|
Procedure Monism as Hypothesis
The Druid Finn’s
Quantised Ontology
By Bodhangkur
I. The Hypothesis: Procedure Monism in Summary
Core
claim:
All identifiable realities—particles, minds, ecosystems, societies—are local
iterations of a single Universal Procedure (UP), a generative algorithmic
set of constraints, forces, or rules that arranges random energy quanta into
coherent, self-identifying, and hence real, emergents.
Reality,
in this framework, is neither substance (as in Spinoza) nor continuum
(as in Ibn ʿArabī), but procedure:
discontinuous, quantised, event-bound acts of self-organization.
Every emergent is thus a bounded “assistant” of the UP—an analogue or local
“hard copy” executing the same universal algorithm in its local context.
Key
propositions:
1. Discontinuity
as fundamental. Reality is composed of discrete interactions
(“quanta”), not continuous substance.
2. Universality
of process. There is only one generative rule-set—the UP—operating
everywhere and everywhen.
3. Local
iteration. Each emergent (photon, cell, human) executes the same
rule locally, producing unique but procedurally homologous realities.
4. Realness
@ c². Realness happens at contact @ c, as a c² moment—a
quantised burst of actualisation in a relativistic vacuum.
5. Identity
as trace-response. Identity arises as the response or trace
observation to serial contact.
6. Emergence
as survival. Every emergent’s “goal” is
to complete and thereby sustain the UP locally by continuing to generate
coherent contact patterns.
Thus, existence
= iterative, quantised execution of one universal procedure under local
constraint.
II. Methodological Frame
Procedure
Monism can be treated as a metaphysical hypothesis:
a testable, explanatory framework for how existence, identity, and realness
emerge.
The
question is not theological but structural:
Does Procedure Monism explain more (or more economically) than its
alternatives—dualism, pluralism, process philosophy, or panpsychism?
III. Strengths of the Hypothesis
1. Ontological Economy (Occam’s Strength)
Procedure
Monism reduces all metaphysical categories to one: procedure.
It requires neither matter/spirit nor creator/creation dualisms.
As in Turing’s principle—that one universal computational procedure can
simulate all others—Finn’s UP acts as the minimal generative rule-set.
2. Integration Across Domains
Because
“procedure” generalises to physical, biological, and cognitive processes, it
unifies physics (quantum interactions), biology (self-organization),
psychology (problem solving), and ethics (adaptive survival strategies) under
one generative logic.
A cell replicating, a human thinking, or a galaxy spinning are all iterations
of the same procedural law.
Example:
The DNA replication mechanism, a bacterial quorum, or an AI learning loop—all
are localised, rule-based reorganisations of turbulence into pattern.
3. Empirical Resonance with Information Physics
Finn’s
insistence on discontinuity aligns with quantum discreteness, and his
focus on bounded events matches modern views of measurement and
observer-dependence.
The UP echoes Wheeler’s “It from Bit” and Turing’s universality,
but adds the notion that realness itself arises only at contact @
c².
4. Phenomenological Strength
Procedure
Monism naturalises consciousness: to exist is to execute a
procedure that generates awareness of local contact.
The feeling of awareness (cit) is the local
trace of serial c² contacts—the echo of realness across time.
Thus, identity becomes memory of contact, not a metaphysical
substance.
5. Ethical and Existential Coherence
By defining
“good” as procedural adequacy and “evil” as procedural blockage, Procedure
Monism grounds ethics in function, not command.
“Moksha” (release) means successful operation—the removal of restriction or
malfunction.
The moral life is simply efficient life; joy (ānanda)
is the feedback signal of procedural success.
IV. Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities
1. Conditional, Not Reciprocal Ontology
Everything
that exists is procedural—that is, it is an outcome of the UP acting locally.
However, not everything procedural exists.
Existence is conditional upon the UP’s rules meeting turbulence
sufficient to produce a contact @ c² (a quantum of realness).
Thus, the procedural domain far exceeds the realised domain; potentiality
does not entail actuality.
Formally:
∀x [E(x) →
P(x)] but ¬∀x [P(x) →
E(x)].
Everything that exists is procedural; not all that is procedural exists.
2. Automatic and Blind Execution
The UP
does not “choose” or “intend.”
Its execution is automatic and blind: whenever the random ocean of
energy quanta becomes turbulated—through
collision, expansion, or fluctuation—the rules (as forces) respond.
The UP acts as gravity acts: without foresight or value.
Procedural actualisation has no designer or purpose—only structural
inevitability reacting to turbulence.
3. Emergents as Responses to
Turbulence
All emergents are responses, not creations ex nihilo.
They occur where turbulence (deviation from equilibrium) triggers the UP’s
stabilising actions.
A star, a virus, a human, or a thought is a local adaptation—a temporary
coherence in the storm of random quanta.
Example:
A tornado is not “made” by the air; it emerges as the air’s lawful
response to thermal imbalance.
Likewise, life is turbulence stabilised by the UP’s procedural rules.
4. Continuity as Observer Phenomenon
Continuity
is not real; it is a perceptual artefact.
Energy and momentum appear continuous because our observation smooths over
countless discrete c² contacts per instant.
Continuity exists only as a high-frequency illusion, a stitching
together of discontinuous reality.
Example:
A film appears to move smoothly at 24 frames per second.
Likewise, consciousness appears continuous because of rapid quantised
contacts.
5. Predictability: Universal but Not Detailed
The UP’s
operation is universal but not locally predictable.
While the form of events—emergence, evolution, decay—is rule-determined,
their content—when, where, how—depends on random turbulence.
Hence universal law + local chaos.
Example:
That a human must die is predictable (universal constraint).
But how, when, and under what conditions is unpredictable (contextual
turbulence).
Procedural determinism and local indeterminacy coexist without contradiction.
6. Morality and Ethics as Local Rule Sets
Moral and
ethical codes are emergent-level heuristics: expedient control procedures for
local coherence.
They are contextual algorithms, evolved for group stability.
They are overridden by the UP’s blind, automatic goal-as-outcome—the
continued procedural operation itself.
The UP’s ethos is functional, not moral.
Thus, morality is locally necessary but universally irrelevant.
Example:
Human compassion stabilises social systems, but the UP, indifferent to form,
would produce a plague or a star with equal procedural legitimacy.
7. Anthropocentric Projection
The UP’s
indifference exposes human anthropocentrism as defensive illusion.
Humans accuse cosmology of anthropomorphism, yet the projection is reversed:
humans attribute their own importance to a neutral procedure.
The UP generates ants and horses, humans and quasars, with equal disinterest.
Form is incidental; function—iteration of the rule—is all.
Hence, anthropocentrism
is procedural narcissism: an emergent’s failure
to grasp its own interchangeability.
8. Residual Ambiguity of the Non-Real UP
Since the
UP itself never makes contact, it is non-real—a rule set inferred from
its effects.
Critics may see this as metaphysical vagueness: how can a non-real law act?
However, in Finn’s framework, this is logically consistent.
The UP does not act from outside; it is the structural condition
under which turbulence becomes ordered.
It is the how, not the who, of becoming.
9. Summary Table
|
Domain
|
Character
|
Example
|
Status
|
|
UP (Rule Domain)
|
Blind, automatic, non-real
|
Laws of force, constraint sets
|
Procedural potential
|
|
Emergents (Event Domain)
|
Responsive, adaptive
|
Stars, cells, humans
|
Procedural actualisation
|
|
Continuity
|
Observer artefact
|
Motion, thought
|
Cognitive interpolation
|
|
Morality
|
Local regulation
|
Ethics, religion
|
Expedient subsystem
|
|
Predictability
|
Universal form, not content
|
Death, entropy
|
Conditional certainty
|
Thus,
Procedure Monism is neither teleological nor anthropic.
It describes a blind, rule-based cosmos whose local realness occurs only
where turbulence meets constraint.
It replaces the Creator God with a Universal Algorithm and the moral
law with energetic inevitability.
V. Comparative Note
|
Criterion
|
Procedure Monism (Finn)
|
Substance Monism (Spinoza)
|
Process Philosophy (Whitehead)
|
|
Ontological unit
|
Procedure (algorithmic rule)
|
Substance (self-caused being)
|
Process (event becoming)
|
|
Continuity
|
Discrete / quantised
|
Continuous
|
Continuous but relational
|
|
Causality
|
Emergent via local iteration
|
Immanent in substance
|
Prehensive relations
|
|
Consciousness
|
Trace of serial contacts
|
Attribute of substance
|
Intrinsic to process
|
|
Ethics
|
Functional adequacy
|
Rational harmony
|
Creative advance
|
|
Weakness
|
Abstraction / empirical inaccessibility
|
Deterministic closure
|
Ontological vagueness
|
VI. Provisional Conclusion
As
hypothesis, Procedure Monism demonstrates the following strengths:
·
Ontological economy (one rule suffices).
·
Integration across physical, biological, and
cognitive domains.
·
Compatibility with quantum and computational
paradigms.
·
A functional naturalisation of consciousness and
ethics.
And the
following weaknesses:
·
Conditional empirical access (the UP remains
inferred).
·
Automatic and blind causality may appear
philosophically austere.
·
Predictive limits arise from random turbulence.
·
Morality collapses into procedural expedience.
Yet these
are not defects but structural consequences of the model’s realism.
A blind, discontinuous, form-neutral procedure cannot prefer or moralise.
It can only operate.
Final Evaluation
Procedure
Monism stands as a modern druidic reconstruction of monism
after relativity and computation.
It replaces substance with algorithm, intention with constraint, and
transcendence with contact.
Realness happens @ c²; identity happens as the echo of contact.
Everything else is the illusion of continuity woven by the observer.
Finn, as diagnostic
iteration
Home
|