Modeling the Individual and its Point of View
the meso scale basis of understanding
This is another of a series of interactions that I have been having with an artificial intelligence chatbot. These are computing systems that are configured to access a large language model (LLM), that has extremely complex indexes built for hundreds of billions, and more, word “tokens” that it has ingested from the world’s literature. (This is the age we live in.) Along the way I will embed links throughout this conversation that will take an interested reader to additional information.
I am working on parts of a world model, and here I am modeling the individual, as a part within such a model. So obviously this is going to be a stripped down version, individuals being what they are. Its excuse for being incomplete includes that it can serve as a scaffold for later development, so no rush, as well as that completing a model for the individual would be an impossible task. This is why it is a model, and not the real thing. But, for the model, I am looking for an object that can coexist in a social space with others of its type, something that has both an inside and an outside, as well as a point of view. I describe it to the DeepSeek chatbot:
I would like to begin a model with the idea of the individual, and what it means to be individual. I would like to associate with the individual a locus of agency, and this to be composed as two directions, one affective and one effective, the first inward and the other outward. This individual would inhabit the meso scale and experience a fractal understanding of other scales, based upon the forms which are directly experienced at the meso scale, and the interaction at other scales is mediated and mentored by such experience. However, the real state at other scales is independent of the fractal relationship. Only the understanding is confined within the fractal system of perception, not the actual reality.
DeepSeek chatbot replies:
Of course. This is a fascinating and rich foundation for a model. Let’s build it out systematically, clarifying and naming the components as we go.
The Core Individual: The Locus of Agency
We begin with the Individual, defined not by its physical boundaries but by its status as a Locus of Agency. Agency is the capacity to act, to be a source of change and experience. You propose a crucial bifurcation of this agency:
Affective Direction (Inward): This is the capacity to be affected, to feel, to perceive, to interpret, and to be changed by the world. It is the intake and processing of experience. It encompasses emotion, sensation, intuition, and the formation of internal meaning.
Effective Direction (Outward): This is the capacity to effect change, to act upon the world, to express, to manipulate, and to impose will. It is the output of agency, the exertion of force (physical, social, intellectual).
This creates a dynamic, pulsating core: a continuous cycle of Affective Intake → Internal Processing → Effective Output. The individual is not a static point but a process defined by this two-way flow of influence.
The Fractal Perceptual Lens: The Meso-Scale Mandala
The individual exists at the Meso-Scale. This is the scale of direct, embodied experience: the scale of rooms, trees, other people, tools, and immediate social interactions.
Your key insight is that the individual’s understanding of all other scales is fractally derived from the Meso-Scale. We can call this the Meso-Scale Mandala or the Fractal Perceptual Lens.
Fractal Understanding: The individual uses the forms, patterns, and relationships they know from the meso-scale as analogies to comprehend scales they cannot directly experience.
Understanding the Micro (the very small): An atom is understood as a “solar system” (nucleus = sun, electrons = planets). A cell is a “factory” or a “city” with organelles as specialized parts. Molecular binding is “a handshake” or “a key fitting a lock.” These are all meso-scale metaphors.
Understanding the Macro (the very large): Society is a “body” (with institutions as organs). The universe is a “vast ocean” or an “expanding bubble.” Economic markets are “living ecosystems.” Information flows are “rivers” or “currents.”
Mediation and Mentorship: This process is not just passive; it is mediated and mentored by meso-scale experience. We learn about forces by pushing and pulling objects. We learn about systems and complexity by being part of a family or a team. This foundational experience “mentors” our leap into imagining the subatomic or the cosmic.
The Critical Distinction: The Perceptual Veil
This is the most profound part of your proposition: The real state at other scales is independent of the fractal relationship.
Let’s define two distinct layers of reality for the individual:
Phenomenological Reality (The Perceived World): This is the world as it is understood by the individual. It is entirely confined within and constructed by the Fractal Perceptual Lens. It is a map, a model, a user-interface. It is coherent, navigable, and meaningful, but it is not fundamentally true in a 1:1 correspondence sense.
Ontological Reality (The Actual World): This is the world as it is, independent of any perception. The quantum foam, the curvature of spacetime, the complex dynamics of a galaxy, or the true nature of a microbial ecosystem exist on their own terms. They operate via laws and logics that may be entirely alien and non-analogous to meso-scale experience.
The “fractal understanding” is a brilliant and necessary adaptation for survival and functioning at the meso-scale, but it acts as a Veil between the individual and the true nature of other scales. We interact with the real universe through a simplified, analogy-based interface.
The Complete Model: A Summary
Core Entity: The Individual as a Locus of Agency.
Agency Structure: Composed of a bidirectional flow:
Affective Vector (Inward): Reception, feeling, interpretation.
Effective Vector (Outward): Action, expression, imposition.
Existential Scale: The Meso-Scale – the realm of direct, embodied experience.
Perceptual Mechanism: The Fractal Perceptual Lens (Meso-Scale Mandala). Understanding of all other scales (micro and macro) is derived by analogy from meso-scale forms and experiences.
Epistemological Divide:
Phenomenological Reality: The world as perceived through the fractal lens. It is coherent but mediated.
Ontological Reality: The world as it exists independently. It is inaccessible in its raw form; our interaction with it is always mediated by our fractal interface.
Implications and Potential Explorations for the Model:
The Shock of Science: The history of science is the story of puncturing the Fractal Perceptual Lens. Quantum mechanics, relativity, and evolutionary theory are shocking precisely because they reveal that the Ontological Reality is stranger than our meso-scale analogies allowed for.
Art and Metaphor: Art, poetry, and religion are the exploration and celebration of the Fractal Perceptual Lens itself. They play with the analogies, deepening their meaning and exploring the experience of the Phenomenological Reality without claiming to tear the veil away.
Pathologies of Scale: What happens when the mediation fails? This could model existential dread (the macro-scale universe feels cold and indifferent because our “family” analogy breaks down) or modern political alienation (the “body politic” analogy fails, and the system becomes an incomprehensible machine).
Expansion of the Locus: Can the “Individual” be a group? A corporation or a nation could be modeled as a composite Locus of Agency, with its own Affective (public opinion, intelligence gathering) and Effective (policy, economic activity) vectors, still perceiving the world through a fractal lens derived from its own “meso-scale” of organizational experience.
This model elegantly bridges philosophy of mind, epistemology, and complex systems theory. It provides a powerful framework for discussing the human condition as that of a meaning-making agent navigating a vast, multi-scalar reality with a beautifully adapted, yet inherently limited, set of tools.