Complex Systems and Inducing Emergence

https://substack.com/home/post/p-176383335

In high school, I wrote a report on the n-body problem and game theory. I implemented it with a few dozen lines of code and wrote a report about it, and the main point was as follows:

‘Simple rules lead to emergence’

In fact, the n-body problem is based on simple physics. “There is no general solution for interpreting the interaction of three or more bodies.” Each body has mass and acceleration. By integrating the acceleration of a body twice, you get its position.

It’s a very simple theory, and if you write analytical code to implement it, you can quickly run simulations. However, you cannot determine the position at time t=n. It produces simple yet unpredictable results.

Such systems exist in all fields, including physics, economics, society, politics, and computers. If every object affects every other object, you inevitably have an n-body problem. Moreover, the actual effects are specified, so the rules are simply expressed.

Therefore, our society is a system that derives complex conclusions under simple rules.

These days, simplicity is being emphasized. All the geniuses and eccentrics who changed the world throughout history. What appears as complex results to others are merely the outcomes after emergence; the theories that led to emergence are actually simple.

If you consider yourself a genius, your mind should be neatly organized. You should focus on the present, leaving only the simplest theories. What to focus on, how to interpret it, and from what perspective to respond are choices to be made later. Theories should be simple, but if actions are created under each theory and those actions influence other actions to create emergence, the purpose of the theory is likely to fall within the scope created by emergence.

The goals a theory must achieve vary from person to person, but they are defined nonetheless. For example, it could be a 10 billion asset or marriage (a goal set by the individual, not a universal one). However, there is no optimal solution to reach that theory. Therefore, the direction in which the theory exists is also indeterminable. The best way to achieve the theory is to explore all possible paths. This is the most efficient way to achieve goals in a chaotic situation where the optimal solution is unknown. If you try to explore one at a time, I assure you, you won’t reach it in a lifetime.

Therefore, every action should influence as many other actions as possible. As defined earlier, actions should be based on simple theories, and the actions created by simple theories should also influence the results of my past actions. This leads to complex results. Easily unpredictable.

I assert that results derived simply are likely to be 1) converged or redefined results or 2) useless deductive results. In the case of result 1, the result itself can become a theory. It acts as a kind of proposition. In the case of result 2, it is likely to be a proposition that everyone knows and ignores, like 1+1=2.

Richard Feynman said this before starting a lecture. When asked if someone like Feynman couldn’t describe science simply, he said,

“In front of you are scientific theories accumulated over decades. There is no process to explain them simply.”

Simplicity leads to leaps, and leaps lead to errors. If we advance with only deductive simplicity to understand something, perhaps human science would have just stayed in the past.

Simple results require an interpretative process. Newton’s simple theory of f=ma is simple, but the n-body problem using it results in complex outcomes. Einstein’s e=mc^2 is simple, but it can also be interpreted as something with mass moving close to the speed of light resulting in exponential weight increase. This can lead to the creation of atomic bombs and define the relationship between energy and light in our world.

Starting with several simple theories and going through complex interpretation and application processes, a new perspective finally emerges. When you look at the world from such a perspective, the world becomes more colorful and beautiful. You also gain the wit to flexibly accept extreme propositions and sometimes develop the wisdom to interpret complex social phenomena from your own perspective.

Sometimes, you expect such wisdom from others. By attending lectures or reading books, for example. It’s a very good choice, but if you go to extremes, you might encounter people like success peddlers.

The common stories told by success peddlers, like earning 1,000 a month by doing something, are likely to be useless deductive results mentioned earlier. And the famous saying that to succeed, you must start by making your bed in the morning should be understood not as the proposition to make your bed but as the hidden proposition to finish even trivial tasks.

In other words, the specific actions that success peddlers talk about are honestly not very useful. Instead, you should focus on the simple propositions behind them. For example, the saying “To invest well, first save seed money at your job” concludes with the proposition that preparation commensurate with great energy is necessary, and this emerges as the clear definition that you must meet the critical point when making an atomic bomb. A theory is a generalized proposition.

The anxiety humanity has is also the same mechanism. The species of humanity itself does not trust itself, and because I do not trust myself, I rely on others or concepts and fear that they might be wrong, leading to anxiety. Imagining what will happen in the future, the result seems bad, so they don’t even try in the first place. Honestly, humanity’s imagination is also a genius tool that allows humanity to escape the treadmill of spatiotemporal constraints, and if you’re a bit smart, you’ll have better imagination than others, allowing you to foresee future events clearly and be anxious in advance.

And if you have such a mind, please don’t be anxious and organize it into a theory. Don’t invest your genius mind in useless imagination but practice elevating it to your perspective that defines the present.

So when I see people who are vaguely anxious about the future, they are often in ambiguous situations.

They are people who went to a fairly good school, got a job at a fairly good company in their late 20s, and are doing fairly well, but if they miss even one thing, anxiety overwhelms them.

Rather, people who have let go of everything like studying or school and focused on what they want to do would be working or running a business with the talent that comes from having plenty of time, living happily.

Our lives are not the result of serial choices. Sometimes opportunities suddenly come rushing in, and choices made in the past influence today’s choices, creating new emergence and opportunities.

I think if you believe in the theories and actions you have created based on theory and if those theories are conducive to creating sufficient emergence, you can achieve your desired goals.

Especially if it’s a game like starting a business, which is a complex system from the beginning. It might take a long time just to set the goal. In this case, it’s only natural to feel anxious, and if you have an average mentality, recognizing “I’m anxious now” might be a better way to manage your mentality than half-heartedly thinking “I can endure it.” Recognizing anxiety makes you do something, after all. If you focus too much on shaking off anxiety and become overly immersed, you end up being caught in excessive self-pity.

Such self-pity, the act of amplifying sad or depressed emotions to gain sympathy from others, like “Why isn’t it working when I’m trying so hard?” is never desirable. Whether you were poor when you were young, have a goal that takes too long to achieve, or have a family to support and must succeed, but are now feeling depressed.

Such emotions cannot be theorized, so it’s important not to pay much attention to them in the first place. As humans, you might suddenly be caught up in these emotions, but visualizing and accepting them with an uncompromising perspective is another dimension of the problem. Let’s not be too subjectively immersed in our failures and emotions.

Being positively immersed in the current goal and approaching each day sincerely is important, while also not doing your best in every situation and determining the sector to focus on. In my case, I abandoned quite a few areas, including school and unnecessary human relationships, and focused only on the software field and philosophy.

Even so, I didn’t do my best in every field. As writer Kim Young-ha said, if you do your best 100%, you get tired. If it’s a field or organization where you don’t get rewarded even if you do your best, you need to adjust mercilessly according to the plan. For example, in the case of school, there is an upper limit, and under the clear goal of the college entrance exam, the exam itself has a goal of college, and college has a goal of employment. In this process, knowledge and actions are filtered like through a funnel, and the college entrance exam does not connect well to employment, just like that.

It’s most important to determine a few fields to immerse in and induce emergence. One at a time. So that they connect across time.