Systems, Intelligences

Carbon, as a combinatory element, has the same functioning-properties of water, on a micro-scale. As water is the universal solvent and transporter, carbon is able to be the universal bonder, forming chains with itself and with other molecules, thus creating an infinite variety of possible compounds. For this reason, it fulfills the substrate-function that water also does, the way of a particular discourse of analysis, what water is for sociology, carbon is for biology. This property in both carbon and water allows them to form complexity due to having the ability to form differences of degree which express into differences of kind, thus creating complex systems, such as a river or a compound. These systems compound upon each other in concert with each other, as rivers interact with fellow waterways, as compounds interact with each other.

A variety of systems show how this functions in practice. A neural network, a bacterial colony, a fungus, etc. All of these are made of a single unit which passes information between other units, this acting in concert to process what is put in through one channel of input, in order to reinforce and feed the overall organization, the output of the system being the growth of that system. That these are all made of units which in themselves can be larger systems is vital - a fungus is made of a variety of cells, each of which can be analyzed on its own as a carbon system. A forest is made up of organisms, each of which constitutes its own organisms such as the fungus. Taleb recognizes this in his idea of organic systems, where he uses careful language of input and processing to describe the action of taking in stress to achieve a desired end, in this case, the end is a particular system of opposition to something being strengthed by careful input of that very thing. All of this is written only partially by using the word system, the true descriptor of all of these actions is intelligence. Intelligence is a noun, a thing, which exists in plural, various types of interlocking and interrelated systems that emerge from different readings of phenomena.

The introduction of new intelligences occurs through the interaction of intelligences with each other. In primordial history, bacteria grew into complex plant life as solar energy began to be taken as another input, which generated a second intelligence of photosynthesis beyond the chemical-consuming intelligence. Another intelligence grew from this interaction, where processing of the products of complex life generated intelligences of consumption upon this. Such fuels the diversity of creation through evolution, where intelligence upon intelligence is created,each one emerging from interactions between other intelligences. Interdependent phenomena are all the same in this way. Animals develop their structure in the same way that a biome does, in the same way that a tree does, in the same way that a fungus does.