A computer’s networking model imitates the emergent order of human networks, but with far less intuition, way more verification, and exponentially faster.
Computers send signals with layers. The sender bundles its payload inside the top “application” layer, then adds more information layers until it gets to the bottom “physical” layer. Then, the receiving computer unwraps the signal in reverse to know what to do with it.
Like computers, we exchange information so rapidly we don’t notice it. We encode information in our brains, then send out a remixed and spliced adaptation later, often oblivious to what we’ve added or removed.
Like computer errors, we only notice when things fail. Higher layers don’t work without the lower supporting network layers working correctly, though we typically misattribute the problem to those higher thoughts. In fact, the misdiagnosis of where something fits into our understanding may well be the cause of every human interaction issue.
NOTE: As of September 2020, I found out that Chris Argyris and Peter Senge already made this entire layer-based theory by another name and called it the Ladder of Inference when I was 3 years old. This confirms that there’s really nothing new under the sun, and that I didn’t actually contribute to humanity as much as I thought.
Layer 1 — Observation
As humans, we don’t get many reliable facts. We can each know for certain that we exist and think, but it’s always possible everything else could be an illusion.
Therefore, we have very little to work with. Every single perception we have is the equivalent of a Rorschach inkblot test. It’s why babies do nothing most of their formative years except observe things. We’re gathering metaphysical facts, but aren’t consciously aware of what we’re really looking at.
Beyond our animal/spiritual essence, human universals, and whatever we can nail down with science, facts will always sit in a type of semi-known limbo.
Layer 2 — Imagination
Our experiences and impressions are reliable enough to construct reality, but we’re merely copying what we can (with our limited hardware) into our brains.
This information isn’t much to go on, so we add more information to make sense of what we perceive.
Our minds are way too limited to process the endless stream of details, so we tend to look for something useful.
Most of those derived “facts” are sensible, but they come from prior experience drawn from memory. This system is reliable, but allows us to believe the illusion that some things exist outside our minds that don’t. We develop a framework of trust that something exists how we’ve perceived it, enhanced by everyone else sharing that illusion. Most personalities find conflicts inherently unpleasant, so it’s difficult to get reliable information from most people.
The imagination layer is complex enough that it can be easily subdivided.
Primal
No matter how smart we are, our animal instincts run deeper than anything else in our experience. Anything that hits the brain stem can easily shut down everything above it. It’s difficult to discuss philosophy when you need to pee, and history is challenging to process when you haven’t slept in 36 hours.
Primal urges are moment-by-moment reactions to anything associated with feelings. Most notably, primal thoughts are reactions that serve survival, past trauma, and safety. They also directly affect our ability to trust and how we determine qualities such as art.
Absolutely anything tied to a strong feeling comes from the primal layer. It’s the animal urges in us that can only be confronted with awareness, and the only way to fight them is through some degree of self-discipline or asceticism. While the primal mechanism consists of mere stories like the higher layers, they’re so baked-in that our willpower often loses the fight against them.
Most people would benefit from less primal thinking, but a few (like intellectuals) could actually stand to have more of it to understand the incessant inherent bias that plagues us all.
Sensing
Alongside base instinct, we sift our information thoroughly, far more than any other animal brain. We keep gathering and concluding enough information to construct a believable-enough story.
Stories stick in the memory better than meaningless trivia because they hit the primal layer. While they’re reductionist, they’re easier to remember. 3.14159265 isn’t as memorable as the statement, “On March 14th, 15 men fought 9, 2 sides faced off for a 65-gallon barrel of whiskey”.
Stories come to life in our minds, overriding any facts we’ve perceived. We see details that don’t quite fit the story, but they don’t make sense in context, so we dismiss them as less relevant.
Naturally, while the above image illustrates the concept, the way we get to the conceptual story in our minds is nowhere near as clean or straightforward. In this case, the mind would construct the letters out-of-order, and most minds would move the information slowly into focus.
The Sensing sub-layer is where we connect symbolism, develop certainty and purpose, and feel elaborate constructs like humor.
Without training and focus on maintaining it, we usually don’t let vague information persist alongside our “certain” ideas.
Habit
Habits are a bit difficult to explain without traveling further up the layers, and it may be helpful to look at the Agency layer before consulting habits.
Every other action is adding onto other information, but habits are the only way we have control of moving information down the layers. It’s the source of some of the most powerful human drives, including how we form addictions and become moral.
Any discussion about routine, subconscious behavior, compounding interest, and automation are variations on the theme of habits, and most social systems are formed from them. Habits are the pattern system that create all long-term changes.
Perception
At this point, we’ve now moved into the first realm of what we can call the “conscious” mind (at least without paying close attention to it). Everything is assembled and composed into a structure we now call “reality”.
Human perception is, by its essence, a prejudice. We use values we’ve structured to paint images of what we observe, and those images blur into stories. Two of the most relevant contributors of perception bias come from biological gender and our maturity at the time.
We haven’t really “touched” this information yet. This is just the start of when you think you “see” something.
Processing
Without training, we don’t simply let information persist as raw perception. We pile on more calculations and structures by using our imagination to construct more information. From logic and language, as well as math, we shape that source material further, often losing which parts were “real” in the process.
Naturally, these calculations come with even more bias. We’ll consider various types of power and how to use them to accomplish our purposes.
By the end of this, we will come to a type of understanding. Applied to ourselves, it’s how we form our identity.
Layer 3 — Agency
Up to this point, the experience has been passive. But now, we must choose things.
Our decisions run through a weighted, logical system where we might change something. Usually, we’re trying to predict or estimate the future. If we ever find uncertainty in that system in a way that doesn’t quickly resolve itself, we experience an inner conflict over it. Intelligence or anxiety can frequently prevent a clear decision from arising.
Philosophy creates pre-existing beliefs that allow us to devote effort to more nuanced aspects of decision-making, and it is profoundly useful for that purpose. It can also help us to be more creative, understand what we love, and how to avoid evil.
The Agency layer is also where all human morality exists. Without decisions that we actively make, there is no morality, and only thoughts or consequences.
Our choices aren’t necessarily physical. We often conclude we don’t understand, and will go back to the Processing sub-layer (to reconsider) or the Perception layer (if we’re self-aware enough).
When we do decide in a way that our environment is affected (including changing our minds on a belief), we’ve just moved to the next layer.
Layer 4 — Actions
The Action layer (and all other higher ones) are simply our decisions imposed back onto the Observations layer, compounded across people and groups. It’s our ability to say or do anything, and is the movement of living tissue, along with the extensions of that living tissue through tools.
Everything up to now has only existed in the mind. Nobody has any direct evidence from anyone else of the lower layers. It only expresses once people take action, which can include simply speaking.
Beyond raw impulse, the reason we build anything in our environment is to create results that drive toward our interpretation of a good life for ourselves or others. This even includes simple pleasures and seemingly innocuous experiences.
It’s worth noting the Action layer is strictly physical reality as we understand it now. Everything in the past is in the Imagination layer, and everything in the future is in the Agency or Imagination layer until it happens.
Layer 5 — Reality
Our interpretation of reality is where everything begins, and where everything ends. We feel tremendous certainty about it, and our basis of logic and decisions depends on it staying consistent.
Among other things, more abstract elements such as politics, group dynamics, culture, trends, and any other human network will fit in this layer.
Most of the complexities to this entire system that make it more difficult to understand come through how most people will distort the image of reality (at least a little), and it may be by deception or an inability to communicate.
Know your layers
Understanding the Layers makes life very convenient. By understanding what perceptual basis something sits in, you will solve loads of problems.
Usually, people just tend to forget one of the layers:
- Someone unconcerned with the Observations layer is essentially insane.
- Someone who doesn’t consider the Imagination layer won’t care much about image, implication, or the future.
- People who ignore the Agency layer never feel responsible for themselves.
- People who ignore the Actions layer believe only good intentions matter.
- To ignore the consequences of Reality is to lose touch with it.
It’s not easy, though. Human perception and actions represent a very complex arrangement:
- We experience reality through observations…
- …which are filtered through our feelings (driven by beliefs)…
- …which we mix with our memories to craft what we imagine and understand…
- …for the sake of accomplishing a purpose…
- …which we then decide on…
- …to then influence our beliefs, memory, and actions…
- …for the final purpose of acting, then observing our results.
Knowing where the information in our thoughts and understanding fits into the scope of our perception can allow us to reliably catch failures and create sensible fixes for them.
Further, most of our decisions, actions, and beliefs will create long-term habits to reinforce us to do more of the same in the future.