Every once in a while, I reflect on what it is to be human, to have a "self". One theory is that "self" is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves, the series of pictures we hold in our heads that we see when we are "self conscious".

Another theory, which actually dovetails with the above theory quite nicely, was posited by Bucky Fuller, when asked how he defined human beings. He apparently replied, with no hesitation, "pattern integrity," a concept that requires some serious contemplation. Which is something I have been doing since I first heard the quote.

The concept is both incredibly simple, and incredibly complex and profound at the same time. While I will hardly be able to do the idea full justice here, I will attempt a (simplified) explanation, and let you be the judge as to my success.

All of life is a pattern - of atomic, molecular, cellular, system, process, community, species, environment, solar and galactic, to universal, and, according to various quantum and string theorists out there, multi-dimensional complexities. Some thinkers, like Ken Wilbur (See Below), have used the idea of "nested heirarchies" to explain how all systems are interconnected and inter-dependant, and therefore exhibit as a base-level foundation this notion of "patterns."

Think for a moment about how the brain "grows" connections, that is, creates new neuronal pathways. It is now known that these pathways are being constructed, reinforced, and cross-referenced from the moment the brain reaches a certain stage of growth in the womb, but especially after birth. Each input/stimuli engages the pattern-making processes in the brain, and a new pathway is forged. We respond to ALL stimuli, in a variety of ways, that eventually allow us to interact with others of our kind, and with the world at large. Since we are interacting and reacting from the nature of each of our pathway complexities, the outcome is never uniform. This non-uniformity of individual pattern leads, for survival's sake, to community and cultural "norms" which always embody some form of external patterns such as laws and/or religions, designed to allow us to co-exist in (relative) harmony.

As the culture grows, it too evolves new patterns as it attempts to deal with the increased complexity of the pattern(s) of additional individuals. Eventual interaction with other, similarly evolving cultures creates yet another layer of complexity, and so the patterns of diplomacy, conflict, and co-exsitance also begin to evolve.

The essential point being that we are patterns, who exist within patterns we create, and whose resultant patterns continue to shape subsequent generations, who themselves further evolve the patterns they arrived in.

Now, there are fields out there, such as Jungian psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, etc., that seek to explain all of this without actually agreeing on a common language or set of descriptors that would allow them to see how they are all skinning the same cat. Fuller's idea of pattern integrity has the potential to be that common language, without superceding the specificity of each of the other diciplines. Each discipline uses different lenses to look at the same thing - what is it to be human? What IS human, IS self? These are such fundamental questions that despite being under study and contemplation for millenium, are still worthy of further study today. In fact, given the current state of the world geo-politically, I'd say its more urgent than it has ever been to share common language on something so essential to understanding who we are. Then, maybe, we can come to the next level of the pattern - world community. At this point, given environmental and geo-political disasters looming, I don't think we have much of a choice anymore. We either struggle to get it right, or we emulate the pattern of the lemming (fictional though it is.)

Ken Wilbur, A Theory of Everything