Never go beyond what is just enough

Posted on December 19, 2009
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by Rob Tippetts

The real optimum population for the earth is not a figure or a limit we, as
intelligent beings, could ever work out on the basis of the earth’s capacity
to produce food to support a chosen level of life for all. When we work things
out and try to predict what will happen in order to save ourselves, we nearly
always get it wrong. From hard experience of being surprised by what actually
happens, people have been moved to assert that God always laughs at our plans
for the future. This doesn’t mean that there is no optimum population for the
earth. I have personally come to believe that the idea of an optimum population
is hard wired into the fabric of reality. I can’t say whether God hard wired
a limit for population because I’m not religious in any orthodox way. All I
can say is that a transition point is there in the world at large and it
isn’t the product of rational thought. Rather, I suggest it is part of the
mystery that scientists have called ‘The Goldilocks effect’.

Scientists have noticed that quite a few constants that govern our world seem
to be optimized to allow for the emergence of living things. For example the
air we breath has a ‘just right’ chemical composition, the earth is just
the right distance from the sun and gravity is just strong enough to allow for
the emergence of the universe itself. There is a whole list of constants that
appear to be optimized for the emergence of life. This is absolutely
astonishing and has prompted scientists to posit the existence of any number of
parallel universes out of space and time that are not inhabited because the
constants are different and not optimized for life.

I’ve done some thinking of my own about the ‘just rightness’ of some
aspects of our world and I’m going to offer it up for criticism right now. I
reckon the Truth with a capital T is always a two sided coin. On one side of
the coin of Truth you have science which is about proving things and
predictability. Science says that if we have enough information to infinite
degrees of accuracy at an instant in time and we know the laws governing how
things interact, we could trace chains of causes and effects to predict
everything that will ever happen. So in theory everything is predictable. The
other side of the coin of Truth reveals that some scenarios are holistically
governed and the outcomes are inherently surprising. To my mind, this is a huge
thing to assert because few take into account that the world, far from being
wholly predictable, wants to surprise us as well.

So how does the world surprise us? Proverbs may give us the answer: Pride comes
before a fall; Familiarity breeds contempt; The road to hell is paved with good
intentions etc. All the outcomes must happen as surprises. It is not possible
to note instances of ‘Pride’ and then watch for the ‘fall’ or
humiliation. This would be to apply scientific knowledge to a self-organizing
scenario which does not perform in a way that can be described by scientific
knowledge. There are different ‘levels’ of functioning in the world and
each has a specific type of knowledge to describe it. For example Quantum
Theory applies to very small things. But Quantum theory does not apply to big
things even though big things are made of very small things…different
‘levels’ of functioning.

It has been noticed at all times and places that ‘Pride comes before a
fall’. There is an optimum amount of ‘pride’, ‘familiarity’ or
‘good intentions’ that a person can exhibit. There is an optimum amount of
risk taking that a banker can approach. There is an optimum amount of expenses
a politician can claim. There is an optimum amount of alcohol or cream buns
that anyone can eat safely. Maybe we have a personal optimum level for various
courses of action. Collectively, there is probably an optimum level of
population for each country together with an optimum population for the whole
earth. These optimum levels are tipping points that are hard wired into the
nature of reality. Go beyond these tipping points and how surprised you’ll be
at the outcome. So the slogan that wants writing across the sky in great big
letters is: NEVER GO BEYOND WHAT IS JUST ENOUGH! This is the strategy for
getting nice surprises. Had we, as a species, adhered to it everything would
have come right as if of its own accord. Instead, in almost every avenue of
human endeavour, including population, we have exceeded the ‘just enough’
tipping point and how surprised we are to be confronted by a world gone mad.

Goldilocks tried all the beds, all the chairs and all the bowls of porridge to
find the ones that were ‘just right’ for her. Because she didn’t go
beyond what is ‘just enough’ she had the luck to escape the three bears. In
other words, she wasn’t ‘eaten up’ by life. Contrast with Red Riding Hood,
who picked an excess of fruits for granny and, to her surprise, got eaten by a
gert big furry beast. There is an enormous mountain of wisdom in those stories
for those with ‘eyes to see’.

I’ve noticed that in the self-organizing part of reality, when the ‘just
enough’ tipping point is exceeded, one of two patterns of development become
probable but not certain or predictable. Either you get a reversal of fortune
like the ‘fall’ that comes after the puffing up of ‘pride’ or the MPs
being fined and kicked out of office after trying to thrive at our expense or
the banks going bust after enjoying a boom period. Alternatively you get a
division into two parts where one part lives at the expense of the other. Since
the population has exceeded the ‘just enough’ tipping point in this country
and across the world, one group now lives at the expense of another. It is of
course the middle class hard working tax payers who currently support the
bankers and their over-the-top bonuses, the MPs with there fabulous pensions
and perks, the work shy and the viscious criminals in the gaols who aught to be
six foot under. Just as the middle classes are the scapegoat today, so in a
bygone age was Big J done to death so that others might live unrealistically.
Since the population of the earth has far exceeded the mysterious ‘just
enough’ tipping point, the wealthiest nations must now live at the expense of
the poorer. And so I can buy a sweatshirt in Primark for £4.40 which has been
made by a scapegoat sweatshop child in a developing country. These are the
patterns of development that have emerged after the ‘just enough’
population tipping point has been surpassed.

A part of the world is predictable and we have invented science and technology
to describe and use that part of reality. But life is also riddled with ‘just
enough’ tipping points. My over-worked brain tells me I’ve exceeded one
right now. Perhaps there will be a surprising slide into senility. Or maybe I
can find a scapegoat to suffer in my stead. In the last analysis it will be the
meek who inherit the self-organizing earth. This will come to pass because it is
‘the meek’ who ‘DO NOT GO BEYOND WHAT IS JUST ENOUGH’.