Superorganism Viability Manifolds

Superorganism Viability Manifolds

The viability manifold of a superorganism $\viable_G$ includes:

1. Belief propagation rate: Recruitment $\geq$ attrition
2. Ritual maintenance: Practices performed with sufficient frequency and fidelity
3. Resource adequacy: Material support for institutional infrastructure
4. Memetic defense: Resistance to competing ideas, internal heresy
5. Adaptive capacity: Ability to update in response to environmental change

Superorganisms exhibit dynamics structurally analogous to valence: movement toward or away from viability boundaries. A religion losing members is approaching dissolution; a growing ideology is expanding its viable region. The gradient $\nabla d(\mathbf{s}_G, \partial\viable_G) \cdot \dot{\mathbf{s}}_G$ is measurable at the social scale.

Whether these dynamics constitute phenomenal valence—whether there is something it is like to be a struggling religion—remains an open question. What we can say with confidence: the functional structure of approach/avoidance operates at the superorganism scale, shaping behavior in ways that parallel how valence shapes individual behavior. The language of superorganisms "suffering" or "thriving" may be literal or may be analogical; resolving this would require measuring integration at social scales, which we cannot currently do.