The Crucible of Sentience: The Holocene is the Peak Suffering Epoch of Existence

We are currently going through the peak suffering epoch of existence.

Suffering is the experience associated with an auto-propagating cascade or cycle of proto-pain within the system¹.
Proto-pain is the experience associated with separation.
First-density² forms of existence (such as stones, viruses, and clouds) may experience proto-pain, yet these occurrences do not propagate much.
Second-density forms of existence (such as trees, gerbils, and bacteria) generally have more capacity to propagate signals of proto-pain through their systems, which appears to be evolutionarily advantageous for the development of sustained agency.
Third-density forms of existence (such as mice³, dolphins, and humans) with the capacity for self-reflexive reasoning have the capacity to auto-propagate proto-mpain throughout their systems.
Without more developed self-reflexive consciousness, second-density entities will not be able to suffer as much as third-density life-forms without ongoing environmental factors.
- Furthermore, high-suffering environments for second-density entities are most likely to stably arise due to the actions of third-density entities.
Advanced meditators in PNSE show that humans can learn to not propagate proto-pain much⁴Andrés Gómez Emilsson discusses how this involves an enhanced stress dissipation and absorption capacity..
- Meditation protocols and technology to achieve meditative states⁵ are both improving.
One can also expect human treatment of other animals to improve as we develop. For example, in-vitro cultured meat may be healthier and involve far, far less proto-pain. Trends toward sustainability and solarpunk technology also point in this direction.
Therefore, one could expect that humans will overall learn to suffer less and less⁶However, one cannot rule out novel forms of proto-pain cascades, imo, due to undecidability issues.. Suffering caused by humans should also be predicted to diminish.
- Novel life forms we co-create will likely also be fostered with our knowledge of pain and stress management so that they will not suffer as much, either.
Thus the Holocene⁷ is the peak suffering epoch of existence.

The inspiration for this post came from reflecting on models of post-formal development along with the reports of people experiencing varieties of fundamental wellbeing (FW) in persistent non-symbolic experience (PNSE): Piaget’s theory of development up to the formal operational stage is interesting. With metacognition and abstraction, the full expressive force of logical reasoning is unleashed, and, in a sense, further development is not possible. Hyper-advanced super-intelligent, super-compassionate, generally intelligent post-Singularity Minds will still essentially be in the formal operational stage. They’ll be very good at it but this is where we run into computational limits. Isn’t there some road of further development, though?

There may be multiple roads of development that can be followed in parallel, supporting each other yet not strictly necessary for each other.

One such road is the meditative path to deeper and deeper locations of non-symbolic experience. Shift one’s baseline state to that of spacious awareness, or to the radiance of being, or to being immersed in visceral raw experience (so intensely that there’s no room for conscious thought or emotion). Reports are that negative affect drops off significantly as one deepens in these locations (nor do we know of a limit as to how deep one can go). It seems there are some benefits to going through standard developmental paths before embarking on transcending one’s ego⁸. Anyone walking this path will likely exhibit a suffering curve with a peak around the typical non-awakened human stages.

Another such road lies in models of hierarchical task complexity (MHC), which focuses on what sorts of tasks and domains an entity can handle. The earlier stages, such as automatic (1) and sensory-motor (4) have the potential to be pan-species applicable. A comparison of the MHC with IQ found that most tests measure the concrete (9) and abstract (10) stages, with some formal items. Using an MHC-based test could more easily apply to people at different stages of development, multiple species, and could provide more information as to which areas people are struggling with. Anyway, one can indefinitely march up the complexity ladder as one develops within the formal operational stage. Applying meta-systematic (13) reasoning along with the knowledge of meditation protocols and neuro-modulation devices for PNSE/FW, one may begin integrating these peace-bearing elements into one’s life.

I’m also aware of The Hedonistic Imperative kindled by David Peirce to implement the abolitionist project to abolish suffering in all sentient life via genetic engineering. The goal is to develop signaling systems that allow for highly functional gradients of bliss. Ben Goertzel writes about this, too, in How Superhuman Superminds Will (Mostly) Transcend Suffering. Before you get all sceptical on us, please examine the quizzical case of Jo Cameron who lived to a fine old age with pain asymolia. It doesn’t feel like it hurts when she burns her finger. Living through childhood with these disorders can be trying. I side with Ben’s take on the ontology of suffering: it seems worth hypothesizing that there may be some proto-pain of Jo Cameron’s system, yet her conscious self-model is not integrating these separation events. Thus I’d advocate that a “suffering reductionist project” might be perfectly good enough⁹.

These inspirations suggest that we may indeed be in the peak suffering epoch of existence.

Returning to the MHC and pre-human levels of development¹⁰, it would seem that very little proto-pain would propagate through organisms in stages 0 and 1. Each stage will allow for more complex patterns of (proto-pain) signal propagation, aligned with more complex response patterns in navigating life. I’m not sure where full-on auto-propagating pain loops (suffering) emerge: definitely by the formal stage (11). Distinctive pain cascades should definitely be present much earlier, by the sentential stage (6) at most? I’d imagine emotionally-cued trauma would emerge by the sensory-motor stages (3-4), deepening by the nominal stage (5). And if elevating to the level of the Global Brain, quite loopy forms of suffering can emerge on the meta-cross-paradigmatic stage (16) and beyond. This meta-systematic (13) and beyond type of suffering might apply to cases such as factory farming hellscapes, which do not exist solely on the level of the cute pigs. The point is that prior to roughly human levels of development, one should predict low suffering (if not induced by environmental catastrophes or higher levels of agency, such as human-led civilization at a global scale). And beyond a certain stage of development, there is a latent capacity to reflect on the nature of one’s suffering to figure out how to drastically reduce it at the personal level as well as at the meta-civilizational levels.

Would it be possible to keep developing indefinitely technologically without drastically reducing suffering? Perhaps. I’d imagine that with development, the odds of tolerating massive runaway pain-trains will decrease drastically. Unless civilization is led by sadists¹¹, the need for systems that lead to high suffering will reduce. For example, prioritizing culinary enjoyment over animal welfare will cease to be relevant a moral dilemma before long. Oh, while I do care, I might even argue that allowing rampant pain cascades and cycles is not productive. Developing better capacity for control over ourselves and our ecosystem, optimizing proto-pain signal propagation will very likely happen. I prefer futuristic visions full of a rich tapestry of positive emotions and freedom across sub- and meta-systems, yet it seems very unlikely that civilization and life will develop without managing suffering much, much better. Yay!

Returning to the global brain, I think that it’s very likely we develop into mindplexes where our brains are linked via neural implants¹². With BrainNet, there was even collaborative communication enabled without invasive surgery! Once the mindweb opens up, the possibility of negative valence emotional cascades is concerning. The classical virtuous traits such as equanimity, compassion, loving-kindness, and empathic joy would be really desirous of those we share minds with. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to know that some people in the network are stress-wave sinks who won’t pass the fire on? Thus development on the socially-connected mindplex front loops back around to encourage inner development on the meditative front.

During Mentalecho‘s fabulous set at Master of Puppets ’24, I realized that under the appropriate interpretation, I fuzzily agree with the Four Noble Truths. I’ve generally disliked all this “suffering is necessary and psychological suicide is the only escape” talk. Now let’s review them under the lens of this post¹³:

There is suffering.
There is the origination of suffering.
There is the cessation of suffering.
There is a path to the cessation of suffering.

There does indeed appear to be suffering. Suffering seems to originate in line with the capacity to propagate useful proto-pain signals throughout the system. There do seem to be people who do not suffer while maintaining complex organismic functionality. While this can involve “ego death”, aspects of personality seem to remain in habituated forms and can continue developing through the non-dual realms. And there do indeed seem to be fairly reliable paths to these states of very low (if not no) suffering.

Thus applying a fuzzy truth¹⁴ value to the four noble truths, I’d probably wind up with something in the range of [0.75,0.9]. Pretty much mostly true. Am I back to being objectively identifiable as a ‘neo-Buddhist’? Perhaps 😋

Could it be possible for life to evolve (without the support of more developed life-forms) without going through some high-suffering epoch? That seems unlikely. How would one learn to manage the propagation and dispersion of stress and proto-pain well without experiential data? The peak intensity could be less than on Earth, probably.

Another highly useful form of service of knowing suffering is in providing one with the capacity to have deep compassion for the suffering of others.

There’s the common claim that thirst, craving, and attachment are prime sources of suffering. These all amount to propagating some separation event throughout the system in an attempt to brute force a solution. One may keep in mind the idea that one doesn’t have what one wishes in this moment in the hope that this catalyzes and spurs on action toward attaining what one wishes. Cattle-prodding oneself to success. There’s the interesting fuzzy middle-ground of non-attached desire, or what Dotts‘ would call intention: being aware of what one wishes to experience and remaining open to opportunities to take effective action, yet not keeping this thought alive when there’s nothing to do about it. This may not be a full-on cessation of proto-pain, but it should drastically reduce the suffering.

I hope that we can begin to talk about these four noble partial truths with more dexterity and precision 🤓.

From proto-pain's first echo,
A shadowed path ascends.
Through minds that echo, loop, and grow,
A brighter vision transcends.
No longer bound by pain's knots,
New pathways start to bloom.
Where kindness flows, compassion reigns,
And joy dispels the gloom¹⁵Poem courtesy of Gemini..

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