[Torg] Justification for super powers

[Benjamin Grant]

I wrote this because the question of how super powers worked at all has to
be answered.  The fact that supers do the seemingly impossible, such as turn
completely invisible but somehow still see needed addressing.  This is the
product of that search, and I think it came about amazingly well.

 

The metaphysical world is leaking.

 

Brief recap:  There are two levels to the world, the physical and the
metaphysical.  I refer to them as the physical world and the metaphysical
world, but it is vital to never forget that these are not actually separate
worlds, because there is only one world - the universe.  The physical and
the metaphysical are the two levels of the actual world.

 

So a table I see in front of me exists at both the physical level - made of
atoms, I can touch it, move it, break it, etc - and also exists equally at
the metaphysical level - in a much different and abstract way.  However the
physical table and the metaphysical table are NOT two different tables that
are linked, it is one single table that has two different kinds of
existence, it exists at both levels.

 

Everything exists at both levels - except sentience, which is more complex.
Everything else however has both physical and metaphysical existence.

 

Normally, when we wish to have an effect on the universe, for example (for
whatever reason) to light a table on fire, we strike a match and apply it to
the wood of the table.  As wood is flammable, the table burns.  This is a
simple truth of the physical aspects of the match and the table, and as
such, this is how changes can happen at the physical level.

 

Superpowers work completely differently.  Superpowers are the ability of
people to edit and act on the metaphysical level directly, and to thereby
affect the physical world.  For example, a super with the Power of Fire can
cause the table to seemingly burst into flame without explanation, but what
is really going on is that the firestarter is touching the metaphysical
level of the table, editing it, and adding the quality of "on fire" to its
metaphysical abstract existence.  But like I said, there is only one table,
so in the physical level the table bursts into flame, seeming without
provocation.

 

Supers edit the metaphysical level directly - this is why they can ignore
physics, by and large.  Their abilities do not make sense because their
abilities do not come from the physical world, and are thereby not bound by
those constraints.

 

Flying supers, for example, travel at tremendous speeds through the air.
And yet, not only do they not burn up from atmospheric friction the way
meteorites do, they also seem to be able to breathe just fine, despite the
fact that physically they are moving too fast to sample the oxygen in the
air.  The above reason is why they can do this - they are simply controlling
the metaphysical attribute of their body's location and as such, directly
controlling their positioning.  This direct edit doesn't affect the
metaphysical aspect of their breathing or their heat - therefore they can
breathe perfectly and suffer no atmospheric friction.

 

Why, then, are powers limited?  Why can't supers do whatever they want,
however they want?  How come Darkwing, for example, can only attain speeds
of several hundred miles per hour, while Pulsar can go considerably faster?
Why can Arctica only shoot ice, instead of flame?  What limits how these
supers can affect, edit, and change the metaphysical attributes of things?
Before we answer that question, remember when I said that everything exists
on these two levels, physical and metaphysical - except one thing?  That one
thing is sentience - our minds and souls - and where it lives (and how and
why) is the answer.

 

Sentience is just a fancy (and precise) way of saying "an entity aware of
its own existence" - a person, in other words.  Does sentience exists in the
physical level and the metaphysical level, just like a table does?

 

The answer is no.  Sentience is special.

 

On the physical layer of the world, we have the meat of the brain and the
energy of the Mind that dances within it.  Both however are utterly physical
- and while both are part of what makes us who we are, we are more than the
brain and the mind.  (Note to any gamers reading this - in reality this is
not true, but I am not writing this for science or accuracy, but for gaming,
storytelling, myth, and fiction. - Benn)

 

So if the physical layer of our selves is our brain and mind, what exists in
the metaphysical layer?

 

Ideas.  Concepts.  Shapes.  The entire contents of the metaphysical level
>is< the part of us that exists there.

 

And yet - the brain and the mind are too small to contain us.  The
metaphysical layer of abstraction and concepts is too vague and undefined to
describe us.  Where does our sentience then lie?

 

In between.

 

But not really.  There is no in between, really.  There's the physical
layer, and the metaphysical layer, and that's it.  There's no real spatial
or even quasi-spatial relationship between the two layers as the layers
aren't actually spatial in the first place - they're not really "layers" in
the first place - that's just a convenient way to imagine them.  However,
whatever analogy you use to imagine what's really going on, what remains
true is that an entity like a table has a both physical existence and a
metaphysical existence, simultaneously and intimately interconnected.

 

But if the brain and mind are the physical, and the concepts and
abstractions are the metaphysical, where is the sentience?  Or more
poetically, the soul?  In order to find it, we need to understand the truth
of emergence and emergent properties.

 

The best way to illustrate emergence is to imagine a vast field of blue,
red, and yellow dots.  Over here, we see a yellow dot, over there a red one
- a little further along a blue one.  They seemed to be mixed chaotically,
with no discernable pattern.

 

But let's imagine climbing into a helicopter and rising up above the plateau
of colored dots.  Suddenly, we are too far up to see individual dots, and
suddenly, instead of seeing mostly red and blue dots, with a few yellow
mixed in for good measure, we now see a solid purple color!

 

The purple, *which up close isn't even there* is an emergent property.  What
does not exist comes into being at a higher order.

 

Now if we continuing ascending we can see more and more of the field of dots
all at once.  And at a high enough level, we can finally see the whole
things -we can see that what is in fact nothing more than a seemingly
chaotic distribution of red, blue, and yellow dots somehow looks from way up
like an image of a plum.

 

Sentience is another emergent property, though not in the same way.  The
physicality of the brain/mind in juxtaposition to the metaphysical idea and
abstractions that are the domain of thoughts generate the soul and seat of
self in the same way that a field of blue, red and yellow dots can generate
an image.  The sentient self *emerges* from the combination.

 

Normally, when the self exerts will to affect and change the world, there is
a chain of causality that tumble like dominos.  For example, if one has a
log in a fireplace and wishes to set it ablaze, then one (after quick
reflection on the matter) starts the chain:  the self through the brain/mind
interface direct the muscles in the arm (in conjunction with information
from the eyes ferried to and through the brain) to grasp and lift a
matchstick, to strike it against the lighter panel, causing it to catch, and
to touch the now lit match to the tinder underneath the log.  The intention,
of course, is for the chain to continue from there - for the tinder to
catch, for it to catch the kindling, and the kindling to catch the log on
fire.

 

Supers however have another option.  Instead of focusing their will downward
into the physical world through the brain/mind interface to their body, they
focus their will upward into the metaphysical world, into the abstract
bundle of qualities and ideas that converge as that log's existence.  The
super directly taps into that bundle of abstractions to add one more - that
of being aflame.  With success, the abstraction is made a part of the
metaphysical existence of that log - which means that in the physical world,
the log bursts into flame for no apparent physical reason.

 

Like I have said before, the wonder isn't really that supers can do amazing
things; the wonder is that they can only do such things in very narrow,
limited, and well defined ways.  Take for example the villain Flood, who can
summon a great volume of water in a moment.  Why can't he summon oil in
place of water?  If he can apply his will to the metaphysical and change the
world thereby, why can't he do that in any way he likes, instead of just in
the ways he can?

 

For that matter, why is it that the average person can't do any of that?
Why can't the average person fly, shoot lasers from their eyes, or read
thoughts?  And while we are at, thought it is not widely publically known,
select people are aware of the fact that no aliens have super powers either
- not a one.  Why not?  What is it about humans that opens the door to that
possibility - or to put it the other way, is there something about the Ank
su'Namen that closes that door of possibility?

 

There is a certain quality found in Ank - they are harmonious and at piece
with the universe.  While they are not passive nor do they have an attitude
of surrender, they accept reality and the world for what and how it is.
They are fundamentally at peace and thereby serene.

 

Humans are not.  Like Pandora and her box, humans are full of all kinds of
negative traits - jealousy, anger, agitation, unrest, willful ignorance, and
more.  But like Pandora's box, which also held Hope, there is a quality in
humans that is special and wonderful among all the ones that aren't. A
quality that for the lack of a better word, I call "moxie".

 

When confronted with an impossible situation, many people ultimately accept
the situation and try to make the best of it.  But some have a piece of them
that is fundamentally unable to do so.  The saying goes, "grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the
things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference", but in their heart of
hearts, people with moxie are really saying a different prayer: "grant me
the courage to change the things I can; and the power to change the things I
can't."

 

People with moxie have a piece of them that fundamentally is unaccepting of
things as they are.  Some call that a sin of Hubris, or pride.  Some call it
gumption, grit, or determination.  Some call it being a dreamer or an
idealist.  But the ones with moxie look for solutions even after all avenues
for finding one have been exhausted.  The ones with moxie can see the
universe as it is, but also can't help but to see how it *ought* to be - the
"oughts" matter a great deal to them.  At a base level, this kind of person
simply does not, cannot surrender the hope and the need of "there ought to
be a way", despite how much the evidence proves that there isn't one.

 

The Ank are fundamentally too serene, too filled with evolved harmony, and
are too much the realists to be open to this sort of personality trait.  So
are most humans - in this day and age, pragmatism and practicality rule the
day among the humans, with few among us ultimately unwilling to surrender
our hopes to the truths of reality.

 

But some people simply cannot.  For better or worse, whether hero or
villain, when pushed to the wall of failure and loss, instead of submitting,
these people have the moxie to still say "No.", in the face of every fact
and truth that pushes them to just give up this battle.

 

And it is that moxie that, usually combined with a stressful event or
special situation, opens the door to being able to directly affect the
metaphysical - to becoming a super.

 

When a sentience has its back against the wall, and there are no physical
options left, if the sentience at some level truly has the moxie to stick to
its guns, then the door to reaching out and touching the metaphysical can
open.

 

That in a nutshell explains how and why some humans gain super powers - and
why the Ank never can.  But why is it that when the person gains the ability
to affect the metaphysical, it is always in some limited way?  Why is it
that Flood *can't* summon oil?  Or, to put it another way, why doesn't the
opening of the door to the metaphysical grant the new super power to affect
*anything* in *any way*?  Why isn't the newly minted super capable of any
effect he wishes?  Why isn't he a full-on god?

 

Imagine for a moment that they *do* get unlimited power - that this new
super suddenly can do *anything* that they can imagine.  Absolutely
*anything*.

 

With that kind of power, the super has but to imagine something to make it
so, no matter how grand or small, no matter how complex or simple.  Want to
get rid of nukes?  Poof, they're gone.  Want everyone to just get along?
Poof, they do.  Quite simply, the universe becomes nothing more than an
extension of this ultrapowerful super's thoughts.  But at the same time, the
super becomes nothing more than an extension of the universe's spirit!

 

That's right, an all-powerful super would immediately lose the complexity,
sophistication, and quality of being of a sentience in the first place.  At
best they would be no different from the prime creative force, and at worst
would simply cease to exist.  Ultimately, you cannot have truth, knowledge,
and understanding without also embracing the concept of limits.  We cannot,
for example, describe what something is without being able to understand
what something isn't.  In order to understand how rain is wet, we need to
understand how sand is not - and vice verse.  *Limited existence* is the
only kind of existence - the concept of existence itself pre-requires
limits.

 

Having a vast amount of unlimited power breaks down the wall between wanting
something and having it - and that wall is one of the crucial defining
limits of what a sentience *is*.  Remove that, and you lose the very heart
of the concept of "self".

 

It is this truth that comes into play when the door to affecting the world
metaphysically swings open.  Instead of swinging open all the way, it
actually swings open just a bit - just enough for the new limit to be
defined - the limit that says how and with what restrictions and rules one
can affect the world metaphysically.  This is why Flood can only summon
water - when the door opened and he gained the ability to affect the world
metaphysically, his ability to metaphysically affect the world was defined
and limited in the same moment.

 

Now, in the essay that introduced the concept of the metaphysical, the many
cycles the physical and metaphysical layers of the world have been
interacting were illustrated.  The apparent contradiction between
conservation and entropy was resolved.  A brief reminder of how is relevant:

 

We have two principles that seem to conflict.  On the one hand, we have the
idea of conservation, which basically states that nothing - not matter,
energy, momentum, charge, etc - is lost or gained, just moved and
transformed. On the other hand we have the principle of entropy - that the
universe in each act becomes more disordered and chaotic over time.  The
base contradiction is that the principle of entropy states that over time we
lose order from the universe while conservation laws say that nothing can
ever truly be lost.  So if order is apparently vanishing from the universe,
in drips and drabs over time - where is it going?

 

This is where the concept of the metaphysical was introduced.  That while
entropy does correctly note that disorder seems to increase in the physical
reality of the universe; conservation is not violated because the order that
is lost in the physical is gained in the metaphysical.  And as noted, the
disparity between the surplus order in the metaphysical and the deficit
order in the physical creates a building pressure that from time to time
causes shifts of order (called extropy) to manifest spontaneously in the
physical to equalize the stress.

 

These "extropian quakes" (caused when the extropy of the metaphysical is too
great in comparison to the entropy of the physical) have caused most of the
order we have seen in the physical world.  One of the first quakes was the
precipitation of the elementary particles from the energy of the big bang.
Then came the condensation of the fog of matter and energy into planets and
star, clusters and galaxies.  The sudden appearance of simple life on our
planet was another such extropian quake, as was the rampant and rapid
assault of evolution.  Sentient life appearing was undoubtedly another such
correction, and the last correction was the appearance of special sentients
with the ability to directly affect the metaphysical - supers. 

 

You might be wondering what the next correction, the next "extropian quake"
will bring.  Is there any order left to bring into the world to relive the
order imbalance?  The frightening answer is, maybe not.

 

Because the metaphysical is leaking into the physical.

 

There is a phenomenon in quantum physics called vacuum genesis.  This states
that a perfect vacuum is not empty - it is in fact at the finest level a
roiling froth of virtual particles that come into existence, that after a
brief moment return to non-existence, typically through mutual annihilation.
At least this is what the quantum math predicts.  Stephen Hawking, after
considering the implications of this, concluded that if this in fact was the
case, that vacuum genesis at the exact right distance from a black hole
would cause a pair of created particles to act differently - specifically,
that one of the pair would be just close enough to be pulled away,
preventing the mutual annihilation that would normally follow, and resulting
in the net gain of a particle to the universe - a virtual particle made
real.  Measurements were taken that actually confirmed what is now called
Hawking radiation.

 

As far as the scientists can tell, there has always been vacuum genesis.
What few if any scientists realize is that vacuum genesis is nothing more
than the leaking of surplus order from the metaphysical back into the
physical.  The leak is so slow, however, that pressure still builds, and the
extropian quakes still occur.

 

However, a few scientists appear to be measuring a troubling phenomenon.
The rate of vacuum genesis appears to slightly increasing.  The increase is
so slight that most scientists conclude it is nothing more than the
manifestation of the margin of sampling error - but it isn't.  The increase
in the vacuum genesis - the "leakage" from the metaphysical into the
physical - is real, and points to a troubling future.

 

Let's imagine that no more extropian quakes are possible - that the
development of super powers by sentients was the last card the law of
conservation had to play to correct the entropy/extropy disparity between
the physical and metaphysical.  This would mean that the imbalance between
chaos and order - entropy and extropy - can only build, and possibly
accelerate.

 

If vacuum genesis represents a "leakage" from the metaphysical state to the
physical state, which is increasing, we can imagine that the leaking will
only grow, from a seeping to a trickle, from a trickle to a stream, from a
stream to a river. And what this will entail is the breaking down of the
wall that separates the physical from the metaphysical.  Soon, not only will
there be seeping, but hairline fractures in this wall, followed by outright
cracks.  As the imbalance continues to build and the pressure rises without
limit, the cracks spread and widen, with places developing in the wall that
are full-on gushing holes.  And still the pressure builds until ultimately
the cracks join and the whole wall, the whole separation between the
physical and metaphysical states is lost, at the physical and the
metaphysical ultimately merge into a single kind of being, bringing with it
the end of us.

 

Remember how the sentient self is an emergent property of the brain/mind in
contrast with the conceptual metaphysical truths?  Imagine in the example of
the picture of the plum made of all the red, yellow, and blue dots, that all
those dots are smashed together into one space - no more picture of a plum.

 

If the separation between the physical and the metaphysical collapses, then
that which creates and supports sentience will be lost, and with it, so will
we.  If the difference between the physical and metaphysical disappears,
than so will the not-a-place in which resides our souls.

 

This may not be the end of the world - the universe may go on, in some
strange and inconceivable way.  However, this will quite simply be the end
of the kind of universe in which people can exist.

 

This first problem is, of course, that no one seems to be aware of this.
But the second problem is that there doesn't seem to be a solution, a way to
repair the imbalance.  It may be that the universe - or at least the place
for sentience within it - has come to an end.

 

Unless somehow an answer is found.

 

-Benn Grant

eFix Computer Consulting

 <mailto:benn at 4eFix.com> benn at 4eFix.com

603.283.6601

 

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