dances of dofference — numbers of life? although the patterns must be inherently obvious there are similarities between the situation of a dissociated being thinking of their own disorder, and the situation of a surveilled target planning around their surveillance. one of these similarities is that the nature of how the problem is engaged, changes the nature of the problem, and that this happens in ways that are a function of the interacting parts of the problem. they are the changing solutions to expressions of recursive logic, where the logic involves the behaviors, choices, values, emotions, and skills of those involved. this situation of solving a problem that involves one’s own process of solving it can seem confounding, but can be simplified with analysis by parties not involved. the analysis shows a tree of interactive behaviors, depending on the choices, observations, and speeds of the parts. key points of these trees are for example when information flows from an observed decision making process to a system that acts to change the nature of things and the decisions that need to be made. these key points of pattern change are present in more normal feedback systems as well. one could cast the entire evolution of life, as systems that respond to each other in larger environments, engaging crux points of change, small or large. it is notable that there has been mutual observation for the entirety of the evolution of intelligence. and major crux points have likely made major change, such as whether smaller organisms collect together into larger ones, or eradicate one another, or evolve one trait rather than another, or form a symbiotic relationship. some points — people must have some gut sense of these patterns — but further, must there be inherent ways in which these patterns produce what is good? —