Where the Paradigm Shift Begins
(Chapter 5)
As we’ve discussed so far, there is a universal self‑organizing process that underlies reality; its essential behavior can be described by nonlinear network dynamics and can be observed in the human body. Human self‑awareness functions as one node within Earth’s wider self‑consciousness. The linear, control‑oriented model we built for survival has served us well; but today’s digital, chaotic, unpredictable, and hyperconnected world exposes its limitations. What’s needed is a paradigm shift that realigns our brains, bodies, and the networks we inhabit with the creative process that produced us. We therefore examine the brain-body network to locate the root of our disconnection and how we can reconnect through practical cooperation between left and right hemispheres and by cultivating embodied practices that bring cognition, physiology, and attention back into phase with universal, nonlinear patterns. What we learn from the body network—both as a metaphor for nonlinear networks and as a living system—scales from the personal to the social to the planetary.
When we investigate how the domination of linear logic functions in the human body, we gain deeper insight into the linearity of human behavior. As a nonlinear network, our body has a power law distribution in terms of energy distribution, control, and consumption. This can be seen in how although the brain accounts for only 2.5 percent of the whole body’s weight, it has dominant control over the whole body and it consumes more energy per gram per second than any other organ in our body, making it the main hub of our body network. The function of the hub is crucial for stability, sustainability, and robustness of the whole network when it participates in nonlinear relationship with the rest of the network. When the brain and body subconsciously synchronize, they engage in self-organizing behavior. This synchronicity allows us to perform any task with deep simplicity and minimal effort.
However, consciously, the domination of left-brain linear thinking illusively separates ourselves from the universe, it illusively separates the brain from the body network as well. Driven by self-assertiveness and short-term gain, the linearly-minded left-side brain implements linear relationship between it and other members of the body network when linear thinking dominates instead of the cooperation of the left- and right-sides of the brain. And as a result, the brain often maintains and entertains itself at the expense of the rest of the body, prioritizing entertainment, habits, liability management, and control. Our brain can be so shortsighted that it does not realize that its own long-term sustainability is connected to the wellbeing of the whole body network, not just its own. To satisfy our brains’ short-term desires, we consume more than we need, and we suffer the consequences later. In this way, we see how linear thinking also leads us to exhibit a similar tendency toward other members of the web of life, including plants, animals, the Earth itself, and even other humans. We divide each other into genders, races, nations, and separate beliefs; and instead of cooperating and utilizing asset management with the whole network to achieve optimum synergy, we focus mostly on differences and liability management, rather than recognizing shared values, inhibiting the human network from reaching our ultimate collaborative potential.
The body network is a whole organism made up of many subnetworks (respiratory, circulatory, immune, central nervous, muscle, skeletal system, etc.), which are all cognitive systems according to Santiago theory. Though it is another part embedded within the overall network, the domination of linear thinking has led us to believe that the brain is the only member of this multi-system cognitive network. For instance, we tend to view the heart only as a pump; but the heart is another center that perceives information through gut feeling and intuition. We tend to ignore the heart’s potential beyond its mechanical functionality, along with the potential of other participants within the body network, though they are collectively creating our perception of the universe. This perception of members of our body network performing in limited ways leads us to ignore perceivable relationships amongst the various nonlinear systems that are part of a greater cognitive network.
The brain is a self-organizing system. Once we start observing our actions, thinking, and habits with systemic thinking, relationship, and values, those observations act as a self-organizing feedback system. By consciously participating in this feedback system, we will be able to overcome the dominance of linear perception to synchronize our left- and right-sides of the brain. Throughout history, peoples around the world have traditionally used ceremony, ritual, various meditation practices, and plant medicines to synchronize the left- and right-sides of the brain. By shifting the domination of the left-side to a cooperation of left- and right-sides, we will eventually sync the whole brain with the whole body network and fully optimize the potential of our brains in a way that is in sync and harmony with the greater networks we are a part of. After our brain goes through this process of observation and the self-organizing process that results, the brain will reconnect with this inherent, universal, self-organizing process that orchestrates our universe. And the result will be a more efficient brain and a more healthy body, and we will become mentally and physically more sustainable.
The paradigm shift starts within our brain: by shifting from the current paradigm of domination via left-brain thinking to cooperation of right- and left-brain, we will eventually shift from the over-prioritization of liability management to models based in asset management and the cooperation of left- and right-sides. This is the root of our linear dominated disconnect, this toxic attachment to liability management. But when the brain, the most influential hub of one’s individual body network, shifts consciously from linear-bias to participating with nonlinear behavior, from liability management to asset management, it starts a chain of influence that permeates throughout and realigns the entire body network with the universal self-organizing process that already exists within the body. And from our individual body networks this paradigm shift will spread to any network that we are participating in at any scale.
So how does this shift spread beyond the individual body network?
If we look at the Earth as a network, human beings are the hub that uses the most resources of the planet and exerts the most domination over its fellow inhabitants, even though we are only a small portion of the whole. Like any hub of any network, when acting with linear perception and relationship, humanity destabilizes the entire system. But by shifting to a systemic relationship, we can bring sustainability back to the whole network of Earth.
At the level of the human network, most people live under conditions where survival consumes their full attention, leaving little space to think beyond immediate needs. Meanwhile, a small percentage of the population dominates with violence, hatred, and blame—offering only short-term, divisive solutions that consume the network’s greater potential. Yet there is also a network of people already aware of this paradigm shift, intuitively practicing systemic values in daily life. Systems Philosophy provides the scientific and structural foundation for this emerging awareness, proving the necessity of what is already being lived.
Within humanity, there are also those with access to education, technology, and resources—intellectuals, spiritual thinkers, systems theorists, and environmental activists—who recognize this emergent era demands a shift. These leaders can organize themselves as a self-organizing network, synchronizing their assets of knowledge, connection, experience, and expertise to create solutions greater than the sum of their parts. If these networks cooperate rather than remain siloed, they can accelerate systemic solutions and embed them into the collective consciousness of humanity and the planet. The danger is that continued fragmentation into separate, branded silos spells our doom as a species.
At the level of nations, the same linear dominance persists. Countries like the U.S., the EU, and China serve as global hubs, yet their competition creates a whole that is less than the sum of its parts. The United States, for example, has modeled both the power and the failure of short-term domination: its linear policies weaken its own citizens while negatively impacting the rest of the world. Internally, its citizens are polarized by binary factions and misinformation. Each political party undoes the progress of the other, leaving no continuity and producing a system that is less than the sum of its parts.
At the economic level, the stock market illustrates the limits of linear growth. It is modeled on future earnings, which in consumer-driven economies depend heavily on gross consumption. Yet the Earth’s resources cannot sustain this growth, and middle- and low-income populations—responsible for 70% of consumption—are rapidly losing spending power. Meanwhile, wealth consolidates in a small elite as technological change eliminates jobs, further destabilizing society. This is liability management on a planetary scale.
A systems approach equips us with nonlinear perception, enabling us to shift from focusing on liabilities to appreciating and expanding our assets. If hub nations invest in cooperation rather than competition, industries and technologies now used for domination could instead generate certainty, resilience, and regeneration. Synchronizing our assets creates an emergent whole greater than the sum of its parts, allowing us to consciously participate in the universal self-organizing process.
The U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community illustrate this choice point. As one of the largest hubs in the government network, they consume enormous budgets and employ some of the most disciplined and intelligent personnel, producing the most advanced technologies. Yet used linearly—for domination—they generate deficits, trauma, and inefficiency. If redirected systemically, these same assets could create wealth and security. By releasing advanced technologies into entrepreneurial and civil domains, the government could both reduce deficits and stabilize markets. Military intelligence and discipline could shift from defending through war to building sustainable, regenerative systems. In this way, those currently profiting from conflict could profit from peace.
Information technologies offer another example. Rather than hoarded or weaponized, they can be shared across networks to solve global challenges. Satellites used for surveillance could instead predict droughts, track fires, or to prevent flooding by identifying natural cavities in the Earth that can be used as storage for excess rainwater that later on by solar-powered pumps to sustain both human and non-human life, for example. Military technologies could rebuild war-torn regions into sustainable cities, transforming institutions of deficit into institutions of renewal. This is the shift from liability to asset management at the planetary scale.
For companies, the same principle applies. Shifting from quantity to quality, from short-term exploitation to long-term creativity, aligns businesses with the self-organizing process of the universe. These enterprises flourish because they flow with emergent systemic order rather than strictly quantitative and dominating competition. Businesses embracing systemic values will thrive in today’s unpredictable market by offering certainty in an increasingly uncertain market in this chaotic and unpredictable emergent era. And as crises intensify, even capital begins to recognize this: stock market investment can and must shift toward companies aligned with sustainability and regeneration.
These are but a few examples of how a hub within a government can work more systemically and efficiently to serve its citizens and the world. Just imagine: when the military network of the world becomes self-aware of their assets, will they continue to fight and suffer the consequences of warfare? They may realize how we humans have invested so much time, money, and intelligence into technology we never wish to have to use (e.g., nuclear weaponry); and then they might choose, rather than fight and compete, to apply these assets to systemic relationships of peace and build a more sustainable world.
This is the paradigm shift. From the brain’s cooperation of left and right hemispheres, to networks of people overcoming division, to nations moving from domination to cooperation, to economies redirecting assets from consumption to regeneration, to planetary technologies turned toward life. At every level, the move from linear liability management to nonlinear asset management realigns humanity with the inherent deep simplicity of the self-organizing process of the universe.
Footnotes:
Santiago Theory: cognition is the process of life itself, not merely information processing. In the view of the physicist Fritjof Capra, the Santiago theory of cognition is “the first scientific theory that really overcomes the Cartesian division of mind and matter” and “for the first time, we have a scientific theory that unifies mind, matter, and life.”
