A World Filtered Blue
The less I think, the more I know sounds a little odd. It parallels that equally peculiar line in chapter 56, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know. If anything ever begged for elucidation, this does!
The problem with thought lies in the preconceptions necessary to think and speak. This sets up a wall of ‘understandings’ that hinders us from considering anything outside that wall. Understanding requires relying on preconceptions, words and names, instilled into our awareness as infants.
Seeing the World through a Blue Filter
Words and names act as filters. Just imagine if, in infancy, your parents attached a permanent blue colored filter to your eyes. The world you would see throughout your life would have a blue tint. Because you would never experience the world without the blue filter, you would not know the range of other colors out there nor even a color called blue. In other words, you can only know you are seeing a color if you experience it contrasted with another color. In short, contrast = information = contrast = information…
You would ‘understand’ the world was blue, even while unaware of the word blue or that you were seeing through a blue filter. Only your parents would know everything you saw was tinted blue. In this same way, the framework of language is a real impediment to seeing the world as it actually is. We see it through our language filter, and this easily chokes off a sense of anything beyond that filter.
Alcohol and drugs can jar that filter a bit, especially the hallucinogenic ones, which may be why we use them. Nevertheless, these just substitute one filter for another — the ‘drug’ filter. On the plus side, such drugs can jar our preconception’s filter and open up other angles of awareness. On the down side, it can unhinge any mind very dependent on the ‘normal’ filter. It is no wonder that drugs tend to pose a threat to the cornerstones of civilization’s norms.
The Taoist worldview simply attempts to weaken the normal filter – words and names. Some example include:
Hesitant, he does not utter words lightly #17.
To use words but rarely is to be natural #23.
The teaching that uses no words #43.
Straightforward words seem paradoxical #78.
And of course, The name that can be named is not the constant name #1.
Then the Tao Te Ching doubles down on all this with, To know yet to think that one does not know is best #71.
I can understand why civilization would not jump on a Taoist bandwagon. Populations need everyone to be on the same cultural page. That means a culture’s people need to share a belief in the validity of their myths, traditions, music, art, food, clothes, etc. Indeed, I can’t think of any exception — the more conformity the better. What ties all these matters together is the common ground of language — words and names. Civilization needs is citizens marching to beat of the same drum — a high entropy state (1) of minimum information and maximum uniformity. That just doesn’t sit well with a free spirit, does it? Yet, on the other hand, it increases the sense of an egalitarian tribal unity.
(1) Entropy (The third law of thermodynamics) is a useful and perhaps odd way of understanding this situation. Contrast between individual bits is what makes information. Such a state of distinctness or individuality is a low entropy state. There is a universal ‘pull’ on lower entropy states to increase in entropy, become more homogeneous, uniform. As entropy increases, the situation becomes more stable.
A native language is a way of increasing entropy and thus stability. Other ways a culture’s people increase entropy is by eating the same foods, wearing the same clothing styles, and of course, practicing the same religion! All these increase cultural uniformity and stability.
Hard science can offer deeper insights into life. For example, ponder how entropy provides a fundamental way of explaining the vigor behind revolutionary movements and free spirited rebellious teenagers. After that, consider what Using Yin and Yang to Pop Preconceptions does as far as entropy is concerned; do correlations increase it, or decrease it?
Certainly true! Conformational entropy may be give a more accurate picture. At least it narrows the subject down to life processes. My key idea is how cultural norms (taboos, proscriptions, prescriptions, etc.) are a major contributor to the energetic stabilization and thus a barrier to change and individuality.
Each “system” utilizes energy to keep it intact and distinct. Mass uniformity hinders individuals from energizing their own “systems”. Individuals are de-energized, and not free to organize into their own “systems”. In a way, entropy at that level is necessary to have greater order in a large population. We pay peter to pay PAUL.
From Wikipedia: (and perhaps “far more subtle and complex” than necessary here)
Conformational entropy is the entropy associated with the number of conformations of a molecule. The concept is most commonly applied to biological macromolecules such as proteins and RNA, but also be used for polysaccharides and other molecules. To calculate the conformational entropy, the possible conformations of the molecule may first be discretized into a finite number of states, usually characterized by unique combinations of certain structural parameters, each of which has been assigned an energy. In proteins, backbone dihedral angles and side chain rotamers are commonly used as parameters, and in RNA the base pairing pattern may be used. These characteristics are used to define the degrees of freedom (in the statistical mechanics sense of a possible “microstate”). The conformational entropy associated with a particular structure or state, such as an alpha-helix, a folded or an unfolded protein structure, is then dependent on the probability or the occupancy of that structure.
The entropy of heterogeneous random coil or denatured proteins is significantly higher than that of the folded native state tertiary structure. In particular, the conformational entropy of the amino acid side chains in a protein is thought to be a major contributor to the energetic stabilization of the denatured state and thus a barrier to protein folding.[1] However, a recent study has shown that side-chain conformational entropy can stabilize native structures among alternative compact structures.[2] The conformational entropy of RNA and proteins can be estimated; for example, empirical methods to estimate the loss of conformational entropy in a particular side chain on incorporation into a folded protein can roughly predict the effects of particular point mutations in a protein. Side-chain conformational entropies can be defined as Boltzmann sampling over all possible rotameric states:
The limited conformational range of proline residues lowers the conformational entropy of the denatured state and thus increases the energy difference between the denatured and native states. A correlation has been observed between the thermostability of a protein and its proline residue content.
Entropy, the number of possible ways for a system to be arranged, surely decreases in cases of mass uniformity? I think the effect of something like natural language on the entropy of understandings is far more subtle and complex than you make out here.