The Upside-Down Perspective
On this page you will find
- Lifents Defined
- List of Lifent Components
- Lifents vs Living Entity Perspectives
Defined:
A lifent (or vibrent*) is: An autonomous, self-perpetuating living or virtually-living entity which is fostered by humans or other living entities and dependent for its existence and continueance on humans or the fostering or hosting biological entities. (* see explanation at bottom of this page.)
Virtually living lifents and living entities interact within a shared biological habitat both cooperatively and in conflict with each other.
For example, once a plastic bottle comes into existence, it begins to interact with local and global biological habitats. Identifying the plastic bottle and its associated lifents as cohabitating with biological lifents helps us to see the ways in which plastic bottles are life predators and competitors. It is the same with all physical human inventions. Once they are created, they go on to exist as lifents within any number of biological habitats. From the lifent perspective, non-living lifents reproduce themselves just as biological lifents do. They reproduce more non-living entities, habitats, and conditions favorable to non-living entities. The waste that biological entities produce creates fertile conditions for more living entities. The waste of non-living lifents creates conditions favorable for non-living entities and environments.
Lifents is a concept of altering traditional perception. This alteration is based on its utility and practicality
This is a concept that came to me through various personal experiences. It’s hard to say when it first began to take form, but it was at least as far back as 1980. I found it to be increasingly useful. Over time, I have explored different ways it can be utilized and worked to articulate for myself and some friends what I discovered. Its validity as a perceptual lens and problem-solving tool is based on its effectiveness.
Lifent definition slightly elaborated
“Lifent” (a contraction of “life-entity”) is a term that classifies all human experiences, activities, thoughts, and inventions as well as all biologically defined entities and combinations of biologically-defined entities under one umbrella category. Lifents include all biological life entities, but with a broadening of the definition of what constitutes an entity. Lifents include traditionally-defined biological entities such as trees, flowers, insects, animals, and humans. The components of biological entities, such as cells, eyes, feet, arms, and lungs are also lifents. Additionally, all activities and experiences of the body and the brain and patterns related to these activities are lifents.
The lifent body expanded beyond the biological body
The term “lifent” expands the idea of an entity to include biological communities such as forests, colonies of bees, herds of animals, communities of plants, and the largest lifent of all: biological life on earth (BLE). Water bottle, due to its being connected to biological life, that is, human inventions, is a lifent. The complete body of water bottles includes everything necessary for the existence of perpetuation of that lifent.
All lifents display dynamic, life-like qualities.
The essential commonality of both living and virtually-living lifents is that, once they appear in the world, all lifents act like traditionally-defined, independent biological living entities. They are not static conglomerations or entities, but vibrant life entities. All lifents work to grow, thrive, reproduce, and otherwise defend and extend their existence as much as possible. This dynamic quality is a key aspect of the concept.
Herds are lifents
In a herd of animals each animal is a lifent and the herd itself is another lifent. A herd of elk behaves like a virtual organism protecting itself, sometimes seeming to sacrifice individual elk to predators for the good of the herd. The individual and herd both seem to act to protect themselves. If one distinguishes between the individual and the herd, one observes that even as the herd depends on individuals, some of its actions are at odds with the interests of individuals. The herd is one is lifent, the individual elk another lifent. The whole species is also a lifent. The individual elk is the actual biological entity and the others are virtually-living entities.
Human-related lifents
The same lifent configurations apply to humans as to other life forms. Each person is a lifent, as well as each body part.
Humans, however, are able to form more numerous and more complex connections to other lifents. For one thing, each of us can join many “herds” simultaneously. The ones we join are, also, generally more complex than the groupings of other animals. We can simultaneously be a football fan, a tennis player, an employee, and a volunteer at a local organization. Our connections to these larger entities are frequently based on our ability to form abstract concepts and connections that do not always require our physical presence. Nonetheless, I propose that all of these connections are lifents and display many characteristics in common with biological entities.
The Complete Body of a Lifent
An elk is a lifent as traditionally defined by its biological body. With the concept of lifents, however, we are able to identified numerous lifent body associated with one biologically defined entity. The concept of lifents expands the definition of an elk beyond its biological body. An elk in the “wild” is a different lifent from the elk in a zoo. The complete lifent body of an elk includes all that it depends on biologically and all that it interacts with in a significant way. The biological body of an elk is an incompletely defined lifent when thinking of its life in the “wild”. On the other hand the biologically defined elk body is a legitimate lifent for veterinary medicine purposes.
Lifents brings you the upside-down perspective.
The concept of lifents allows for right-side-up and upside-down perspectives. For example, people have created and make use of words. That is true. That is the right-side-up perspective. Once created, however, words gain independence from their creator. They are dependent on humans to exist. However, any individual human is expendable. Once launched into the world, you could say that a word takes on an independent quest, which is to find people to adopt it for use. This is the upside-down perspective. The people who adopt it will use the word in ways the creator imagined, but will also change it in subtle or not so subtle ways. Of course, it doesn’t actually take on a quest in the way that animals and humans do, but one can effectively describe its existence as a system of bartering. The word presents an offer, “I want to continue to exist by having you incorporate me as part of your vocabulary. My part of the deal is to be a useful word to you. In this way you help me to continue to exist. Is it a deal?” The person who incorporates the word for its usefulness accepts the deal. The word, therefore, survives and grows. This is absurd, you might say. I understand why you might say that, but this seemingly absurd perspective is actually quite useful.
List of lifent components:
This list is not necessarily self-explanatory. The book, which can be purchased through the link in the Resources page, describes these components in detail. However, I will reference and explain relevant components on the list as I create posts. The list itself should help you get an idea of the complexity of even small lifents. Not all components apply to every lifent. This list is incomplete.
Complexity
Integrity: Consistency of identity
Internally consistent make-up
Private persona – internal dialogue about one’s own identity
Public persona – internal dialogue about one’s public identity
Appearance
Belief about how one appears to others
Belief about how one thinks others ought to see one
How one actually appears to others
Power- Accessing and utilizing connection components
Emotional connection
Logical connections
Connection to lifent meanings
Connection to lifent trance-states
Connection by providing pleasure to the other
Connection by providing a means to avoid pain
Connection by sustenance to the other
Connection for the survival of the other
Connection by good fit with a person’s lifent community
Connection by good fit with peer group’s trance-state(s)
Expansion/growth mechanisms
Attractiveness to make enhancing or needed connections
Flexibility
Adaptability
Components that can serve as connection to other lifents
Survival mechanisms
Defensive mechanisms
The Justification Lifent
Because Lifents
Offensive mechanisms
Survival and Growth by Threatening the Health and Safety of the other for Failure to Comply with Demands
Survival and Growth by Restricting Access to Needed Resources
Self-strengthening mechanisms
Protection by Being a Pet
Joining mechanisms
Human Lifent Joining Components
Means of spreading
Growth
Reproduction
Flowering/ pollination (attracting the pollinator)
Waste elimination
Moving forward and discarding what is not longer needed
Eliminating that which is unhealthy for us or our lifent
Moving what is no longer needed into a different habitat
Living Entity and Lifent Perspectives Compared
From the living entity perspective we separate what is living and what is not alive in the following categories:
People are alive.
Animals are alive.
Plants are alive.
Plants and animals consist of cells and distinct body parts which are alive.
Bacteria, viruses, and cells are alive.
Thoughts, feelings, actions, and beliefs are activities and characteristics of the person. They are not living entities.
Consciousness is not a living entity. It is an ability humans have that allows them to observe and direct their own destinies.
Rocks, minerals, dirt, air, fire, and water are not alive
The above categorization of living entities helps us to make order out of our world and act effectively in the world. We know that the science of biology applies to living things. We use other sciences and principles to understand other aspects of our lives and our world. Psychology helps us think about emotions, stress, and consciousness. The laws of physics apply to all living and non-living physical entities and so on.
The lifent perspective: In the lifent view, these categories are altered. All living entities are categorized as lifents. Additionally many non-living entities are included under the lifent umbrella as follows:
Animals are lifents.
Plants are lifents.
Plants and animals consist of cells and distinct body parts which are alive and therefore are lifents.
Bacteria, viruses, and cells are lifents.
Additionally, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, behaviors, and patterns of behaviors are also lifents.
Life entities that interact with a common purpose or in coordination with one another will form a larger lifent. A couple is a lifent. A football team is a lifent. A hive of bees is a lifent.
Consciousness is a lifent.
Rocks, minerals, dirt, air, fire, water, etc. are not lifents.
Rocks, minerals, dirt, and other non-living materials can become incorporated as body parts of lifents just as water is a part of the body of most biological living things.
How to use the lifent perspective
Using the lifent lens we can perceive different relationships amongst various lifents. For example, if we were to take an inventory of lifent species existing in a public conservation area, it would include all of the biological entities of a typical inventory. However, it would also include the people and their behavior patterns, littering or mindful trash disposal, and overall behavior patterns that are both supportive and challenging to the biological communities of the area. Additionally, the relationship of such things as the conservation organization, the public, laws that protect and put the area at risk, individualism and community mindedness, etc. could be on the inventory. The existence of powerful global or local entities that could disrupt the area might also be present. The inventory could note the likelihood of lifent species in the area such as non-private-property restricted animals, plants, and other organisms and non-private-property restricted non-living components of the air and water, (such as plastic bags and chemicals). The prevelance of things carried in, whether intentionally or not, would also be a part of the lifent species count within that habitat.
Vibrent?
I have used the terms “vibrent” and “lifent” interchangeably over time. The book in the reference section refers to these entities as “vibrents”, a contraction of the phrase “vibrant life-entities”. That term, in my mind, put greater emphasis on the dynamic qualities these entities. I have now switched back to “lifent” (a contraction of the phrase “life entity”) as a term to emphasize the life and virtual-living characteristics of these entities.