Phase Two. The place of man in the S-hierarchy of the Universe
Do not complain: this is the law of fate;
the whole world revolves around man,
- Will he alone be immovable?
А. S. Pushkin, 1836
Before proceeding to this chapter, the author would like to stipulate in advance that this and the following chapters are only an attempt to consider, through the prism of the laws of the material world, the tasks facing man in the same material world. For this reason, the vast majority of the material is intended to reveal the external aspects of human existence. The only exception is the texts of “digressions”, whose free flight of thought sometimes leads the author to the problems of the inner world of man.
Let us recall some facts related to the peculiarity of man's position in the large-scale hierarchy of the Universe.
The scale place of the human being on the S-axis is five orders of magnitude to the right of the SCU. This asymmetry is not accidental and has a deep meaning connected with the evolutionary development of the Universe. It is also very remarkable that not only man is shifted to the right by 5 orders of magnitude from the SCU, in the same way the whole “wave of life” is shifted relative to the scale center by 5 orders of magnitude to the right, and \(10^{5}\) is a universal Universal dimensionless constant, the value of which for the scale regularities is paramount and most important.
Let us remind once again that just as a living cell is in the scale center of the Universe, so a human being is in the scale center, but in the “protein Universe”. It is important to note that the shift vector of the “wave of life” coincides with the vector of the Metagalactic expansion and with the vector of the global evolution of the Universe. If we speak about time as a process going in the large-scale space, then the vector of time is directed in the same direction. After all, the Universe becomes larger with age, and the global universal time flows in the direction of increasing masses, and not vice versa. Moreover, as already mentioned, most of the multicellular species (mammals, fish, amphibians) are located in the size range from 3 centimeters to 30 meters. On the S-axis, this interval has an average logarithmic size close to the human height. Consequently, man is not only in the scale center of all protein life, but also in the scale center of multicellular life. Its central position in connection with these facts looks less and less accidental.
However, it is not only the central position in the protein world that distinguishes man on the scale axis. As we have already written, its scale position is located about 5 orders of magnitude to the right of the SCU. Moreover, if we put off 5 orders of magnitude from the leftmost point of the S-interval - from the fundamental length, from the point A = \(10^{-32.8}\) cm (see Fig. 1.7), then in exactly 7 steps we will get to the scale of human size - \(10^{2.2}\) cm = 161.58 cm, or 1.6158 meters. In the last century, this corresponded almost perfectly to the average height of a human being. But by our time the average height has increased by several centimeters, which can be explained by the mass use of hormones.
Fig. 3.6. The wave of life rapidly advances to the right along the S-axis in the direction of increasing sizes of more complex protein systems. The scale center of the wave of life is shifted relative to the scale center of the Universe by exactly 5 orders of magnitude.
All the above-mentioned testifies to the undoubtedly distinguished, special position of man in the hierarchical structure not only of the Biosphere, but also of the Universe.
FREEDOM OF DISCUSSION
If man really occupies a central position on the scale interval of protein life, if he is really the best child of the Universe on Earth, his individual power could be much higher. All the more so because there is no number of examples when a person's potential is much higher than the degree of his realization. It concerns both physical and mental and psychophysical capabilities of a human being. For some reason, however, this super-high potential manifests itself only in individual cases.
Many legends and myths say that the latent abilities of man in the past were manifested not in a lesser but even in a greater degree. If, for example, we believe the literature about Atlantis, Hyperborea and other vanished civilizations, then individual capabilities in those times were fabulously great: people flew, traveled to other worlds, moved the stones of the pyramids with their eyes, and so on. Where did it all go, if it was?
And in general, what is the result? If we follow Darwin's godless theory of evolution, a useful property, even accidentally acquired, is accumulated and consolidated. Natural selection in this case would lead to the fact that for many thousands of years individuals who could eat glass, cut themselves without consequence with swords, eat a tiny amount of food, see through walls, levitate, memorize huge amounts of information, overcome any difficulties by the power of thought, etc., would have to survive and win the struggle for existence.
If we believe in God, it is not clear why He constantly shows these examples to people, but does not let them master them? Does He punish them for their sins? And the longer mankind lives on the Earth, the more sins increase? Consequently, humanity has been going wrong for thousands of years, God sees it, but for some reason tolerates it? Or does He want to wait for more sins to accumulate, so that He can punish them severely and make them sick! What is this model of the Creator who has created an imperfect world and waits only for a convenient opportunity to destroy it?
Let's imagine that we have children whom we love. Children are spoiled, mischievous, do something wrong. Are we waiting for them to spoil themselves so that we can gather them together and flog them? Is this the thought of God that magnifies Him? Could it be simpler and more logical? Man with all his biological past heritage is an animal. Animals have been eating each other for hundreds of millions of years.
I should think that this was the plan. After all, attempts to remove natural enemies have always led to mass disease and extinction of herbivores. So for the antelope being eaten by the lion, this is a totally negative event, but for the entire antelope community it is a wonderful event: “Get the bad grass out of the field!” It is not for us, with our tiny knowledge of the laws of the world, to judge the Creator for having created the Biosphere as it is, and that natural selection and the food pyramid have been operating in it for billions of years.
And here appears on Earth the first creature for all billions of years, which is able to intensively develop the population level of organization of the Biosphere. The focus of evolution on the S-axis changes. If before the most important for the Biosphere was to create the most perfect and diverse species of multicellular organisms, now this task has been accomplished and there is no need to improve the organismal level. Now it is time to build the next floor from the already created organisms. And what yesterday was the purpose of creation - organisms - today becomes a means, a building material.
Those who have built brick houses know very well that when they buy a brick, they always try to choose the perfect bricks: whole, without cracks or chips. But when they are used to build a house, it is often necessary to chip these perfect bricks to make a corner or put a beam. And so it is here. Initially perfect people are subjected to special “deformation”, capping, as they are “stacked” in a social construction. Soldiers are taught to shoot, police are taught to catch criminals and put them in jail, judges are taught to judge, although the Christian commandments say: do not kill, do not judge.....
Now let us imagine that such an imperfect social system will be filled not by ordinary people, but by such supermen, magicians and wizards, sorcerers and flyers, i.e. people with increased psychophysical, physical and intellectual capabilities. What will happen? And everything will be much worse - there will be mutual struggle with great energy expenditures, with great losses and troubles. After all, practice shows that social flexibility and adaptability of bright personalities are much lower than average ones. Pride prevents them from fitting frictionlessly into the social fabric of life. That is why we sometimes think that God gives people the smallest of all their potentialities (the least of which cannot be given) in order to minimize the losses from social conflicts.
In any case, looking back critically on his life's journey, the author is glad that he did not have in the past, in many cases, a real opportunity to realize his angry impulses.
And only in order that we know and see our unrealized potential, do not forget about it and strive to obtain it, that is why God allows people with supernatural abilities to appear on Earth from time to time, but only as examples, only as guides, as beacons of the future. Some of these people become saints and bring good to people with their abilities. Some of them cannot cope with the feeling of their own exclusiveness, which creates in them a consciousness of gigantic superiority and conceit, which creates pride. This leads them down the path of egoistic lust for glory, honor and adoration. They can do so much mischief that society will once again realize that it is too early for people to have such high possibilities. It is not without reason that many elders in Russia, if they could not cope with pride, asked the Lord in fervent prayers to take away the gift of healing, which they received after a certain period of self-conscious striving for the divine ideal.
At the same time, the author has no doubt that as soon as mankind matures and achieves wise harmony with the universal laws, as soon as a harmonious social structure is created, the secrets of divine individual power will immediately open up in many people.
Let us consider another assumption based on the principle of large-scale analogies between the physical and social worlds. Suppose that human psychophysical forces are analogous to nuclear forces, and social forces are analogous to electromagnetic forces. Then psychophysical forces should be much stronger than social forces on short scales, at the level of individual mutual contacts (within social nuclei), and on large scales they will become negligibly weak and will be overpowered by social forces. This is what is actually happening. Let us explain this analogy once again.
Let us imagine that we are inside a complex nucleus. Contrary to the forces of electromagnetic repulsion, protons are tightly coupled into a single whole due to strong interactions. At the same time, if protons manage to get separated at a distance slightly more than \(10^{-13}\) cm, they instantly fall into the “embrace” of electro-magnetic forces and fly away from each other under their influence.
Probably, human psychophysical forces have a very limited potential of influence, i.e. their radius of action is rather small. Then, if we get into the energy field of a magician, if we are near him, he is able to keep around him a certain number of disciples, followers who worship him. However, as soon as we leave the “sect” (beyond the boundaries of the “core”), we enter the field of social interactions, and the “magician” loses his power over us.
Certainly, just as religious, magical, and mystical schools were needed in the past, today we need schools for scientists, directors, musicians, and politicians. The actual go-hen, there is nothing inherently negative in uniting people around one very strong personality. The only question is where does this person lead his disciples?
At first there were only 12 apostles around Jesus Christ. It was not only the truth of His sermons that kept them around Him. He did not show His supernatural powers for the sake of entertainment. Why do new religious schools and sects arising today lead their followers into a dead end? This is a very difficult question.
Perhaps one answer is that in the purely RELIGIOUS sphere, nothing better can be invented or created than what already exists. At least not until all ten Christian commandments are practiced every day.
And as far as I understand this problem, many “prophets” either simplify known religious teachings or create a cult not around a deity, but around their own personality. In both cases, this is a negative phenomenon.
It is a different matter if scientific schools are created. In this case there is not a process of deification of the teacher, but merely a concentration of people's attention on a new scientific idea.
The second aspect of the large-scale analogy is the proportional relationship between natural systems with strong ties and systems without strong ties. Recall that more than 70% of the matter of the Universe is concentrated in hydrogen atoms, and the hydrogen nucleus is just one pro- ton. Hence, for most of the matter of the Universe, strong interactions play no role at all.
Could it be that in the social environment the ratio of people in schools and sects to people outside such sects and schools is about 1:8?
The third aspect of the scale analogy. Recall that the heaviest nucleus consists of no more than 300 nucleons. Beyond this number, it is impossible to hold the nucleons together with the help of strong interactions. Could it be that psi-physical interactions cannot hold together people numbering more than 300 or so? Maybe that is why sects and schools of all kinds, based solely on the psycho-physical power of one person, do not live long and cannot subdue a much larger social space. Perhaps it is precisely because of the desperation of not being able to expand their social influence that the leaders of such schools go to extremist measures. One of the most recent examples is the Aum Senrikyo sect.
Perhaps this is why many of the strongest psychics and miracle-workers are so poorly socially adapted. Their incredible abilities set them apart from ordinary people and they do not think of themselves as preaching in an individual temple where ordinary people are only allowed to bow down to them. At the same time, they cannot go out into the wide expanses of social spaces on “naked psychophysics”. The success of some schools, as the study of their history shows, is based on the skillful use of the whole set of modern social technologies, up to bribing high-ranking government officials. The many scandals involving newfangled prophets, which the twentieth century is so rich in, for example, show that it is impossible to enter the future from the back door, bypassing the logical development of culture. The path that bypasses science only through ancient esotericism, in the author's opinion, is an attempt to bypass the difficulties of building a logical construct of society, an attempt to bypass the future. Such regressive moves are peculiar only to collapsing social systems, which in physical time move into the future, and in evolutionary time - into the past.
Let us look, however, at this problem from another angle. All the diversity of the world is based on the presence of complex atoms (hence complex nuclei), although they are much smaller in mass than simple ones. Using large-scale analogies, we can assume that clusters of people also bring a leaven of diversity to the social world. So to relegate the idea of society to social ionized individualism is analogous to trying to return the universe to its primary hydrogen-proton state.
So, one can PROPOSE that just as electromagnetic forces hold the entire macro-floor of the Universe, so social interactions overcome the mass-staff horizon of psychophysical connections and expand the horizon of people's association.
Man is located absolutely precisely in the center of the protein interval on the S-axis. However, his central position is such only in the static picture of the scale structure. We believe that the wind of change blows along the S-axis, towards larger scales. In other words, the expansion of the Metagalaxy creates the RIGHT VECTOR OF EVOLUTION constantly acting on the S-axis.
If we consider the hierarchical structure of the Universe more traditionally, i.e. vertically, then the ALMOST EVOLUTIONAL FLOW IS UPward. Naturally, the anti-evolutionary, regressive movement is directed downward.
One can BELIEVE that for such evolving systems as man, equilibrium cannot be achieved only by focusing on the development of one's own mass-staff level (~\(10^{2}\) cm). Traditionally speaking, a human being is not able to hold an egocentric position, for he would then have to resist the evolutionary pressure of the universal scale. Consequently, if the location of the
of man on the S-axis and is by many signs central in the protein range, his outlook should be directed not “to the navel”, but upwards towards the larger scales. From this seemingly simple large-scale “observation” there follow worldview conclusions, which we shall now consider.
Before we turn to the social aspects of this upward movement, I would like to note once again that the boundary of this upward movement is open to infinity. To put it another way, the vector of this upward movement is directed towards the Supreme.
First. Man is centralized relative to two poles: the pole of the completed evolution of the world of unicellular cells and the pole of the ongoing evolution - the world of social systems. Both poles are distant from him by 5 orders of magnitude (see Fig. 3.1). The left half of the protein interval is mostly filled with systems already formed in harmonic perfection, while the right half is only just being filled with systems that are being formed and therefore imperfect, non-harmonious, but developing. Naturally, there arises the PROPOSITION that ONE of the most important tasks of man in the Biosphere is the transfer of Nature's “inventions” from the left part of the interval of protein life to its right part.
There is no sense to prove here that the social environment is much more complex than the population structure of animals. This complexity is ensured by the social framework, which can be described in different slices. The author, as a systems engineer, is closest to the technosphere of the social environment, so let us consider it. It is obvious that the life of modern society is impossible without technical infrastructure: plants, factories, houses, roads, communications and other external systems. Let us call this subsystem of the Noosphere the Technosphere. It has been developing particularly rapidly in the last century.
As a result of the explosive expansion of the Technosphere, the mankind has received, besides a number of conveniences, not very pleasant consequences connected with it.
For a long time artificial objects (from an axe to a rocket) were perceived by people as creations more perfect than biological ones. It is understandable, because man created them himself, created them by labor. At the same time, all biosystems - “from bee to elephant” - appeared regularly without his intervention and therefore were valued in other, lower categories.
Of course, today you cannot exchange an axe for an elephant, but only because of the fact that an elephant is of greater use value to man. We catch a live mouse in a mousetrap, and we buy a mechanical or electronic mouse for children with pleasure. All this was explained by the fact that Nature could not create a wheel, a bow, a cannon, a doll and many other “wonderful” things that man could create.
Only in the twentieth century, when science seriously started to study the functioning of biosystems, it became clear that many technological inventions are just analogs of already existing (on other scales) biological mechanisms and systems. It was realized that most technical inventions
It was realized that the majority of technical inventions are not only analogs of long-standing (on other scales) biological mechanisms and systems. In this connection, some ideologists who curse all technical development in general, calling the Technosphere a calamitous mistake of mankind, began to appear more and more often. Such a radical denial of the Technosphere, we believe, is a worldview error. The problems of the Technosphere can be solved by technical means, and Mankind has no other way. However, to those hotheads who curse the technical civilization in principle, we would like to advise them to be honest and consistent. Gentlemen, if you curse technological progress, do not pick and eat the “poisonous fruit” from this tree - give up all the comforts it gives you. To do this, settle somewhere in the Siberian taiga or the Amazon jungle and return to a “natural” existence, and from there, having first set an example of “natural living” for yourself, try to propagate your beliefs throughout the world, for example, by means of drums.
Invention is nothing but a transfer (most often intuitive) of processes and constructions that have already been created by the Biosphere and realized by evolution, including within man himself. This realization led to the birth of a new scientific direction - bionics 1. As the mysteries of biological processes became more and more deeply penetrated, it became clear that most (if not all) human inventions have “prototypes” in nature. Those inventions that are difficult to match with natural prototypes are usually imperfect and intermediate.
Indeed, what is a kitchen? It is the human stomach taken outside. What is a pharmaceutical factory? It is the macro-level processes unfolding in the cell. In other words, in the most general form, the Technosphere is a human organism turned inside out and transferred from micro to macro scales (see Fig. 3.7), if we consider it as a typical representative of the Biosphere. In any case, if it were possible to create as perfect a supply structure in society as the circulatory system, as faultless a control system as the nervous system, as ideal a control center of society as the human brain, the life of an individual human-cell in such an organism-society would be several orders of magnitude more comfortable, stable and harmonious.
Thus, the author BELIEVES that one of the functions of Man on Earth is the INVERSIONAL TRANSFER of those ingenious inventions of the Biosphere - which he carries in himself or which he finds in the structures and functions of other organisms - from ONE SCALE FLOOR TO ANOTHER (see Fig. 3.7). It is very significant that such a function of the “kingpin”, carrying from the microcosm to the megaworld the ingenious inventions of Nature, is fixed by the central position of man himself.
Fig. 3.7. Man is the axis of the scale lever that transfers Nature's “inventions” from the micro-stages of the Biosphere to the mega-stages
After all, all his organs, systems, cells and their subsystems are his internal structures. Therefore, at the S-Interval of life, the left half at 7.5 orders of magnitude can be considered as the internal space of Man, and the right half at 7.5 orders of magnitude as the external space. Thus, the technogenic function of Man can also be considered as an inversion function: the transfer of Nature's “inventions” from inside Man to outside.
Of course, it is impossible to blindly repeat biological processes on other scales, because, as we have already shown, the laws of nature are not invariant locally on a large scale. When moving from level to level within the Macro-interval, many natural laws change essentially. For example, the principle of jet motion is the same for both squid and rocket, but the difference in embodiment is huge. Therefore, Man is not a blind copyist of Nature. He must, skillfully using the accumulated before him nature
He must skillfully use the “developments” accumulated before him, skillfully fit them into new scale levels taking into account different conditions. Obviously, it is necessary not to forget about the integrity of the systems he creates and how the new systems will fit into the already existing connections of Nature. Consequently, man should be a creator because there is a large-scale non-invariance. And that is why the knowledge of large-scale laws is vital for mankind.
So, even if man himself is not able to invent anything fundamentally new in this world, he is able, copying Nature's inventions, to adapt them to new scale levels, which also requires extraordinary creative abilities.
The second important consequence of the assumption about the action of the upper (right) vector of evolution is the following. Since Man is the completed creation of Nature, and the Noosphere is just another step on the scale ladder of complex systems being built by means of people, the task of each person is to participate in this construction. This means that, ideally, every human being should leave the world more developed. Of course, for individual people this thesis can be disputed, but in general, if we recognize that society develops (the author is firmly on this position), it is obviously developed by the efforts of individuals.
FREEDOM OF DISCUSSION
The following PROPOSITION may be put forward here. Initially there is some ideal plan of development of the social structure of society. In this plan mankind moves from simple structures to complex ones. At the same time, the informational complexity of the social system increases (sometimes at the expense of temporary violation of the harmony already achieved at the previous stage of development). Nature originally conceived that every human being is a human being comes into the world with such an inner expectation of social complexity of structures, which is greater than its real state.
Therefore, when he begins to enter the world of social relations, a tension of discord is established between his inner expectation and the external reality.
The inner state of harmony is higher on the evolutionary ladder than the realized outer state. This difference in weak people gives rise to despondency and disappointment in life, while in strong individuals it gives rise to the desire to remake the world, to make it more harmonious, more consistent with inner harmony. Since each person has his own way of life, his own front of struggle, it follows that each person receives from birth his own “mission assignment” from Heaven, his own plan of action, his own “secret package”. It is possible that this package is laid down by Heaven at the moment of conception, at the moment of union of two cells. A person is obliged to open this package in the second mature half of his life.
So, if we recognize that man from birth is always more harmonious than any society, we will understand that any man is specially “programmed” to be constantly dissatisfied with the social world around him. If this dissatisfaction motivates him to positive action, it is for the good. If it eats up a person, it is harmful. Therefore, if we explain to each person from childhood that the social world is a construction site, that it is less perfect than his inner world, and that everyone's task is to make the world a better place wherever fate puts him, there will not be many disappointments, which our world is so full of.
In fact, wisdom is to choose one's own (and not someone else's) burden when entering the social world.
and pull it with the utmost, but not tearing force. Wisdom lies in the understanding that initially the inner world of each person is always more perfect and harmonious than the external social world. It has been so in all ages, and it will be so for a very long time, perhaps always.
It is remarkable that all these conclusions, almost obvious to a cultured person, can be easily drawn using a simple diagram of the dynamic evolutionary tension created by the Universe on the crest of evolution for each human being (see Figure 3.7). Such agreement of model conclusions with general worldview truths, admittedly, pleases the author.
Another aspect of the correlation between large-scale tasks and goals. It is related to the problem of health of each person. The author's personal experience has shown that, most likely, the main cause of disease lies not inside a person, but outside him. Undoubtedly, hereditary, genetic diseases are hidden inside, but they are mainly caused by unfavorable external factors in the past. In particular, the source of diseases lies in the wrong self-identification of a person in the social sea of tasks and problems. A less perfect social world deforms a person. This deformation in the form of stresses and discord penetrates through his consciousness and psyche into his somatics, giving rise to diseases of all kinds. The disharmony of the external world leads to disharmony of the inner world, and the latter, as research 2 has shown, is the cause of many, if not all, diseases. Just as cells become diseased within the body of a person who leads a wrong way of life, so too do social human cells become diseased within the body of a person who leads a wrong way of life.
human cells become sick because of the wrong way of life of the whole society.
Hence a very nontrivial conclusion: the BEST REMEDY FOR ALL DISEASES IS HARMONIC CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY.
A happy, developing society will consist of healthy people. In the light of the above-mentioned, the efforts of modern medicine and the best herbalists and healers are initially less effective than the efforts of people who strive to revitalize social life.
ous damage caused to society by wrong, erroneous social activities?
The fact is that a side effect of medical practice is an ever deeper and more subtle understanding of the processes going on inside the human body. It turns out that it is partly for the acquisition of this knowledge that society pays doctors.
So, maybe our medicine is conceived by the higher powers not only for treatment but also for study? After all, since one of the most important external tasks of a human being on Earth is to build a harmonious society, why not transfer the systemic laws of organization and functioning of the human organism to the social level? What is not a task for “higher bionics”?
Of course, this transfer should be done taking into account both scale similarity, or invariance, and scale non-invariance. Therefore, maybe all our treatment by doctors is a “bait” in order to collect and systematize a reliable data bank on the activity of the human organism at all its levels?
Through the prism of large-scale regularities we can also consider the question of PERSONAL HAPPINESS.
Man is a thinking being, so his happiness cannot be complete if he does not understand his place in the universe. A person who perceives his life as a random blip against the background of eternal and black infinity of nothingness cannot be happy. The search for the meaning of life is important because without an answer to this question, and the answer is correct and optimistic, the real full-fledged happiness of an individual is simply unattainable.
At the same time, the search for the meaning of humanity's life is, first of all, the search for the ultimate goal of its existence. Obviously, it cannot be simple well-being, because the ultimate goal should always be sought outside the limits of the object under study. To assume for a while that the ultimate goal of mankind is the ultimate goal of its existence.
It is certainly possible, but in this case the evolution of mankind loses any sense and turns either into a simple struggle for survival or into the pursuit of pleasures and comforts.
We have already shown (albeit cursorily) that the direction of development of the human community on the S-axis coincides with the direction of development of the Universe on all its scale levels. Therefore if the goal for Man is understood simply as movement in the direction that dominates in the Universe, and not something opposite or “perpendicular” - then the external task of human existence in the Universe (within the framework of the considered model of the scale structure) consists in a very simple formula - it is the involvement of more and more volumes of “cosmic” matter in the cycle of life, “revitalization” and mastering of matter with the subsequent higher harmonization of more and more space, and not only three-dimensional space, but also parametric (scale) space.
If we accept this simple formula, then the calls to abandon the technical achievements of civilization and return to the primordial nature look at least wrong, and are in fact a temptation to “abandon one's cross” and go against the universal current.
The spread of life into all kinds of space, into all dimensions, the creation of more and more complex and harmonious systems as a result, the mastery of new scales - this is the permanent external “goal” set by the Universe before the Biosphere, and the human species in this spread is another link necessary to overcome the threshold to the fourth dimension, to the fourth phase space. Moreover, the logic of development of the modern technological industry is such that in the coming decades it may lead to the development of the fourth dimension, to the fourth phase space.
to the collapse of the whole civilization. As history has shown, attempts to limit the birth rate (China) or to switch to restraining technological growth (Brazilian Forum) do not yield results. Therefore, a global systemic crisis awaits humanity in the future.
The analysis of this situation in the system-historical aspect led the author to the version 3 that the main technological crisis - the energy-ecological one - can be overcome in the future by moving the entire energy-producing industry into outer space. However, going into Space is not a trifle, it is a grandiose task that requires enormous efforts and expenditures of the whole mankind.
What about the definition of the meaning of life as the pursuit of happiness? Is there no contradiction here? And what is happiness? It is difficult to give it a new definition, because there are already plenty of old ones. However, it is possible to give a definition of happiness that integrates all the previous ones. To do this, we just need to remember when a person is happiest? Certainly, in childhood. But why? They say there are no worries, but this is not true. They say there are no problems, but that's not true either. The only reason we are happy as children is because we are constantly growing and evolving. Our body grows, our intellectual and spiritual abilities grow, we develop and we have more and more additional abilities. The same thing is happening to the entire Universe! It too is growing and evolving.
Therefore, thanks to the genetic program, the child is always in the coherent EVOLUTIONARY STREAM OF THE UNIVERSE, and is therefore happy no matter what. Any deviation from this flow, let alone stopping or reversing it, makes us unhappy. The fact that there is no happiness in stopping has been proved, as we know, by Goethe in Faust. It is impossible to stop a beautiful moment precisely because it is beautiful.
The beauty of life and happiness are inseparably connected with continuous evolutionary development. Any stoppage, fixation on what has been achieved is tantamount to a relative movement against the Universal flow.
Hence, happiness is a universal indicator of the correctness of movement through life.
And if in childhood we receive from nature an inner reserve of growth and development that is not excluded from us, then, growing up, most people switch more and more to external sources and spaces, many people strive to grow “outwardly”. There are many options here: to increase property, finances, power, fame, popularity and others. All of these paths are unified by one principle - THE DESIRE TO BECOME “GREATER”.
Indeed, power and money allow us to control social and material space. The more power and money, the more “personality” one feels. The popularity of actors and athletes, politicians and writers allows them to fill concert halls, stadiums, auditoriums and people's minds with their emotions, thoughts and actions. The more talented a person is, the brighter he is, the more his “light” in the public sky. If a person has problems with self-expression, if he is all alone, then “happiness is when you are understood”. After all, if you are understood by at least one person, you are already “wider” than yourself twice as much.
There are cases when a person is ready to selflessly serve other people: the sick, the elderly, orphans and the disabled. This brings him happiness because his personality has a positive influence on these people. As a result, he becomes socially “bigger”, exactly as much as he helps more people. Such a person gains nothing materially, but he acts in the direction of “growth” rather than “collapse” and is therefore happy.
The author is no exception. I have created my own business - the production of the best diamond tools in the country. The business feeds about twenty families, and this “influence” brings me joy.
In 1997 I published my first book “Russia in the XXI century”. Sometimes people call me and thank me for it. I know that several thousand people have read it and at that moment were thinking the same thing I was. This “growth” in society pleases me. If this book also fascinates other people with the ideas of large-scale symmetry, such a
“expansion” of my ideas will make me even happier. And God forbid that I do anything that alienates even old friends and acquaintances - this social “collapse” will make me unhappy.
All these examples are meant to illustrate a simple idea: the expansion of a person in society (due to power, popularity, money, charity, love, etc.) brings happiness. We do not discuss here the moral and ethical aspect of this growth (we will come to it in the next section of the book). Let us only note that the happiness of a destroyer is never full-fledged. When people are ready to pay for glory not only with their own lives but also with the lives of others (there have been many herostratuses in the history of civilization), this only indicates that their natural desire for expansion has taken ugly and distorted forms as a result.
For the world does not grow and develop at the expense of herostratus, but at the expense of Prometheans and creators. Therefore, the BALANCE is ALWAYS IN WAY OF THE CONSIDERING POWER OF “GROWTH”. Here the personal desire for “growth” is also influenced by the tendency of growth of the external world of man, of society.
Of course, there are a lot of nuances in such a complex issue. Realizing the complexity of the topic, the author would like to emphasize the main emphasis: Happiness is ALWAYS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (growth of complexity). UNHAPPINESS IS COLLAPSE AND DEGRADATION.
So, on the S-axis, happiness has a vector direction - to the right. One of the problems of realizing this movement is the confinement of social space. Striving to expand ourselves outward, we encounter other people stretching their hands to the same “piece of the world”. Therefore, by realizing our “local happiness” we can make others unhappy. The struggle for one's own “growth” in the cramped space of the material world is one of the main sources of all conflicts and sorrows on Earth.
There are various ways to avoid them. One of the simplest ones is a leapfrog expansion of the space available to man. For example, access to Space and exploration of other planets can, at a certain stage, eliminate the competition for a place under the Sun.
How can conflict be avoided? There are several possibilities to consider. For example, there is a space within us in which we alone are the masters - our inner infinite universe. The limit to this choice of path is self-cultivation in a monastery or in a yoga cave. But life requires the presence of conscious, highly spiritual people within society, not their isolation from it.
A more general solution is to expand the social space around oneself and not to forget that the development of this space is not for the sake of accumulating wealth (one cannot take it to the grave), but for the sake of making this space more harmonious and perfect.
Harmony and happiness at different stages of human life are achieved in different ways.
At the first stage, when the organism is growing and the personality is being established, happiness is achieved most easily due to the natural reserve of intensive growth and development.
At the second stage, when the formation of personality is basically completed, comes the stage of giving, the central stage of human life. At this stage, the state of happiness is achieved only when the personality expands its influence on the external world and, mastering all new spaces, transforms them according to the laws of inner harmony. In this case, such “expansion” does not cause aggression and opposition on the part of others.
At the third stage, when the main task of transforming the surrounding world is accomplished, the period of old age comes. It can bring happiness if there is an opportunity, for example, to bring up grandchildren. After all, by giving his love to the younger generation, passing on his experience and knowledge, a person strives to extend himself in time. The author believes that this is also growth, but growth in time space.
The Creator has envisaged the possibility for a person to find his state of happiness at each stage of life. And it is better not to violate this wise arrangement of life.
The author believes that the external task of man is to help life expand its range of existence beyond the Earth. If mankind realizes this external goal and begins to achieve it, it will become happier than it is today. At present, alas, it is mainly pursuing another goal - material well-being for the sake of well-being itself.