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Ontology of the ‘Best’ in a Conditional Cosmos Rethinking Success, Meaning, and Survival in a Universe
Without Guarantees By the druid Finn What if “being the best” had nothing to do with
winning? We’re
used to thinking of “the best” as a ranking — a gold medal, a higher score, a
place at the top of a pyramid. In this view, “best” is scarce, comparative,
and reserved for the few. But what
if that’s not how nature works? What if
“the best” is something each of us — each being, each system — can experience
from the inside? Not as a competition, but as a signal. A kind of
internal resonance that tells us: This… this is working. This post
explores a concept called the Ontology of Adaptive Continuance — a way
of understanding life, action, and meaning in a cosmos that offers no
promises, but gives every being a chance to try. A Universe of Conditions Look
around: everything is conditional. You, me, a tree, a galaxy — all arise and
change within shifting patterns of circumstance. Nothing is outside the flow.
There is no unchanging ground beneath our feet. We are
all quanta of nature — finite, emergent entities with limited time and
resources, embedded in unpredictable contexts. We didn’t ask to exist. We
don’t know why we do. But we do exist. And more than that: we act. Why We Choose Goals (Even Arbitrary Ones) In a
universe with no clear purpose, each being must create its own. This
usually takes the form of a goal — a direction, a project, an idea, a
dream. It might be humble (raise a child), abstract (seek truth), playful
(build a sandcastle), or strange (memorize the names of all moth species). The point
isn’t what the goal is. The point is that a goal helps us orient,
removes disorientation, confusion. It focuses our energy. It invites adaptation
— the transformation of our behaviour or structure in order
to meet the challenge the goal represents. Adaptation = Continuance In
systems terms, adaptation is not about winning. It’s about persisting. If you
can adapt to a changing environment, you continue. If you can’t, you don’t. From a
bacterium mutating to resist antibiotics, to a teenager learning to navigate
heartbreak, adaptation is the name of the game. It’s how life resists entropy
— not by brute strength, but by intelligent change. And
here's the beautiful part: When a
being successfully adapts to its conditions in pursuit of a self-chosen goal,
it experiences a signal. A feeling of happiness. A moment of alignment. Of
enlightenment. This is what we call “being at your best.” Not
better than others. Not perfect. Just… working. “Best” as Internal Computation “Best,”
in this model, is not a status. It’s an internal computation. Your
body, mind, or system says: That
feeling — whether it’s relief, liberation, fulfilment, flow, joy, or even
quiet stability — is the sign that your configuration aligns (for now) with
your environment and you are happy in your skin. It’s not
permanent. It’s not external. It’s not exclusive. Why This Changes Everything If “best”
is something that any being can experience at any time and within any
context through the process of meaningful adaptation, then it’s no longer
a limited resource. In fact,
the more “best” moments a system can generate — across humans,
animals, machines, ecosystems, organizations — the more resilient that system
becomes and ‘the better it lives.’ Think of
a coral reef, a forest, a creative community, or a city full of people doing
what they love, solving problems, supporting one another. These aren’t
utopias. They’re adaptive continuance systems — places where many
different beings are generating “best” states and keeping the whole thing
alive through their trying. Continuance
is not given. It is earned — not through domination, but through distributed
adaptation. Try → Adapt → Continue So,
here’s the loop: ·
Set a goal (any goal). ·
Work toward it. ·
Adapt to conditions. ·
Feel the internal (happiness) signal of “best.” ·
Continue. In a
cosmos where nothing is fixed and the future is always unpredictable,
this loop is the real engine of existence. You don’t
have to be “the best.” And in
doing so, you make it more likely that not only you will continue, but
so will the system you're part of — the family, the
community, the species, the planet. Final Thought: The Sacredness of Trying In this
model, trying itself becomes sacred. Every
moment you work toward a meaningful (for you) goal — even if you fail, even
if no one notices — you are participating in the ontological drama of
continuance. You are doing what the cosmos itself does, at every level: adjust,
reconfigure, learn, persist. To be “at
best” is not to succeed in the eyes of the world. It is to momentarily align
your configuration with the possibility of another moment — another chance,
another act, another breath. And in a
universe where nothing is guaranteed, that is everything. |