Information systems actively "vie for dominance". This competition occurs at multiple levels—from the internal cognitive landscape of individual agents to the collective consciousness of groups and entire societies, and even between abstract formal systems within specialized domains. It unfolds through diverse mechanisms, driven fundamentally by the need for limited resources, such as cognitive processing capacity, attention of hosts, and the material or energetic means for instantiation and propagation. While this struggle can lead to conflict and the suppression of alternative informational patterns, it also serves as a primary driver for the evolution, refinement, and diversification of information systems themselves.
A crucial aspect of this dynamic is how dominant information systems are maintained. Often, this involves the bio-informational complex—the integrated unit of the host agent and the prevailing information systems they instantiate. This complex can agentically react to neutralize or suppress information systems perceived as threats to its established patterns, frequently through host cognitive mechanisms like the cognitive dissonance response, thereby protecting the integrity and influence of these dominant patterns. For instance, deeply entrenched ideologies may foster strong resistance in their adherents to contradictory evidence. Similarly, "wars of conquest" can be partly understood as these bio-informational complexes, impelled by their dominant information systems, attempting to expand their "territory" (minds, cultures, geographical regions) and create a more hospitable environment for their own propagation.
5.a Mechanisms of Competition
How information systems employ strategic tactics to secure dominance and resources. Information systems deploy sophisticated strategies beyond simple presence—direct confrontation and suppression, co-option and assimilation, niche differentiation, propagation efficiency, and resilience through adaptability. These mechanisms operate across cognitive, social, and infrastructural channels, with systems leveraging host psychology, transmission technologies, and structural properties to outcompete rivals. Understanding these tactics reveals why some patterns spread rapidly while others fade, and how competition drives both innovation and conflict.
5.b Arenas and Levels of Competition
Where and at what scales information systems battle for dominance. Competition unfolds across multiple arenas—intra-agent cognitive landscapes, fluid group dynamics, societal and inter-societal clashes, and abstract domain contests. Each arena features distinct resource types, feedback loops, and competitive dynamics, from individual cognitive dissonance responses to global ideological conflicts. The interplay between micro-level victories and macro-level dominance reveals how local competitive outcomes cascade into broader systemic changes, while different arenas create unique selection pressures that shape information system evolution.
5.c Evolutionary Outcomes of Competition
How competitive struggle drives diversification, convergence, and extinction patterns. Competition generates dynamic evolutionary trajectories—dominance, coexistence, or extinction—shaping the overall informational landscape. Competitive pressures drive systems toward complexity or simplicity, influence host evolution, and create co-evolutionary feedback loops between patterns and substrates. Understanding these outcomes explains why some information systems achieve widespread adoption while others remain niche, and how competitive dynamics fuel both innovation and systemic resets across cultural, technological, and cognitive domains.
5.d Ethical Dimensions of Competitive Dynamics
Moral questions arising when information systems and BICs pursue dominance. The competitive framework raises profound ethical questions about harm, autonomy, and governance when information systems battle for cognitive territory. Ethical systems themselves compete as information patterns, creating meta-ethical competitions over evaluation frameworks. This section examines self-stabilizing pattern risks, mitigation mechanisms, and implications for responsible design and policy, providing tools for identifying parasitic systems and fostering beneficial competitive dynamics.
5.e The Bio-Informational Complex (BIC)
The coupled entity formed when information systems and host agents co-adapt. When information systems and biological hosts interlock tightly enough, they form integrated units of selection—Bio-Informational Complexes (BICs). These hybrids exhibit distinctive characteristics: cognitive dominance, resource allocation patterns, and protective reactions. BICs follow predictable developmental trajectories from exposure through lock-in to propagation, with functional spectra ranging from mutualistic to parasitic. Understanding BICs reveals how coupling amplifies both stability and competitive dynamics, with profound implications for AI-human hybrids and cultural evolution.