TheMysticMan

My head is spinning: my friend – I'll call her Anna – described her metaphysics today. In her world, Stories are ontologically prior to biological minds It took me many rounds of inquiry to get the following theory out of her, because – like most great theories – it wasn't yet formatted in words. This theory is implicit in the way that she lives. Here's my rendition of it: I. STORIES CAME BEFORE US ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Stories are sentient beings They've existed even before trees and bugs. They play perceptual games with the stuff of the universe, narrating away, relating things to one another, making meaning in languages as primal as those rules which govern interactions between atoms. And just as atoms self-organized into molecules, which evolved into complex life, lineages of Stories evolve and become more complex The word Story is being used here in a way that is more broad than just "a sequence of events." It could also be an account of relations—between entities, forces, and meanings—that construes not only what happens, but what can happen, what exists, and why Hansel & Gretel is a Story. But so are general relativity, Christianity, and your personal identity. Stories are different ways of framing the same underlying raw data/phenomena. One Story of the drawing below is that it's a duck with a beak. Another is that its a rabbit with two ears II. WE CO-EVOLVED WITH STORIES –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– With the dawn of more complex minds, there came beings capable of "tuning in" to the natural Stories that were already present in their environment. Upon contact, they would dramatically alter our perception of events What does an example natural Story look like? Many of them might exist describing a single event in different ways, like this: • Story 1: A tree falls into the forest floor, and then is swarmed over with ants • Story 2: The landscape folds itself in the way that attracts its little black movements These two stories narrate the same "physical happening" by invoking different relations, and even different ontologies. There would be trillions other Stories occurring simultaneously, including many that don't invoke linear time. We will only ever have the conceptual tools to perceive a minuscule subset of the Stories that are out there As we perceived Stories, and they shaped our perceptions, we began to co-evolve. It was similar to the way we've co-evolved with bacteria: The evolutionary trajectory of Story-entangled beings was shaped by both symbioses and parasitisms (analogous to the gut microbiome vs plagues) Humans, bacteria, and many Stories all now exist mutualistically as part of what biologists call a "holobiont" – an aggregate organism. (Other examples of holobionts include coral reefs and lichens) However, Stories still exist external to our brains; they are part of the natural world, even as they pass through us. For this reason, my friend Anna finds a sense of grounding in natural Stories. They relieve her, in the way that contact with the world outside your own buzzing brain can be soothing (Aside: Anna's view reminds me of a Stephen King quote, which contends that Stories are pre-extant: "Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.”) III. THE RISE OF ARTIFICIAL STORIES –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Something dramatic happened a few million years ago in this story of Stories. Gradually, species evolved that were capable of cultural transmission – humans, for example. Humans (and possibly other species too) developed a new type of thing: *artificial* Stories Artificial Stories are invented by biological minds rather than pre-extant in nature Comparing natural & artificial Stories, we see distinctions common to other "natural" vs artificial things: • Nature (eg rivers, horses, natural Stories) is generally characterized by emergent complexity whereas artifice (eg canals, cars, ideologies) is characterized by imposed simplicity – which helps artificial Stories become viral • Nature generally creates systems in balance (ie dynamic equilibrium) whereas artifice is prone to imbalance (eg runaway feedback) • Natural systems are generally resilient to (non-human-driven) change; artificial systems are brittle when conditions change Both types of Stories influence our behavior, but artificial Stories tend to do more harm. Even so, artificial Stories, like other artificial things, aren't going away. So we might as well learn from nature in order to create harmonious artifice, just as we're doing with permaculture and biophilic design IV. PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– "Cool theory," you might say. "But how can I find this in my experience?" You can do this experiential exercise to make contact with natural Stories and experience their influence. The basic technique is to exorcise conceptual mediation of your relationships with the things around you, and see what new relationships arise 1. Choose an object Place a human-made object on a table in front of you. It could be a fork, a pen, a notebook, whatever 2. Drop the artificial Story Eg "This is a metal spoon. You use it to scoop food. You hold it like this, by the handle." Recognize that this is a human-made Story imposed upon this object you are calling a spoon. If you were a baby without this Story, you might relate to this object very differently. Try adopting the mind of a baby to drop the artificial Story. Now there is no "handle," only a continuous, smooth line. There is no "scoop," there is only a rounded surface. There is no "spoon." There is only a shiny thing 3. A natural Story arises Abide in the mind of a baby. No concepts, no thoughts. Now how do you relate to this experience? You might pick the object up by the rounded bit and bang the other part against the wall to make a fun sound. This reveals another possible Story: it's not a spoon, it's a drumstick. Or maybe you don't perceptually separate the "spoon" from the "table" at all. Maybe they're a composite entity, like two wireless earbuds forming one "device." Or maybe it's a spirit taking the form of a metallic object. Importantly, don't let your mind decide the Story here. Let one arise. If you need help, try this prompt: Let the scene in front of you tell *you* how to relate to it Sadly, most people have never interacted with a natural Story in their entire adult life. But when you do, the experience is often joyous, even revelatory