Part One: Ecological Conception of Intelligenism — Theoretical Proposal

The chapter begins with a quote from the Tao Te Ching: “The Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.” Here, I believe that a theory should be categorized as “one,” not the Tao itself. (I think the “TAO” here can seem like the rules of the universe in Western culture.) When a theory cannot be asserted as absolutely true, it is not the Tao or the rules of the universe; it is merely one way of interpreting the Tao and the rules. Once the Tao is articulated in words, it ceases to be the Tao itself and becomes merely an expression of the Tao based on the cognition of specific individuals. This is my understanding of Laozi’s phrase, “The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.” The reason for starting this chapter with a reference to the Tao Te Ching is to establish a core premise: theories are mutable, while the Tao is inevitable and absolute. Thus, a theory is not the Tao. Intelligenism itself is a container for theories, so its manifestation is influenced by the collection of theories it contains. Consequently, the form of Intelligenism is mutable, which further echoes the theoretical premise in the “Path of Construction” section that Intelligenism itself is positioned as an intelligent agent.

Regarding the act of proposing a theory, the completion of this book proposes a theory. In the future, others may extend and interpret the theories and perspectives presented in this book and propose their own theories. It is also possible that someone, after partially agreeing with the book’s perspectives, writes another book on Intelligenism, which would also be a form of proposing a theory. In summary, proposing a theory is not centralized. It is not the case that only extensions of the theory proposed by this book’s author qualify as part of the Intelligenism framework. As mentioned earlier, Intelligenism is a theoretical container, and the theories in this book are merely one collection within that container. Although this book proposes the conceptual container of Intelligenism and provides some definitions, the overall theoretical core of Intelligenism is determined by the entire collection of theories within the Intelligenism container. Therefore, Intelligenism should allow different individuals to define it further, and any initiation of definitions or theoretical interpretations can be considered a proposal of a theory.

The means of proposing a theory are also diverse, achievable through various forms, including articles, books, videos, podcasts, and more. Thus, the starting point of the commercial ecosystem of Intelligenism is inevitably a distributed emergence of theories. Based on the understanding of Intelligenism’s theoretical framework and the author’s intentions, this book does not exclude new theoretical settings proposed by other individuals through different media. It can also be said that, while this book proposes Intelligenism, it is merely one neuron within the intelligent agent(intelligent network) of Intelligenism.