Problems with the realm of finite games, with human gang behavior,
Alternative world models, metaphysical systems, the kinds of time, and life as a metaphor for the garden of the infinite game.
Nitrogen and the genetic code, The balance of life and energy, The Garden of Eden, the Names of God, the I Ching, and the development of the Ego and the Id, Transactional Analysis,
The accounting management approach to metaphysical problems,
Atheism, agnosticism, theism, a worthless debate, a stupid dialog.
More on finite and infinite games and human tempers.
Allan Ralph Andrews, born in Long Beach California, September 13th 1939 at 4:03 AM to Jean Andrews Thompson Colaluca and Ralph B. Andrews.
To understand the debate between the theist and the atheist, one should read the book “Finite and Infinite Games,” James P. Carse, The Free Press, 1986.
Carse distinguishes between “Education and Training,” Infinite games that never end and finite games that end in prizes and titles. Infinite games are open and finite games are closed, the players conceal their play with deceptive moves. Infinite play is not scripted, but finite play has rules and scripts. Infinite players play with boundaries and finite players play within boundaries. Infinite games generate myths and are like gardens. Finite games generate titles and rules and have controls and technology and often involve machinery.
Theism, agnosticism, and atheism, transcendental theology can be finite or infinite per the above. But, modern atheism is often associated with a finite game play that awards prizes to those the invent the best techniques, prove the most, demonstrate the most about the finite and measurable aspects of the world.
It is often associated with a melancholy temper of pessimistic realism associated with titles in science and physics. The problem with this play is that it seems to point to an infinite flux that makes the improbable probable, that would appear to imply the infinite game, not the finite one.
Often the scientist in question appears to be a narcissist that is becoming histrionic, overly dramatic about the discoveries he has made, supported by a number of subordinate research associates with dependent personality disorders that allow them to remain on the field in supporting roles, like a star football player and his team mates. But the problem with all of this is that any measurement made of the finite, and science can only deal with the finite and the tangible, tells us an infinitesimal amount about the infinite, thus the histrionic claims, the narcissistic grandstanding, the support of legions of dependent servants, appear meaningless, a comedy of ridiculous claims. So much for the Earth Element and its melancholy temper, for the Earth Trigram of the I Ching.
The opposite of Earth is sky, is the Heaven Trigram. The fire element, the choleric temper is the Flame Trigram. In theology, it is the agnostic temper, skeptical, existential, it is negativistic and sadistic, even antisocial, its ideas can be manic, schizotypal, as in the notion of Nietzsche that “God is dead.” The opposite of fire is the water bucket that extinguishes the fire, the Water Well Trigram of the I Ching.
The Wind Trigram is the air element, the sanguine temper that generates metaphysical systems and transcendental theology like the scholasticism that was famous in the Middle Ages of the Christian Church. This can be withdrawn and schizoid like Buddhist speculation, paranoid like the theology of Jainism or obsessive and compulsive like the arguments between various schools of Hebrew philosophy or Orthodox Christian ideology. The opposite of air is its weather, or the Thunder Trigram.
The Lake Trigram is the water element, the phlegmatic temper that generates dogmatic faith. It can be masochistic, as in the sacrifices of the Christian martyrs, or borderline, characterized by splitting of everything into extremes of good and bad, or avoidant, retreating from the impurity of the world into the dogmas of scripture and private faith.
The opposite of water element is salt that dissolves in water, or the Mountain Trigram.
As discussed elsewhere, Heaven Trigram tends toward the romantic, and Earth Trigram toward the realistic, Mountain Trigram toward the impressionistic and Lake Trigram toward the Post-Impressionistic, Water Well Trigram toward the Baroque and Flame Trigram toward the Cubist and the Existential, Wind Trigram toward the Classical and Thunder Trigram toward the expressionistic.
Heaven tends to magic and Earth to science, Mountain to philosophy and Lake to literature, ideology, and scripture, Water Well to government and Flame to art and design, Wind to metaphysics and Thunder to business and entertainment.
The infinite game wanders in this garden and plays with its boundaries. The finite game is limited to an area, stuck within a boundary. It can be stuck in metaphysical theology, it can be stuck in church dogma, it can be stuck in finite science.
In the infinite game we realize that what we do not know we do not know. The first law of thermodynamics can be transformed into Vishnu the preserver of Hinduism, Allah of Islam, Elohim of the Hebrew Bible, the Hen One of the trinity of Plotinus. The second law of thermodynamics can become Shiva, the destroyer in Hinduism, Jahweh, I become what I become, in the Hebrew Bible, the Father of the Christian Trinity, with Elohim as the Holy Spirit, Jesus as the creative logos of theology, geology, anthropology, the Brahma of Hinduism, the Psyche of the trinity of Plotinus, the Son of the Christian Trinity. The play does not stop in the infinite game, the theology does not rest, like Job, Jonah, there is no final answer, like Ecclesiastes there is no final answer, only a series of seasons, a time to be born and a time to die.
Allan Ralph Andrews, Bakersfield, California, Jan 13th 2016
As discussed elsewhere, the axial coordinates of the I Ching, are passion and energy in Eldest Son Yang to information and reason in Eldest Daughter Yin, integration and joy and pleasure in Middle Son Yang and disintegration and fragmentation and pain in Middle Daughter Yin, the private and selfish in Youngest Son Yang and the public and social in Youngest Daughter Yin, in language, Eldest Son is the verb and Eldest Daughter in the noun, Middle Son is the content explaining adverb and Middle Daughter is the fact defining adjective, Youngest Son is the possessive Pronoun and Youngest Daughter is the associations and groups defined by prepositions and conjunctions.
These generate a Heaven Trigram weakened by aboriginal Pride and a Wind Trigram weakened by aristocratic Greed, a Flame Trigram weakened by martial Anger and an Earth Trigram weakened by product Addiction and Gluttony, a Water Well Trigram weakened by universal Slavery and a Lake Trigram weakened by dogmatic sloth, a Mountain Trigram weakened by partisan Envy, and a Thunder Trigram weakened by hedonistic Lust.
The ancient languages filling these places are the Chinese Classical Mandrin in Lake Trigram and the Latin in Thunder, the Greek in Earth Trigram and the Hebrew and Aramaic in Water Well, the Persian in Wind and the Vedas in Heaven Trigram, the Icelandic and Germanic Classics in Mountain Trigram and the epics of Old Javanese and Bali in Flame Trigram.
Spanish provides an antisocial edge from Flame to Thunder and Portuguese a borderline edge from Thunder to Lake, French, histrionic from Thunder to Earth, Russian dependent from Earth to Water Well, Arabic, masochistic from Water Well to Lake, Punjabi, compulsive from Water Well to Wind, Hindi schizoid from Wind to Heaven, Bengali, schizotypal from Heaven to Flame, Japanese negativistic and sadistic from Flame to Mountain, German paranoid from Wind to Mountain, English narcissistic from Mountain to Earthand Chinese avoidant from Heaven to Lake.
In mythology, the antisocial is Mars and Ares, the histrionic is Mercury and Hermes, the narcissistic is Jupiter and Zeus, the sadistic is Apollo, the schizotypal is Artemis and Diana, the schizoid is Athena and Minerva, the compulsive is Vulcan and Hephaestus, the avoidant is Poseidon and Neptune, the borderline is Aphrodite and Venus, the dependent is Vesta and Hestia, the paranoid is Hera and Juno, the masochistic is Demeter and Ceres. Heaven is Uranus, the Sky Father, and Earth is Gaia, the Earth Mother, Mountain is Mount Olympus, home of the gods. Wind Trigram is the high Gods as creatures of the clouds and Thunder Trigram is Nymphs and Sprites and weather Gods like Iris and fertility Gods like Pan and Dionysus. Water Well is the titans like Atlas and Prometheus and elder Gods like Saturn and Rhea. Lake is the Gods of the ocean and fresh waters like Triton. Flame Trigram is the Gods and demons of Hades.
These are also gods and goddesses of the brain, with Middle Son Yang as the right creative integrative hemisphere of the brain and Middle Daughter Yin as the left fact oriented hemisphere, with Eldest Daughter Yin as the cerebral cortex and hippocampus as information storage areas and Eldest Son Yang as the basal ganglia and energy and emotion regulating areas of the lower brain and brain stem. Youngest Son Yang is the frontal lobe motor and speech areas and Youngest Daughter Yin is the sensory association areas of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes.
Wind Trigram is the Super Ego, Parent Voice of the Brain as the Air Element and Lake Trigram is the Id, the voiceless Egg of the Brain as the Water Element, Earth is the emergent Child Voice of the infant as Earth Element, the Anal, Oral, Phallic stages of development, Flame Trigram is the emergent Ego, or Adult Voice. Thunder Trigram is the Libido that frustrates Super Ego and Parental Controls in Wind. Water Well Trigram is the attempt of the Super Ego to repress the emerging Ego in Flame. Mountain Trigram is the emerging consciousness in Earth and Flame and its repression in Wind Trigram as an expression of the libido of Thunder the repression of Water Well and creative roots in Heaven Trigram as a result of the collective unconscious synchronicity at work in the dreamtime that is Egg, Id, in the deep waters of Lake Trigram.
This is the symbol work of the infinite game that transcends the specific facts and objective records of Earth Trigram. Earth Trigram is the finite arithmetic and the genetic phenotype, but Heaven the infinite and infinitesimal extensions of the calculus of the creative mutations that are its source. Wind Trigram is the algebraic ideal, the set point in Euler’s identity, the adaptive peak of genetic evolution. Water Well Trigram is the set theory, the systems feed back, the replication mechanisms and system homeostasis that maintains the balance, but Lake is the recombination and the population genetics, the group theory and topology of the systems complex that is formed through the statistics and contingency of entropy as evolution and the natural selection and extinction of maladaptive expressions of all forms of genetic systems. Mountain Trigram is the analytic geometry of these results and resulting speciation and competitive exclusion in Flame Trigram trigonometry and differential calculus.
Heaven Trigram is the manufacturing aspect of this accounting, and Wind Trigram is the algebra of the present value of profits, Water Well is the set theory of liability accounting, and Lake Trigram is the topology of the resulting investments. Mountain Trigram is the analysis of all equity accounts and Earth is the arithmetic accounting of Sales. Thunder Trigram is the statistics of budgeting for Losses. Flame Trigram is the analysis of assets and inventories, the trigonometry and differential calculus of costs and prices, in respect to competitive possibilities.
The finite games of the realistic atheist in his melancholy temper are focused on the arithmetic of local costs. The infinite game looks to the eternal conservation of passion as the inside of mass energy and joy and pleasure as its endless integration in love and faith. This infinite game makes the improbable probable and makes immortal joy a necessary product of continuing existence in all forms of time and space, not just the local finite structures of our science, but the fantastic topology of complexity yet unseen.
In this temper, we look to the archetypes of what we are, the Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Sun, Moon, in the inner planetary orbits of our mind, in the Mount Olympus of the art forms of our mind, these are immortal and can no more die, than circles or squares can die. Our ancestors believed that flight was only possible for birds. It is such limited thinking that we must reject. It is not that faith is wrong, that religion is wrong, that theology is false, it is rather that our systems are too limited, to tied to our ignorance, to tied to our hates and fears. We need not fear existence in life or death. It is our parent and we are its offspring, we belong to the universe and the macrocosms and microcosms that lie beyond. The old beliefs were too shallow, too Earth bound, the fearful, we must look upward and see the sunrise that brings new things.
Allan Ralph Andrews, Jan 13th 2016, Bakersfield, CA
The manufacturing accounting, the Heaven Trigram of the natural world is producer organisms, the schizoid redwoods, the schizotypal chemosynthetic bacteria, the avoidant symbiotic algae in the coral reefs, the profit accounting is done by the Wind Trigram herbivores including the compulsive pollinating bees and humming birds, the paranoid food storing rodents, but owner’s equity in Mountain Trigram is carefully managed by the carnivores, narcissistic lions, sadistic spiders, finally asset management belongs to the decomposers of the Flame Trigram that render the valuable elements in the dead and dying back to air and soil.
Producers and consumers attempt to sell their goods, fruit, pollen, seeds, sperm to a public that will buy them in ways that are profitable to the seller in Earth Trigram. But the most important sales involve the formation of humus, the rotting dead leaves, the dead bodies fed upon by scavengers, it is in the formation of soil by these agents that some of the most profitable sales are made by the ecosystem.
In this show room, the narcissistic male peacock shows off his feathers and the histrionic birds fill the air with calls and songs. Other organisms, like the rust fungus are dependent upon the cycles of life and death in other organisms that contain nutrients that they need to consume in order to live and reproduce.
In this accounting system, not everything is profit. There are losses in Thunder Trigram. The borderline yeasts and antisocial bacteria and viruses gain at the expense of the loss of others, even their disease and death. But, even this death and extinction provides that natural selection the turns the wheels of evolution and entropy and the survival of the fittest in the Darwinian emergence of new forms.
The liabilities are extensive in Water Well Trigram. Everywhere the living pay their debts to the saprophytic and parasitic fungi. The fungi and bacteria feed off each other in a masochistic dependence that connects all things with the food chains and food webs that cycle and recycle carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, to mention four important elements in this larger system. Symbiotic organisms in Lake Trigram, avoidant types, like the lichens, with algal inhabitants in a fungal house, seek to handle these problems by developing systems of mutual cooperation in a complex topology of payables and receivable investments.
The emergence of living forms follows this system. First came the ancient chemosynthetic bacteria in Heaven Trigram and the spin off of viruses and true bacteria in Flame Trigram, the emergence of blue green algae in Lake Trigram. Then came the appearance of true photosynthesis and the photosynthetic algae and seaweeds in Water Well Trigram, the higher Plants in Wind Trigram. The chemosynthetic bacteria, the blue green algae, the true algae and seaweeds, and the higher plants are organisms in Middle Son Yang that are able to integrate their own food. Opposed to them are a series of consumer organisms, the Fungi in Thunder Trigram, the Protozoa and Invertebrate animals, in Earth Trigram, the Vertebrates in Mountain Trigram, complemented by the ultimate disease organisms, the Viruses of Flame Trigram.
The first organisms were energy focal in Eldest Son Yang, bacteria, fungi, or focused on basic cell physiology like the viruses. Later higher organism emerged with complicated information systems like those of protozoa and invertebrate animals, vertebrate animals, seaweeds, and higher plants, all capable of generate complex structures and systems rooted in Eldest Daughter Yin information systems.