[[Home]] >[!info]- >This article is about the relationship between Ancestor & Integral - where we are the same, where we differ, etc. You can read more about why I have designed Ancestor the the way it is here, in [[System Design Objectives]]. The Ancestor Culture is a practical application of [[Ken Wilber]]'s [[Integral Theory]]. Integral Theory is intentionally designed to be "content free," that is, to point at the most fundamental aspects of reality without picking one notation to measure it. This would be like saying, "The concept of temperature is fundamental to the physical world" but allowing any notation - i.e. Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin - to measure it in practice. So, for example, Wilber never specifies an explicit list of [[Lines]] ([[Intelligences]]) we have, or possible [[Archetypes]] ([[Types 1]]) we can inhabit, etc. He simply says multiple intelligences and personality types exist, and must be considered when trying to understand someone in any "Integral" approach. He leaves the specific notation we choose to use in practice, wether it be [[Howard Gardener's Frames of Mind]] for the intelligences or [[The Enneagram]] for the types, up to us. I believe this is a good design choice for Integral Theory, given its goals to maximize credibility by showing how Integral can "[[Transcend and Include]]" as many other theories as possible to encourage cross-partisan adoption. However, if we want to move from the theoretical to the practical, that is, to build a living culture and built environment based on the System, we need to decide on a single notation to use. We have to build a certain number of physical temples for the Archetypes, have a culturally agreed upon number of expected rites of passage through the [[Stages]], etc. We need one system that is universally understood so we can build physical spaces, holidays, rituals, etc around it. There is a reason the borders of modern nation states mainly follow language lines - people using similar systems of signification resonate. This is the reason for Ancestor's use of a explicit number of Levels, Lines, States, and Types, in contrast to Integral's "content-free" approach, which is the first big difference between the two systems. The next major difference is the association of the 4 Elements, Levels, Lines, States, and Types, which each other and 7 distinct evolutionary tiers. Wilber associates the Levels with evolutionary tiers across the [[Four Quadrants]] but does not do so for the other 3 elements. More coming to this article soon...