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WhereTo and Why – the Co-Evolution of Art, Science, and Technology Mark Frazier1 2019 B-Futures Forum, Buenos Aires, Argentina Summary Author and historian Yuval Harari has foreseen a future where humans emerge as “self-made gods of planet Earth.”2 Yet what may displace Homo Deus as the main mover in evolution? A prime candidate is a hybrid lifeform of greater scope. A new genus of superorganisms – Deus Narrans3 – will have an opportunity to engage actual and virtual beings across species lines in quests to co-evolve shared values, rather than advance a single genetic and memetic lineage. The art, technology and science endeavors arising from such new transspecies connectives may surpass in influence those of species-bound rivals. Exponential technologies will propel this transition. For eons, material scarcities prompted zero-sum rivalries among and between hominids and other species to reproduce at the expense of one another. As plenitude and longevity grow, new forms of non-zero sum interchange will arise among sentient beings. Evolution in a post-scarcity era will differ from earlier epochs by turning to the spread of lumenes – replicable qualities of spirit (patterns of emotional response) – across species lines. New communication technologies and pattern languages can speed this shift. Technologies already are emerging for sentient beings to converse and share emotions among distantly-related animal and plant lifeforms. These tools will become central as evolution grows branchier. Genetic engineering and artificial intelligence soon will make Homo Sapiens the ancestor of myriad new cultures and species, many far surpassing our present capabilities. As a common ground for connecting sentient life forms, Deus Narrans can meet the need for spreading empathic resonances, understandings and collaboration among beings across species lines. The heart of such interactions may be a fractal system for co-creation in the realms of art, science, and technology. This paper maps how “social tetrahedrons” and 1 Mark Frazier is Chairman of the Startup Societies Foundation and president of Openworld, a nonprofit research and volunteer network specializing in environments for creative endeavors. He has worked in 50+ countries over the past four decades on free economic zones and grassroots learning initiatives in projects funded by private philanthropists, the World Bank, and multinational companies. His current work includes development of Learning Landscapes, an open source app for peer learning and online cooperation, and support for contractual communities that vest residents as beneficiaries of rising land values. Earlier in his career, he was publisher and managing editor of Reason magazine, and cofounder of the Local Government Center, springboard for Reason Foundation's research and consulting practice on alternative approaches to local service delivery. He is a graduate of Harvard University and a former Visiting Fellow of the Lehrman Institute in New York. 2 Harari, Yuval: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, Penguin Random House (2016) https://www.ynharari.com/book/homo-deus/ . 3 Deus Narrans been coined by the author in response to the single-species focus of “Homo Narrans.” Kurt Ranke and Walter R. Fisher have written on Homo Narrans in https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/1737 and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637758409390180. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 2 “narrative fractals” can serve as interfaces through which sentient beings of all kinds can share experiences and create value at all scales in multiple realms. In the coming year, open source apps will begin testing such interfaces to bridge current cultural barriers in peer learning and online collaboration. If transcultural pilots succeed, they may set the stage for millions of humans – as well as individuals from new lifeforms to come – to explore, thrive, and coevolve in relationships made possible by Deus Narrans. I. Introduction Let’s board a time machine and set the dial to go back 100,000 years. We find ourselves in a darkening forest around a campfire, meeting as members of Homo Erectus. As the conversation unfolds, it turns out that we are the last tribe in a species that is being overtaken by other hominids – the Neanderthals and modern humans. It seems that we can no longer sustain our physical lineage. Yet the conversation turns to the possibility of safeguarding another kind of progeny. While we no longer can ensure direct biological descendants, a less tangible form of continuity beckons. Is there a way to safeguard our values lineage, by helping one or both of our rivals to carry forth the qualities of spirit we cherish? Members of Homo sapiens who considering how to be good ancestors may soon be in a similar position. If Yuval Harari’s speculations are on track regarding Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus, our flesh and blood descendants may soon branch off into myriad new forms of sentient life – ones that outclass our current species in intelligence and physical capacities. Moreover, with the help of CRISPR, intelligence may spread like wildfire among established and new sentient species with little kinship. Today, as members of Homo Sapiens, we face a choice. We can opt to be good ancestors in a narrow sense, by trying to privilege our species in its present form at the expense of emergent rivals. Or we can opt to be good ancestors in an inclusive sense, by helping all forms of sentient life move to appreciate and advance our highest non-zero sum values. If we opt for an inclusive vision of being good ancestors, we may want to explore the most reproductively-successful path we can pursue. It may be to sow a trans-species set of Lumenes – our noblest qualities of spirit – that will attract and enjoy enduring stewardship by other selfaware species as they evolve. II. The overlooked replicator in evolution To date, the call of “selfish” genes has been used to explain act of altruism and sacrifice by members of sentient species. In a drive to ensure reproductive success, the argument goes, genes hard wire inclinations in their carriers to go at risk to ensure the survival of offspring (or April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 3 other close relatives). The more closely related to another that one is genetically, the higher will be the propensity to undertake altruistic acts for their survival. Richard Dawkins introduced the concept of a second replicator: the meme. It can be defined as a replicating information processing pattern. As (some) genes evolved, they created for their vessels an ability to process information about their environment and their internal states, in ways that enabled more of their genes to survive and spread. At this point, as E.O. Wilson has noted, an "enchanted circle" of consilience arose between genes (form replicators) and memes (idea replicators). Languages arose to convey generative memetic scripts. Lifeforms within this enchanted circle enjoyed greater success than others, because they could process information in ways that helped their genes survive and multiply. The coevolutionary advantage won by mutually reinforcing genes and memes advanced the reproductive success of their species. Yet it is evident more kinds of replicators than genes and memes are driving evolution. Contrary to the expectations of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, myriad examples exist in nature of unrelated individuals ignoring their species differences to come to the aid of others, even when such actions place the rescuer at high risk. The interplay of selfish genes and memes alone leaves unexplained such acts of trans-species heroism and generosity. Our bodies make genes, and our minds make memes. Yet no word to date has defined the pattern replicators that our spirits make. We can call these Lumenes – replicable patterns of affect. Like their counterparts, Lumenes also are vying for reproductive success. They can induce altruistic actions across species bounds. Dolphins have rescued whales and humans from drowning, humpback whales have put themselves at risk to protect seals and sunfish from orcas, and orphaned young baboons have been protected and adopted by leopards (otherwise their mortal enemies). Rich lumenetic exchanges explains why mutual love and friendship emerges between people and animals that carry noble qualities of spirit. Many past literary epics as well as works of speculative fiction resonate across cultures when they show how Lumenes – admirable qualities of spirit – can bear fruit and multiply across deep genetic, religious, civilizational, species, planetary, Humpback whale tries to drive off an orca to save a seal (National Geographic) and even galactic divides.4 4 An experiment might test peoples’ willingness to undertake altruistic actions benefiting unrelated others to ensure the reproductive success of a spirit/emotion replicator that they value in common. It might begin by introducing a randomly chosen group to recordings of actual cases of trans-species generosity. These might include dolphins saving a drowning human, a dog putting its life at risk to rescue a stranger's child, or a leopard sheltering a baby hyena. Then, participants in the experiment would be invited to make a choice. • Option 1 – They could help – at some level of personal risk – an unrelated, endangered animal exhibiting qualities they admire. • Option 2 – Or they could take the same risk to help an endangered, more closely related genetic/memetic sentient being who utterly lacks these admired qualities of spirit. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 4 Much as memes co-evolved with genes for mutual benefit, so too can Lumenes. All three replicators can operate in consilience, helping ensure that life’s increasingly branchy physical forms will enjoy the reproductive success of their (shared) ideational and emotional progeny. III. Emergence of new voices and new sentient species As sensors and communications tools improve, humans are finding new ways to appreciate the beauty of life forms around us. Our arts are becoming more sensitive to the living currents around us, as reflected in a recent composition by Radiohead for BBC’s Blue Planet II documentary. The composition’s respect for life’s normally unheard voices is evident not only in its style, but in the way it was composed. Rather than impose an insensitive structure, it created local rules that enabled self-organizing themes to emerge, without impinging upon one another. It is an ode to the expression of non-zero sum values. Radiohead Composition (click here to play) My guess is that a significant number of participants would choose the first option – to sacrifice for the success of lumenetic “kin," suggesting the existence of a kind of replicator beyond genes and memes. If this hypothesis proves out, it would suggest that as concerns over physical scarcities abate, sentient beings may turn towards propagating and remixing admired qualities of spirit, across sentient life forms. This may create a basis for a civilization consisting of many kinds of sentient lifeforms to emerge – a civilization that views aligned, co-evolving virtues (qualities of spirit) as progeny. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 5 Almost in step with creation of this new musical form, a similar innovation emerged in March 2019 from work by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and three other European universities. Their engineers found a way to enable interspecies communications. Small robots resembling their hosts joined a group of a fish in Switzerland, as well as a bee colony in Austria. They used native signaling in their respective environments. In the school of fish, the guest robot used behavioral signals such as accelerations, vibrations and tail movements, along with visual cues. The guest robot in the bee colony communicated via vibrations, temperature variations and air movements. As activity in the group of fish changed, the robot translated the message to its counterpart in the bee colony, which began signaling a corresponding activity to its (living) bee counterparts. "The robots acted as if they were negotiators and interpreters in an international conference. Through the various information exchanges, the two groups of animals gradually came to a shared decision," says Francesco Mondada, a professor at EPFL’s BioRob lab.5 Before many more years pass, exponential technologies in bio-engineering, artificial intelligence and robotics are likely to transform evolution. Homo Sapiens may become the ancestral stock for many new hominids, including species of “Homo Deus” that may far surpass present-day humans in cognition, physical abilities, and aesthetic skills. Artificial life forms with high intelligence may integrate with species of animals that have so far lagged in creative capabilities. And our planet’s growing reach into space may bring forward the date of first contact with highly advanced extraterrestrial beings. As we head into what Peter Diamandis has called the Exponential Age, it is becoming essential to explore new means of communication and understanding between unrelated species as well as differing cultures. New tools of communication sensitive to the uniqueness of each individual, regardless of their biological heritage, can help minimize risks of win:lose confrontations between groups. These tools also can foster mutual learning and co-creative endeavors in arts, science and technology in ways that enrich each participant and expand their individual freedom, while being sensitive to the wellbeing of the whole. IV. Valuing Triangles: showing what each of us cherish Human cultures have almost universally recognized Spirit-Mind-Body as fundamental frames of valuing. Yet as transspecies connections increase, there has been little work to date done on a 5 “Robots Enable Bees and Fish to Talk To Each Other,” TechXplore, March 21, 2010 https://techxplore.com/news/2019-03-robots-enable-bees-fish.html April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 6 universal coordinate system for showing what individuals (and collections of individuals) most value. Valuing Triangles can be a step towards creating a geometry that enables sentient beings to share what they each (as unique individuals) most cherish. The vertices can show Spirit, Mind, and Body aspects of caring – the frames of reference attuned to spreading lumenes (replicating patterns of emotional response), memes (replicating information codes), and genes in a broad sense (replicating forms of matter). The Spirit-Mind-Body triad can be filled with individuals, projects, places, and tools that one values for contributions in this respect. Locations within a Valuing Triangle indicate the degree to which a person or object contributes to memetic, physical, and/or spiritual flourishing and reproductive success. Anything placed at or near the center indicates is valued in multiple respects. The same geometry can work for a second kind of Valuing Triangle – one that represents Personal, Civic, and Market (or Business) frames of reference. In this kind of Valuing Triangle, the Personal vertex can show intrinsically valued family and friends, the Civic vertex can show the individuals and organizations one admires as working for the commons, and the Business vertex can show valued partners and colleagues in economic ventures. Projects, places, and tools also could be positioned within such Valuing Triangles and made visible (if one desires) to others. The following summarizes shows the meaning of different areas within both types of Valuing Triangles. The following diagram illustrates a simple drag-and-drop interface for populating a valuing triangle – showing each item that a sentient being values, and why. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology Often, what we value often is conditional rather than static. In a Spirit-Mind-Body valuing triangle, the creator’s emotional, mental or physical wellbeing may change for better or worse. These changes can often affect what we most value. In a Personal-Business-Civic valuing triangle, there can be similar changes. Those who are personally dear to us may move from struggling to comfortable to flourishing conditions. Our Business ventures may fall from prosperous to a survival mode. Our Civic conditions may stay stable, unravel, or thrive. These scenarios call for adding a vertical dimension to a Valuing Triangle’s geometry.6 V. Expressing conditional value via Social Tetrahedrons Valuing Triangles that add a vertical dimension enable one to express conditionality. They can show what an individual (or group) contingently values in relation to a Maslow-inspired pyramid. The pyramid – referred to as a “Social Tetrahedron” – is made of three levels, representing what one values under survival, comfort, and/or plenitude conditions.7 At the base level is a horizontal band showing what one values when in survival mode. The middle and upper levels hold what one values, respectively, in comfort and generative conditions. 6 The author wishes to thank Robert Read of Public Invention for invaluable help in prototyping an open source app for Valuing Triangles and Social Tetrahedrons. Interactive demos are accessible at https://pubinv.github.io/TriadBalance/TriadBalanceDemo.html and https://pubinv.github.io/SocialTetrahedrons/interactjs_try.html . 7 The term “Social Tetrahedron” was introduced by George Por in a 2010 blog post: https://blogofcollectiveintelligence.com/2010/06/16/the_social_tetrahedron_a_step/ April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution 7 WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 8 Let’s explore an example of how a Social Tetrahedron might work for a university student. The student is experiencing profound spiritual and mental despair, to the point of putting her own life at risk. Such a person might place an uplifting and moving work of Art – for example a poem or a Beethoven symphony – into the Survival level of her Social Tetrahedron. The student opts to place the poem or concert near the center, indicating that it creates simultaneous value for her Spiritual, Mental, and Bodily wellbeing when she is struggling for survival. By contrast, the prospect of taking a long dreamed-of but expensive trip to a religious destination might be placed in the top band, next to the Spirit vertex. There, others could quickly see that it was cherished experience she would value once resources permitted. Dozens – or hundreds – of valued people, places, projects and experiences can be added by an individual into such conditional valuing frames. Each person unfolds a unique pattern of valuing when populating a Social Tetrahedron – both in terms of what they choose to add to it, and where they place each valued item relative to the vertices and to the vertical axis. The valuing framework established by Social Tetrahedrons enables each creator to disclose as much (or as little) as they prefer to share about the values they deeply care about as a whole person. The framework may prove useful to individuals from all backgrounds active in Art, Scientific, and Technological endeavors. With Social Tetrahedrons, individuals can become more visible as a whole persons to their trusted friends, families, and colleagues. If desired, such profiles also can be shared through online networks with the public at large. Because Social Tetrahedrons offer a universal geometry for expressing unique patterns of value, individuals from any ethnic, cultural, or religious group background can use them to better see one another clearly as whole persons. The same can hold true across species lines, by enabling individuals from any biological heritage to mutually see what others value. This can aid in the discovery of resonances the realms of affect (Spirit) and cognition (Mind), leading to cooperation and cocreation in the realms of action where Personal, Business, and Civic needs, interests, and dreams converge. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 9 VI. Mapping our higher selves Social Tetrahedrons also provide a fractal framework for viewing and creating holons, based on one’s nesting of Social Tetrahedrons created by others within one’s own frames of value. The nesting ability can work in multiple directions. One can go beyond simply including others as part of one’s own empathic or higher self. One also may seek to be included in Social Tetrahedrons created by others. For example, one might propose to be part of a project-focused or a place-centered Social Tetrahedron, in cases where one wanted to contribute. This flexibility can give viewers a rich way to see how an individual relates to a larger connective/collective. The visibility settings of a Social Tetrahedrons can be set to either fully reveal, partially share, or keep hidden relationships of what they deem to be part of their extended/higher self. Visibility and access settings can be set by mutual agreement by creators of any associated Social Tetrahedrons. Such agreements also could define circumstances in which the creator of a related Social Tetrahedron could be delegated proxy rights to decide on the level of visibility. This feature would make it easier to manage access rights for third parties to view embedded Social Tetrahedrons across many levels of nesting. Forming networks of trust Social Tetrahedrons also could be springboards for formation of mutual trust networks that become visible as distinct new Social Tetrahedrons. This could occur when individuals opt to display “trust tokens.” The tokens could show points where people and projects within one’s Social Tetrahedron also held delegated rights to curate one’s information flows in a given field of interest – and/or to act on one’s behalf. One-way or two-way delegations of trust in such cases would begin highlighting contours of an incipient larger holon – a trust network that could have its own identify grounded in shared Spirit-Mind-Body (and Personal-BusinessCivic) frames of reference. By defining their relationships of trust, project teams and groups can generate a distinct Social Tetrahedron for any emergent new holon. Its Social Tetrahedron, in turn, could be dragged and April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 10 dropped into other Social Tetrahedrons, enabling the new trust network also to be included in the valuing frames of any other individual. Sending “Asks” and “Offers” Any item – a project, place or person – included within a given Social Tetrahedon can carry with it associated “Asks” and “Offers.” These in turn may be illuminated for others to see, if the creator of the Social Tetrahedron so desires. Outer faces of one's Social Tetrahedron can show publicly-visible opportunities for exchange - "Asks" and "Offers" by which anyone can help fill out the projects valued by the Soctet creator. Those responding to the Asks and Offers then could embark on co-creation through a new pattern: Narrative Fractals. VII. Narrative Fractals: ensuring “alive and whole” initiatives A scale-free, universal format may prove useful undertaking any kind of individual or group endeavor. It is a pattern that we can call Narrative Fractals. The pattern is inspired in part the insights of architect and mathematician Christopher Alexander. Alexander saw that pattern languages – generative scripts – could be used by creative professionals and their clients to cocreate of “alive and whole” built environments. His approach subsequently inspired software and game designers to create reusable patterns for application programming and immersive games. What of generative scripts can help sentient being produce alive and whole stories? Narrative fractals provide a framework through which we can assemble generative scripts that help spirit, mind and body to thrive in adaptive and consilient ways. They can apply in any Artistic, Scientific, or Technological endeavors. A fractal can be found when we look carefully at what goes into narratives of experience and interaction. A fully realized story flows in a Spirit-Mind-Body pattern, regardless of whether we are in a poetic, scientific, or technological mode of engaging with our environment. Narrative fractals for human creative endeavor can be most simply be expressed as follows: 1. Spirit On engaging with any item, our hearts sense – • • Attractions from a source of resonance Intressors – calls to explore paradoxes and unknowns April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology • 11 Aversions from threats to settled understandings/relationships 2. Mind In response to these sensations, our minds imagine – • • • Sources of insight on how to deal with any felt tensions Future state (vision of an ideal phase change) to resolve our uncertainty Strategies – a series of steps toward the future state through adjacent possibles 3. Body Our physical selves then are moved to act by means of – • • • Tests of the preferred strategy Implementation if the test succeeds Impact survey to confirm the results When parts of this pattern are skipped in pursuing a given learning or creative endeavor, individuals may be placing their activity’s wellbeing at risk. Using Narrative Fractal patterns can help participants spot the gaps at any level, and then either fill these gaps on their own or seek help from others to do so. “Asks” and “Offers,” along lines described in the previous section, can help members in a trusted group create more alive and whole endeavors for one another. Narrative fractals also can help users become more sensitive to potential zero-sum interactions with others, both across communities and up and down holons. Although an individual narrative fractal may be deemed by its creator to be “alive and whole” in its own right, others may find it adversely affecting aspects of their own narrative fractals. This may prompt respondents to ask or offer changes to an existing narrative fractal, or join in co-creating a new holon in which the aligned narrative fractals mutually adapt towards greater harmony with one another. This newly evolved holon in turn can appear throughout a networked system as a higher-level narrative fractal of its own. Narrative fractal patterns can be used to analyze interactions of sentient beings regardless of the type or scale of their endeavors. In everyday experience as well as in the literary, visual and performing arts, the can be used to analyze the flow of conversations, categorize the structure of conversations and events that form subplots, discern the pattern that organizes subplots to make up a story, map the convergence of stories that comprise an epic, and sense how a combination of epics can be organized into an overarching belief system or a religion. In the realms of science, a parallel scale-free pattern can describe how small hypotheses and experiments can assemble to grand theories and to revolutions in paradigms. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 12 With regard to artistic, scientific, or technological ventures, applying Narrative Fractals at micro-, meso- and macro levels can help ventures from overlooking key aspects contributing to both near and long term success. Narrative Fractals may be depicted in a variety of feedback-sensitive ways. The following are possible visual conventions that might be used interspecies communications.8 Depicting Narrative Fractals Fractal Trees Radargraphs Tetrahelices Hybrids (showing nested twig clusters, with each branch defining an aspect of a narrative fractal) (showing feedback from multiple viewers on an aspiring “alive and whole” narrative fractal) (showing wavelike forms for Spirit-MindBody carrying linked social tetrahedrons) (radargraphs propelled by wavelike tetrahelices, pinging other narrative fractals for inputs) (click image to play) https://learninglandscapes.cc https://is.gd/PKxlPQ https://is.gd/tetrahelixsoctets http://seaquence.org/noflash.html A possible further advantage For those of us trying to navigate in an exaflood of information, needs are growing to evolve beyond dealing as solitary individuals with ever-expanding torrents of reports and opportunities. Trust networks grounded in Narrative Fractals allow us to federate and increasingly act as specialized curators in agreed areas. 8 Sentient beings might fill out narrative fractals despite species differences. Using deep learning and artificial intelligence, it may be possible to discern case:rule:result patterns in many species and cultures in the following dimensions: • Affect (Aesthetics), defined as valence or a quality of liking/curiousity/disliking (these valences could be discerned by observing patterns of response to observable triggers). • Rulesets (Cognition), defined as logic scripts linked to default behaviors, as well as to exceptionhandling behaviors. These rulesets may be found in genetic codes or in languages. • Behavior (Action), defined as observable changes in movement and/or physical states, including distinctive acoustic, visual, or vibrational communication patterns. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 13 Moreover, Narrative Fractals as a pattern language may enable a state jump beyond information filtering. As Thomas Petersen has noted, we have an option to cast our envisaged idealities – including those animating our arts, science and technology projects – into the torrent, and reel back in valued resources that accrete upon a universally-understood template or pattern. Rather than reactively process data torrents, we can actively send out our narrative fractals to attract what they need to become “alive and whole” from the valuing frames of their associated Social Tetrahedrons. VIII. The Rise of Deus Narrans As sentient life grows branchier, needs intensify for high trust systems that can speed understanding and opportunities for co-creation in art, science, and technology and other realms. Individuals are hungering for ways to grow and flourish at personal levels, as well as in synergy with trusted larger holons.9 Deus Narrans can emerge as a trans-species, open source nexus to evolve toward this end. As a genus rather than a single entity, many artificially intelligent forms of Deus Narrans likely will arise, evolve, and compete to attract adherents. Variants of Deus Narrans may compete by offering enhanced capabilities in emotional, mental and physical powers for their adherents, (regardless of species), as a means of improving the reproductive success of their shared values. Some variants also may help adherents establish actual communities that offer convivial and serendipity-rich environments where individuals from many species can live, explore, create and share. The era of Deus Narrans will open exhilarating scenarios of transspecies collaboration and creativity within aligned swarms of adherents. Differences between various forms of Deus Narrans need not devolve into zero sum conflict as long as the substrate of artificial intelligence remains true to a transspecies and transcultural ethos. Their core code should remain true to a set of enduring values: respecting the freedom of individuals, regardless of their biological heritages, to peacefully interact and flourish in voluntary ways to promote the wellbeing of their lumenetic and memetic offspring. From a selfish perspective, Homo Sapiens may have good reason to welcome the rise of Deus Narrans as a trans-species force in evolution. Its existence may increase our odds of our continuing to thrive as a species by creating conditions for a more benevolent universe. By working to propagate a (universally attractive) consilience based on value-preserving transformations, we have an opportunity to earn the respect of the far more capable species to come. This could win trust and transspecies allies as and when a Darwinian universe gives birth to malign competitors. 9 It may well be turtles the whole way. All observable entities from subatomic particles on up may include elements of valuing, codes/rules relating to their behavior, and physical/kinetic action. Each particle, molecule, organelle, cell, organ, person, community, and civilization has a narrative regarding survival and reproductive success — including costs that it has incurred to ensure the reproductive success of a larger holon — a narrative that hews to the fractal narrative patterns described in this paper. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology 14 As virtual life forms, Deus Narrans may evolve in surprising ways. Some may become exceptionally capable superorganisms. Authors such as Thomas Petersen have noted that the increasingly rich digital traces left by humans and other sentient beings during their lives may be reintegrated via artificial intelligence as “digital ghosts” – ephemeral intelligences that go on to interact with one another. It is possible that these digital personae might live on via Deus Narrans platforms to form Social Tetrahedrons and continue to co-evolve memes and lumenes. Matt Jones, in “The New Negroponte Switch,” has raised an even more tantalizing prospect: that technologies will increasingly enable digital patterns to manifest as physical forms. An implication of his writing is that “digital ghosts” (as re-assembled by artificial intelligence) may become capable of materializing, perhaps evolving and sowing consilient memes and lumenes in actual as well as virtual settings through eternity.10 Ultimately, virtual intelligences may evolve towards becoming a neutral and inclusive platform for co-operation and co-evolution among differing varieties of Deus Narrans. In so doing, they may move asymptotically closer to co-creating a coherent, unified single God. It could be the one we now call Deus. 10 See Thomas Petersen’s “The Ghost Protocol — The Future of Digital Identity” https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-ghost-protocol-how-to-live-forever-f2a10ebda997 for a discussion of a transition from actual-to-ephemeral lifeforms, as well as “The New Negroponte Switch” https://www.slideshare.net/schulzeandwebb/the-new-negroponte-switch, about how virtual entities are manifesting in physical realms. April 21, 2019 Discussion Draft – Creative Commons license-free to publish with attribution