THE URANTIA BOOK: A COSMIC PERSPECTIVE

Reflectivity — A Communication Network

Then we encounter something even more interesting. Reflectivity. Paper 17 describes forty-nine Reflective Spirits—seven types represented within each of the seven superuniverses. Their function is connected with the transmission and coordination of universe intelligence. Now we have: 7 × 7 = 49

But again, the number is not the important part by itself. Look at what the structure is doing. Each superuniverse receives the full sevenfold set. That means each major region contains access to the complete differentiated pattern. This is very close to what we would call distributed replication of functional capability. The whole sevenfold set is represented locally.

So instead of: one central system doing everything we get: central pattern ↓ distributed complete functional set ↓ regional operation That is a much more scalable architecture.

Information Has to Move

This is where the software distinction becomes unavoidable. Once a system is distributed, information becomes a problem. How does one region know what is happening somewhere else? How does administration coordinate enormous distances? How does a higher layer receive information from lower layers? How does a local condition become available to a larger system?

Paper 17's reflectivity architecture begins addressing exactly that kind of problem.

We now have a universe with something resembling: data acquisition transmission reflection coordination executive response That is no longer simply cosmic geography. That is information architecture.

Local Instances of a Larger Pattern

Paper 17 also introduces the Local Universe Creative Spirits. Their development is connected to the Creator Sons, and they become differentiated for service within individual local universes. The Paper describes a progression through preparation, differentiation, physical creation and eventually life-creation activity.

Once again, central capability becomes localized. The pattern is: UNIVERSAL CAPABILITY
↓
DIFFERENTIATION
↓
LOCAL INSTANCE
↓
SPECIALIZED OPERATION That is one of the most important principles in scalable software.

You do not make every request travel all the way back to the deepest core. You distribute capability closer to where it is needed. And the deeper we move into these Papers, the more often that principle appears.

Hardware and Software Are Connected by Circuits

We can now see why Paper 15 had to come first. The software cannot operate without the hardware. The superuniverses provide domains. The headquarters provide nodes. The architectural worlds provide infrastructure. Movement and standardized time provide synchronization. Circuits provide communication pathways.

Then Papers 16 and 17 populate those pathways with differentiated functions.

So the transition is: PHYSICAL STRUCTURE
↓
DOMAIN ORGANIZATION
↓
CIRCUITS
↓
FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENTIATION
↓
COMMUNICATION
↓
COORDINATION
↓
EXECUTION That is the beginning of an operating system.

12–60–7 Is Becoming Operational

And now our framework becomes much easier to see. Earlier we found: 12 — STRUCTURE The maximum architecture provides the field in which operation can occur. Then: 60 — MOVEMENT / TIME The structure moves, cycles, circulates and maintains sequence.

Now: 7 — PROCESS And Papers 15–17 repeatedly place seven exactly where process becomes visible: seven administrative levels seven nested movements in the Orvonton description seven superuniverse circuits seven Master Spirits seven associative expressions of three Sources seven superuniverse operational divisions seven Supreme Spirit groups seven Supreme Executives seven types of Reflective Spirits sevenfold functional sets distributed through the system

The important point is not the quantity of sevens. It is their location in the architecture.

They appear where things are being: organized transformed communicated administered executed coordinated distributed That is process.

The Twelve Harmonic Laws Are Still Underneath It

The hardware-to-software transition does not leave the Twelve Harmonic Laws behind. It actually shows us what happens after structure forms. Unity differentiates. Differentiated components enter relationship. Relationships produce specialized functions. Those functions become organized. Organized functions form larger systems. Those systems develop capabilities unavailable to isolated components. Then the larger system can coordinate its components as a whole.

We can see that progression in these Papers: ONE GRAND UNIVERSE
↓
SEVEN DIFFERENTIATED DOMAINS
↓
SEVEN DIFFERENTIATED MASTER SPIRITS
↓
SPECIALIZED CIRCUITS
↓
EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS
↓
REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION
↓
LOCALIZED OPERATION
↓
COORDINATED WHOLE

The Harmonic Laws described how increasingly complex organization could emerge. Now The Urantia Book is beginning to show us what that organization looks like when it starts doing work.