The abstraction of the experience gathered by the instantiations of an information set is memorized in that information set.
Because externalization is a recurrent process, the phases of life can be recognized at each level of externalization.
The hereditary information of a virus instantiates in many virus. One individual virus lives much shorter than the abstract hereditary information of the virus.
How these steps are filled in depends largely on the experience of the
information gained in previous externalizations.
16.4 Life cycle.
It takes many attempts for an information being to externalize for the
first time. These attempts are necessary to gain experience. The progress
of the attempts to externalize is described in the externalization cycle
in previous chapter. Once the information has gained control over the
environment by a full externalization, it makes use of this control to
prepare the environment for a new externalization.
16.5 Trigger for new externalization.
An information being which has succeeded to externalize itself, can have
several reasons to start a new externalization.
16.6 Dreaming of a better externalization.
During the externalization, the information being does not stay in
permanent contact with the externalization. It insulates itself
(vertically) to have thoughts. These thoughts bring the experience in
relation with the mapping used for the current externalization. During
these thoughts, the information being is able to consider other
externalizations based on the gained experience. When the anticipated
success of another instantiation is high, the information being is tempted
to maintain the insulation and start a new externalization. This tendency
increases as the current externalization indurates and becomes rigid,
making it more difficult to gain new experience.
The politician thinks about the experiences gained by the creation of his political party. He makes the relation between the difficulties he experiences and the initial choices made. By this, he gathers experience which would be very useful to create a new political party.The abstract experience allows the politician to think about a political party using a slightly different base. He attempts to imagine the success of the imaginary party in the current circumstances. When the anticipated results are good, he is tempted to detach (insulate) from the existing party and start the new one.
Not only politicians are from time to time thinking about starting something over. Mangers say this is the problem of all engineers. Long before finishing a project, an engineer likes to start it all over using a different approach based on the experience gained by the current attempt.
An adult human being (or animal) gains easily sufficient energy to maintain its body. The body is a stable structure. Excess of energy is the impulse for propagation. Propagation triggered by this causes a new externalization using mainly the same mapping (because it was successful).
Cell division in a multicellular body is based upon this trigger. The new cells are copies of the old cells. During cell division, no attempts are made to "make a better cell".
When the body gets injured or is completely destroyed, the abstract information cannot longer control the organism. The pain has caused the immediate insulation of the abstract information to protect it from damage (loosing consciousness, see later).
Imagine a creative engineer working in a large, stable company. It can happen that he has an an idea for which there is no place in the old company.Therefore he does not attempt to integrate the idea in his work but he keeps the idea for himself. In his spare time he thinks of it in secret (insulation). Exposing the new idea in the company would cause an overruling of the new idea by all indurated ideas around.
He knows that the realization of his idea requires energy (money) so he starts saving money and looking for financial means to create an environment where the idea can flourish (a new company).
Biological life starts by separating (insulating) the hereditary information and some resources for a new expression. Remark the importance of the insulation. Without insulation, the resources would be used for growth and maintenance for the parent body.The current externalization is used to insulate resources which will be organized by the new externalization. Having the right resources insulated from the environment facilitates the new externalization.
When the idea of the engineer is sufficiently outlined (insulated) and some resources to start with are reserved (insulated), for example some saved money and holidays, the first actions can be performed to express this idea using the resources. An insulated working cell is set up.
As soon the hereditary information (of biological life) is insulated and set apart combined with some neutral resources, the transformation of the resources starts. The hereditary information expresses itself (instantiates itself) in these resources (food).The transformation of the reserved resources causes an induration (growth) of the organization. In this stage, the growth is restricted because only the resources reserved in advance are available. The full organization is developed but still in an insulated form. This insulation is required as long the induration is not sufficient to withstand the external influences.
When the engineer speaks too early to his boss about the new plans (breaks the insulation), he boss can easily convince him to change his plans and integrate the new idea in the existing company. When however he has sufficiently indurated the ideas for the new company, they will be able to withstand such discussions (temptations).
The company is formally set up and the goals are made public. Interactions with the external world are suddenly intensified : renting an office, purchasing some basic equipment, etc. This interaction is necessary to buy and sell, to gain energy and experience.
The new body is born. It breaks the major insulation (e.g. bird shell) and the interaction with the external world are drastically increased. Maintenance and further growth requires now the acquisition of food from the outside world which is packed with external influences (information, bacteria, etc).
To be able to grow, the startup-company has to attract resources from outside and transform them in a successful way. The organization must be sufficiently strong to cope with newly hired engineers which could attempt to use the company as a breeding ground for their own ideas.
The newly born body must start eating food. This requires a sufficient protection to cope with all kinds of chemical and biological information (poison and bacteria) acquired together with the food.
Some engineers feel restricted by the rigid company. They have plenty of experience but they can apply it only single sided within the company. They start dreaming of creating a company of their own. They outline an idea, set apart some resources and... we are back at stage one.
The gained experience cannot longer express itself in new forms because the entire organization of the body is thoroughly rigid (indurated). Some information attempts to insulate itself and acquire resources for a next generation.
If the excess of energy cannot be used for any form of propagation (physically or mentally), the excess of energy gives rise to the development of cancer.
Finally, larger parts of the organization abandon because no new
experience can be gained in the indurated structure. It is sufficient for
one major organ to abandon completely to cause death of the entire body
(organism, organization).
16.15 Violent death.
The externalization is obtained by organizing elements of the environment.
The resulting structure is of course still very close related to the
environment. Drastic changes in the environment can cause the destruction
of (part of) the externalization. By this, the abstract information is
forced to insulate. If the change is permanent, the abstract information
has to start a new externalization.
16.16 Insulation.
The life cycle can be followed by the evolution of the insulation. At
first, some information gets insulated almost completely together with
some resources (matter, energy, time, money). This insulation is
maintained until the reserved resources are entirely organized with the
initial information. At this point, an interaction with the outside world
is allowed and interactions take place and experience is gained. By the
induration prior to this interaction, the essential information is deeply
hidden and cannot easily be modified by these interactions (stability).
After induration of the experience (deep assimilation), the information
cannot express itself further in these rigid circumstances and the
information (with gained experience) is released in the outside world in
an insulated package to develop new expressions. Finally, the whole system
stops, the entire insulation is removed and all elements (carrying
experience) become available for new expressions in the environment.
It is astonishing how well we can recognize these phases in such wide variety of phenomena.
In the inter galactic space, matter gets attracted to each other and forms a new cluster. By the formation of the cluster, it becomes an entity separated (insulated) from the environment. As it becomes more dense, the interactions increase and an intense transformation of matter takes place in stars. After a very long time (in our time scale), the transformation rate reduces because of most of the interaction is done. Finally, the star explodes and gives away all its transformed matter (removal of insulation) and throws its matter far apart (new insulation of experienced information) in space. The main structure is given up but the transformed matter will be used in other structures. This separated matter from the explosion is launched with sufficient speed to come in contact with other stellar systems after a long insulated journey.
It is interesting to remark that all atoms used in our body are the result of several such cycles.
After the life of a company, the organization becomes so rigid that it cannot longer cope with changing environmental conditions. Finally the company is given up and all the resources (experienced employees, housing, market segment, machines, etc.) become available for other companies (star explodes, body dies).
A shocking event in politics is spreading very fast. Soon the fact is known by the whole society. A joke can cause some change in this information. Because the information which is converted by the joke is so widely spread, the joke finds food wherever it comes. The joke will spread very rapidly. However, the joke is not longer successful when told to people who know it already. By this the joke burns out.
Biological life on earth uses energy from the conversion of chemical elements. Without external energy source, the conversion would terminate when all available chemical elements are converted to the more stable form. However, excess energy from the sun is used by processes to convert the chemical elements in the opposite way loading them again with energy.
Some stories are told to children since many generations. The telling of the stories can go on because there are each time new children. From the matter point of view, the matter which is converted by the tale will decompose again after death of the person and by intermediate of energy from the sun, this matter can be used again to built new children which are new breeding grounds for the tale.Large energy sources cause an apparent circular effect at lower level. In these circular processes, some experiences are repeated under slowly changing circumstances and the cycle is repeated so many times that experience is able to become deeply integrated in the basic elements.
This repetition reminds us to the rehearsal in a thought center.
16.19 Straw fires.
The remainders of burned out information decompose in a natural way and
loose energy by failing attempts to express itself, by natural decay and
by other elements "eating" them (triggering the collapse). It is possible
that a new information element develops which uses the burned out
information as food. Using this burned out information as food is very
easy because it is ready to collapse and release its remaining energy.
Information specialized in this conversion can spread very fast but cannot
live a long life because the amount of energy is limited. We can compare
this with a straw fire which burns the remainders of other processes.
Just at a point where a very successful joke cannot longer being told because everyone knows it, a new joke can be created referring to the old joke and making it collapse and release its remaining energy. The new joke will spread like a straw fire but die quickly.