Epilogue II

THE TIMELESS PURPOSE

INT. MONASTERY – NIGHT

A dimly lit study room. The smell of candle wax lingers. Books, papers, and an unfinished plate of bread and olives are scattered across the wooden table. Haplous flips idly through a notebook, while Synergos leans forward, rubbing his hands together in thought.

SYNERGOS
The framework describes the brain as a goal-seeking system. But I was wondering. Before the brain evolved, or even before neurons, could goal-seeking have been a fundamental property of life itself? If so, then the brain would have developed as an embodiment of an even older principle.

HAPLOUS (nodding)
Yes, I think that’s exactly right. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it goes back to the very beginning of life.

SYNERGOS
Why not? Wouldn’t the first forms of life already be goal-seekers?

HAPLOUS
That depends on what we mean by goal-seeking. Some of the earliest replicators might have simply followed chemical happenstance—spreading because conditions were right, not because they were “seeking” anything in a meaningful sense. A molecule drifting toward a higher concentration of nutrients isn’t really seeking a goal—it’s just following a gradient.

SYNERGOS
So where do we draw the line? At what point does life stop being just chemistry and start actually seeking something?

HAPLOUS
That’s the key question. We don’t have to argue that goal-seeking was present in the very first life. But at some point, life had to start actively adjusting to external conditions – not just maintaining itself through internal balance, but detecting changes and responding in ways that helped it persist. That’s when goal-seeking became something more than just self-regulation.

SYNERGOS (nodding)
So it’s not enough to maintain equilibrium. There has to be an active sensing of something external.

HAPLOUS
Exactly. A system can regulate itself without needing an internal model of the environment. A simple homeostatic process – like adjusting internal salt concentration – doesn’t require any awareness of the outside world. But the moment an organism moves toward food or away from danger, that means it has something inside it that corresponds to the external world.

SYNERGOS
Like a thermostat? A furnace thermostat doesn’t just react blindly – it has an internal model of temperature, even if it’s simple.

HAPLOUS
Yes! And a cybernetic organism works the same way. If an early life form swims toward food, that alone is proof that the food is somehow represented within it. It doesn’t need to be conscious of the food – it simply has an internal structure that allows it to respond appropriately to an external reality.

SYNERGOS (leaning forward, thinking)
That’s a powerful point. A goal-seeking system has to contain a structure that reflects something about the world outside itself.

HAPLOUS
Precisely. And this principle existed long before neurons. The first cybernetic organisms weren’t just reacting to changes inside them – they were sensing, comparing, and acting in relation to the external world.

SYNERGOS (nodding)
So neurons were simply a more direct and efficient way to do something that was already happening?

HAPLOUS
Yes. But the real turning point wasn’t neurons – it was when animals stopped relying on slow molecular diffusion and started using electrical signaling instead.

SYNERGOS
So what came before neurons?

HAPLOUS
Neurons didn’t emerge in isolation. They evolved to replace earlier signaling pathways that were already part of a goal-seeking system. The organisms that first developed neurons already had ways to detect food, respond to danger, and adjust their behavior based on external conditions. But their signaling was slower, relying on chemical diffusion or surface-based electrical activity.

SYNERGOS
So neurons weren’t a new invention? They were a refinement?

HAPLOUS
Exactly. Evolution doesn’t create both a structure and its function at the same time. If neurons had appeared before organisms had any goal-seeking behavior, they would have had nothing to do. Instead, early animals already had signaling pathways for movement and environmental response.

SYNERGOS
So these organisms were already reacting to their environment, but without neurons?

HAPLOUS
Right. At first, these were just membranes with ion channels that flipped polarity, sending signals across their surfaces. As organisms grew more complex, these excitable membranes likely began to develop specialized pathways, possibly by folding into grooves that helped guide signals along specific paths.

SYNERGOS
And once those pathways formed, neurons could take over?

HAPLOUS
Exactly. Over time, structures resembling early nerve fibers may have emerged, improving speed and coordination. The function came first—the structures that performed it just kept evolving to do it better.

SYNERGOS
So neurons didn’t invent goal-seeking, and they didn’t invent electrical signaling. They just took over both?

HAPLOUS
Yes. They took over an older role and optimized it. That’s why neurons still use the same fundamental mechanism as those ancient excitable membranes – a chain reaction of electrical polarity flipping.

They sit in silence for a moment. In the corner, the monastery cat stirs, padding silently across the floor in pursuit of something only it can see in the darkness.

SYNERGOS (thoughtful)
So prediction isn’t separate from goal-seeking. It’s just an enhancement?

HAPLOUS (nodding)
Exactly. Basic control systems don’t predict – they regulate. But in more advanced systems, prediction refines goal-seeking, making it more efficient.

SYNERGOS
Like how a simple furnace doesn’t predict, but a more advanced system might adjust preemptively?

HAPLOUS
Yes. Prediction wasn’t some new invention – it emerged naturally as a refinement of goal-seeking. The brain didn’t start as a predictor; it started, and remains, as a coordinator of action.

HAPLOUS (lifting his cup of tea)
And your first intuition was correct – goal-seeking was not invented by the brain. It is an ancient principle, predating even neurons. 

SYNERGOS
Going back to the Cambrian era and before, correct?

HAPLOUS
Yes. Even before the Cambrian, animals were already moving, seeking food, avoiding danger, responding to changes in their environment. Everywhere you look, you had goal-seeking organisms. And that hasn’t changed.

SYNERGOS (nodding, thinking)
Yes… and it’s still true today. If anything, the drive to seek goals has only deepened and intensified. Everywhere you look, you have hungry animals, thirsty animals, animals seeking shelter, animals seeking to reproduce, animals hunting, animals fleeing – even in stillness, adjusting, regulating, surviving… all seeking, all striving. 

They sit quietly for a moment, the monastery cat curling into a tight ball by the hearth. 

SYNERGOS
We need to write this down.

This conversation between Synergos and Haplous reveals something fundamental about the framework: it sheds light on truths that are hidden in plain sight – truths so basic they are like water to the fish, rarely questioned yet foundational to understanding the mind. There are many such insights, but three stand out:

1. The ubiquity of goal-seeking in life. The brain is a goal-seeking system – this is not just one of its features, but its defining essence. It arose as the embodiment of a principle far older than itself.

2. The striking similarity between all modes of subjective experience. Dreaming, remembering, imagining, perceiving –they all feel somewhat the same. Why? The framework explains this by showing that they all arise from the same fundamental process.

3. The coterminous nature of conscious experience and potential expression. Why are we only conscious of things that we could express? The framework makes sense of this by revealing that conscious experience itself is the internal recognition of potential expression.

These insights were always there, waiting to be seen. The framework simply gives us the right lens.

If this sounds intriguing and you found this epilogue without first reading the Seven Dialogs, you can learn more starting at Dialog 1.

Or, if you care to read another epilogue, you can go to Epilogue III.