Wednesday, December 21, 2011

When a sense of morality looks not toward others for cues, but back to that which looks?

The other day I was thinking about what might be called social organisers. It’s the sort of thing that meerkats and other social animals might be described as using, where they react to where they should be and what they should be doing, in terms of the social structure. These sorts of cues come from the other animals in the social group (like alpha males or alpha females) as to what to do.

Okay, so what happens when this social structure, that kinda doesn’t exist but does (as much as stopping at traffic lights doesn’t exist…but does)…what happens if it folds over onto the viewer itself for what to do? Instead of consulting an external source on what actions to do, it consults the same creature that was otherwise supposed to be observing external sources for this info. And suddenly the creature is its own source of morality? Seemingly. Suddenly the external, existant structure (hey, that alpha is gunna bite you if you go near it’s food, that’s real!) becomes what is on the inside? It might explain voices from god, knowing what’s best for others (hello Vox!) and stuff like that. Just take a structure which really operates from scanning for external cues but shift where it scans to the individual who scans. Not too big a jump since its set to look at other individuals like it already. Now, in the hurly burly of a single mind, every cue to do something is a bit like a bull in a china shop, setting off other thoughts (which are being scanned since were scanning the scanner) else which is a cue, which itself sets off thoughts…and so on.