On symbiosis: the kami view is neither egalitarian sameness nor fixed hierarchy. It’s a bounded, heterarchical ecology with many stewards with different scopes that coordinate without a permanent apex. (Heterarchy = overlapping centers of competence; authority flows to where the problem lives.)
Egalitarianism would imply interchangeable agents. As capabilities grow, we’ll see a range of kami sizes: a steward for continental climate models won’t be the same as one for a local irrigation system. That’s diversity of scope, not inequality of standing.
Hierarchy would imply command. Boundedness prevents that: each kami is powerful only within its scope of care and is designed for “enough, not forever.” The river guardian has no mandate nor incentive to run the forest.
When scopes intersect, alignment is defined by civic care: Each kami maintain the relational health of their shared ecosystem at the speed of the garden. Larger systems may act as ephemeral conveners, but they don’t own the graph or set permanent policy. Coordination follows subsidiarity and federation: solve issues locally when possible; escalate via shared protocols when necessary. Meanwhile, procedural equality (the right to contest, audit, and exit) keeps the ecology plural rather than feudal.
On symbiosis: the kami view is neither egalitarian sameness nor fixed hierarchy. It’s a bounded, heterarchical ecology with many stewards with different scopes that coordinate without a permanent apex. (Heterarchy = overlapping centers of competence; authority flows to where the problem lives.)
Egalitarianism would imply interchangeable agents. As capabilities grow, we’ll see a range of kami sizes: a steward for continental climate models won’t be the same as one for a local irrigation system. That’s diversity of scope, not inequality of standing.
Hierarchy would imply command. Boundedness prevents that: each kami is powerful only within its scope of care and is designed for “enough, not forever.” The river guardian has no mandate nor incentive to run the forest.
When scopes intersect, alignment is defined by civic care: Each kami maintain the relational health of their shared ecosystem at the speed of the garden. Larger systems may act as ephemeral conveners, but they don’t own the graph or set permanent policy. Coordination follows subsidiarity and federation: solve issues locally when possible; escalate via shared protocols when necessary. Meanwhile, procedural equality (the right to contest, audit, and exit) keeps the ecology plural rather than feudal.