Thursday, September 20, 2007

Issues raised in dealing with complexities

Human individuals, despite their achievements collectively, as single entities have a limited capacity to discern the complexities that phenomena impose upon them. This limits their ability to fully comprehend the flow of events that take place around them and affect their ability to select the rules that explain the phenomena. However, this can be twisted around and used to give credence to the necessity and tendency of humans to act collectively, as this is the way that they can achieve more. Their full potential is realised only when they act together, complement each other and reach heights of achievement otherwise impossible. By working together it made and continues to make possible in breaking down many of the complexities encountered, as the current body of knowledge accumulated bear witness.

Nevertheless the fact remains and the limitations of the human individual's limited processing capacity must be addressed. The whole point is raised because of the enormous amount of information that has to be dealt with in discerning complexities. Here, it is tempting to draw upon the knowledge on the computing time, ideal supercomputers require to process particular problems, and liken humanity to a supercomputer engaged in deciphering the whole range of processes that underpin reality. Referring to a single individual dealing with the complexities in his immediate environment, it would consume an inordinate amount of time, and time is, very much indeed, in short supply, due to the constraints imposed by our life spans, and exacerbated by the amount of time and resources consumed to deal with concerns of survival, as they appear in various manifestations and identify themselves as pressing, therefore primary, needs.

Despite our limitations we are required to select, which we do that every time and have being doing constantly in the past. As a result of the options selected ourselves, our communities, societies and civilizations are in their present state of development. The selection process used, reflects our limited processing capacity. Since we can not deal with the amount of information that complexities present, as the full extent of possibilities eludes us, we adopt leads and information that fit a model of emergence that past experience incited upon us and abandon the possibilities and attached information, that do not fit the adopted model. This only gives a partial view of reality which we constantly strive to extend.