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.
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“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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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/
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WhereTo and Why: the Co-Evolution of Art, Science & Technology
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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.
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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
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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
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•
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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