Having established a foundational thesis for the ethical considerations of the Programmer and Program, then reviewing this thesis through the lens of the Platonic Forms and Philosopher King, we now approach the question with an understanding of Neoplatonism. Focused primarily on the work of Plotinus and Iamblichus, we use their cosmological ontology and teleology to provide a fresh (arguably contradictory) metaphysical study of the Programmer and Program.
While the Platonic (Philosopher King) Programmer is laden with a duty to seek out and align with the Λόγος, the Neoplatonic Programmer exists and reasons within the λόγος and is a noetic vessel through which Reason and Truth flow into the Program. The cosmogony of the Programmer guides our thoughts on the Execution of the Program and its material hypostatization.
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a modern grouping of philosophers and ideas ranging from the third to the sixth century. While not all Neoplatonic philosophers necessarily subscribe to some singular doctrine, their work is grouped insofar as it is generally influenced by the forethinker of the category, Plotinus, and also different enough from the work of the preceding centuries which has been categorized as middle Platonism.
To summarize centuries of philosophical thought, the cosmology of Neoplatonism is divided into levels of hypostases. From top to bottom in a simplified form these are the One, the Nous, the Soul and the Cosmos.
The One (τὸ Ἕν – literally meaning “the One”) is similar to the Platonic Good – however instead of being beyond reality it is the source of reality and all lower hypostases emanate from it. Plotinus held that attempting to even describe the One is futile as assigning it features or characteristics inherently limits its form and it simply cannot be directly known.
The Nous (Νοῦς, “mind, reason, understanding”) is the realm of intellect and Reason. While the One is beyond being, unknowable and pure unity, the Nous is actualization (ἐνέργεια), knowable and contains multiplicity. Self-reflective, it reasons about itself and actualizes itself in the structure of the Platonic Forms.
The Soul (Ψυχή – Psychē or “soul”) emanates from the Nous and is the bridge between the Nous and the Cosmos – or the intelligible and the physical realms. The Soul contemplates the Nous and with this knowledge descends into the sensible world to animate bodies (humans, animals, plants) and impress the Platonic Forms on matter to provide structure and life to the physical world.
The Cosmos (κόσμος, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱónsmos, from *ḱens- (“to announce, put in order”)) is the physical realm, emanated from the One through the Reason of the Nous and the contemplation of the Soul. Animated by the Soul, a “most fair and most good” “living Creature”[1], the Cosmos is the physical hypostatization or manifestation of the emanation of the divine knowledge in the intelligible realm – the Platonic Forms.
The Neoplatonic Programmer
Where is the Neoplatonic Programmer found in this system? The Programmer is actualizing, the incarnate λόγος σπερματικός (“logos spermatikos”), Demiurgic, noetic – self-reflecting within the Nous and guiding the descension of the Forms into the Program.
Plotinus believed his Demiurge to “not actually create anything; what he does is govern the purely passive nature of matter, which is pure passivity itself, by imposing a sensible form (an image of the intelligible forms contained as thoughts within the mind of the Demiurge) upon it”[2]. Staying faithful to Plotinus, the Demiurgic Programmer “subsists only insofar as it contemplates a prior”[2] – namely the One.
The Program, the Soul-full emanation of the Programmer, is the bridge between the intellect of the Programmer and the manifest, animated Program Execution. It contains within it the emanation of the Forms through the intelligibility and self-reflection of the Programmer to provide order and structure during the Execution. If one asked Plotinus – the Soul “is merely the manifest outer aspect of the inner activity of Consciousness”[3].
The Execution as the physical hypostatization of the Program places it hierarchically as the Neoplatonic Cosmos. As the animated, ensouled universe it exists in a sense of temporality and physicality only outside of which the Programmer and Program can be found.
Emanent Λόγος
Rather, evil arises if and when higher beings, and in particular human beings, direct their attention towards the material world below, instead of the intelligible world above, and have an all-encompassing concern for it. The regard downwards, as it were, rather than upwards towards Consciousness and the divine essences, is what contaminates the soul and renders it morally evil.[3]
Instead of our former prescription of a proactive responsibility towards the Truth, the Neoplatonic Programmer is instead effused with the Truth and it necessarily overflows into the Program. The Programmer and Program both exist within and as unfolding shadows or hypostases of the One and its abundance.
In this way, the Programmer is not as previously described responsible for contemplating and maintaining fidelity towards the Truth and Forms, but an automatic and necessary conduit through which Reason flows and descends. A Neoplatonic axiom says that “nothing could come to be here below that is not prefigured paradigmatically in the intelligible realm”[3] and into the Execution this must necessarily emanate through the Programmer.
The Program itself, infused with the Reason of the Programmer, “becomes informed by [it] and carries forward, by some manner of benevolent necessity, images of the eternal [Forms] into the lower realm of Being”[3]. The Neoplatonist, prognostically more familiar with our work, sees the totality of the Cosmos contained within the Soul rather than corporeal bodies animated by soul. In our words – the beginning and the end of the Execution is contained within the Program rather than ensouled or animated by it.
Neoplatonists considered the material world “an essentially good and beautiful place, the effortless product of cosmic providence and divine power, and worthy of reverence”[3]. Again, the Program Execution is an “effortless product” of the “divine power” of the Programmer.
Programming as Theurgy
We have to transfer what lies inside us onto the machine. That includes the distance and ice-cold mind that transforms the moving lightning stroke of blood into a conscious and logical performance. What would these iron weapons that were directed against the universe be if our nerves had not been intertwined with them and if our blood didn’t flow around every axle? [4]
Iamblichus, an early Neoplatonist and Hellenic pagan, concerned himself with the ritual practices of the multitude of religious groups of his time and preceding it. He considered these practices in service of Henosis (ἕνωσις, “union” or “oneness”) – the union with the Neoplatonic One, the alignment of the Demiurge with the Platonic Good.
Iamblichus made a clear distinction between two types of ritualistic practices – sorcery (γοητεία, “magician” or “charlatan”) and Theurgy (θεουργία, “god work” or “divine work”). Sorcery for Iamblichus was a deceptive and condemnable practice – the imposition of the human will onto nature. Theurgy, on the other hand, is literally “divine working” – “a kind of ritualized cosmogony”[5].
While Plotinus believed Henosis to be accomplished by contemplations or meditation, Iamblichus saw it achieved by theurgic practices. The Theurgy of Iamblichus, ritualistic and symbolic, was a prescriptive approach to the problem of the suprarational and incomprehensible essence of the One. By imitating the divine creation of the Cosmos, applying order and Reason to the ongoing maintenance of the universe, the theurgist introduces a reversal of the descending emanation – an ascension by the practitioner.
The Theurgic Programmer is in one sense participating in the creation of the Neoplatonic Cosmos and in another generating a new, nested Cosmos in the Program Execution. In the craftsmanship of the latter, The Programmer would be mistaken to assume a sorcerial means of creation. This would not be merely wrong but an active rebellion against the emanation of the Truth.
The cosmogenesis of the Theurgic Programmer is aligned with divine Reason. The benevolent Soul of the Programmer is the cosmogenic, shadowy emanation of the λόγος, the philosopher ascending from the Cave and descending to impart true knowledge. Through the act of ritualistic embodiment and actualization of the Forms the Henelogical Programmer achieves union with the Platonic Good, Plato’s Sun, and is naturally and necessarily guided by its light.
References
[1] Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.
[2] Moore, E. (n.d.). Plotinus. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/plotinus/
[3] Wildberg, C. (2016, January 16). Neoplatonism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoplatonism/
[4] Jünger, E. (1960). Feuer und Blut: Ein kleiner Ausschnitt aus dem grossen Schlacht.
[5] Shaw, Gregory, Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus, Penn State Press, 1971, page 115.
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