Communication Networks as Control Systems

Cellular and Social Networks

We are a complex network of microwave, molecular, and ionic intercommunication forming and controlling the unified behavior of each of our hundred trillion cells. This intricate web not only manifests and maintains our body but also gives rise to something entirely new and different: our consciousness emerges from the layered intercommunication of these cells.

The conscious mind was unaware of the existence of the cellular web of intercommunication until the 1930s. Before 1870 no one on Earth knew or even imagined a human being was created and sustained by a vast communication network of trillions of tiny entities. Although we discovered we were made of cells in the 1870s, it took another sixty years to realize these "cells" were actually individual living units capable of surviving independently under the right conditions. Even today, few people fully grasp the profound implications of this discovery.

When we are awake, the conscious mind uses the cumulative information from the cellular communication web to create it's own thoughts and use these to direct the movements of it's body.

The conscious mind, born from the cellular intercommunication web, grows and matures within the network of intercommunications between the individuals in that human's social network. 

There are many similarities and some key differences between cellular and social network intercommunication webs.

The Human Mind

The network of communications between the trillions of cells in a human body creates the physical and mental existence of a human. We can identify the "physical" manifestations of arms, legs, liver, stomach, heart, spleen, kidneys, and brain. However, each of these exists as a dynamic flow and exchange of information systems, with earth atoms flowing in and out, directed to the correct locations by the combined molecular activity within the intercommunication network.

Human consciousness is one of the emergent properties of this information system, but it is just one part of the mind that emerges from the cellular network. The human mind consists of several different divisions, each focusing on different aspects of the human experience. Many of these divisions have been catalogued under terms like the subconscious or higher consciousness, and sometimes identified as the ego, creativity, intuition, and so on.

Mind is a  process of Perception, Memory, Response, Observation.  A flow of information where the information system perceives aspects of the world around it (the information flows in form the outside world), compares the information to conditions stored in the cellular information system's memory catalogues, makes a decision and initiates an appropriate response, and then observes the effect of the response when the body performs the correct action. 

Human consciousness is not involved with the vast majority of these mental processes. They are considered automatic, habitual, sub-conscious.

There is also a "higher consciousness" overseeing all these mental processes, including the conscious mind we are all familiar with. Neurologists and Psychiatrists know and can measure aspects of most of the human mental processes but the "higher consciousness" is forbidden territory. Just look at the vast amount of literature and confusion concerning the "great mystery" of consciousness. One of the first things you should notice is the research papers and discussions never define the meaning of the word Consciousness. But it is perfectly easy to define and it's meaning has been clear for thousands of years.

Conscious 

The word Conscious comes from the Latin com- together, with + scire to know. Literally "knowing together." Now used as a generic word to represent knowing, feeling, knowledge, awareness, and every other mental state - as in sub- or un- or super- . 

I think it should be used exclusively as "Knowing Together," and applied to the emergent state of awareness from intercommunication - as with human language creating a special kind of mutual awareness in the participating individuals. But also as the emergence of a human mind from the communications of its 10 billion neurons. Or the emergence of a multicellular creature by the communications of its cells. And so on.

Genes and Memes

Whereas the behavior patterns of cells are stored in molecular structures called genes, the learned behavior patterns of human society are stored in memes.

Memes are memories encapsulated in human language systems, and take the form (today) of written words and other signals causing humans  to modify their behavior in very definite ways and at specific times.

• A written idea is a meme.

• A national flag is a meme.

• A legend is a meme.

• A work of art - a photograph or a painting - is a meme.

The behavior induced in the human by a meme depends on the role the human plays in society's web of intercommunications. The behavior of all humans is strictly controlled and regulated by the memes in their society's web of intercommunications.

Immortality

The cellular intercommunication web manifests both the cells and the entire human (including its mind) simultaneously. But the cells, who actually create the web by their constant, individual intercommunications, live and die by the billions in the span of a few months. The total manifestation of the human body and its memories, however, continues to live through thousands of generations of cells.

The society intercommunication web manifests the behavior of the individual humans (where they are spatially and what they are doing at any given time) and the entire physical structure of society simultaneously. But the people, who actually create the web by their constant, individual intercommunications, live and die by the billions in the span of a single century. The total manifestation of a society and its recorded ideas continues to exist through many generations of humans.

Immune Systems

If a human body is invaded by a foreign concept, such as pneumonia bacteria, the immune system works as a team to identify and destroy the bacteria, thus preserving the peaceful harmony of the intercommunication web. We are guarded against invasion. 

If society is invaded by a foreign idea (the world is a sphere spinning under a star) legal and cultural systems work to preserve the existing structure of society (The Inquisition).

Unlike the rigid cellular intercommunication web, society can absorb and use foreign ideas, sometimes modifying them to help the society achieve new behavioral abilities. Evolution takes tens of thousands of years to achieve a slight change in the cellular web of intercommunication but a single new technological development, a single new idea, can metamorphose the structure of society in a very short time.

But each new concept is contained within, and controlled by, the existing web of intercommunication; whether it is a genetic mutation or a new invention. The webs of intercommunication have intricate control systems in place to maintain things the way they are. Once the control systems have acted, changing behavior is very difficult or - sometimes - impossible.

Control switches

Cells have controller genes that switch genetic memories on and off. The first few generations of cells from the fertilized egg can become any cell in the human body. But once development progresses beyond certain very defined stages cells can only become an eye cell or a brain cell or a skin cell and once that signal is triggered, they can never become anything else.

Human babies can grow up to be almost anything in society. They know, by genetic memory, how to grow up and how to laugh, cry, make a face indicating fear or surprise, run and walk. When we are babies we smile when we are happy and the smile is pure, done correctly, at just the time when the baby feels happy.

Society's web of intercommunications interacts with the baby as it grows, turning on or off behavior potentials. As each potential is molded, so the child develops until it becomes locked into certain thought modes. At each stage, the ability of the child to play a different role in society changes until it has a personality and place within the control network of words, social signals, body language, laws, codes, classes, and so on.

Society's control networks and switches are often invisible to individual humans in much the same way cellular control systems are invisible to individual humans. We can detect them by experimentation, using sophisticated tools of behavioral science, and some individuals can perceive the networks directly, but most of us are completely unaware of anything but our own conscious existence and the feelings of what we could or could not do - should or should not do - must or must not do. Humans also have very visible control systems;  physical constructs such as roads or buildings regulating where we can move and  governmental, legal, and social regulations we humans must obey. 

The control systems of society, like the control systems of our body, evolved by the long-term interaction of humans with their environment.

Neither system was thoughtfully designed.

In fact, we dread the idea of designer human control systems. 

Scientists who have ventured into the field of society control systems - especially the field of how these could be manipulated - are met with outrage, not honor. Sciences like genetic engineering, social engineering have such profound implications most of us are scared to death of them.

Rogues

If cells stop intercommunicating with the rest of the body's molecular and electromagnetic signals they stop dividing to form the kinds of cells they were supposed to be making - skin cells, kidney cells, brain cells - and reproduce into more primitive, undifferentiated forms. They continue to multiply even when new cells are not needed, leading to the formation of a mass of cells known as a tumor. These cells can also evade programmed cell death (apoptosis), which normally eliminates damaged or unneeded cells. They also can begin to send rogue cells throughout the body, invading other tissues and causing death and destruction of the entire system.

Humans who stop responding to their society's control systems likewise become rogue and cause damage to those around them and - if they are not controlled - can convince others to stop responding to the control systems and revert to a more primitive, aggressive actions harmful to the whole society. If they are successful in overcoming the control systems they can send messengers out to convince others to join them and invade other areas of the society causing death and destruction of the entire system. In human systems this is called terrorism, revolt, and eventually revolution.

Language Control Systems