You produced an interesting article and a kind of a metaphor for the RR's
theory to be applied to the present defence mechanism. Your analysis will make
not only americans trembling but everybody in the world in one way or
another as this pathogen is contageous and conscious, while organic one is
not.
From the other side of the medallion I would say, as a clue to
existing societal pathogen and also stimulate further thoughts on the
subject:
"Intolerance and/or allergy to certain
foods/environment impair our biological immune system's blood cells and
result in an auto-immune response. This may be avoided by determining and
then eliminating or desensitizing those agents which are held responsible for
such intolerance and or allergies. In
the process, our immune system is boosted. It is a consciously
activated process to help the target system, which has no
consciousness of its own, heal itself."
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 3:48
PM
Subject: Strategic vs Tactical
Information
Hi Folks,
On the news this morning, regarding the 9/11 "intelligence
failures" within the FBI and between the FBI and the CIA, between the federal
govt. and the FAA, between the "intelligence community" and the American
public, etc... , there was a short but seminal discussion of trying
to figure out a way to get "strategic" intelligence into the mix, rather
than just "tactical" intelligence.
It struck me that this calls for a Rosennean approach
to the problem, which is yet another application of some of my father's
Complexity Theory. It's about using a biological model for a national security
application: What they want to do is institute an anticipatory system of
control to American security. But if they do it wrong, it will end up being
paranoia rather than security... and rigid, "guilty until proven
innocent" modes of approach to any perceived vulnerability to national
security. This is a very serious issue because what constitutes an
anticipatory system of control with regards to "security" is basically an
IMMUNE SYSTEM. As such, a "guilty until proven innocent" attitude will result
in a fatal auto-immune spiral.
Since this is exactly what we have been talking about on the
list, I felt it was worth discussing this notion in light of both the concept
of creating models based on biology and how to go about that usefully from a
Rosennean perspective. This also pertains directly to
issues being discussed regarding the Immunological Shadow
Theory of my father's.
An insurmountable problem with trying to set up an immune
system model against terrorism is that the "self proteins" of the United
States are not homogeneous in any way, shape, or form. You can have someone
who looks (or has a name that sounds) "foreign"-- according to some list
of criteria encoded in some model-based definition-- But this is a surface
feature of someone that could actually be a fifth-generation
American-born citizen. That American citizen could be standing on a
street corner in NYC next to someone who looks like George Washington's
grandson, but who is actually a visitor from Europe or Australia or Timbuktu,
and who may not even know enough English to discuss the weather never mind
debating the finer points of the Bill of Rights in English.
The Immunological Shadow also comes into play as another
insurmountable problem, assuming some notion of "self proteins" could be
defined. The shadow cast by the criteria for
defining/recognizing "self" can be seen as providing a hiding place
for terrorists to exploit. On top of that, there are aspects to this that
don't have a corresponding example in the real system we would be using
as our source/example for making a model, i.e.; the human immune
system. The difference between pathogenic proteins invading a
body and terrorists infiltrating a country is that terrorists are
conscious organisms (more or less) and are therefore capable of far
more "disease potential" in ways that pathogens are
not. An immune system is not a conscious system, so it is at a
lower level of complexity than terrorists. Consciousness brings with it the
creative ability of imagination, which is going to be able to thwart any
attempts to immunize the country against terrorism.
It there is an attempt to protect the country via an immune
system model, the situation of terrorists masquerading as citizens
in a country would be the same as when there are pathogens
trying to hide inside an organism. The result is that it tends to
set off an auto-immune response. It would be a terrible miscarriage of
justice if the United States started attacking its own citizens based on some
"recognizable" cue, which is likely to be either visual, name related, or
foreign language accent-based. I think this is already happening and it's just
plain wrong in a country built as a "melting pot" of immigrants from all over
the world. There simply is NO SUCH THING as a typical American.
The immune system is a very touchy and dangerous capability in a
multicellular organism and it must not have a 'hair trigger". We really don't
have a comprehensive understanding of how it works, which is
a serious impediment to trying to model it. However, we DO know that
it can malfunction in infinite ways. A malfunctioning immune system can be
lethal rather than protective. Indeed, if terrorists wanted to destroy the
country, all they would have to do is inspire the formation of an "internal
security" policy based on an immune system, and wait. The country would
destroy itself, eventually.
If my father were asked to advise the Homeland Security
leadership on what biology or Rosennean Complexity would suggest on this
subject, Dad would warn them to be very, very careful. Biology teaches that
immune systems are dangerous and in order to be useful at all, they need
to be precariously balanced between vigilance and restraint. Furthermore,
Rosennean Complexity Theory says that this is a system that cannot
be completely modeled or simulated because it is Complex. Therefore, even if
we fully understood the human immune system to begin modeling it-- which we
don't-- all attempts to create an accurate predictive control system
based on models of an immune system are going to be flawed by virtue of
incompleteness.
Judith