual
response.
This process of developing a 'different' perspective can be a source of error but also a source of sudden insight
- the 'ah-HA' experience. We associate this concept with the term of 'transcendence' where the insight elicits
such a different perspective that it can change all future behaviours and as such 'break' habits. (At the mindless
level this process also reflects mutation). Thus we establish a tie of transcendence to the temperaments of problem-solving
as well as sensation-seeking (all examples of more proactive behaviours when compared to the temperaments that
reflect transforming).
The concept of transcendence reflects the introduction of core difference just as the concept of transformation
reflects the maintaining of core sameness and as such, just as transformation serves to protect, so transcendence
serves to exploit where resources - energy - is needed for the transcendence process; note that one primary difference
is that just as the transformation aims to conserve energy, the transcendence experience is associated with the
over-expression of energy. Furthermore there is a sense of preservation of the species in the transforming, a tie
to history, as compared to transcendence which reflects an 'attraction' to the new as well as abstraction, to move
from the local to the universal and so the manifestation of a hierarchic emphasis rooted in species behaviours
of 'pecking' orders etc.
As such we can identify increasingly complex behaviours stemming from the entanglement of transcending and transforming.
A set of common traits within the nervous system is that of recruitement and abstraction, where neuron will
recruit another, or a brain lobe another, or brain hemisphere the other, in the processing of data. Together
with this recruitment comes abstraction where old categories are recruited and given new labels and applied at
the level of the universal rather than the local.
If we 'zoom' up to the level of the hemispheres of the neocortex we seem to witness the same transform(protect)/transcend(exploit)
functions we witness at the level of the single neuron and as such any collective of neurons will develop the transform/transcend
biases to a degree where specialised 'nuclei' can develop, all nuclei then intergrated as a single brain, and at
the level of the collective personas can develop with distinct biases to seeking transforming and/or transcending
and as such introduce variations on the general themes.
The development of different perspectives at the personal and collective levels seems to reflect the transcendence/transform
'goals' of the neuron such that the whole of our neurology, psychology, and sociology acts like a huge neuron,
ready to recruit other 'neurons' to solve problems as well as convert concrete perspectives rooted in the local
to abstract perspectives rooted in the universal.
The transcend/transform concepts, being tied to the neuron, will be expressed not just in humans but in ANY lifeform
that uses the neuron to process information. The difference between humans and other lifeforms is in the complexity
of neural development that has allowed for a developed awareness of 'moment-to-moment' spanning the lifetime of
the individual and as such a refined sense of consciousness. This sense of connectivity is reflected in memory
processing where the continuity is further refined through awareness of personal and collective history through
external sources (language expressed in family communications, books, videos etc etc).
From the perspective of the human species we can identify two fundamental 'differences' in personal and social
expression that reflect the core expressions of transcendence/transformation - that of the idealist (transcendence
seeking) and that of the materialist (transformation seeking). Genetic as well as environmental diversities will
introduce variations on these themes but despite these variations the general idealist/materialist roots will shine
through.
A materialist perspective reflects a more transformist approach to life, the emphasis is on conservation of
energy, the identification of algorithms and formulas for the sake of efficient function within this thermodynamically
dominated universe; time is recognised as an integral part of our being and is included in all assessments.
An idealist perspective reflects a more transcendentalist approach to life, the emphasis is on the expression of
energy, huge amounts if need be, to achieve the 'transcendence', the escape from the current, sometimes perceived-to-be
sterile, existence as in 'there must be more..'; with the idealist perspective time is treated more as a sense
of the 'eternal' and free of its thermodynamic links.
As such, in idealism, the formulas and algorithms are more used to emphasise alchemy. We must be careful here with
words in that traditionally the conversion of 'lead' into 'gold' is often expressed as 'transforming' but in fact,
from the qualitative perspective we all work from as a species, the emphasis is on 'transcending' which incorporates
the notion of 'transmutation'.
Analysis of the idealist/materialist perspectives indicates a need to 'zoom-in' to these perspectives in that
the manner in which they process data reflects differences in the notion of Time.
The brain reflects the exploit/protect emphasis through the process of analyising data in high detail, allowing
for a 'clear' perspective of the form of whatever it is that is under analysis.
This analytical processing requires the isolation, the encapsulation, of 'something' to enable us to focus all
of our analytical skills on that 'something'. As such, the isolation process is combined with a distortion of attention
focus where we zoom-in to get more details of what has been encapsulated.
The zoom-in is not 'free', the act requires physiological expending of energy and a consequence of this, due to
the identified reciprocal relationship of energy/subjective_time_experience, is that there is a distortion of time
where it 'slows' to become, qualitatively, impoverished where it is ignored (and so a sense of the 'eternal' presents
itself) or it is treated in a mechanistic manner, 'cut off' from its thermodynamical roots expressed as begin-end
time as as such even interpreted as reversible.
Thus an idealist perspective, recorded over centuries, will reflect this time distortion in the form of the notion
of the 'eternal', the 'one' moment of 'clarity' where the physiological intent IS clarity in that the drive for
details will 'suspend' time or else give it a more mechanistic aire; the recruitment and abstraction of this sense
of 'clarity' means it is projected into the universal realm of our theories about ourselves and the universe.
The recording of the sense of the 'eternal' will act as feedback to perpetuate the notion and as such, due to the
'natural' drive to transcend (and so exaggerate, reflecting the analysis process), extend interpretations of the
notion into the realm of the 'spiritual'.
The role of Religion has always been to be a 'keeper of the scrolls' and as such maintain old terms, and this sense
of 'oneness' of the experience of the eternal, in new times. As such Science is more materialist in general than
Religion in that it demonstrates a lack of faith in Religious concepts by asking questions and seeking to look
'behind' expressions. (Within Science are the same patterns where idealist Scientists reflect fundamentalism as
compared to the more materialist Scientists reflecting a more relativist bias. Thus at all scales we see the same
patterns reflecting the entanglement of transcending and transforming. See my texts on dichotomisations and their
properties when used recursively ( and so the use of self-referencing when we seek details - http://pages.prodigy.net/lofting/dicho.html
).
(1) Since the synchronisation processes identified as part of transcending suggest some degree of imposed order,
the more 'habitual' perspective, being more reactive, stimulus/response, would seem to be the older. In other words,
within the bounds of neuron development, the materialist perspective preceded the idealist perspective; spirit
developed from matter, just as the sense of the individual has emerged from the collective and the sense of the
collective (reducible to immediate family - kin) has emerged from the species. An example at the level of the collective
is in 'instinctive' group behaviours in such lifeforms as schools of fish or troops of baboons where local distinction
making can cause 'crowd' patterns not sourcable in the individual but feedback can elicit 'preferred' behaviours
and as such formalise a 'dance' that emerges as a pattern of group behaviour unique to the species/genus.