WHAT IF REDUCTIONISM ISN'T REAL?
EMERGENT REALITY
The first fundamental axiom of Dasism is that reality is an emergent, entangled mess.
Emergence is when a complex system has properties that appear at the system level that can't be explained by the interactions of the components alone.
It is the process by which the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
WHAT IS EMERGENT ENTANGLEMENT?
Systems Influencing Components
Systems Influencing Components
Systems Influencing Components
Emergent entanglement highlights the complex interplay between systems and their components.
It describes how emergent properties—those arising from the interaction of a system's parts—can then influence those very parts in ways that create new dynamics via emergent reciprocation.
Leverage Points
Systems Influencing Components
Systems Influencing Components
There are leverage points where small interactions can cause great impacts. For example, in social networks, a popular idea can gain traction exponentially as more people adopt and share it, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.
The emergent property of popularity feeds back into the network to drive further adoption.
Dampening Zones
Systems Influencing Components
Dampening Zones
These occur where the system's emergent behavior stabilizes or limits further change. For instance, in ecosystems, predator-prey relationships often exhibit dampening effects.
If prey populations grow too large, predators thrive, which in turn reduces the prey population, stabilizing the system over time.
CRITICAL REALISM
CERTAINTY AS HUMANITY'S VICE
As stated already, the only constant in reality is change. By making authoritative certainty the aim of the pursuit of Truth, western society has created an inevitable revolution cycle where dogma accumulates until it becomes so restrictive to the present moment that its rejected, often violently.
Critical realism is the fundamental perspective that requires intellectual humility from us regardless of what we believe for the moment.
REJECTING DOGMATIC BELIEF STRUCTURES
Scientific realism and logical positivism fundamentally seeks something the Truth may never be able to provide humanity; certainty.
As more and more of reality is demonstrated to be emergent and chaotic, it's time to recognize the pursuit of any sort of dogmatic realism for what it is; a means for humanity to cope with its anxiety of the unknown.
Science has never claimed to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt, just within the parameters of various experiments and with the bias from having conclusions up front in publications, creating an implicit tendency towards the proposed interpretation.
REDUCED TO IRRELEVANCY
While realism and empiricism have a place in the toolkit humanity uses to determine truth, to act like they are the only acceptable lens creates a massive blind spot that is readily exploited by corrupt authorities.
It's difficult to say if the sole draw towards reductionism is the sense of control it offered, or if people can't see beyond the results and realize that we can have close understandings and still engineer plenty through sheer iterative effort.
Regardless, complexity science and emergent phenomenon have invalidated the overly controlled and absolutists views of the world. We need to pursue relational, iterative science. We don't need incremental, absolute detail about everything. Reductionism becomes a rabbit hole in this sense.