Dear Psychohistorians,
In my pre-high school years, I was fascinated by the sciences, both
the "natural sciences" and the "social sciences", and I read about
[what Eugene Wigner has called] "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of
Mathematics" in the NATURAL sciences --
[see:
en.wikipedia.org . . .
tics_in_the_Natural_Sciences]
-- and what the mathematician Hans Bremermann called "The
Unreasonable INeffectiveness of Mathematics" in the SOCIAL sciences
and economics.
I decided that, of the two, the social sciences were where the
biggest need and opportunity resided for further advances, and I
resolved to be on the look out for such advances, and to contribute
to them, if I was able. That early resolve has never left me.
When, in my early teens, I encountered Azimov's Foundation Trilogy, I
was enraptured, and found in it a science fiction model of what I
hoped to see achieved, in social science fact, in my life-time.
My quest has continued ever since.
Recently, when I "googled" the phrase "psycho-historical equations",
I was led to a pair of websites, spread across which is a series of
texts claiming a [f]actual discovery of a dramatically new, "psycho-
historical" mathematics, whose concepts, rules, and methods these
texts proceed to set forth for the reader.
This post is a brief summary of what I have learned about
this "psycho-historical mathematics" to-date.
The organization identified as having the authorship of these
documents presents itself as a "Foundation" of "Encyclopedists",
with "centers of operations" in "Terminious, CA" and "Stars' End, NY".
The principal author of these texts is identified as one Karl Seldon.
Other authors with posts on these sites include Sophya St. Germaine,
Hermes de Nemores, and Aoristos Dyosphainthos, who are also indicated
to be members of the "General Council" of this Encyclopedists'
Foundation.
I take much of this to be clear, pseudonymous references to the
Asimov Foundation series.
Moreover, the "Introductory Letter" on their "Mission" refers to the
following as the "Seldonian Imperative":
"As noted at the outset of this letter, these distributions of texts
are part of our implementation of 'The Seldonian Imperative' — the
ethical imperative to act presently so as to help avert, if possible,
the collective agony of foreseeable future catastrophes of contracted
social reproduction — of human-social-reproductive collapse — and the
wars, and/or the genocides, and the "dark ages" which manifest them,
or, if it is not possible, or too late, to completely avert said
catastrophes, to act so as to help reduce both their severity and
their duration."
"These distributions also advance 'The Seldon Project', the project
to develop, and to make more broadly accessible, for Terran humanity,
as the "Moment Of Truth" and "Hour Of Destiny" of its 'meta-Darwinian
Planetary Selection Test' fast approaches, the new «organon» of
["psycho-historical mathematics" -- M.D.]: a modern, cumulatively-
higher, helical re-emergence of Plato's «arithmoi eidetikoi», as [re-]
discovered by Dr. Seldon."
The "Afterword" to their main text on this new, "psycho-historical",
mathematics, by "Karl Seldon", also states the following:
"If we meet the mark, victorious in battle on the plain kurukshetra,
then this terrene seed in which we inhere will become a planet in
waiting, at the edge of the galaxy, at the brink of greater reality --
to turn the dust of a trillion worlds into blood and flesh, and to
awaken its long-slumbering spirit.
Overcome we the iblis within ourselves, and the cosmos will be our
canvas. We ourselves will be our workS of art. We ourselves will be
our WORK of art."
Though I have discovered no full renditions of anything that these
sites call "the psycho-historical equations", there are at least
two "psycho-historical models" which employ the first in a succession
of ever-richer rules-systems of "psycho-historical mathematics" that
this site references, and partially describes.
One such "psycho-historical model" describes the "meta-evolution"
of "human social formation" on planet earth.
This model is achieved by applying what these sites call the "Seldon-
Function" to a category-value defined as the initial human social
formation of "bands" of nomadic, predatory, proto-human foragers,
scavengers, and hunter-gatherers. Reminds me of the famous movie
about the "monoliths": Space Odyssey!
This "Seldon-Function" is a function that involves an "exponent of an
exponent" function of time, and which models a "self-iteration" of
the thus doubly-exponentiated category-value.
Each "self-operation" of the old category-value(s) retains those same
category-value, but also "adds" to it/them new category-values,
generated out of the old one(s), that express richer -- "more
complex, more concrete" -- categories.
This model expands from these primitive "bands" to include additional
categories of social formation, all the way up to, and beyond, the
ancient city-state, and the modern nation-state, to the "planetary
polis".
This first model is presented narratively, and also via formulas --
using a strangely Eqyptian-like spectrum of unfamiliar symbols --
here:
www.dialectics.org . . .,%
20Supplement%20B-1,%20pp.%2023-33,%20v.2.pdf
This first model is also presented pictorially here --
www.adventures-in-dialectics.org . . .-
Dialectics/Dialectical_Pictography/Dialectical_Pictography.htm
-- in slides 47 through 53.
This first model is presented both pictorially and narratively here --
www.adventures-in-dialectics.org . . .-
Dialectics/DiaRith/Intro/Dialectical-Ideography_An-Introductory-
Letter.htm#Example_5
-- in the "Introductory Letter" setting forth the "Mission" of
this "Foundation" of "Encyclopedists".
The second "psycho-historical model" describes the "meta-evolution"
of human "economic" categories, beginning with "predation", or
the "Appropriation of the Raw Products of Nature", without any
improvement of them, for human consumption, by human labor, and goes
on to derive the categories
of "Goods/Gifts", "Commodities", "Money", "Capital", and beyond, all
from the "self-iteration" of each preceding "sum" of categories.
This second "psycho-historical model" is narrated here --
www.dialectics.org . . .,%
20Supplement%20B-1,%20pp.%2034-40,%20v.2.pdf
-- and illustrated here --
www.adventures-in-dialectics.org . . .-
Dialectics/Dialectical_Pictography/Dialectical_Pictography.htm
-- slides 53 to 57.
There is a -- purportedly elementary -- "Brief" on How To Use
the "psycho-historical algebra" of these models to derive other,
including more detailed, psycho-historical models, at this URL --
www.dialectics.org . . .
-- whose authorship is attributed to Aoristos Dyosphainthos.
Have any of the longer-term members of this project encountered
these "Encyclopedists", and, if so, what do you think of their
approach to achieving a real psychohistory?
