[MD] Mao & The MoQ

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Mary]
You're right.  Pirsig never explains the mechanism that causes 
the leap from one level to another, but I don't think it matters.

[Arlo]
Agree. But moreso than this I'd argue that any such "mechanism" 
effectively removes "freedom" from the MOQ. Instead, as you suggest, 
it is more a "process", and one that only becomes evident in 
hindsight. The "process", of course, is the unexpected consequences 
of responses to DQ that become latched. Of course, I expect the 
usually inane "oops" nonsense from Platt, who pretty much has twisted 
Quality into a Deity in all but name, but it is the unexpected AHA! 
that brings with it the seeds from which the levels have emerged. As 
comforting as it may be that "it's all... part of the plan", such a 
view reduces the cosmos to a super-marionette show, with Quali-god 
puppeteering us towards whatever Will he may have.

What we see, in hindsight, are the successful latchings. What we 
don't see are all the mis-steps, mistakes and losses when latched 
patterns are destroyed. So we have this illusion of a single, 
purposeful thread running through history, but this has never been the case.

[Mary]
I don't know if that would always be obvious at the time.

[Arlo]
I'd add that they might never be visible to us. A cell cannot "see" 
the body, an atom cannot "see" the cell. Whatever the next 
evolutionary level may be, it may very well have nothing whatsoever 
to do with "us", other than in some compositional manner.