Ripples in the moral ocean

 Ripples in the moral ocean


Energy and matter are interchangeable at scale and quite evenly distributed, so the very early universe was flat.


Order increased as a result of these processes, the potential for disorder increasing proportionately, the entropic river in spacetime.


The plasma evolved into fields and subatomic particles and nucleogenesis, the formation of atomic nuclei, the combination of atoms from an ocean of energy, the molecular clouds sculpted by gravity, the matter of the hot galactic dust evolving into stars and planets, unevenly distributed into an expanse of incredible probabilities, the ripples on the great pond.


The uneven distribution of order versus chaos results in at least some solar systems in which life may be sustained. We know of at least one such place, where a molecular code becomes so ordered and reliable that it is shared, with many variations, by all lifeforms on this particular planet, the one that only we call Earth.


Procreation is necessary to sustain the panoply of lifeforms, and the unity of form and function in any particular species. The cell nucleus became common in the evolutionary process, containing the nucleic acids, and the library in which the code governing form and function are housed.

Within every individual animal or plant, bacterium, archea or virus, the script is reproducible but never identical, replication of the code inexact, albeit to a minor extent, allowing for both fatal and favorable miscoding, more commonly the former, the engine of evolution over time. 


This variability results in the uneven distribution of the phenomena we observe, including the individual variations of size and strength, sexual characteristics, intelligence and talents, that may hinder or help an organism to live and die within its ecological domain.


Human economic systems reflect the uneven distribution, the wealthy, the poor, and the middle class.


Human evolution has favored extraordinary metacognitive abilities and extraordinary social skills, traits that have made us the dominant species in this solar system.


But within the microcosm of human groups, the uneven distribution of wealth and power also drives wars and social discord, and causes untenable unhappiness, moderated during our evolutionary past because we lived in small groups in which transparency and individual interactions were intrinsic.


In the immense and immensely dispersed modern human population, with life changing distributed technologies, our instinctive behaviors, including our ability to get along with others, is distorted. Resource distribution is uneven, and many people suffer or perish as a result, a perilous negative sum game in which losers are preponderant.


Unevenness is worth celebrating because we are ultimately better as a result of it, but distribution of benefits is necessary in sufficient proportion to float the boat, the amount of suffering that is displaced proportional to the volume of the hull we call morality.


Aubrey Lieberman

6/23/25


Inspired by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. 

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