Evolutionary theory of behavior
2025
This page includes my lecture notes for the evolutionary theory of behavior.
The overall text is more or less the same as in the printed version with some minor corrections, additional comments for clarity (marked with a ⇑ sign), and links to the posts with more information.
This is the first part of my experimental project aimed at resolving the theory crisis in psychology and psychiatry and bringing new approaches to the field.
PREFACE
This theory includes a description of a possible evolution of matter in the universe and related to it phenomena that may affect behavior of structures within it, such as memory, consciousness, intelligence, free will, and, later, the concept of a creator.
The primary goal is to explore various processes that are being found in the psyche of intellectual structures, including humans, looking for new ways to work with them in the practical fields of psychiatry, psychology, and sociology.
Combination of old philosophical concepts with modern knowledge, practical observations, and additional concepts from the fields of computer science and engineering allows us to open new vision, new ways to explore and explain processes within the psyche.
This leads to a creation of a structured, purely mechanical, model of behavior that can help us to find missing connections between scattered pieces of information, fix dead ends in some other theories, and start to work with predictable results without relying on intuition.
Table of Contents
- EVOLUTION
- BASIC IMPULSES
- PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
- MALFUNCTIONS IN THE SYSTEM
- SOCIAL ENGINEERING
I. EVOLUTION PREFACE
PREFACE
At the beginning, we need to make a few statements about the evolution of the universe. To make some definitions. At first glance they may look not connected to the topic of human behavior, or behavior in general, but they will become a ground for further, more practical explorations and models.
⇑ This is like a mathematical system of sorts. We accept a set of axioms, create a framework, and then play with data and see what happens.
⇑ It's practically impossible to test our initial statements at this moment, but when we put everything together and start to make predictions, we get lots of rules that all our test subjects have to obey. They can be falsified.
⇑ The first iterations of this system were confronted with counterexamples, changed, and improved in various ways over years. The current version is a stable one. There is still a big room for improvements in the context of species-specific nuances, but the overall framework seems to be functional.
⇑ In case of any dramatic discoveries that'll require major changes in the core, they'll be posted here and in my blog.
UNIVERSE
The universe exists.
The universe is derived from matter - a large amount of particles, separated by space.
CHAOS
Absolute chaos, a cosmic vortex, where particles move through space arbitrarily, without any structures present, is a natural state of the universe.
Chaos opens endless opportunities for particles to collide, interact, be combined into structures, and for the structures to be destroyed, disassembled back into the particles.
Every structure is derived from the same particles, same matter. All is one, and one is everything.
NATURAL ORDER
There is a natural order. The rules of engagement. The physical laws that cannot be bent. Every interaction between the particles can happen by the rules only.
Interactions, events, have consequences. Creation or destruction. Birth or death. One event can directly lead to another one, or open new opportunities for more complex events to happen.
TIME
Time is a way to organize the consequences.
Time is one-directional. Consequences come after events.
An event and its consequences, the next events, and the next ones, and so on, form a chain of connected events or a process.
EVOLUTION OF MATTER
The universe is self-similar. Structures interact and can be combined into more complex ones, and they can be disassembled.
Construction of these more and more complex structures is the evolution of matter.
⇑ By default, we'll use the term "evolution" in its most general sense, like a progression from simple to complex things. Biological evolution fits somewhere in the middle of that, but we won't pay much attention to it, and will primarily look for universal patterns instead. Just keep that in mind.
Random interactions happen all over the universe. Creation happens all over the universe. The process of evolution happens all over the universe. Randomly created different structures form branches of evolution.
Complex structures can be destroyed. Matter will return to the form of more simple structures. They can be combined again. And destroyed again. And so on. The process of evolution goes in waves.
WILL TO LIVE
Random events can start destructive processes outside, or conflicting processes inside a structure - self-destruction. It is inevitable. It is a matter of time.
Some complex structures may obtain a will to live during the process of evolution, a self-preservation mechanism that can block some of the destructive processes and can allow them to continue their existence.
SPECIES
Some structures may obtain an ability to reproduce themselves or other structures, leading to a series of identical structures. It increases the chances of that branch of evolution to survive chaos and destruction.
Random events, mutations, may lead to copies that are not completely identical, creating species diversity and collecting various qualities of structures within a branch of evolution.
Technically, the process of reproduction is not a necessary part of evolution. Some structure that represents a particular branch of evolution may survive the surrounding chaos by chance, be combined with some other structure, and become something bigger.
MEMORY
Obtaining an ability to save and extract information, to have memory of previous events, is the first crucial moment in the process of evolution.
Structure that has memory of events inside it, as well as events outside it, has consciousness and self-awareness.
⇑ We use the terms "consciousness" and "self-awareness" in relation to general processing of information. These are universal things. The additional "qualia" may or may not be present in different species.
⇑ I wrote an additional post about technical aspects of self-awareness, and how do you actually find yourself in data. And why the infamous mirror test is not a self-awareness test, but a specialized IQ test.
Conscious structures naturally explore themselves, or other structures around them, and save information. Matter explores itself. The universe explores itself.
FREE WILL
Possible actions of a structure are partially predetermined by its overall design and its memory, if present.
Some structures may obtain free will, a chaotic mechanism that starts conflicting processes within a structure. They will be destructive, but they will allow it to make a choice against the behavior predetermined by its overall design and memory.
The real choice can be made through self-destruction only.
Processes of self-preservation, created by will to live, naturally work against free will.
⇑ See more about freedom and chaos in my blog. That rabbit hole is deeper than it may look like.
PURPOSE
The fact that a choice can be made means that the purpose of existence is not predetermined. Fate does not exist. Destiny does not exist.
⇑ At this moment, we're talking about common meanings of these words, where people see their lives shaped by parents, teachers, their cultural environment, etc., and the functional ability to rebel against data in your own memory, but not about physical determinism. It's a slightly different thing.
⇑ We have to work with multiple coordinate systems, and sometimes the same words can be interpreted differently. It's not a big problem, just an inevitable result of connecting multiple fields together.
⇑ I highlight the perspective that's being used as the default one in our context of behavior where we leave the word "chaos" as a placeholder for everything unstructured and unpredictable. It has to be carefully transposed and combined with other positions to make a complete picture.
The result of the existence, the consequences of it, can be observed at the time after the end of the existence, but it cannot be completely planned or predicted due to the chaotic element of choice in the process. And because of the random events outside as well.
INTELLIGENCE
The next step of evolution is the obtaining of intelligence, an ability to make a new rule in addition to the natural order and follow it.
⇑ There are many things that we can build on top of this, but the essence of intelligence is in rules. Create and follow. That's the key.
⇑ You can be technically intelligent and not very smart at the same time. Your smartness is a complex metric that only partially depends on your design.
Memory of the previous events is necessary to make a new rule. Consciousness is a necessary condition of intelligence.
The ability to make a choice is necessary to follow a new rule. Free will is a necessary condition of intelligence.
⇑ In other words, you need a functional ability to override your own instructions for behavior with new rules that you've created.
It is interesting to notice that the concept of biological life looks like an artifact that is being commonly used within humanity to create rules, but it is not predefined by the universe. Everything is the same matter.
Complex rules require more information to be saved. Complexity of the rules, level of intelligence, depends on the amount of memory in structures' design.
⇑ You need a specific number of memory cells in your cache to work with some of the most important relations in logic. This is as important as having more data on your hard drives.
Structure becomes intelligent as a whole when some of its parts become intelligent. Human is intelligent as a whole, although some parts of it may not be intelligent.
The chaotic universe is not intelligent. It does not change the rules. Once an intelligent structure is created by a random event, matter becomes intelligent. The universe becomes intelligent.
CREATORS
New rules lead to the creation of infrastructure, a combination of various structures that act by new rules. Some intelligent structures become creators of it.
Creators and the created environment become one complex structure of matter, with some new qualities.
Infrastructure may allow saving information outside the creators, exceeding their individual limits, which may depend on their design or the time of their existence.
Obtaining an ability to intentionally increase your memory, to increase your level of intelligence, to make more and more complex rules, is the second crucial point. After it, the speed of evolution increases drastically.
MASTERMIND
The third and the last crucial point of evolution is the eventual theoretical creation of a mastermind, a vast infrastructure across the universe with memories of every existing rule in the universe. It will be able to control everything that can be controlled, and create everything that can be created.
⇑ Some people may interpret it as an important spiritual being from the past or from the future, depending on your perspective.
Along the evolution, the mastermind is being constructed within, and limited by the natural order; therefore, it is not almighty.
Since the mastermind is derived from intelligent structures, it is intelligent.
The mastermind may choose to create a new universe eventually.
⇑ The problem of evil appears in this context. After we design all our patterns of behavior, it'll never look the same.
Creation of a new universe requires matter. Current structures in the universe must be destroyed. The mastermind must be self-destroyed in order to give birth to a new universe.
This very poetic idea can be found in many circumstances. Later we will see that many processes in our behavior require some degree of self-destruction.
DESTINATION
Creation of the new universe may be perceived as the final destination, the only possible end of evolution. Everything gets back into the singularity. All the matter disassembles back into the primary chaos of particles. The consequences are being lost. The clock resets. The process of evolution starts again.
⇑ This is a situation where evolution leads to a new cycle of itself. Patterns of behavior that we study will be involved. Technically, the universe can be destroyed in some violent accident before that happens, but we don't have enough data to connect any of these ideas to our system at this moment.
It is likely that none of the intelligent structures of the present time, at least in our branch of evolution, will exist long enough to be able to prove any theories about the mastermind or the destination, so we will continue in a more practical manner, and we will try to collect the knowledge that can be collected and used today, within our current limitations.
II. BASIC IMPULSES
PREFACE
In the fields of psychology and psychiatry, we are interested in behavior of intelligent structures. The following model will be applied primarily to them, exploring the high level behavior of the most complex structure known to humanity. The human itself.
STRUCTURAL PARTS & IMPULSES
During the evolution, four important structures within a human psyche had been acquired:
- Will to live (to stop hostile processes).
- Memory, naturally leading to consciousness and self-awareness.
- Free will (to make choices).
- Intelligence (to make and follow rules).
- Diagnosing. Looking for the flaws in yourself and your environment. You need to find a problem first, in order to deal with it.
- Counterbalance. Creation and targeting of a process that goes against a destructive one.
- Reprisal. Complete destruction of a problem. Not just stop it. Not just hurt it. But destroy. It is important to differentiate this from aggression. The process of reprisal has a precise target that is to be completely annihilated.
- Ignoring a problem. Not producing any reaction. The problem may be resolved on its own. No need to spend your energy on it.
- Dread. Fear. Anticipation of a great danger. Not dealing with problems, but waiting for them to happen.
- Reconstruction. Repairing. Refueling. It is essential for survival to fix and fuel your boat. And yourself.
- The environment is indifferent to your actions. Actions seem to not produce expected consequences.
- The environment is resistant. It stops your actions. It may not be hostile, but it does not allow you to act.
- The environment is full of energy and opportunities. It helps you to act.
- The environment is dangerous. It requires some reactions.
- The environment is safe. It naturally requires different reactions.
- The environment gives the gifts. You can take them.
- Temptation to try something new. It can be forbidden. It can be dangerous. It can be against the natural way of things. That is a choice to make.
- Destruction of the environment. This is not a protection mechanism, but a way to achieve something.
- Aggression. Pure rage. Uncontrollable explosion without any precise target, that may go against the rules, the environment, or even the structure itself.
- Exhaustion. A destructive way to use all the available resources, the gifts of nature. To the end. Consequences are not important.
- Adaptation. Destroy yourself to survive. The choice to adapt may lead to circumstantial survival, but it is destructive by its nature.
- Justification. Bending a rule to defend a choice. The natural order cannot be bent, but some other rules can, can't they?
- Creation of new things. The most natural thing to do for intelligent structures.
- Inflexibility. Follow the rule no matter what. Concentrate. Work hard. Achieve the goal. If nobody follows the rule, then there is no rule.
- Protection. Keep things as they are. Keep the order. Keep the rules. Keep the created.
- Inaction. The choice to not create. To relax. To wait. It's the opposite of the choice to create.
- Satisfaction. Relaxing reaction to gifts, results of hard work, fulfillment of wishes and expectations. No need to concentrate.
- Call for pity. A willingness to be protected by some other intelligent structure. To be petted. Only intelligent structures can become pets.
These structures start processes, basic impulses, that guide our behavior.
Impulses can be perceived as proactive and reactive. Collections of impulses for every of the four structures are being split into two parts by this quality. They are opposite to each other. Mirrored to some degree.
⇑ It would be important to notice that none of the words that I'll use as the names for these impulses were designed to be used in this context. Most likely we'll need to fine-tune them many times until we grasp the right meanings. This is one of the side effects of having a symbolic world that's not equal to the language.
⇑ Also, if you'll get a question why some actions are not here, I wrote a post about them.
WILL TO LIVE
Will to live naturally creates impulses related to diagnostics, defense, and danger in general.
Proactive. Find the problem. Aim. Finish it:
Reactive. Problems happen. What will you do about that?
MEMORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Information about events outside will affect structures' behavior drastically, increasing its diversity.
Memories related to reactions of the environment to your actions:
Memories, related to states of the environment, that require your reactions:
FREE WILL
Free will gives us a set of impulses, related to choices and destruction.
Proactive impulses, to make changes:
Reactive impulses, to adapt to the changes:
INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence is related to rules and creation of the environment.
Proactive impulses, to create, to achieve goals, to keep the order:
Reactive, to sit back and relax:
⇑ Inaction and satisfaction may look similar, but they're not the same. The first process is an active waiting for better conditions. Something isn't right. You save resources by altering your plans and saying "not today". The second process is a reaction to a good life. It's safe to forget about all your worries and just chill for a while. You won't change the world by doing that, but you'll be fine.
LIMITATIONS
It is likely that our list of impulses is not completed yet, and it will be improved in the future, adjusted to different species, as empirical knowledge is being collected.
⇑ We assume that you don't acquire all these structures and impulses at one moment. These are complex things. You build them step by step. Some species will lack some of them, or will have proto versions of them.
⇑ Fully developed impulses require certain universal intermediate modules present in the system, like a reality checker for example (we call it a reward system in some species). This is a separate topic. For now, we'll concentrate on the top-level design and behavior.
The present set of impulses allows us to build a model that predicts human behavior, as well as many observable effects in human society, accurately enough for many applications. Future improvements will not affect its benefits at the present time.
PARALLELS WITH THE LANGUAGE
It would be interesting to notice that proactive impulses, related to different structures, are being addressed within many of the human languages for centuries. They can be found in the form of common phrases. Looking at them, we may notice that sources of impulses are different in them.
Impulses from intelligence and memory are usually associated with personality. With "self". With the placement of yourself in the world, in the environment.
Impulses from free will are being associated with the "devil", that can "get you". And it is definitely a different thing, not the same as the "self".
The ones from will to live are being associated with higher power, consciousness that torments you, or the right way to be. And again, impulses do not come from the "self". It is some other, external, source.
This may mean that the presence of different structures that start all these processes in the psyche had been discovered by humanity a long time ago, but had not been explored properly. We will explore this subject. We will take a closer look at the rules of engagement, the natural order, between these structures and between the impulses that they create.
⇑ Actually, there are many interesting things to find in old books.
III. PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
PREFACE
Our collection of basic impulses raises some questions. How is the complex behavior being constructed from these basic blocks? Are there any rules? Are some of them connected? How? Answers to these questions will allow us to build a system that can predict our behavior.
THE RULES
Some impulses cannot exist simultaneously within a complex structure. It should be obvious. Destruction and reconstruction cannot happen simultaneously. Environment in your memories cannot be safe and dangerous at the same time. Creation and not creation cannot be done together.
Some impulses are connected. Creation changes your environment and, naturally, affects the following memories about said environment. Adaptation is destructive for the structure itself, and, naturally, affects its will to live.
At the moment of evolution, when complex structures get several structures within them that produce impulses, we start to get loops. Three impulses can be connected in a loop. The loop forms a stable pattern of behavior that persists over time.
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR I
From basic logic and observations, we get the following set of possible loops of three impulses, patterns of behavior, that do not include any conflicting impulses. Later, we will address them as patterns of behavior of class I.
⇑ There is a slightly more detailed description of the process in this post. It may help you to understand why these impulses are connected the way they are, and why this system looks so suspiciously symmetric.
1. E:indifferent -> W:counterbalance -> F:aggression -> E. 2. E:stops -> I:inflexibility -> W:reprisal -> E. 3. E:helps -> F:temptation -> I:creation -> E. 4. F:destruction -> W:diagnosing -> I:protection -> F. 5. E:helps -> F:destruction -> W:reprisal -> E. 6. E:indifferent -> W:diagnosing -> I:creation -> E. 7. E:stops -> I:protection -> F:aggression -> E. 8. F:temptation -> I:inflexibility -> W:counterbalance -> F. 9. E:danger -> F:adaptation -> W:ignoring -> E. 10. E:safety -> W:dread -> I:call for pity-> E. 11. E:gives -> I:inaction -> F:exhaustion -> E. 12. F:justification -> I:satisfaction -> W:reconstruct. -> F. 13. E:safety -> W:reconstruct. -> F:exhaustion -> E. 14. E:gives -> I:satisfaction -> W:ignoring -> E. 15. E:danger -> F:justification -> I:call for pity-> E. 16. F:adaptation -> W:dread -> I:inaction -> F.
W = Will to live; E = Environment (memory); F = Free will; I = Intelligence.
Some of these 16 loops, created purely mechanically, may look weird. Why would any human behave like this? But the loops are there. Later we will see that there is indeed some logic present in them, a legacy that we got from our distant ancestors.
It might be easier to interpret connections between these loops in the form of a table, with some common names.
The names are purely optional, yet they can help us to organize things.
16 PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
Proactive
(1)"invisible" (2)"obsessed" (3)"genius" (4)"recidivist" E:indifferent E:stops E:helps F:destruction W:counter I:inflexibility F:temptation W:diagnosing F:aggression W:reprisal I:creation I:protection (5)"gladiator" (6)"artist" (7)"prisoner" (8)"philosopher" E:helps E:indifferent E:stops F:temptation F:destruction W:diagnosing I:protection I:inflexibility W:reprisal I:creation F:aggression W:counter
Reactive
(9)"adaptive" (10)"helpless" (11)"lazy" (12)"apologetic" E:danger E:safety E:gives F:justification F:adaptation W:dread I:inaction I:satisfaction W:ignoring I:call for pity F:exhaustion W:reconstruct. (13)"fool" (14)"consumer" (15)"victim" (16)"conformist" E:safety E:gives E:danger F:adaptation W:reconstruct. I:satisfaction F:justification W:dread F:exhaustion W:ignoring I:call for pity I:inaction
This table can be perceived as our main tool, a cheat sheet for field psychology.
⇑ We'll reference these patterns by numbers in parentheses. If you see (1), (2), (3), etc., then it's a pattern from this table.
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR II
Some patterns can be used together as a complex pattern of two loops, a pattern of class II.
Patterns in the same row or in the same column contradict each other, and can NOT be used simultaneously.
Proactive and reactive patterns are not connected by any impulses, and can NOT be combined into one pattern of behavior.
The rest combinations can be created:
Proactive: Reactive: 1 plus 6/7/8 9 plus 14/15/16 2 plus 5/7/8 10 plus 13/15/16 3 plus 5/6/8 11 plus 13/14/16 4 plus 5/6/7 12 plus 13/14/15
With the total amount of 24 patterns of class II.
A third pattern will not be connected or will contradict patterns that are already included in the pair. Two-loop patterns of class II are final.
SWITCHING BETWEEN THE PATTERNS
Patterns of class I are unstable. Individuals can switch between them from time to time.
⇑ If you use one pattern for a while, others may start to see it as a part of your personality, but it's not a fixed part. You can change your patterns.
It is interesting to notice that little human kids, who are hardly intelligent, use the patterns from the first column a lot. Impulses from intelligence are not present in these patterns.
When their mother is indifferent, they start to cry and throw things chaotically (1); they can become surprisingly violent if nobody stops them (5); they ignore danger (9); and in safety they will fix the hole in the mouth with every candy on the table, not thinking too much about the consequences (13). Of course, we assume that every human is in fact intelligent, and even the little ones use various patterns, but this observation is very interesting nonetheless.
Patterns of class II are stable. They are self-sustaining. Individuals do not have a natural tendency to switch back from an acquired pattern of class II. This creates a lot of bizarre effects that are hard to deal with in the realms of practical psychology.
⇑ This phenomenon is quite visible in human behavior, but it's not a universal thing. It may or may not be present in other species.
PREDATORS AND PREY
Observing these patterns in animals and people, we may notice that proactive patterns are patterns of predators, and reactive ones are patterns of prey.
This mental picture helps to get the logic saved in these patterns. For example, in the pattern (10) we see a fear of safety. It seems odd. Why would an individual be scared of a safe environment? But predators attack in silence. Silence is dangerous. Later we will see that some personality disorders are being constructed on similar ideas.
It is very unlikely that an individual who had been a predator of class II his whole life, who built an environment suitable for predators, who raised a pack of predators, will start to want to become a prey one day. Most likely he will think that he will not survive that switch. And most likely he will be absolutely right.
⇑ In the real world, things tend to get bloody. Top predators that get old and sick are getting overthrown. In most cases they become a lunch. In our society, it's the same game. We just don't eat each other anymore.
⇑ It's quite interesting to observe traumatized predators, like hunting dogs that get their legs broken in car accidents. They stand up and fight. It hurts. They cry. But they fight to the end. They just don't accept the position of a victim. Once you accept it, you're done. We can learn from them.
Little kids, who are technically pets, being protected from their environment, can switch between patterns suitable both for predators and prey, but adults tend to choose a side and stick to it.
⇑ It starts to look like every pattern of behavior is associated with a specific chemistry of a human body, and differences between the sides are so dramatic that you just can't switch easily. We'll need to collect more information. This effect may or may not be present in different species.
⇑ Also, people acquire sets of values and goals aligned with their patterns and need to re-evaluate everything when switching them. It makes adults more inert in comparison to kids who don't know who they are.
⇑ Proactive and reactive patterns specifically are very different in this context, which makes both groups of patterns seem irrational when looking from the other side. For most adults, it would be hard to switch sides not only because of the chemistry, but also because it doesn't make any sense.
EMOTIONS
It is important to notice that emotions do not affect our behavior that much. What we feel and what we do is not the same. This may be a legacy as well. If you are a prey, and you see a predator, you run. You may feel whatever you want, you may have a good day, or a bad one, but you will run.
⇑ Some psychologists criticized this interpretation, saying that emotions guide everything in our behavior. And then they were making fake smiles to their enemies instead of chopping their heads off. Just saying. Internal rage doesn't lead to destruction unless it's already included in your patterns.
Emotions can be perceived as a universal language that can be used to establish communication between individuals, not only in the same species, but also between different species that have similar versions of this mechanism.
This topic will be explored in future work, but in the context of behavior we will stick to the idea that the mechanism of emotions is not the structure that defines our final observable behavior.
⇑ Language is a poetic term. Technically, we're talking about a part of a signaling system. It's a reactive mechanism. It describes the state of your machine, but it doesn't make any decisions.
⇑ In some cases, you can even work without emotions.
THERAPY
If we want to change behavior of a particular individual, we have to stop one of the impulses he uses. We need to break the loop. This action will push that individual to choose another pattern of behavior instead.
⇑ This is a simple action on its own, but there are few tips that may help if you never tried to work with behavior from this perspective.
Stopping one of the patterns while helping to use another one, setting a direction, can be an effective method of behavior control in the processes of upbringing and therapy. We just need to keep in mind the problem of predators and prey.
⇑ We can create roadmaps for cognitive behavioral therapy using our table of patterns. They'll help to avoid those awkward moments when a therapist forces incompatible patterns of behavior into your head and nobody notices that for a while.
Every pattern of class II has one primary impulse that is included into both loops. That impulse is the hardest to stop. There is always another choice.
It is common to see a situation where the environment blocks some of the patterns. Memories about a dangerous environment, the so-called psychological trauma, can block the patterns (10), (11), (13), and (14). They include memories about safe and fruitful environments.
⇑ More information about traumas.
Danger does not affect predator's willingness to hunt. Most likely predators will not understand why they should even hear about their old traumas.
Patterns (4), (8), (12), and (16), the right column, are the only ones that are not connected to memories about your environment. They are the easiest to establish if the said environment is not under our control and constantly changing.
If we follow these ideas, we can affect individuals or predict their actions to some degree, but if the system is broken, then a more nuanced approach may be required.
IV. MALFUNCTIONS IN THE SYSTEM
PREFACE
In the field of psychiatry, our main points of interest are possible malfunctions in the system.
Standard patterns, both class I and class II, shape normal behavior. Individuals who use them do not feel sick. There are no internal conflicts.
⇑ Some therapists may disagree with that. It's an important issue, and we'll try to resolve it by relying on natural designs and logic instead of subjective interpretations of craziness.
There are several kinds of malfunctions to expect within the system. They make individuals feel not right. Not normal. They can be perceived as sickness.
We will not be able to find the right medicine during our explorations, but we will take a look at all the possible malfunctions, make some hypotheses about diseases and causes that are not yet discovered, and discuss how to work with them in therapy in order to make patients' lives easier.
⇑ There are some speculations in the field about evolutionary benefits of psychiatric diseases. We won't go down that road. We think like engineers. We break things.
⇑ Also, we can design a variety of attacks on our brains, similar to the ones that we perform in computer systems. They're barely connected to behavior, and I'll cover them separately in my blog.
DESTRUCTION OF THE SYSTEMS
What happens when a system that produces impulses is destroyed? This is the first and the most obvious problem to expect.
If one system is destroyed, then 75% of the patterns stop immediately.
If two systems are destroyed, then 100% of the patterns stop, which practically means that our patient will be thrown back in the process of evolution for millions of years.
⇑ Since all these systems are complex, their partial destruction should be possible. In that case the patient won't lose everything at one moment. It can be a long process that greatly depends on the design of these systems in your species. There are many local details to expect. We'll stick to the rough picture for now.
There are four systems to destroy. There are four types of degenerative diseases to expect.
In any case of destruction, we have the same picture of four patterns of class I left. One column. If we consider the problem of predators and prey, then there will be only two patterns left. Quite a tragic situation. And no, stable patterns of class II cannot be constructed within a column.
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
Without an intelligence module, patients will use the patterns from the first column and will behave like little kids that we addressed earlier. This condition may be perceived as intellectual disability, ID.
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Without memory, patients will use the last column of the patterns. This condition may be perceived as Alzheimer's disease, AD.
⇑ This is just a rough example to show the direct connection with AD. It's one of the clear anchors that we use to connect this system to the human brain. Depending on your design, you may have various additional diseases that target your memory mechanism.
⇑ Dissociation in the graph of memories may create amnesia-like effects, but they happen on the level of software and have different consequences. We'll address them later. Right now we're talking about broken hardware.
It is expected to see destruction and self-blaming, looking for internal flaws (4); creation of rules and then a constant temptation to throw them all away, get back to "normal" life (8); constant reconstruction of memories and justification of actions (12); adaptation and constant fear (16).
NO WILL TO LIVE
Without the will to live, patients are predicted to use the third column of the patterns, but practical observations become difficult. Without any defense mechanism, a patient will likely be killed by destructive or even self-destructive processes much faster than proper observations will be made.
⇑ It doesn't mean that patients purposefully aim for self-destruction, but they don't have anything that'll stop them from going into a downward spiral.
⇑ This phenomenon is especially confusing in relation to the patterns (3) and (11). External observers may not notice that things went sideways up until the last moment.
It is important to differentiate the so-called sadness and the complete inability to create a defensive process within the structure. This must be a bizarre final version of immunodeficiency of the psyche.
PEACE?
Without free will, patients are predicted to use the second column of the patterns. This condition was never observed as a disease during the research. However, it is being mentioned in various religions, named differently, as something good. Not a disease, but something to be desired. Follow the flow and be happy. This sort of thing.
However, our system predicts that this is indeed a disease, a destruction of the specific structure that is supposed to produce impulses. This is a disease to be discovered.
Also, we may notice that the contradictory set of patterns of the second column can be described with the word "brainwashed", which is quite an interesting coincidence.
THERAPY OF THE DESTRUCTIVE PROCESSES
Destructive processes can be stopped in theory by medicine that is yet to be created. It is highly unlikely that they will be stopped by words. The possibility of the reversed processes, reconstruction, is under question.
Therapy can be helpful though. The most important thing to remember is that most patterns are already broken. It is important not to push further. Do not stop the impulses. Therapy should be supportive, not to change behavior, but to keep the patterns that are still present.
CONFLICTING PROCESSES
The second class of malfunctions is related to the possibility of creation of conflicting impulses. They are destructive for the structure as a whole, and consume energy. This can be observed as some energy-related symptoms, in addition to the anomalies in behavior.
These malfunctions can exist with the previous four destructive diseases simultaneously.
MANIA + DEPRESSION = CATATONIA
Several conflicting proactive patterns will create a behavior that can be addressed as mania. The manic syndrome. Large amounts of energy are being used. Lots of actions. But it is quite hard to do any productive work in one direction.
Several conflicting reactive patterns will create the reversed situation. Depression. Reactive patterns naturally require less energy, but again, the direction of behavior is getting confused.
Both mania and depression look like problems with a mechanism that stops the loops of impulses. The system goes to the next pattern, but the previous one does not stop. And we see the conflict.
The expected development of these diseases will look like several random patterns, both proactive and reactive, that all contradict each other. Mania and depression at the same time. This will create a bizarre condition that can be perceived as catatonia. In mania and depression, we see at least some direction in the form of proactive or reactive patterns, but with catatonia there are no directions left.
⇑ Technically, we can distinguish two versions of catatonia. Stupor if the set of patterns is symmetric, and agitation if it's not.
⇑ In some classifications, people may treat these conditions as various bipolar disorders and introduce catatonia as a final stage. These divisions are artificial. You just collect more and more patterns on both sides.
Since mania, depression, and catatonia have the same core problem with the loops that do not stop, we can make a hypothesis that all of these diseases are indeed the same disease. Visible symptoms may depend on the starting point, the first loop that was not stopped properly.
This can also explain why electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, works with this particular set of diseases and removes their symptoms. It just stops everything. This is exactly what we need. To stop. To press the "reset" button. Epilepsy can be an instrument to do the same job.
⇑ There are correlations in data between some particular kinds of seizures, these diseases, and anomalies in neuroplasticity. At this moment our data is very limited, but the investigation is in process.
⇑ Also, there is another way of thinking about this. If a switch can get stuck, it can become wobbly as well. This would be a perfect metaphor for this situation. Too much lube or not enough. These are two extremes. Seizure and catatonia. With a seizure you don't just stop patterns but rather constantly switch between them. None of them works long enough to be observed as a process.
SCHIZOPHRENIA
There is another problem to expect. Two mirrored patterns of class I or II. One proactive. One reactive. At the same time. This may be perceived as the ambivalence in its purest form. Schizophrenia.
For example (1) + (9), or (3) + (11), or (7) + (15) for class I, or ((3) + (8)) + ((11) + (16)) for class II.
⇑ There is a number of possible combinations here. It can be convenient to group them into clusters.
This condition may look like a special case of catatonia, but it does not have any further development, so it is unlikely.
⇑ In other words, patients with schizophrenia can switch between different patterns, and they don't collect them as in catatonia, but they get the mirrored pattern enabled every time.
Also, schizophrenia is not necessarily a sickness of will, as it may be perceived in some other theories, but rather a malfunction in the mechanism that is supposed to control the choice between proactive or reactive behavior. Railroad switches are broken, and they allow two completely mirrored processes to exist simultaneously within the system.
Mirrored patterns annihilate each other. Energy is being wasted. This leads to the lack of energy. This symptom is being associated primarily with schizophrenia. Without it, we need to shut down some systems. Emotions are not required for survival. They go dark first.
Since every structure that creates impulses has the same duality of proactive and reactive impulses, the "switch" must be a universal ingredient, a simpler structure that is included in all of them. It is to be found and fixed.
THERAPY OF THE CONFLICTING PROCESSES
Medical ways to finally cure these diseases are still in development. Unfortunately, we have to wait. Therapy can be used to help with the symptoms.
⇑ Available antidepressants and antipsychotics don't make much sense from an informational perspective. While they can provide certain useful effects, they can't fix any of these breakdowns. A new class of drugs has to be developed.
Since the main constructions are not afected in these diseases, and the problem is in the switches only, radical methods of therapy can be used. It is the opposite situation to the destructive diseases.
With schizophrenia, it might be a good idea to stop all the used patterns on one side of the table. Proactive or reactive. It does not matter. This will unbalance the system, leading to the counterintuitive result where free energy will be gained, because not all of it will be wasted in completely mirrored self-annihilating processes.
It is important to notice that this method does not cure the disease, but it removes the symptoms to some degree and makes life much more comfortable.
Similar ideas can be used with mania and depression. The only difference is that we need to identify all the patterns that are not being used and do not allow them to appear. We need to stop the process of collecting first.
Then we can start to block the rest of them, until only one or two are present. It is a lot of work, but it can be done. And again, it will not cure the disease, but it will remove the conflict and it will make life easier.
EXAGGERATED IMPULSES
If every system works, and the switches are not broken, the next problem to expect is the amplification of impulses. When impulses are being created too fast, processes become too intense. Too amplified. Exaggerated. Uncontrollable. This may be perceived as an anxiety of sorts. The problem is independent, and can be added on top of any other malfunction.
There are 24 impulses. There are 24 conditions to expect. The set is not completely identical, but surprisingly similar to our current classifications of personality disorders.
Amplified inflexibility is basically an obsessive-compulsive disorder. You must follow the rule. Amplified call for pity is dependent personality disorder. Amplified destruction is antisocial personality disorder. Ignoring is autism. Dread is paranoia. Reconstruction is bulimia. Exhaustion is anorexia. Etc.
This leads to the hypothesis that many of these unpleasant, yet on the border of a "disease or not a disease", conditions may have the same reason. The exaggerated impulse. And this is a problem to be solved purely by medications. We may expect to find four catalysts that amplify processes in four systems, or even the one to rule them all.
⇑ In ICD-11, behavioral disorders are listed in a slightly awkward manner now. Serious malfunctions, such as schizophrenia and catatonia, are placed at the same level as obsessive-compulsive, eating, or stress-related disorders, as well as some conditions that are hardly diseases and more like violations of collective morality.
⇑ I would prefer to split their list into four blocks for clarity: destruction of the systems (likely connected to other problems outside of 06 category); major diseases (mania, depression, catatonia, schizophrenia); personality disorders (all the accentuated behaviors, including the rules-related conditions as special cases); memory malfunctions (we'll get there in a minute). This classification is what we get naturally from our system.
THERAPY OF THE EXAGGERATED IMPULSES
Anxiety, loss of control, will be present. It can and should be removed before any therapy. There are medications for that. Then we will see a situation very similar to the patterns of behavior of class II. The maximum of two loops created around the impulse that has been exaggerated. Our actions will be practically the same. Stop the loop. Reduce self-amplification.
MALFUNCTIONS OF THE MEMORY MAINTENANCE
Three other structures may be relatively simple, but memory is a complex one. Since the amount of particles, the amount of structures in the individual's design, is limited, information in memory must be re-ordered and deleted in order to save new information. We cannot fit everything.
There are three structural parts of memory that can make it work as a storage for information - a "writer", a "reader", and a "worker" that does all the maintenance and defragmentation. It reorganizes important information that should not be deleted and deletes the rest. This trio naturally leads to some expectations.
FALSE READOUTS
If information is being read and restructured at the same time, memory hallucinations may appear. Something that had never existed and had never been saved as a whole can be temporarily constructed from moving parts of information in memory, accidentally read, and remembered.
This problem is very common in the field of computer science, and we expect it to appear here as well, since the processes are practically identical.
⇑ There are many interesting things that we expect to see in relation to memory mechanisms. Just a small amount of them are directly connected to the patterns of behavior, but this is a rabbit hole.
⇑ Also, psychiatrists use the term "hallucination" loosely. We need to be aware that there are several things that can be called like that in literature.
It is important to notice that the lack of coordination between the "reader" and the "worker" in the memory mechanism is not the proactive/reactive switch problem mentioned earlier. It is a different problem. These memory hallucinations are not a symptom of schizophrenia.
Another effect to be expected is a secondary readout of the same information that had been moved. This may lead to the illusion of deja vu. You have seen it already.
Readout of an empty memory cell, when information from it has been moved somewhere else, leads to the illusion of jamais vu. It should be there, but it is not.
Combinations of these effects create more complex ones. You may feel like you have already seen something that never existed, and you may feel like you already knew something that never existed, and it should be there, but it is missing.
These are illusions to expect in any structure of this design.
Memory hallucinations and these illusions are not destructive. They do not corrupt the system on their own. Yet they can become noticeable symptoms of memory malfunctions.
DEFRAGMENTATION DISORDERS
If information is being written during defragmentation, memories will be split. This may lead to the so-called dissociative disorders.
Sleep is required to perform defragmentation without this problem. The writing process has to stop.
This leads to the hypothesis that dissociative disorders can be achieved through sleep deprivation and intense consuming of information at the same time. It will force a memory mechanism to start hot maintenance. Kids will be affected more than adults, because they naturally explore the world and consume a lot of new information.
⇑ These ideas are not new. Many psychologists made similar guesses using their intuition. But when you design the memory mechanism from the purely engineering perspective, these conditions start to look different. This is one of the most interesting topics, where we can actually reuse our tools from computer science in biology. I'll continue to explore them in my blog.
In behavior, we may observe dissociative disorders in the form of random switches between the patterns that include impulses from memory. These switches come from randomly constructed memories, and they may look like there are no reasonable explanations for them.
THERAPY OF THE MEMORY MALFUNCTIONS
False readouts are consequences of sleep deprivation. We can remember a good example of this effect. Sailors. They tend to see various things in the sea at night, and then they make all kinds of terrifying stories. Good sleep will help to deal with this kind of problems.
⇑ Even if you've triggered these effects artificially, you still can stop the reading process and wait for the defragmentation to finish.
Therapy of dissociative conditions is the opposite. Most likely it will not be effective at all. Memory has to be reconstructed in order to cure the disease, and we do not possess any reliable tools to do that. We may assume that hypnosis-related suggestive methods may help to rewrite some memories, but further investigations are required.
⇑ In some special cases we can try to reconstruct the graph of memories, but there are many other scenarios where our tools won't work as expected.
DREAMS
It is obvious, but still worth mentioning, that sleep does not destroy the memory mechanism. It works. Some readouts continue during defragmentation. This process creates dreams. Technically, these dreams are memory hallucinations, the same ones that may happen during sleep deprivation.
There is a common wish to be able to learn things at sleep, to upload knowledge into your memory during sleep and not go to school. Even if we assume that the saving process will work, the process of learning will inevitably hit the wall of defragmentation. That knowledge will be corrupted. Effective learning during sleep is not possible.
V. SOCIAL ENGINEERING
PREFACE
We, as intelligent structures, may choose to create an environment. A society. And to protect it. It would be helpful to know the rules and to not rely on chaotic choices.
Interactions between individuals are indeed not random. Almost like the natural order itself affects them. And there are many parallels between effects in groups and processes in individual intelligent structures.
We will explore combinations of individuals with different patterns of behavior within groups, and will collect some recipes that work. Or do not. These recipes can be used in the field of management as inspiration, how to build stable teams, and in therapy, to understand the environment and possible memories about it.
⇑ The main reason why all these combinations work or don't work on the higher levels is that patterns are being translated into moral values. It's a complex subject that goes far beyond our topic of behavior. For now, we just skip it and concentrate on practical recipes.
⇑ The important thing here is that the logical relations between the basic impulses never change. This is why we can expect a lot of things to appear on the higher levels of organization of matter in the same way as they appear on the lower levels.
The following recipes are based primarily on the well-known history of human civilization and related observations, yet we can notice some very similar patterns in many different species. Unfortunately, our current knowledge is too limited to fully adjust these ideas to them.
⇑ It's not surprising that other species use the same logic as we do. They have to deal with the same conflicts. However, they may not be able to build the whole spectrum of possible designs of societies for various species-specific reasons.
CONFLICT
Several individuals that use different patterns of behavior of class I cannot be united.
A ? B ? C
They can be forced to exist in one space, but it is highly unlikely that they will be united and will work together efficiently in one direction.
This situation is very much like catatonia, but it happens at the higher level of organization of matter. Serious shock, like ECT, may help to remove the symptoms.
Individuals with the mirrored patterns will work directly against each other, creating a conflict, similar to the one with schizophrenia. Most likely resources will be wasted. Some communication systems will be shut down, like emotions. It would be wise not to force mirrored individuals to work together.
UNITY
However, several individuals that use the same pattern of behavior of class I can be united as a group, and behave in all further processes as a whole. All is one, and one is many.
(A + A + A + ...) = A
Once an individual is connected to the group, he loses the ability to switch his pattern of behavior. He should be extracted from the group to perform the switch, and he will not be able to connect back using the other pattern.
The same way it happens with exaggerated impulses, many repeating patterns of behavior can create an intense, uncontrollable process within a group at some point. This effect can be poetically described as "the madness of the crowd".
LEADERS
Individuals that use patterns of class II, more complex ones, can be perceived as leaders.
Individuals that use patterns of class I can join the leader that shares a pattern with them.
(A + A + A + ...) + AB = AB
Leaders use two connected patterns of behavior. They stabilize each other. This means that the leader becomes a stabilizer of the crowd, and can stop it or push it to keep the coordination between two patterns.
This leads to the idea that it would be wise to promote individuals that use patterns of class II, not class I, to formal positions of leaders and managers. Their stability will help to keep things under control.
MEDIATOR
Different leaders can be united if they share a pattern, creating a mediator group that balances more different interests.
AB + AC + AD = ABCD
Is this a catatonia of a group? Technically, yes it is. This mediator group just stops everything. It is unlikely that we will see any serious progress in a particular direction, but this mediator group can control self-amplifying conflicts.
⇑ Mediator group stops the progress and may prevent us from dealing with external problems. In some cases, we ignore incoming disasters for too long, and that leads to major losses of resources when the inevitable happens. It's important to keep that in mind when designing a society.
TWO CHIEFS
The unity of identical leaders can be powerful, but uncontrollable.
AB + AB = AB!
Technically, they can work together for a while and be surprisingly effective, helping two different groups at once, changing things, but again, repeating processes lead to the uncontrollable one, and there is nobody to stop them. They should be supervised within a society.
THREE-HEADED GROUP
This means that a stable independent group in its most complex form can have the maximum of three different leaders, who will share one pattern between themselves and with the rest of the group.
(A + A + A + ...) + AB + AC + AD = ABCD
Not every group will become three-headed, but this is a safe limit that we should be aware of.
PREDATORS AND PREY
Interests of predators and prey groups can be balanced by leaders that use the impulses of protection and call for pity. This is not an ideal solution, but we don't have much choice, because all the other predatory options just don't care about the balance and keeping things together. It is very unlikely that any of them will be interested in protection activities.
⇑ Technically, this wouldn't be the same type of connection as with groups that share a pattern. It's a workaround with some quirks. It may look good in vacuum, but that protection doesn't come alone. There are patterns around it. They make certain political systems surprisingly limited and predictable.
SOCIETY
Since a group can include three leaders, it can be connected to three other groups. Every group on the perimeter will have the maximum of two leaders left to connect to next groups. Then more. And more. The society is being made.
This basic structure of a society is a tree structure. It allows us to create a chain of command. All roads lead to Rome. We can force ideas and drive progress and innovations.
G
_____/|\_____
/ | \
G G G
/ \ / \ / \
G G G G G G
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
G G G G G G G G G G G G
However, the main problem with this type of structure is that it can be easily broken. Only one lost connection will split the whole society in half. Any random connection.
STABLE SOCIETY
In order to build a stable society, we need to create more connections between the groups. We need to make not only further connections to new groups, but also connections to the ones that are already included in our society.
G
/|\
G—G—G
| |
G—G————G—G
|\ /|
...—G—G————G—G—...
There are endless ways to construct these graphs. The ideal one, that will have at least three connections between all combinations of its parts, will be the most stable one. Three connections will have to be destroyed in order to split it.
BALANCE
In reality, it is impossible to build the ideal graph for a big society. Even a very close to the ideal one will be very difficult to build in practice, because of our inability to choose the members and lack of resources in general. And that graph will start to slow down the progress eventually.
It can be a good idea to intentionally combine these two types of graphs, to have stability in the core and progress on the perimeter.
LEGACY
Following these ideas, we can try to build a system as efficient as we can within our limitations, protect our legacy, and help our branch of evolution to continue its existence.