Posts Tagged ‘organism’

A City is an Organism

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

The System of Life is growing in size and in complexity, and so do the infrastructures sustaining it.

In the age of social media and online marketing, it’s become increasingly difficult to discern the truth from the hype when it comes to weight loss supplements. LivPure, a product that claims to help individuals shed excess pounds, has generated a significant amount of attention and discussion. However, many consumers have raised concerns about the authenticity of LivPure reviews and the safety of this weight loss solution. In this article, we’ll delve into the LivPure reviews, the science behind it, and whether it’s a safe option for those seeking to lose weight.

Understanding LivPure

LivPure is marketed as a natural weight loss supplement designed to support fat burning, appetite suppression, and increased energy levels. It has gained notoriety through aggressive online advertising and a presence on various social media platforms. While it may seem like a promising solution, it’s essential to evaluate its claims and consider the science behind it.

Fake Hype or Real Results?

One of the primary concerns surrounding LivPure is the authenticity of the reviews and testimonials shared by supposed users. Many individuals have accused the brand of employing deceptive marketing tactics to create a false sense of credibility and success. Some common red flags include:

An abundance of overly positive reviews: LivPure seems to have an unusually high number of glowing reviews and testimonials, which can be indicative of fake accounts or incentivized reviews.

Unrealistic before-and-after photos: Some before-and-after photos associated with LivPure reviews appear to be manipulated or fabricated, further raising doubts about the product’s authenticity.

Lack of scientific evidence: LivPure often makes bold claims about its effectiveness without providing scientific studies or credible sources to support these claims.

Consumer Reports Investigation

Consumer Reports, a trusted and reputable source for unbiased product reviews, has conducted an investigation into LivPure. Their findings reveal that LivPure has failed to provide adequate scientific evidence to support its weight loss claims. Additionally, there have been numerous complaints from consumers who experienced adverse side effects, such as digestive issues and jitters, after using the product.

Is LivPure Weight Loss Safe?

When it comes to the safety of LivPure for weight loss, it’s crucial to exercise caution. While some of the ingredients used in the product, such as green tea extract and caffeine, have shown potential benefits for weight management, LivPure’s specific formulation may not be safe for everyone.

Potential side effects of LivPure may include:

Increased heart rate and blood pressure due to caffeine content.
Digestive issues, including nausea and diarrhea.
Anxiety, restlessness, and jitteriness.
Insomnia or disrupted sleep patterns.
Moreover, the lack of transparency regarding LivPure’s ingredients and potential allergens can pose a risk to individuals with allergies or sensitivities.

Conclusion

In the world of weight loss supplements, it’s essential to approach products like LivPure with skepticism and critical thinking. The excessive hype and lack of concrete scientific evidence, combined with numerous reports of adverse side effects, should raise serious concerns among consumers. It is advisable to consult with a healthcare professional before using LivPure or any similar product, especially if you have underlying health conditions or are taking medications.

Ultimately, the safety and efficacy of LivPure for weight loss remain questionable, and consumers should prioritize well-established, evidence-based methods for achieving their weight loss goals, such as a balanced diet and regular exercise. Always be wary of products that seem too good to be true, and rely on reputable sources like Consumer Reports for unbiased product evaluations. Your health and well-being should be your top priority.

In 2008 the point was reached where more than 50% of the world population lives in cities. That percentage is growing. By 2030, over 60% of the world’s population – nearly five billion people – will be living in urban area.

The System of Life is generating Super Organisms and the City is one of them.

Urbanization is only a relatively recent phenomenon. As far as we now know urbanization started in Mesopotamia around 4000 – 3500 BC.

For the Ancient Mesopotamians, the cities were the centers of life. Their beginning of time was not a Garden of Eden, but rather an ancient site called Eridu, which they believed was the first city ever to be created.  The creator of Eridu was Enki, the God who came out of the Deep Waters of the Ocean  (the Abzu). The city of Eridu was destroyed by the Great Flood in 3117 BC.

Every time one of the Rulers of a City took control over many Cities and a State was created with a new Center, the Capital. In the Center of the Capital the Palace of the Ruler was situated. What we see is an Expanding Pattern in which the same Structure repeats itself all the Time.

Initially the two life-essential resources for cities were Water and Food.

As Cities grew and as technology evolved, the supply of these resources became dependent on energy for processing, for pumps and for transportation. In the process, cities and their resources evolved into a system of life energized by the individuals that populate cities, and fuel its dynamics.

mexico-city

Mexico-City

Kleiber's law

Kleiber's law

About the Law of Kleiber

The Law of Kleiber shows that Bottum-Up Structures are more efficient than Top-Down Structures.

It also shows that Big Structures are more efficient than Small Structures. The Law is applicable from the level of the Bacteria to the Level of the City and higher.

These two statements are a contradiction until we realize that there are two ways of looking at the same structure. One view is the Top-Down View. The other is the Bottom Up View. When we look Down we see a huge Hierarchy and start to believe that Big is Beautiful.

When we look Up we see that all the work is done by Small Cooperative Components starting at the Bottom with the Bacteria.

The Law of Kleiber is explained by the fact that all the organisms (including the Cities) contain the Same Fractal Structure.

Bacteria exchange their DNA

Bacteria exchange their DNA

About DNA

In the Beginning the Chemical Soup generated Self-Reproducing Chemical Factories. These Factories combined into bigger Factories by exchanging and combining their Factory-Designs (DNA-parts).

Every time when the Factories fused they became more Efficient, Bigger, Stronger, Older and therefore more Competitive. When the Factories became more Competitive they started to Protect themselves against the other Factories.

To Protect themselves the Multi-Cellular Systems began to Sense in Many Directions and became better and better in Predicting the Future.

One of our Ancient Ancestors is the Sponge which is a static Cluster of Bacteria. Scientist have detected that the DNA of the Sponge has a lot in common with the Human DNA. The Sponge contains the Basic Fractal Structure, the Tube.

In a later stage our Ancestors developed something we call a Brain. The Brain is used to Sense the Now and Predict the Future.

The Human is a Moving Sponge who is able to Imagine. With his Imagination the Human is capable to Change the Future (and the Past).

Sponge

The Sponge, the Tube, is the Basic Structure

One of the Bilateria: The Octopus

The Octopus is a Sponge with a Brain.

About Innovation

The Law of Kleiber can be explained by the principle of Self-Reference (Similarity,  Fractals).

The Small Structures at the Bottum combine into comparable structures on a higher level.

What we don’t see is that the structures on every level can be decomposed in the Same (DNA-)Components with a different Scale and a different Name.

Innovation is nothing but a  Combination of  the Components in many different ways until all the combinations are made.

At that moment One of the Combinations becomes the new DNA and a new Level is explored.

Life explores every possible path.

About Cities

A City is a Combination of Houses.

A City protects a Cluster of Houses. A House protects a Cluster of Humans and a Human protects a Cluster of Organs.

All the way down to the Bacteria,  Cooperative Clusters are formed that give the participants a more Secure Way to Live.

A House is a Body. It supports the Body but it also contains all the Bodily Functions.

If we provide the House with these Bodily Functions the House becomes more Sustainable. It is possible to regenerate the Waste that the Humans produce into Energy just as the Liver is doing in our Body.

If we Cluster the Bodily Houses into a City and we provide the City with the same functions of the Body we are able to create structures that are independent of the input of external Top-Down Sources of Energy and Food.

If we are able to detect the DNA of the House and the DNA of the City we are able to Compose new Types of Houses and Cities that are Adaptable, Scalable,  highly Sustainable and are also in Balance with Nature.

It will also be  much more easy to Destroy or Move buildings and cities to another Place without the production of Waste.

looking-to-toledo1

Toledo (Spain)

About Synchronization

In the Miedeval City the Major Cycle was the Cycle of the Seasons. In the Modern City we have become almost independent of the Cycles. We import Food and Energy out of every place in the World.

It takes a Lot of Energy to transport the Food and Energy and Many Places on Earth are dependent on a small amount of other Places that contain the Sources of our always increasing Need to Survive the Effects of our Environment.

When a lot of People (The Slaves) are dependent on a small amount of people (The Masters), the Masters start to dominate the others and increase their Power until Eternity. Power is the most important Addiction of the Humans.

The problem becomes bigger when we realize that many people are producing Food and Energy but are themselves not able to use the Food and the Energy they are producing.

The independence of the Cycles has created a huge unbalance. This unbalance is not only visible in the City but in every place on Earth that is providing Energy and Food to sustain the Modern City.

The only solution to this problem is to create self-sustaining (autarkic) Cities that are able to supply their own food, water  and energy.

Paris

The kernels of Paris

When we want to restore Balance we have to Synchronize the Cycles in the City.  This can be done with the help of Smart Technology (Sensors, Actuators, Analytics) but we can also make use of very old fashioned techniques that were used in the Middle Ages.

When Humans communicate from the Heart and focus on the same subject, the Humans start to Synchronize. They become a  Group.

The most important structure in the Miedeval City to Synchronize its inhabitants was the Building of the Heart, the Church.   The Church was always situated in the Center and was visible from a long distance. The Church was also the only place where people were always Protected.

The Human Heart is doing the same thing as the Church is doing in the City. It connects the Mind with the Organs of  the Body and the Pericardium provides one of the major Rythms of the Human Body.

If we want to Synchronize the City we have to create a Center where People are able to Commun(e)nicate about the Shared Goals of the City. The most important way to share can be found in the Human Culture. The Centres have to contain all the ways Human Culture is performed.

chartres4

The Spiraling Spiral in the Memory Palace of Chartres, the Symbol of the Fractal Universe

About the Memory Palace

Art, Music and Singing were United in the Medieval Cathedrals. The Medieval Cathedrals also contained all the Knowledge (The Memory Palace)  that was needed to understand the Universe.

If we want to Synchronize the Modern City we have to build Modern Cathedrals in the Center of the Center and use them as Places to Commune, to Educate, to Make Music, to Dance and to Sing.

We have to design them as Modern Memory Palaces (Simulators) to teach the Masses about the Fractal Universe and give them Feedback about the State of their own Environment.

sagrada-familia-barcelona-projection

The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (Antoni Gaudi)

LINKS

This is a  presentation about The City as an Organism

Why the Tube is such an Important Structure

About The Law of Kleiber

Why Innovation is a Combination of Combinations

An Interview with Geoffrey West of the Santa Fe Institute about the Law of Kleiber

About Thermo-Economics

About the Autarkic City

About Cybernetics

About Synchronization

How Gaudi used a Machine to design the Sagrada Familia

About Machines that generate Architectures

How the Heart Synchronizes the Body

About Super Organisms

About Smart Technology

About Addiction

About the Master/Slave-relationship

About the Heart

Why the Cathedral contained all the Knowledge that was Needed

About the start of Civilization

About Darwin’s Superorganism

Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Many people believe that the theory of Evolution is based on the concept of competition. They believe that every gene, every cell, and every organism is designed to promote its own evolutionary success at the expense of others.

The big problem with this concept is that it does not explain the enormous amount of cooperation that is visible in Nature.

Atoms cooperate in Molecules. Molecules cooperate in Genes. Genes cooperate in Chromosomes. Chromosomes cooperate in eukaryoticcells. Cells cooperate in Multicellular Organisms. Multi Cellular Organisms cooperate in Humans. Humans cooperate in Families and Tribes and Families and Tribes cooperate in Organizations and Nations.

The question of how natural selectioncan lead to cooperative behavior or reciprocal altruism has fascinated evolutionarybiologists for several decades.

When Charles Darwin was writing his famous book the Descent of Man (1871) he was already highly puzzled by the social structures of the ants. Their cooperative behavior was “one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable, and actually fatal to my theory”.

To solve his problem Darwin proposed that in the case of ant societies natural selection applies not to the individual, but to the family or group. The ants were part of a “Super-Organism”, that consists of genetically similar individuals.

Although many individuals showed altruistic behavior in the group the “genetic code” was replicated because the individuals in the group were all “look alikes”. The Ants were “the Same” (Similar) and therefore every Ant that survived promoted the Genes of the Community.

To explain his theory Darwin wrote ‘sympathy is directed solely towards members of the same community, and therefore towards known, and more or less loved members, but not all the individuals of the same species’.

Darwin’s Theory of Group Selection was  later transformed into the theories of Genetic Kin Selection, Group Selection and the Genetic Similarity Theory. There is dramatic evidence that plants, animals and humans detect and act on genetic similarity.

For humans, both Spouses and best Friends are most similar on attributes with higher heritability.  People join clubs and societies that contain similar people and adopt ideologies that work in their genetic selfinterest. Genetic similarity also explains voting behaviour.

The Human Detection Center of Genetic Similarity is situated  in  the amygdala a part of the Limbic Brain System that is involved in Fear and Arousal.  The Amygdala activates the Sympathetic Nervous System responsible for the fight/flight-response of the Body. It prepares the body to get into action.

The recognition of another person depends on a long series of fast electrophysiological and slow biochemical reactions to the stimuli particular to that person or situation. These stimuli include seeing the other person’s face, hearing his voice, feeling his touch, and smelling his personal odors.

The reaction patterns of Humans to a fearfull situation are different. Some people, the Hawks, re-act very fast. They Fight and Compete. Some people, the Doves, re-act very slow. They Freeze, Flight or  Cooperate.

To find the appropriate reaction-pattern every one of our senses works hard to identify “the other” or “the others“. The detection of “dangerous others” has to happen very fast. This is the task of the electrophysiological pathways.

A fast detection is unreliable therefore a second “slow” cognitive pathway is started. In the cortex the frightening stimulus is analyzed in detail, using stored information from many parts of the brain, and a message is sent back down to the amygdala.

To detect stimuli that are really dangerous the amygdala uses a memory. This memory contains learned and inherited, imprinted, situations. The imprinted situations are highly related to the detection of genetic similarity.

If an animal or a human is frequently attacked the memory contains many Painfull Situations and the amygdala reacts more specific to a situation. The older a person gets the more difficult it becomes to erase this memory.

If people or animals are unable to make a distinction between their Own Whole and the Whole of the Others it will result in a Blurring of the Identity. The Whole of the Observer Merges or Overlaps with the Whole of the Observed. If this happens people act in a “friendly“, Emphatic,  mode and experience others as more “the same” than others do.

A Cooperative Strategy is highly related to the possibility of the Cognitive Part of the Human Detection-System to Move into the Other and Imagine what will Happen. The Hawks lack the ability to Imagine.

The most interesting concept that came out of Darwins Group Selection Theory is the Idea of the Super-Organism.

This Super Organism shows itself in many ways. Examples are the Family, the Tribe, Society and the Earth.

There is a similarity between the roles played by different organizations in Society and the functions of organs, systems and circuits in the body.

Industrial plants extract energy and building blocks from raw materials, just like the digestive system. Roads, railways and waterways transport these products from one part of the system to another one, just like the arteries and veins. Garbage dumps and sewage systems collect waste products, just like the colon and the bladder. The army and police protect the society against invaders and rogue elements, just like the immune system.

If we take the concept of the Super Organism a little bit further we could imagine the Super-Super-Super-Organism that contains all the other Organisms.  In some way every Organism is Genetically Similar (“the Same“) to this Organism.

If this is true and the Theory of Group Selection is Right every Organism is an enfolding of the “Architecture of the Whole“, the Tree of Life,  and a Majority of the Organisms (the Doves) will have an Altruistic Tendency to this Super-Organism.

The Doves Love, want to Unite With,  the Whole and the Hawks dislike the Whole because they want to be a Whole themselves.

Some Scientists call the Super Organism, Gaia,  Mother Earth, but there is no reason why we should not include the Bigger Structures in the Universe until we have reached the Boundary.

On every Level the Same Pattern appears.

On every level the Whole is splitted into Individual Parts. The parts  live a Life of their own (Agency). When we Move UP the Parts are United (Communion)  into a Bigger Structure.

When we look DOWN we interpret the proces of Splitting as a Competition. When we look UP we see a different pattern we Name “Cooperation“.

If we look at the history of the splitting process it looks like the wholes were splitted without any reason. It just happened. If we believe this Evolution is based on pure chance. Life is just a coincedence.

When we analyze the process of Evolution a Pattern emerges. This pattern is Cyclic, Leveled and Self-Referential. The process is almost invisible because with every Name we Utter we carve out a portion of the world and create a Boundary.

Every Time we Divide the World with Words the World becomes more complicated. Every New Concept that is not created without a View on the Pattern of the Whole generates a higher level of Confusion and increases the Complexity of Something that is really very Simple.

We create distinctions between Animals and Humans, Humans and Plants because the Hawkish Genes Want Us to Believe We Are Something Special.

Because of their Special Status the Hawks treat their fellow organisms in a very brutal way. They Exploit (Desire) them because of their Need to Control their Environment. They want to Control their Environment  because they are Afraid to lose Control. They are Afraid that their Identity (Their Ego, Their Agency, Their Whole) will disappear when they Commune with the Whole.

The Effect of the Behavior of the Hawks is the Destruction of the Environment that they Fear so Much. They are destroying their own Mother Earth who is certainly one of the Super Organisms that gave birth to the many wholes that are just there to Enjoy her Care.

The big problem we have is Naming. What we don’t see or don’t want to see is that every Split is a Split in two Opposite Complementary Parts (Yin/not-Yin= Yang, Male/not-Male = Female, Cooperate/not-Cooperate = Compete) that Share  the Void, the Empty Set, the State the Universe was in before it was created.

On every level the Nothing, the State of Infinite Potential and Love,  is still there but it is hidden because we started to use Words, to describe what meant to be an Experience.

This brings us to the final conclusion.

The big problem that is treatening Mother Earth is Hawkish Behavior. In the long term this kind of behavior is not helping the Human Gene at all. It not only destroys  the Human Gene. It destroys  the complete group of genetic “Look-a-Likes” of the Human Gene.

Darwin was Right.

Altruistic Behavior, Cooperation,  is the Only Way for the (Human) Genes to Survive.

Let us Help the Hawks to Erase their Fearfull Memories.

LINKS

About Genetic Similarity Theory and the Cyclic Universe

About Ethics and Genetic Similarity Theory

Edward O. Wilson: A video about the Super Organism

About the role of the Amygdala

A discussion about Morality and the Superorganism

A Mathematical Model that Explains the Evolution of Cooperation

Why Non-Cooperative Humans (Hawks) always Win and Cooperative Humans (Doves) always Lose

An Article in American Scientist about the Superorganism

How Multicellar Organisms cooperate in Humans

How the Void is able to cure Addiction

The Social Effects of Genetic Similarity

Genetic Similarity in Mate Choice and Friendship in Twins

Wittgenstein about Families and Language

An Article in Wired About the Super Organism

About the Super Organism and Systems Theory

About the problem of Naming and Dividing

About the Void