Beyond The Mechanical Understanding of Things

When we understand that the mechanical view of the world is been built on a method of gaining knowledge, not knowledge itself, we might be able to set on the first step of gaining that missing knowledge.

Imagining the world as a machine of push/pull factors was the method to answer how things work mechanically not how things work.

Christopher Alexander wrote in his book "Nature of Order: The Phenomenon of Life" that what makes us create this lifeless modern building is our new disturbed understanding of the world (as a machine), confusing the parts we understand as they are the entire whole. Maybe this is why we say "the whole is greater than the parts" because we have only understood one part of these "parts" so we can't yet manage to build the entire "whole" picture.

So if we admit having some missing parts but still somehow grasp the whole then maybe we could grasp a bit the nature of the universe?.

Ok, let's try this once and compare a whole "whole" (human being) while making a whole with only the parts we understand a "robot".

So, what is the crucial difference between humans and robots? a robot is a mechanical creation built with a specific purpose that it can not fulfill it in any different unprogrammed way. (the one without AI)

A human, however, is a result of billions of dice throws by natural selection, consists of parts that are more fitting to the current environment and some which were randomly assembled, and others that serve no purpose whatsoever. A machine cannot be random and cannot produce "wrong results". A human is an organized chaos, and therefore, I can conclude that this "life in objects" (the one that Christopher had been talking about) which can arise when a certain amount of randomness is allowed.

How I reflect this in everyday life: When I feel that I am part of a machine (one part of a mechanical whole), I feel empty. However, when I feel I am contributing to Humanity (one part of the "whole"), I feel quite good, even if it is the same task in both cases. For example, when a person cooks a meal because he is just hungry, the process of cooking and eating that is not something "fulfilling". In contrast to somebody who cooks in enjoyment or for serving others will definitely fulfill a higher need in Maslow's hierarchy.