The Search for Simple

A Brief Exploration of the Nature of Ideas and their Spread

ARC GUIDE LEVEL 1
Ideal for those getting acquainted with our thought process at Ammi Ruhama Community.

The Relative Nature of Simplicity

Finding the simplest of two hypothetical answers is deceptively relative as what is easily conceivable to one person is convoluted and inconceivable to another without the same frame of reference. If two complete strangers meet to discuss a topic which only one of them has any exposure to, they will, at first, be incompatible and the simplest answer for one person will not be the same as the other. However, the longer these two people are in each other’s company the wider the frame of common reference grows and the seemingly more complicated the conceivable answers become to everyone outside of that shared frame of reference. A whole new vocabulary and shorthand develops between those who are initiated into the conversation as a type of heuristic to speed up the conversation but in the meantime they progressively isolate themselves from others who have no such frame of reference.

A Bridge that Connects

It is at this point that it becomes necessary to provide a bridge to their expanding world of reference. A book perhaps with the foundational question, historically posited answers, definitions, shorthands, abbreviations and so on and so forth. If the bridge is sufficient then the new born universe will expand beyond those two initial thinkers and envelope an ever wider community of people to test and probe the main theory and any conflicting theories that come against it. These are the relative professionals who are hammering out the particulars of the problems and searching for the simplest answer. They are the first in a group of 5 types of individuals who handle the material they come across. The five are as follows. 1. The Professional 2. The Patient 3. The Hacker 4. The (GIC) General Information Consumer 5. The Public

The Law of Rebirth and Entropy

The older a problem becomes the more insular and given to entropy its answers become. Professionals who inherit a problem will recycle many of the same historical answers to work them out to their finer points. The patient isn’t generally all that interested in the process, they just want their problem to go away. The hacker doesn’t care about the problem unless it helps them optimise their life in some way. The GIC has a working understanding of what question is trying to be answered and is interested in adding data or positing out of the box questions which may or may not help towards finding the simplest answer. The Public is the wild card. They will treat the new information as either ivory tower naval gazing that has nothing to do with their day to day lives or they may bring the community to a deeper understanding because of their wildly out of the box perspective. They may encounter the problem in the wild, and posit a different vein of answers and, in the process, become the new relative professionals in their community trying to answer this new old question. In fact any of the other 4 types might restart the cycle as the new professionals based on their own approach to the question.

As it Concerns Christianity

We see the above principles at work within the Christian community as clearly as in any other. There is a clear professional class who are writing the books, positing the questions, communing with one another and if you are not a part of these, ‘serious,’ thinkers then you will not get a look into their carefully crafted world of reference. Even their books are carefully worded to ensure that they are simple enough to give a taste of the problem but not enough to initiate the reader into the wider conversation. A book is not a conversation, it is a one way bridge. The reader has no part in the formation of the thoughts. The contents of the book are closely guarded, copy righted and formulated to ensure that the reader feels morally obligated to cite them and give them credit for their thoughts and outcomes. Ideally the other 4 types read the book and decide that the professionals have it all in hand and go back to our own simpler ponderings. It, of course, doesn’t always work out that way, and the other 4 continue their search for simplicity beyond the convoluted deteriorating paradigms of the professionals in their hopeful seeking after truth. It is my hope that being aware of how information seeds and spreads will help us more intentionally seek after the unity of love and faith and hope.