Millions of people have become sensitive to the destruction of life on so many fronts, to inhumane wars in which there is not even a pretense of self-defense. We see a new morality of love taking shape, too, in opposition to the consumer society. The new morality may have its flaws, but it remains impressive in its protest against empty forms and words. Given the gains that can be obtained through the improper initiation of encounters, and given the penalty attached to engaging in these improprieties, it can be expected that persons will employ ruses to evade the rules and safely accomplish forbidden ends. Perhaps the gentlest of these designs is seen when an individual intentionally places oneself in a position to facilitate overturns being made to him. The classic instance, of course, is that of the lady who drops her handkerchief so that a particular man will have a proper excuse for talking to her. Your problem is to force the man to talk to you first; that is the way he wants it. I can think of no better way than for you to drag off the bus with a heavy package almost as big as you are! It does not matter what—several dozen bricks in a large box, well wrapped, will do. Our hero’s chivalrous instincts will not permit him to resist the picture of a maiden in distress. He will be at your side asking to assist you. If he is not, try dropping the package and/or twisting your ankle. When you get to your house, let him carry the package in, offer him refreshments and thank him. (Only if you trust him.) #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

Mental patients provide instances of more resolute manipulation of the rules. One patient I observed over a three-month period did not so much break the rules as flagrantly misemploy available excuses for breaking them. She would ask persons—both ones she knew and ones she did not—for minor favours, such as the time, in such a manner that the person approached would sometimes gradually realize that the favour was merely an excuse, and that in a certain way the asker was merely toying with the conventional conditions of contact. Or she would sometimes pester the kitchen staff for extra food, again with the implication of merely exploiting the bonds among persons that support the exchange of minor favours. Guards and attendants were also favourite targets of her engaging tendencies. One of the most significant infractions of communication rule has to do with street accosting. There are, of course, some legal restrictions placed upon its varieties, upon begging, peddling, and pestering in public streets. However, in the main, the force that keeps people in their communication place in our middle-class society seems to be the fear of being thought forward and pushy, or odd, the fear of forcing a relationship where none is desired—the fear, in the last analysis, of being rather patently rejected and even cut. However, we know that there are many ways in which an individual can accept the fact that one is liable to this kind of disregard and is subject to this kind of risk, and go on from there to capitalize on the liberty one’s fall from grace brings to one. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

The liberties taken by the inebriated and the costumed are mild instances of one’s fall from grace. There are other examples we excuse less readily. Perhaps the classic type of improper opening person is one who makes a steady economic and psychic living from this role. There seems to be a growing tendency in Western societies to restrict these kinds of openings, if not in the city at large, then in all but a few streets. Here we find the street stemmer, the stall operator, and the panhandler, who accept the resentment of the community in order to buttonhole it into buying or giving something. The lady of the evening is a special example; the eyes and smiles and sallies with which she approaches a man tells us precisely how all other women must be careful not to conduct themselves, lest it be assumed that liberties can be taken with them. I think there is something to be learned from considering another type of communication exploiter, those who are not part of the mainstream gender role. It is felt that some of these individuals, when “cruising” for pickups, will utilize casual contacts involving innocuous requests or innocuous sociable comments as a cover. The special significance of this kind of exploitation of public solidarity has to do with its power to spoil causal contact between those with a prefers for dominant gender roles. When the person who is part of the dominant gender role and is approached by an unacquainted male on what prove to be sexually improper grounds, he may suffer concern that his appearance has elicited this and that others present, identifying the accoster, will wrongly impute homosexuality to the accosted. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

More importantly, when he is innocently approached by a member of his own gender he may not be sure of the innocence, just as, when he innocently approaches another male, he may be unsure of the other’s view of him. Hence casual solidarity among unacquainted males is threatened. A novelist provides an extreme example, namely, the predicament of a homosexual in a homosexual bar sincerely desiring a match: “It was when I sat down by the entrance and took out my cigarettes that I realized I had no matches on me. There were no less than ten people, maybe fifteen, smoking around me, but in a place like this it was out of the question to ask for a light unless one knew somebody. The legitimate phrase, “Could you please give me a light?” was, in these surroundings, a recognized approach and a too obvious one at that. I walked up to the counter and bought a box of matches. Homosexuality, then, tends to do to the all-male (and to a degree to the all-female) World what has already been done to communication contacts between the two genders, except that, in the latter case, to be thought a desirable object may not in itself constitute much of an affront—indeed, it may constitute an expected compliment. Just as some homosexuals abuse the contact system in the society, so also do “sexual perverts,” who rely on the right of adults to engage unknown youths and children, and exploit the contact thus made in a way which is considered unsportsmanlike. The unsettling of public trust, of mutual claims linking strangers, can also occur in other contexts. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

In times of internecine armed conflict, a very high level of distrust and anxiety may sometimes be found in public places. Take, for example, the period of 1953-58 troubles in Cyprus. “But the evil genius of terrorism is suspicion—the man who stops and asks for a light, a cart with a broken axle signaling for help, a forester standing alone among trees, three youths walking back to a village after sundown, a shepherd shouting something indistinctly heard by moonlight, the sudden pealing of a doorbell in the night. The slender chain of trust upon which all human relations are based is broken—and this the terrorists knows and sharpens his claws precisely here.” This is precisely what is happening in America. Terrorists want to break all trust, not only do they want to destroy families, but they want to destroy the concept of authority and hierarchies. This way, no one will trust government, law enforcement, the Church, their peers, teachers, doctors, lawyers or each other. This is a form of psychological warfare. Of special interest here is some of the conduct classified under the psychiatric rubric of “exhibitionism.” Whether the indicatable act consists of the words spoken, gestures conveyed, or acts performed, the communication structure of the event often consists of an individual initiating an engagement with a stranger of the opposite gender by means of the kind of message that would be proper only id they were on close and intimate terms. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Apart from psychodynamic issues, exhibitions often spectacularly subvert the protective social control that keeps individuals interpersonally distant even though they are physically close to each other. The assault here is not so much directly on an individual as on the system of rights and symbols the individual employs in expressing relatedness and unrelatedness to those about one. For example, there is the game played by a middle-aged female mental patient on a ward in a research hospital: on visitors’ day she would wear only a bathrobe and slippers, proffer a male visitor appropriate small talk, and then, when very close to him and in a ratified state of talk with him, suddenly expose herself. At that moment the visitor would find himself trapped in an engagement that he could neither immediately escape from nor properly sustain. It is necessary to add a comment concerning the relationship between exposed persons and illegitimately opening ones. Troublemakers who breach the communication line and systematically break the gentleman’s agreement concerning communication often pay a price for their liberties. They come to be seen as profane persons, as persons who have sacrificed for gain the respect that is owed them. Once an individual has made this sacrifice, there is little reason why others cannot approach one, since, except for the fact that he may be contaminating, he has no way to hold people off. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

A person who accosts others will therefore often be a person whom others can accost at will, a reciprocity that holds, it was suggested for those who are dined sacredness through no fault of their own, such as the very young who do not yet have their quota of mana, and the senior citizens who have lost theirs. We have cited both legitimate and illegitimate, initiate an official face engagement, even if only for a moment, and support the connection that the individual is either all in or all out of an encounter. However, of course, once this latter normative arrangement is firmly established, we can expect that certain kinds of advantage can be taken of it. For example, in some Western communities there is the practice whereby a male communicates regard for the attractiveness of a passing female with whom some other expressive sign. What follows is up to her. She can elect to act as if no relevant communication has occurred. Or she can elect to turn and ratify the comment by a friendly or hostile comment, in either case creating a momentary face engagement (Apparently the more impersonally appreciative the whistle, that is, the more it can be construed not as a pickup, the more accepting the young lady will be of it.) Every woman who dressed well likes to be appreciated for her trouble. A wolf whistle is rather a crude form of expression, but I supposed it is the equivalent of being hissed at approvingly or pinched. A stranger cannot walk up and talk to a pretty young lady, so he used the whistle. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

“It is nice to know you are whistleable. If I feel I deserve it. I occasionally turn around and ‘thank you.’ A whistle is a compliment. Particularly if you know the man is just commenting on your beauty and not trying to embarrass you. If he is I put on my stony face and walk on.” And another: “A long low whistle is a perk-me-up to a girl. It can add a smile to her face, a lilt to her step and put a twinkle in her eyes. It can do more for her than a new hat. Unpolished it may be, but it is a compliment. Part of the fun is that the whistler is often anonymous. You turn around any try to guess who. However, in addition, a woman may smile visibly (so that the whistler knows his message has been appreciatively received), and at the same time look straight ahead so as not to allow for the collapse of separateness and the formation of an engagement. This latter tack represents, in effect, a collusion of both individuals against the rules of communication—an unratified breach of communication barriers. The breach is a slight one, however, since the person whistled at has been on the move away from the whistler and will soon be out of range of engagement. On the same grounds we can understand why it is safe, and therefore not much of an offense, for an individual in a moving boat, train, or bus to proffer a greeting to a stranger who is stationary or moving in the other direction. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

In our society, when a large number of men or boys or girls are together, one of their number seems likely to extend a greeting to a passing stranger. Presumably the threat of a two-person engagement developing is lessened by the numbers involved, and hence more easily tolerated. When the group is in uniform, and therefore to some extent out of role, even more license is likely to be taken, unless forbidden by the group’s leader. When the members of such a group, in addition, are moving in a vehicle they are in no position to stop, and thereby moving away from the target of their sallies, even greater license seems to be taken and tolerated. When critiquing other people, it is always important to first consider your own mistakes. Admitting one’s own mistakes—even when one has not corrected them—can help convince somebody to change their behaviour. “If you were born a certain type, could you ever change it?” somebody asked. If it is a very bad type and you work very hard, you can change it. First you must know the type—that means knowing essence. If you find something in essence which is incompatible with aim, then if you work very hard you can perhaps change it. Essence is hidden in personality; rays of planetary influence cannot penetrate because personality is accidental. People are affected by planetary influences only in certain parts of themselves, parts which are always there, so that these influences have an effect on people in the mass but, in normal cases, seldom affect individuals. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

“To what extent,” someone asked, “does a man who is under the Law of Accident come under the Law of Fate, apart from his birth and death?” It depends upon the relation between personality and essence. If personality is strong it makes a shall round essence, then there is very little fate. The planetary influences which control fate, type, essence, do not reach us when personality is strong. However, there are some people who, quite without the influence of “schools,” live more in essence. In them personality is very faint and they are more under the Law of Fate than other people. They depend more upon certain influences on which other people depend less; I will not say what these influences are, for that only leads to imagination. You must find out for yourselves. In the lives or ordinary people there is nothing of fate except birth and death. Individual man is very little under planetary influences because his essence is undeveloped and very small, or else too much mixed with his personality. As these influences cannot penetrate personality, such men are under the Law of Accident. If man lived in his essence he would live under planetary influences or, in other words, under the Law of Fate. Whether this would be to his advantage or not is another question. It might be better in one case and worse in another. Generally better. But planetary rays cannot penetrate personality; they are reflected from it. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

Combinations of influences produce combinations of types. We do not know what they are and we cannot find out by making a horoscope. That would be something like mediaeval psychoanalysis. “But the combinations do come from the planets, do they not?” Yes, originally. All our emotions and all our ideas came originally from the planets, they were not born here. “Should one try to live according to one’s emotions, or should one always try to find a good reason for what one is doing?” It is difficult to say. Emotions may be different and one’s capacity to control one’s life may be different. Very often it is imaginary. Very often all questions such as “Should I do this?” or “Should I do that?” are quite artificial, because one can do only in one way. Very often one thinks one can do something in this way or in that way, but really one can only do it in one way. One has no control. However, it is useful to start from this point of view: to see what kind of emotions you mean, whether they are emotions belonging to essence or emotions belonging to personality. And very often—not always, but very often—you can trust emotions belonging to essence and mistrust emotions belonging to personality. However, this is not a general rule; it only shows lines of study in connection with your question. The question itself shows by which line your thinking must go. You must think about essence and personality. You must think about things you cannot control. It is not a question of investigation. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

When it comes to determining the level of selection—two basic processes amplify success: selection of agents and selection of strategies. The natural selection of biological agents works by making an entirely new agent without the need to determine the cause of the success of the parent or parents. The selection of strategies, on the other hand, creates new strategies for an existing agent. It often involves some explicit decision about what strategy or part of the agent was responsible for the success. Biological systems are not the only ones that select entire agents. Elections are another such method. If a congressional representative is defeated in an election, another person gets the job. The voters are not able to pick and choose among the features they like in the incumbent and a challenger. They simply have to pick one candidate or the other. This provides an easy answer to the question of what should be given credit for success (or failure). The answer is the whole candidate. As much as a voter might want to give credit and blame separately for some good and bad policy positions or character traits, the vote requires selection at the level of the whole agent. One agent will occupy the office for the coming term; all others will be cast aside. Elections offer a nice example of several coevolving complex systems. While voters are selecting at the level of agents, active politicians are selecting at the level of strategies. They observe carefully what positions were taken by recent victors around the country. Many will adopt those more successful strategies in future campaigns. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

The economy also can select at the level of agents. Companies that go bankrupt and are liquidated are thereafter not present in the population. On the constructive side, imagine a decentralized firm that has a highly successful branch office. The firm might use its earnings to “clone” the successful branch office by setting up another branch that, insofar as possible, duplicates the entire operation of the successful one. If the branches operate fairly autonomously, this would amount to creating a new agent. The central office would have given credit to an entire branch (rather than to any of its particular strategies or characteristics) and tried to amplify success by producing a duplicate agent. Biological evolution works by selecting agents. The success of an organism leads to reproduction. This does not entail any determination of which of the genes “deserve” credit for the reproductive success. Instead, all the genes in the reproducing organism get a roughly equal chance to be passed on to the offspring. This fact is the root of the phenomenon called hitchhiking, in which non-productive, even mildly deleterious, genes are carried into subsequent generations by the success of the overall agent package to which they belong. In all these examples of agent selection, there must be fairly substantial accumulations of resources to create a new agent, whether that agent is an infant organism, a political candidate, or a branch office. The need to accumulate sufficient resources to embody a new agent operates as an important limiting factor in agent-level selection. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

It contrasts with the situation we will see blow for strategy level selection, where what is copied can often be merely the abstract pattern of the strategy. The extreme of this, a process that is profoundly reshaping our era, is the copying of computer algorithms. Here, the marginal costs of assembling a new copy may hover just above zero, allowing low-cost software to run on millions of computers. When using selection of agents to harness complexity, a key question is how strong selection pressure should be. If the best agent in a population gets many copies while the others get few or none, the selection pressure is very high. In effect, strong selection pressure greatly amplifies the success of the best agent in the population but gives very little amplification to slightly less successful. In an era where franchising can provide strong selection pressure, the best ideas for a hardware store or bookstore will be extensively copied, while independent competitors will languish. Conversely, weak selection pressure produces only a slight tendency for the better agents to have more copies and thus provides more uniform amplification to the relatively successful agents. The advantage of strong selection pressure is that it exploits success by quickly spreading copies of the best-performing agents. The disadvantage is that it can quickly destroy the variety in the population that is needed to explore for even better outcomes in the future. Thus the trade-off between strong and weak selection raises the familiar issues of choosing the balance between exploiting the best current outcomes and using variety to explore for possible improvements. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

Manager and designers often have opportunities to change selection pressure. Among other things, they can increase rewards and visibility for top performers and set severe punishments for flaws. For example, “zero tolerance” deletion of agents or artifacts with small deficiencies has the effect of reducing variety. It thereby favours exploitation over exploration. In the short run, strong selection pressure converts existing variety to new exploitation, but in the long run exploration may suffer. Harnessing complexity requires taking advantage of variety rather than trying to ignore or eliminate it. An instructive issue in biological reproduction is the founder effect. An example would be an island populated by long-beaked birds descended from a long-beaked pair that were among the first to reach the locale. In its early history, the population is small, and an outstandingly fit individual has offspring that forms a large portion of the next generation. Over subsequent generations, many traits of that “founder” are carried widely through the population. Whether or not they make their own functional contribution, the traits that made the founder effective co-occurred with traits that do not have high value. Both kinds are amplified. A nonbiological example can be seen in the Carnegie libraries that proliferated in the United States of America in the early twentieth century. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Many different communities established libraries staring from the same plans. Overall, the favoured plans were good ones and carried financial subsidies. The practice of using them was beneficial on the whole but did result in libraries with specific services that were arbitrary or even unwanted in some communities in which they were instituted. In the 1986 baseball National League championship series, the New York Mets won a crucial game against the Houston Astros when Len Dykstra hit Dave Smith’s second pitch for a two-run home run in the ninth inning. The two players later walked about what happened. Dykstra said, “He threw mw a fastball on the first pitch and I fouled it off. I had a gut feeling then that he had thrown me a forkball next, and he did. I got a pitch I saw real well, and hit it real well.” According to Smith, “What it boils down to, is that it was bad pitch selection.” By that he meant Dykstra was guessing that, because the first pitch was a fastball, Smith would alter the velocity. “If I had it to do over again? It would be [another] fastball.” Should Smith adopt the strategy of throwing another fastball the next time such a situation arises? Of course not. The batter can see through this level of Smith’s thinking, and expect a fastball. However, then Smith should move gears to the next level of thinking, and throw a forkball, after all. And so on. There is no definite stopping point to this process. The batter can see through and exploit any systematic thinking and action by the pitcher, and vice versa. The only sensible course of action for both is to be unpredictable. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

To be unpredictable, the pitcher should make a random selection from accurate pitches. He should not throw inaccurate pitches. An inaccurate pitcher is unpredictable because he himself does not know where the ball will go. Without accuracy, there is no control over the placement and relative frequencies of the different types of pitches. The best example of an accurate but unpredictable pitch is the knuckleball. Because the ball hardly spins, the seams lead to sudden movements through the air an no one can quite predict its outcome—but few pitchers can throw good knuckleballs. In these situations, a classic mistake in strategic thinking is to believe that you can predict your rival’s moves simply by wearing his shoes. We see this mistake in David Halberstam’s book The Summer of ’49 as he describes the strategic awakening of the strategic awakening of the seventeen-year-old Ted Williams. “Like so many young players, Williams had trouble with breaking pitches. He was never ready for them. Once a pitcher got him out on a curve. Williams, furious with himself, trotted back to his position in the outfield. One of the San Diego pitchers, a former major-leaguer, yelled over to him, ‘Hey kid, what’d he get you out on?’ ‘A goddamn slow curve,” Williams answered. ‘Can you hit his fastball?’ the pitcher continued. ‘You bet,’ Williams answered. ‘What do you think he’ll be looking to put past you next time?’ the pitcher asked. There was a brief pause. Ted Williams had never thought about pitching to Ted Williams—that was something other pitchers did. ‘A curse,’ he answered. ‘Hey kid,’ the pitcher said, ‘why don’t you go up there and wait on it the next time.’ Williams did, and hit the ball out for a home run. Thus began a twenty-five-year study of the mind of the pitcher. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Apparently the pitcher had not learned the need to be unpredictable, but then neither had Williams, for if Williams were thinking about how to pitch to Williams, he would not throw a curve when he recognized that Williams was expecting it! This report shows what to expect when both sides are trying to outsmart the other. Even though you cannot guess right all the time, you can at least recognize the odds. Correctly anticipating and responding to unpredictability is useful well beyond the baseball diamond. Unpredictability is a critical element of strategy whenever one side likes coincidence of actions, while the other wishes to avoid it. The IRS wants to audit those who have evaded taxes, while those who have cheated hope to avoid an audit. Among children, the older sibling usually wants to avoid having the younger one tag along; the younger often looks to follow the older’s footsteps, literally. An invading army wants to achieve tactical surprises in its choice of the place to attack; the defending army wants to concentrate its force on the spot where the attack comes. The setters of fashion in nightclubs, restaurants, clothing, and art want exclusivity; the general public wants to mingle with the trendsetters. Eventually, the “in” places are discovered. However, by then the beautiful people have moved on to somewhere else. This helps explain the short life span of nightclubs. Once a nightclub gets to be successful, too many people want to go there. This drives trendsetters away and they start a new fad somewhere else. As Yogi Berra said, “The place is so crowded, no one goes there anymore.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

While the baseball player’s choice of pitch or the IR’s decision of whom to audit on any one occasion may be unpredictable, there are rules that govern the selection. The right amount of unpredictability should not be left to chance. In fact, the odds of choosing one pitch over another or to whom to audit can be precisely determined from the particulars of the game. “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” Today we live in the age of instant media, a bombardment of contending images, symbols, and “facts.” Yet the more data, information, and knowledge are used in the governing as we penetrate deeper into the “information society,” the more difficult it may become for anyone—political leaders included—to know what is really going on. Much has been written about how TV and the press distort our image of reality through conscious bias, censorship, and even in inadvertent ways. Intelligent citizens question the political objectivity of both print and electronic media. Yet there is a deeper level of distortion that has been little studied, analyzed, or understood. In the coming political crises that face the high-tech democracies, all sides—politicians and bureaucrats, as well as the military, the corporate lobbies, and the swelling tide of citizen groups—will use “info-tactics.” These are power plays and ploys based on the manipulation of information—for the most part before it ever gets to the media. With knowledge in all its forms becoming more central to power, with data, information, and knowledge piling up and pouring out of our computers, info-tactics will become ever more significant in political life. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Before we can understand the sophisticated techniques that will shape political power in the future, we need to look at the methods used by today’s most successful power players. These “classic” techniques are not taught in any school. Shrewd players of the political power game know them intuitively. The rules have not been formalized or set down systematically. Until this is done, talk about “open government,” an “informed citizenry,” or “the public’s right to know” remains rhetorical. For these info-tactics call into question some of our mist basic democratic assumptions. The World imposes limits on what we can do. Technology in general (and nanotechnology in particular) can provide padding for us as we throw ourselves against these hard, sharp limitations, and can sometimes help us slip past old limits through previously unknown gaps. Eventually, though, we will encounter new limits. In the end, solid constraints will limit human action no matter how much we juggle atoms and molecules, or the bits and bytes of information. Many problems differ fundamentally from the material problems of limited matter and energy: they involve information. Some of the most precious stores of information in the World today are the genetic codes of the biosphere. This information, different for virtually every individual organism, is the product of millions of events that we are incapable of modeling or recreating. When this information is lost, it is lost forever. When the atoms encoding this information are thoroughly scattered, there seems to be no way to retrieve it. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

With any species, most genetic information is shared in common, found in all members of that species. However, the variation in genetic code between individuals are important, both to the individuals themselves and to the health and prospects of the species as a whole. Consider the northern white rhino, whose numbers have dropped to an estimated thirty-two animals, or the California condor, of which only forty remain, all in captivity. Even if biologists succeed in reestablishing these species—eight condors were hatched in 1989—much of the diversity of their genetic information has been lost. Worse yet are extinctions of species for which no tissue samples were saved. The future may see some amazing recoveries: Dry skin and bones may yield a complete set of genes when sifted by molecular machinery, and even current techniques have been used to recover genes from an ancient leaf, almost 20 million years old. Our eyes and instruments cannot yet tell us how much information from the past remains, but we do know that genetic information is being lost every day, and once lost, it is irretrievable. A mutational meltdown describes an eco-evolutionary process in which the accumulation of deleterious mutations causes a fitness decline that eventually leads to the extinction of a population. Possible applications of this concept include medical treatment of RNA virus infections based on mutahenic drugs that increase the mutation rate of the pathogen. Extinction is the result of three consequences: initial accumulation of deleterious mutations due to the increased mutation pressure; consecutive loss of the fittest haplotype due to Muller’s ratchet; rapid population decline towards extinction. We find accurate analytical results for the mean extinction time, which shows that the deleterious mutation rate has the strongest effect on extinction time. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

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