# The state of the unknown

We don't [know](understanding.md) most things. We start [from before birth](maturity.md) by knowing practically nothing, but are curious to find out and quickly make [purposes](purpose.md) to discover things.

Very soon (often within a few months), something we didn't know will have hurt us. From that point, we live [fearing](mind-feelings-fear.md) "the Unknown". As we gain experiences, this compounds as we discover new forms of the Unknown that may hurt us. If we don't, our recklessness will tend to get us killed while we're still [young](maturity.md).

APPLICATION: The Unknown isn't "bad", but it's unpredictable. From our [perspective](image.md), [God and the devil](religion.md) come from the same place. However, we focus on the bad, so we [group](logic.md) it that way.

Most of our efforts in life are in conquering the Unknown. Most of our [creations](creations.md) are either attempts to make us [feel](mind-feelings.md) things more accurately about the Unknown, or to minimize pain from what the Unknown may bring. [Science](science.md) is a powerful method of reducing the Unknown.

We can never completely remove the Unknown. Death is the greatest Unknown, and also one of our greatest [fears](mind-feelings-fear.md) for that reason. Every [religion](religion.md) is an attempt to answer the Unknown, and all aspects of theology are attempts to make sense of God(s) that are the very essence of that Unknown (since we certainly know very little about the entirety of anything that is God).

APPLICATION: We're stuck with incessant chaos in our most mundane experiences:

- You have no idea what will happen today, and only [presume](imagination.md) it.
- Nothing you [trust](trust.md) is entirely [safe](safety.md).
- No two of your thoughts are technically the same, since they travel down different neural pathways each time, and [habits](habits.md) reinforce any thought that *does* repeat.

Even complete [understanding](understanding.md) isn't exempt from the Unknown. As time deteriorates memory, all we understand becomes more of that Unknown. [Habits](habits.md) become the Unknown across time as we forget the [decisions](people-decisions.md) that drove them, but we [deceive](image.md) ourselves to be [certain](understanding-certainty.md) of it because the [consequences](results.md) feel [familiar](identity.md).

APPLICATION: We often [believe](understanding-certainty.md) our memories are pristine. However, they're open to failure and not very reliable as time passes. Thus, we should only partly trust ourselves about our perspective as a [scientific](science.md) reality, consistently [cross-reference it](people-conversation.md) with others' to be as certain as possible, and quickly change our [value system](values.md) if we find we're wrong.

We are stubborn, though, and we *constantly* try to conquer the Unknown. Most of our [stories](stories.md) are the [conflict](people-conflicts.md) between the Known and Unknown, with "good" stories being the ones that expanded the Known or defeated the Unknown. We also embody the Unknown as a [symbol](symbols.md) of a [monster](stories-myths.md), with the hero as the one who defeats the Unknown.

APPLICATION: Chaos isn't as bad as you think, even if it's absolutely [terrifying](mind-feelings-fear.md). You're in the right to be afraid, but are more capable toward [acting](results.md) than you realize (and [absolutely must](meaning.md)).

Frequently, how the Unknown is conquered is a [pattern](symbols.md) the [creator](creations.md) is attempting to communicate as a portion of living the [good life](goodlife.md).

[Artists](mind-creativity.md) tend to draw from the raw Unknown. [Analysts](logic.md) tend to make the artists' works into more ordered things to make them more [useful](purpose.md).

APPLICATION: Never disrespect [creations](creations.md) that ever add [value](values.md). While later creators make things that add *more* value, they required the original creator (or chain of creators) to draw from the Unknown.

## Chaos

We [believe](understanding-certainty.md) something to have order when we've distinctly separated [values](values.md) in our mind, especially as we perceive our [environment](reality.md).

We interpret *anything* we don't directly [understand](understanding.md) as chaos. It may be from a lack of information connected to a purpose that affects us, or the [story](stories.md) we [perceive](image.md) conflicts with our [expectations](imagination.md) (e.g., a messy room or a cluttered sentence).

We treat completely unordered chaos as bad, but it's nothing more than pure randomness that sometimes works [against what we want](purpose.md), and it can work in our favor just as much.

APPLICATION: We're always stuck with the Unknown, so we *must* learn to accept it. This is terrifying, and people with an ambitious [personality](personality.md) will often act without realizing how much they let the possibilities of the Unknown define their actions. These people are frequently the most [successful](success-1_why.md), but also the most [unaware](awareness.md). The converse of this problem makes intelligence create inaction.

Our minds naturally repel chaos and strive for order when we [perceive](image.md), but this operates from an opposing point from the inherent state of nature.

- [Nature itself](reality.md) is inherently chaotic, with a semi-maintained semblance of order contained within it (e.g., how rivers form).
- We, in [our humanity](humanity.md), are the opposite: inherently ordered, with a semi-deconstructed chaotic element contained within it.

Anytime we develop "two" things instead of "one", it forms some degree of unknown by the strict necessity of our need to [divide it](logic.md).

While it's not inherently obvious, we find [meaning](meaning.md) in making order out of chaos, proportionally to our [conscientiousness](personality.md). Complete order is boring to us, and complete chaos overwhelms us, so there's always a balance that leads to [living correctly](goodlife.md).

## Severity

Contrary to what many people [imagine](imagination.md), chaos isn't *complete* disarray. We can generally group chaos into a few broad classes as we observe it:

1. Unknown Order - the order that was created elsewhere beyond our comprehension, such as the mechanisms behind [technology](technology.md), or whatever we envision [God](religion.md) to have created.
2. Natural Chaos - the natural state of [reality](reality.md), which has large-scale general rules but is completely disordered on the small-scale. For example, sand and sticks on a beach will be in disarray, but a desert won't show piles of blood, stones, fish, and snow.
3. "Cthulhu" Chaos - complete disorder, with no rules to define things.

Partial chaos doesn't work well with us, and we tend to treat *any* chaos with distrust, even when we *know* of the Unknown, and that [uncertainty](understanding-certainty.md) frequently interferes with rational [decision-making](people-decisions.md). The nature of [mnemonics](mind-memory.md) and [symbols](symbols.md) is our mind's attempt to impose patterns onto things without patterns, and [language](language.md) is how we harness the unknown.

Interestingly, as we perceive chaos, Cthulhu Chaos doesn't actually "exist", but our [perceptions](image.md) tend to deceive us to where our [feelings](mind-feelings.md) define Natural Chaos as Cthulhu Chaos.

We tend to demarcate between "man-made" and "natural" by how much order we interpret something to have. A rock is natural, but a statue is man-made. However, [science](science.md) can demonstrate that everything possesses some base sense of order behind all the chaos.

## Ordering

Amazingly, we're so good at making order out of chaos that our self-made [patterns](habits.md) and [symbols](symbols.md) are often *very* reliable in the face of complete chaos.

Unfortunately, we equally run the risk of building superstitions that have no bearing in any legitimate [statistical](math.md) reality.

APPLICATION: We hate the Unknown so much that we *constantly* hedge our bets against it, even when it doesn't make sense:

- People will play a game of pure chance more confidently against a dimwitted opponent, as if their opponent's intelligence mattered.
- We trust the dice we control over dice others roll.
- Incumbent [political figures](politics-conservativeliberal.md) have an unfair advantage over their rivals.
- We'll take the answers to a quiz with trivial questions and no consequences over a candy bar, even though we [imagine](imagination.md) ourselves taking the candy bar beforehand.

The only way to differentiate between finding superstition and truth in the fog of what we don't know is to wait until we have a clearer view of it. At that point, we can [scientifically](science.md) prove whether we were deriving a reliable pattern or not.

APPLICATION: If you don't know and can't know, wait and watch. Eventually, you'll know. Even [whether God exists](religion.md) will become clear to us all.

Further, when we form order incorrectly, there are only two ways to fix it:

1. Adhere to *another* form of order instead.
2. Dismantle the order we had built, which is [emotionally](mind-feelings.md) difficult because we'll feel we [pursued](purpose.md) a wasted effort and invites back the chaos we had formed the order to avoid in the first place.

APPLICATION: We make sense of chaos as we see it. This is often good, but can backfire if we're not careful:

- We may assume others' order is the same as our own.
- Our obsession with what we've experienced may interfere with the ability to attain a [good life](goodlife.md).
- It's easy to over-apply [reasoning](logic.md) to the Unknown, which will make us overthink when it's time to [perform](results.md).

## Time and order

[Time](datetime.md) is a unique element of the Unknown that perpetually interferes with our daily existence:

1. Things happen and we vividly remember them.
2. We slowly forget what happened, but hold on to information that might be [useful](purpose.md) later.
3. We use that information to craft what we perceive [into the future](imagination.md), correcting errors as we get more reliable.
4. Eventually, we can live our daily lives with the well-known present, alongside the fading past and imaginary future.

How we prioritize these 3 perspectives (past/present/future) affects almost everything in our lives:

Past ("what was")

- [Traditional](people-culture.md), [religious](religion.md), and [conservative](politics-conservativeliberal.md)
- Stable sense of [self](identity.md)
- Oriented toward [family](people-family.md) and [groups](groups-member.md), distrusts strangers
- Tend to be more [prejudiced](understanding-certainty.md)
- Focus on [obligations and commitments](people-contracts.md)
- [Rituals](people-culture.md) and [myths](stories-myths.md) have [meaning](meaning.md)
- Dominant feeling of [guilt](mind-feelings-shame.md)
- Avoids [risks](socialrisk.md) and adventures
- Often more [cooperative than competitive](people-conflicts.md)

Present ("what is")

- Concrete > abstract
- Harder to [resist temptations](addiction.md) or wait, easier to procrastinate
- Focus on bringing pleasure and avoiding pain
- Often poorer [health management](body-4_health.md) and [substance abuse](addiction.md)
- [Understanding](understanding.md) might not deter actions
- Seeks more sensation and novelty, less [emotionally stable](mind-feelings.md) and more [risk-taking](socialrisk.md), more likely to [lie](people-lying.md)
- Tend to be [poor](classes.md) or [uneducated](education.md)
- Seeks instant gratification, lower grades in [school](education.md)
- Typically [fun](fun.md) to be around

Future ("what will/might be")

- [Goal-oriented](success-4_routine.md), works harder
- [Saves money](money-3_budget.md) and resources more
- [Results-oriented](results.md), and cooperative/competitive to that end
- More often [health-conscious](body-4_health.md)
- Trouble having [fun](fun.md)
- Trouble with spontaneity and [relationships](people-4_friends.md)
- Generally lower anxiety, but concern for the future can create anxiety
- Tends to be [addicted to work](addiction.md) and have [midlife crises](maturity.md)
- Tend to be more [conscientious](morality.md), less aggressive, more [emotionally stable](mind-feelings.md), and more [creative](mind-creativity.md)

APPLICATION: The best way to prepare for what [scares](mind-feelings-fear.md) us is to think *ahead* of time. [Risk management](safety-riskmgmt.md) is a premeditated action.

Our [personality](personality.md) dictates this balance, but those personalities are driven by how we frame the risks of the different parts of the Unknown:

1. The Present is the most known we have, and the basis for all [phenomenology](mind-feelings.md) and anything we can actually call [reality](reality.md), but also isn't very [useful](purpose.md) by itself.
2. The Past is the second-most known we have, proportional to how near it is to us in time and how reliable our memories are. It also represents some of the worst qualities that we need to [change](people-changes.md), and we run the risk of falling behind the [trends](trends.md).
3. The Future is the least known possible, and represents many possibilities based on many parts of what we don't know. However, it's also where we [accomplish things](results.md) and find the most [meaning](meaning.md). Unfortunately, it's also devastating to our [relationships](people-friends.md) with others and too much focus on it can destroy [society](people-culture.md).

APPLICATION: How we focus on the past, present, and future dictates how we prioritize the Unknown for our [purposes](purpose.md). This represents itself in the way we [choose](people-decisions.md) to live and [the groups we associate with](groups-member.md).

APPLICATION: [Fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) of the Unknown is good to a point. However, we must still manage it, or it'll bury us. The easiest way to do it is through as much [education](education.md) as we can acquire on the subject, and accept what we can't know.

## Scaling order

Because order is a value, it can compound on itself to establish an elaborate system. However, we only interpret order when it accomplishes a [purpose](purpose.md) we [expect](imagination.md). If that thing fails the expectation (such as a broken-down car) we tend to believe it's "out of order", even though it's often still 99.999% *in* order.

APPLICATION: Excluding [Cluster B personalities](mind-neurodivergence.md), the preservation of order is a natural impulse, and worth knowing to [understand](understanding.md) how others think. We must be mindful of what we destroy and what we're using to replace it, but the Unknown is where we draw our [creativity](mind-creativity.md) and where the [social risks](socialrisk.md) become highly [influential](power-influence.md) [trends](trends.md).

[Civilization](people-culture.md) is a type of social order, with [inspiration](creations.md), [groups](groups-member.md), and [technology](technology.md) that all form from baser components. We can spend so much time [engaging](understanding.md) with it, though, that we forget the entire thing is built on nature. [On the political spectrum](politics-conservativeliberal.md), conservatives try to preserve order that has already been created while liberals try to create new order.

APPLICATION: Over time, as the Unknown becomes [known](science.md), a society will prioritize the domain of [predictable](imagination.md) and [controllable](results.md) things over sending [efforts](purpose.md) into unknowable things. This means secular societies who abandon their [religious](religion.md) background tend to lean farther into [environmentalism](politics-leftism-sustainability.md) and prioritize [mathematical](math.md) [estimation](imagination.md) over [intuition](mind-feelings.md).

Different [cultures](people-culture.md) create order in different forms, which often builds along the patterns of what [language](language.md) provide (e.g., number of words to describe one specific thing) and frames itself through the [myths](stories-myths.md), [superstitions](people-culture.md), and [stories](stories.md) they share with each other.

APPLICATION: We wish to find [meaning](meaning.md) in the Unknown so heavily that we trust things we probably shouldn't:

- People buy lottery tickets because they hope that the improbable could happen to them.
- Even if a [religion](religion.md) only has a few of its adherents achieving immortality, people still follow it out of hope that they could attain it.

Destroying order oriented toward good things without another type of proven order to replace it is often [evil](morality-evil.md), and usually [risky](safety.md). We are prone to mistaking others destroying as mindless when they're attempting to [recreate reality](creations.md) differently. It takes [humility and patience](morality.md) to [understand](understanding.md) others' motivations, which is venturing into an unknowable domain because people [lie](people-lying.md).

f we feel dissatisfied with too much order, we might break something just to watch what happens. This is good for discovering [reality](reality.md) [scientifically](science.md), but it has [risks](safety.md) if we break the wrong thing.

## Scaling chaos

Every aspect of order also creates some amount of chaos through the new domain of Unknown attached to the known domain.

APPLICATION: More [information](information.md) isn't always better. At times, that extra information can cloud our judgment from *other* semi-aware information we would have otherwise observed.

For that reason, chaos can build recursively into systems as order builds. At any time, increases in order can bring about latent chaos to bring about a type of destruction of everything that had been established.

APPLICATION: Whenever we see any disorder, our impulse is to focus on it. In reality, that disorder is built on a *ton* of previous order, which could all be destroyed if we don't observe its significance before [making decisions](people-decisions.md).

FURTHER APPLICATION: The [feeling](mind-feelings.md) of betrayal is uniquely devastating to us because it's a deconstruction of the order we had imagined existed.

APPLICATION: Even if someone could predict the stock market, they wouldn't be able to *keep* predicting it because their prediction would affect the stock market recursively.