Yet the hill we inhabit is only one amongst the thousands dotted across our landscape. Sadly with our poor vision we often cannot see another hill, even if higher, we are stuck on our local optima, our choices seem limited, we have no way out. We need a technique to jump across the valleys and cling to a higher hill, a new quantum leap in our lifestyle. It is here we can ascend using our unreality bubble, we can stand back from our world and look through fresh eyes, seeing new possibilities all round. This combination of gradual improvement and sudden jumps pervades all evolutionary systems, from immune systems to galaxies, with society very firmly in the middle. At any time the landscape is what is known as a phase portrait, a snapshot of the possibilities currently open to us, but this is over simplistic, we have taken no account of time.
Viewing the world as static is a serious mistake. The height of the fitness hill I am climbing depends upon the decisions made by all around me, and as I make decisions and move around state space so do they. Their actions change the shape of my landscape and my actions change theirs. There is not a single landscape for all, but a separate one for every individual, animal, plant and object. All are interlinked, they co-evolve. We can view our landscape as undergoing constant earthquakes, the hills and valleys change size and places depending upon perturbations due to the actions of others. Our reality is not a fixed place, but a dynamic seething ecosystem where our every action affects everyone else in some way and their actions affect us also.