Summary: The Universe "Wants" You to "6CED"!
Last updated
Last updated
"Yet what is more awesome: to believe that God created everything in six days, or to believe that the biosphere came into being on its own, with no creator, and partially lawlessly? I find the latter proposition so stunning, so worthy of awe and respect, that I am happy to accept this natural creativity in the universe as a reinvention of 'God.'
- Stuart Kauffman, in “Reinventing the Sacred”.
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”
― Carl Sagan
In this chapter, we will look at increasingly more detailed versions of the summaries of this book.
Let us start with a very high-level "tweetable" version:
The main message of "An Engineer's Search for Meaning" is that one can make one's life meaningful simply by aligning it with the universe's inherent tendencies towards expanding and enriching life and consciousness. The book shows that this isn't just a feel-good statement, but it has a strong basis in science and engineering principles.
Next, let us look at a 2-minute version:
The book develops the Meaning-Seeking Entities (MSE) Framework from First Principles, using an overwhelming amount of evidence and the application for reason,m without requiring any leaps of faith or dogma. It does this by defining Present-Bounded Rationality as its methodology. Using this methodology, this book shows that the universe exhibits the following 8 tendencies that work in the opposite direction to the law of Entropy and lead to everything we consider meaningful and hopeful. These tendencies are ubiquitous and omnipresent and can even be observed right here, right now. These tendencies are: Coherence, Complexity, Continuation of existence or identity, Curiosity, Creativity, Consciousness, Evolution and Diversity.
We call them the "6CED" Tendencies.
The book further shows that realizing and mindfully improving our alignment with these “6CED” Tendencies is the optimal path to finding meaning, purpose and hope in our lives without having to rely on faith or dogma.
Or, in other words, we can use the MSE Framework to "6CED" in life!
The book also suggests 4 simple practices based on this framework: Mindful Moments, Purposeful Mornings, Hopeful Evenings, and Meaningful Life.
And specifically for engineers, the book proposes that Mindful Engineering that is aligned with the expansion and enrichment of life and consciousness is the essence of life, is the way to make life meaningful, purposeful and hopeful.
Finally, let us look at a more detailed summary.
The book develops a framework for finding meaning, purpose and hope in life based only on science and engineering principles, or evidence and reason. No leaps of faith or acceptance of some dogma are necessary.
This framework is called the Meaning-Seeking Entities (MSE) Framework.
Meaning-Seeking Entities can be loosely defined as conscious living entities, such as ourselves, that have an innate desire to seek meaning, purpose and hope in their lives. (A more formal definition is included further down.)
The MSE Framework is a First-Principles-based framework built upon the foundation of evidence and reason alone. It relies on rigorous explanations of reality that scientists and engineers have put together over the millennia, using methods such as Bayesian Inference and the Scientific Method.
Unfortunately, this sort of rational analysis has limits, due to the existence of complexity, nebulosity and unknowns in reality, as well as our relatively limited cognitive abilities. This has been used as an excuse in the past to say that concepts like meaning, purpose and hope are beyond the reach of rationality. Unfortunately, this excuse has been used to put forth ideas based on faith or magic or dogma to define things like meaning, purpose and hope.
A far better way is to address these limits, and the framework uses a modified version of rationality as its methodology, which it calls Present-Bounded Rationality (PBR). This methodology is characterized by concepts from Bounded Rationality as well as the practice of grounding oneself in the present moment and location, also known as Mindfulness. Present-Bounded Rationality includes ideas such as Satisficing, Heuristics, Present-moment focus, Grounding in reality (rather than abstractions) and Non-judgmental observation, in addition to Thinking from First Principles, Bayesian Inferencing and Scientific Method mentioned earlier. Another important pillar of this methodology is always remaining humble and open to learning, thus avoiding the pitfalls caused by hubris and overreach that are typically associated with many other such frameworks. Doing so ensures that we don't get carried away by the zealous pursuit of abstractions and purity, and trying to fit reality to them instead of the other way round.
When we practice Present-Bounded Rationality to solve real-world problems or build things in the real world, we call it Mindful Engineering.
To build the framework, we start with the axiom that we live in something like an Ultimate Reality whose essence is unknown to us because we do not have direct contact with it. We can only experience it through our senses, as Physical Reality, or via introspection, as Consciousness. Since both of them are fundamental and self-evident to us, we take them as axioms too. We do not privilege either Physical Reality or Consciousness as more fundamental because we do not have any evidence to prove that. (If, at some point, we are able to prove how one emerges from the other, we can easily modify this part of our framework accordingly and the rest of the framework can remain unchanged.)
Using the scientific method and various engineering practices, humanity has managed to discover and explain foundational natural phenomena such as:
Quantum Fields and Wave Function Collapse,
The Standard Model of Physics,
Self-organization,
Dissipation-Driven Adaptation,
The Free Energy Principle and Active Inference,
Evolution and
Emergence.
Analysis of these phenomena leads us to conclude that the universe exhibits the following 8 inherent, ubiquitous and omnipresent tendencies:
Coherence,
Complexity,
Continuity of Existence or Identity,
Curiosity,
Creativity,
Consciousness,
Evolution and
Diversity.
We call these tendencies the “6CED” Tendencies since 6 of them begin with a C, one with an E and one with a D.
Note that all of these tendencies work against the law of Entropy, and are equally real. In fact, we are beginning to see scientists propose a formal “law of nature” based on this idea.
With that background, we can formally define Meaning-Seeking Entities as complex living entities that are
A result of all the "6CED" Universal Tendencies mentioned earlier,
Exhibit the tendencies themselves,
Have the desire for Meaning, Purpose, Hope in their lives, and
Can experience them, too.
All MSE's possess some level of consciousness appropriate to their level of complexity. Based on widely corroborated reports of introspection, the MSE Framework shows that the desire for meaning, purpose and hope ultimately arises in this consciousness.
We can postulate that this may be a result of consciousness itself trying to perform Active Inference, creating counterfactuals and then motivating us to go seek evidence for them. (Note that Active Inference is substrate-independent.) We can further postulate that this is because consciousness is really a new “virtual” life form that arises in complex living organisms.
The current thinking among psychologists is that the concept of Meaning in Life has 3 components. These include having a sense of:
Coherence or Comprehensibility,
Purpose, and
Existential Mattering or Significance.
Using the MSE Framework, we can show that MSE's can attain all of these by aligning themselves with their inherent 6CED Tendencies at all times and places. Thus, the MSE Framework defines that Meaning in life can be achieved by mindfully living in alignment with the 6CED Tendencies.
Given that these inherent tendencies of the universe continuously give rise to coherence and complexity in the universe, some of which self-organizes itself into self-sustaining and (sometimes) conscious, creative and curious organisms that evolve and diversify, we can conclude that that is at least one of the purposes of the universe. And since we are Meaning-Seeking Entities ourselves that are a result of the same tendencies and continue to exhibit them ourselves, our greater purpose is the same.
Thus, our greater purpose is to continue our own existence, while facilitating the creation and maintenance of other self-organizing and self-sustaining complex entities, creating more coherence and richer complexity and diversity around us, contributing to the universal process of evolution, being curious and creative, and continuing to enrich and expand our consciousness. Note that the complex entities mentioned here refer to not just individual living organisms, but also other entities that exhibit similar tendencies, such as organized groups or institutions of living organisms, bodies of thought, and even artificial organisms.
Doing so also provides Hope because the 6CED Tendencies have an incredible track record of surviving and even thriving in spite of a very long series of extreme upheavals that have occurred in the history of the universe right from its birth. This unbroken track record gives us tremendous confidence that these tendencies will continue to exist and be in effect far into the future. Thus, if we define hope as the expectation of a meaningful future, then it is easy to see that this can be accomplished by mindfully aligning ourselves with the 6CED Tendencies.
Since we are Meaning-Seeking Entities ourselves, we can’t help but exhibit the 6CED Tendencies ourselves. Unfortunately, our consciousness, as a result of it performing Active Inference on its own, generates many counterfactual scenarios i.e. desires that aren’t aligned with these tendencies. Due to this misalignment, our efforts to try to satisfy these desires lead to frustration. This is where the realization and mindful alignment with the 6CED Tendencies becomes critical.
To summarize, the MSE Framework shows that all MSE's such as ourselves (as well as any organized groups we belong to) can find meaning, purpose and hope by mindfully realizing, acting on and enhancing their 6CED Tendencies.
The PBR methodology also requires that we always keep in mind that reality contains a lot of complexity, nebulosity and many unknowns. As a result, these guidelines themselves are subject to moderation and should always remain amenable to revision as we learn more.
Many of the ideas mentioned here can be seen in various religions and philosophies also. So, one can say that the MSE Framework is not particularly against religious or philosophical ideas. But there are some critical differences:
We have a far crisper definition of these ideas,
A far stronger basis for explaining them from First Principles,
A far better chance of developing strategies for accomplishing them,
Far better prospects of improving upon these ideas as we learn more,
Anyone can understand and verify these ideas themselves without taking anyone else's word for it, and
Given that they are based on the universal language of evidence and reason, there is a higher probability that they can be adopted by people with completely different backgrounds.
In order to define some practices based on the framework, we rely on ancient practices of Mindfulness and Stoicism.
In fact, it can be shown that the practice of Mindfulness is a logical outcome of MSE's trying to improve their Active Inference process. Improving the process entails improving perception, the internal model and effectiveness of actions in the world, which is exactly what Mindfulness also involves.
We can also rely on the Stoic practice of morning and evening journaling but modify it to incorporate alignment with the 6CED Tendencies as the main criteria.
Using these ideas leads us to define 4 simple practices based on the MSE Framework:
Mindful Moments,
Purposeful Mornings,
Hopeful Evenings, and
Meaningful Life
Moreover, specifically for engineers, the book recommends taking pride in their vocation since it appears to be the essence of life. But in order to do so, one has to practice Mindful Engineering, ensure that it is aligned with the expansion and enrichment of life and consciousness is the essence of life, and refrain from hubris.
And with that, we have finally achieved what we have been aiming for since the beginning of this book: A way to find meaning, purpose and hope in life, based only on evidence and reason, or scientific and engineering principles.
Whew!
This has been quite a journey, starting from absolute scratch to reaching our goal. Taking the "path less traveled" has certainly meant challenging some long held notions, opening my mind to new ideas and painstakingly working through various scientific results.
As a result, I wouldn't be surprised if what I have presented here has raised many questions and doubts in your mind. Allow me to address them next.
