Resonant Instinct
The adaptive optics of our conscious observations help us navigate atop the wave functions of potential towards all that we deem meaningful
Meaning Means Everything
It’s an annoying concept to build upon (and a pretty bad starting point for this article) but here it is nonetheless:
Without observation, any given system exists in a state of incoherent and meaningless disorder.
Hypothetically remove any and all conscious awareness of our own species, or of our place in space and time— our physics, our technologies, our culture; strip all self-awareness away — history, folklore, identity — and meaning would dissolve pretty quickly from the human epoch.
There’d be no sense to anything without the role of a collective (nor individual) observer.
But as soon as at least one discerning mind or sensing mechanism enters the picture (whether it’s a deity or a photon detector), patterns begin to emerge from the noise and order begins to bubble up from the chaotic froth of nonsense. Meaning explodes into the myopia of happenstance, no longer utterly irrelevant.
Causality now has a point.
We humans, in particular, have a unique perspective on everything, from the geomaterial makeup of the planet underfoot to the socio-cultural lessons of our own actions. Our consciousness is the great sensing and synchronizing force of a world that’s otherwise nonsensical.
We filter light through a spectrum that only we can perceive; we apply logic and deduction in a way that has been shaped by the neuro-cognitive statures of our brain; we follow impulses of emotion and fear based on the residuals of our evolutionary makeup; we circumnavigate based on the limits of our psycho-physiologies, and we interact or learn via our increasingly innovative mechanisms of observation.
But what if there were other, more expansive or effective ways to perceive the world around us? What if we began calibrating the more intuitive radar systems that we rely on to maneuver possibility?
Forget augmented reality, pharmacological supplementation, cultural and psychological complexes or religious convictions: consider the very method by which we synthesize data in real time, around us, at any given moment.
Envision our navigation of space and time to resemble something of an echo-locative doppler; similar to how sound waves bounce onto and off of objects (or events) to transmit data back to us, we’re propelled in our exploration of reality by the information we cultivate — the signals we send and receive.
Here’s the two-fold kicker: i) the better we become at transmitting and receiving this data, the better we become at predicting certain outcomes; ii) the greater our predictive impulses are, the more expansive our scopes of possibility become.
In other words, not only can we enhance our perceptive ability and broaden our horizons of potentiality, but we can more effectively decipher the uncertainties of reality in ways that categorically improve our navigation through possibility — making them more meaningful.
And meaning, as the beautifully subjective element that it is, is really everything. To get to that which we seek, and that which we deem meaningful, our effort ultimately boils down to the [unlimited] capacities of our instinct.
Minimizing Disruption
In the labs of Bonn University—a Sisyphean Stone’s throw (or roll) from the ever-changing Rhine River — Prof. Johann Kroha of the physics institute has conceptually re-engineered the way we interact with the quantum world.
Using a terahertz light pulse of extremely low energy, Kroha excites particle states without really disrupting (or destroying) them; the systems, in return, pulsate back visual echoes and clues to the very nature of their compositions, spins, and interactions.
“It is as if we would shine a camera flash on a person, and minutes later the person emits another light pulse which, for example, carries information about the person’s state of health” — Prof. Kroha
It’s not all that crazy to posit that the more refined our instruments of measurement, the better we can interact with an observed system — from petri dishes to investment portfolios.
The more that a mechanism of observation — scanner or conscious perception alike — acts without disruption to the observed system, with minimal friction and resistance, the more can be understood.
Remember: the more capably we transmit/receive/decipher/predict data, the more we expand/enable/enact possibility towards the right kinds of meaning we’re driven to pursue.
Because our fundamental purpose in this reality seems to be just that: navigating possibilities towards outcomes that mean something to us.
We can do so fluidly, moving with little disruptive friction from a panoramic perspective that masterfully considers not only the possibilities directly ahead, but also (and often especially) those on the peripheries of our vision.
But to do that, and to do more with the opportunities around us, we often fail to consider that we have to do less. Moreover, we have to consider the whole picture at play — all the moving variables that have a bearing on our navigation towards meaning.
We should thus work within the balance and interdependence of all things — this is where the lines between physics and spirituality often become quite blurred, and for good reason.
All systems, from solar to quantum, exhibit an interdependent entanglement whereby the constituent parts (from planets to particles) are intertwined, and states exist in a fluid balance between possibility and activation.
This connection underscores the idea that the fabric of reality at both the quantum and philosophical levels, at all levels really, is a tapestry of interwoven potentials waiting to be unveiled through observation and understanding.
Superconductivity
The Eastern concept of Wu-Wei (which many will translate to mean non-action) has always seemed to elude my accepting of it.
If I jump through some linguistic hoops, it fits more comfortably into the whole picture of navigating reality and possibility.
In essence: non-action shouldn’t be regarded as inaction. Instead, it’s probably best seen as a path of least resistance.
Think of that phrase not as something that resembles a shortcut or a term often quoted between covers of self-help books; think of it as a locomotive current of energy, not only fueling but inspiring our navigation through reality. A lightning strike is no less electrifying because it carves a path of least resistance.
If we create friction or resistance— in how we perceive the world or people or our surrounding environments —we block that current. If we overly try to force or resist, internally try to clutch or grasp, externally try to influence or overpower — we self-obstruct.
Bogging down perspective, growing blinders to opportunity, no longer trying to predict outcomes or actualize the more ambitious of the wave functions; our orbits become skewed, our spins dwindle, and our observational navigation through possibility becomes more burdensome.
But if we maintain the right approach, driven by meaning (as opposed to fear) and if move with little friction (assuming a state of superconductive potential), we can achieve a precise and fluid maneuverability that allows us to swim momentously with the interwoven currents of potential.
We can manage our energy outputs so that they’re not targeted at the futile efforts to control the uncontrollable; we can simultaneously acquiesce to the unbeatable forces of nature while beating out those forces unnatural.
Such a perspective can mean an existential difference between feeling oppressed by the greater powers — from laws of thermodynamics to laws of man — or masterfully maneuvering amongst them.
The nagging inevitabilities of biological aging and entropy; the toxic cultural and political complexes; the inept or insane beings around us; we can live free from the unnecessary diversions atop an unwavering conviction of self-mastered existence.
Though there’s kind of an unspoken caveat to the Wu-Wei philosophy: it’s technically impossible. It’s an ideal, one we strive for and only on a rare, scintillating occasion actually taste.
Regardless, it’s inherently difficult for a reason. Whatever that reason may be — the crystallization of character, the impetus of not dying alone, the etching of legacy, the gaining of mass or momentum.
It’s discipline, wrapped up in an intuitionally inquisitive and meaningful movement through reality.
A long way to say that we should bend with the twists of the story rather than letting them bend us — lean into the rhythms of the possible wave functions around; transmit our echoes more precisely into the winds that count, not just forcefully into the dense open air.
To refine our perspective so much that we don’t ever face resistance is impossible. But to refine it so that we can achieve some level of energetic, instinctual dynamism akin to a superconductivity that cultivates a more meaningful movement through space and time — that seems to be what Wu-Wei is all about.
Expanding the Peripherals
Consider team-based competitive sports. Most will have a transmitter: a quarterback, a pitcher, a handler, a forward; there’ll also be a receiver — a catcher, a batter, a cutter, a goalie or a guard.
They have to navigate both the fields of possibility and the arenas of potential with a finesse that requires them to not only consider as many options as possible but also the most effective options at any given moment.
The best of the best — from the Mahomes’ to the Messi’s to the Tyson’s— will be especially adept at quickly deciphering data, predicting outcomes and presciently working under an unparalleled field of overly-ambitious possibility.
They have to know how the events of space and time (the plays, the maneuvers, the outcomes) are unfolding around them; they have to instinctively and dynamically adjust their vision, pace, thought, speed, and cadence.
Neurochemically, their brains are hardwired to optimize their performance via an adept deployment of neurotransmitters like norepinephrine. Their physiology is as responsive as need be, from redirecting blood flow to their lungs to dilating their pupils to enhance their acuities. It’s why they perform better in clutch moments and optimize on stressful circumstances.
Their positioning and maneuvering, hand-eye or foot-eye coordination, knowing when to invest in a leap or poach a pass or duck a punch based upon countless evenings and mornings spent refining strategy, reflexology, plyometrics, nutrition regimens, pain-tolerance.
The best MMA fighters, chess-players, lawyers or parents aren’t those who simply dominate their external circumstances — they relentlessly hone their internal dispositions as well.
Navigating possibility with utmost finesse, artfulness, dynamism, and energy, with the most limitless self-definition possible, one that completely expands the peripherals somehow well beyond 360 degrees.
However we dress this all up — cognitive attenuation adjustment; ultra self-engaged oriented neurocognition; expectation management; cultivating particle interactions; riding the wave functions through Heraclitus’ River pushed by the Brahman winds amidst echoes of Taoist perception— the simple point to be made is that we should avoid being fooled into thinking that we can do much less than we actually can at any given moment in space and time.