The Puppet Algorithm

How Humanity’s Formula for Truth Was Twisted to Serve Power

The most effective conspiracy of the modern age is convincing man to cut off coherence at the ontological level. Humans instinctively know that coherence is the bedrock of truth. In everyday life, we rely on it in science, in math, in conversation, in building bridges, in raising children. If something contradicts itself, we throw it out. If an explanation cannot remain consistent, we recognize it as false. Truth requires coherence as its prerequisite, and without truth, we cannot claim to know anything at all.

Yet, coherence is honored everywhere except where it matters most. When it comes to the foundation, the state of being itself, coherence is abandoned. Society teaches us to apply consistency to small matters but to recoil from applying it to existence itself. The result is that our greatest right, the right to be, is never secured. Instead, we are offered dazzling but hollow promises about human rights that sound noble but rest on nothing. What good are human rights if existential rights are not recognized first?

In fact, what is often sold as liberation is merely a downgrade in disguise. Again and again, throughout history, people have been persuaded to trade what is of highest value for a cheaper substitute. The unassuming are told by the powerful that coherence over being is too abstract, too weighty, too unnecessary. They are instructed instead to reduce the ground of value from existence itself to lesser forms, namely, the merely human state. The propaganda is persuasive because it appeals to emotion, not reason. It tells you what you want to hear, what is convenient, rather than what is objectively true. It is like trading in the consistent sun for lightbulbs that provide light on demand but lack the consistency. And so, coherence over being was traded for coherence over “man.” Man, apex of creation, yet as vulnerable in being as a simple pebble.

This was not a one-time occurrence. It repeats across eras. The Enlightenment itself did not invent equality but piggybacked off this downgrade. Coherence over being, once recognized as the gold standard, was slowly recast as a needless burden, or worse, manipulated as if it were a tool of control, so that people would willingly trade it for a cheaper, more manageable substitute. Once coherence over being had been successfully swapped out for coherence on the basis of man, it became possible to write stirring declarations that “all men are created equal” while quietly severing the anchor that already made all men equal because it makes equality objectively real. Coherence was retained just enough to build systems, to form labor forces, to keep people useful. But the true anchor, coherence at the level of being, was presented as optional, empirically unprovable, even frivolous, a philosophical indulgence for dreamers.

The result is a population that knows how to follow rules of logic in limited domains but lacks the grounding to apply those same rules with conviction to protect their own being and the being of others. When gaslit, when pressured, when confronted by power, they cannot appeal to the one standard that cannot be bent, the recognition that existence itself is contingent, that nothing, no person, no place, no idea has authored their own being, and therefore nothing, no person, no place, no idea in the universe has the right to dictate who may or may not exist. Coherence at the ontological level builds not just arguments but the human psyche itself, the ability to be genuinely brave, to feel authentically, and to speak with conviction. Without it, people become pliable.

Modern discourse even advertises this disconnection. We are encouraged, at length, to never think about coherence in relation to being. “Focus on your feelings, your identity, your consumption, your rights as a citizen, but don’t look deeper.” And when it is too late, when one finds oneself chosen for exclusion, one cannot find the voice to push back against the machine. One cannot point out that the powerful are no less contingent in their existence than anyone else, that their power does not negate their dependence, and therefore they have no authority to revoke another’s right to be. The right to exist can only be forfeited when one has violated the sacred state of existence itself. And time and again, it is those in power who are first to violate being, especially when they persuade the common man into mistaking rootless philosophy for truth; a framework that, on its own, cannot secure coherence.

In every day life, all true markers of coherence remain outside the circle they secure. Consider a ruler, it defines length, but it isn’t measured by itself. Or a clock, it keeps time for everything else, yet it doesn’t depend on any one event to tick. Or traffic lights, they regulate movement at intersections, but they don’t move with the cars, they stand apart to make order possible.

This is not just analogy, it’s what Gödel’s incompleteness theorems explicitly define as universal law. No sufficiently complex system can fully validate itself from within, there must always exist a reference point outside the system to secure consistency. Authority that tries to reside entirely inside its own circle cannot guarantee coherence, because it lacks the external perspective necessary to enforce universal order.

Therefore, the only way to safeguard being itself is an anchor that never enters the circle it secures. To ensure coherence infinitely, the standard must remain outside of existence, beyond the universe, beyond the universal set. If the anchor were inside, it would be contingent like everything else, unable to hold. But because it stands apart, transcendent, it ensures that coherence is not temporary, not selective, but infinitely attainable in every circumstance.

For this anchor to succeed, it must meet strict criteria:

• Unity — It cannot be divided into competing parts, or coherence would fragment.

• Singularity — It must be the single, ultimate reference point; two absolutes would collapse into contradiction.

• Indivisibility — It cannot be composed of contingent pieces, or it would inherit their fragility.

• Impartiality — It must stand above bias, preference, or partiality, ensuring that coherence applies universally.

• Constancy — It must be unchanging, so that truth and rights are not at the mercy of shifting conditions.

These criteria are not arbitrary; they are the only way coherence can be upheld without end. If any of these criteria were violated, the anchor would fail to secure coherence. Without unity, the system fragments, like a ruler with inconsistent markings; measurements become meaningless. Without singularity, two “ultimate” references collide, like a clock claiming two different times are simultaneously correct. Without indivisibility, the anchor inherits the fragility of its parts, like a traffic light system where a single malfunction causes chaos at an intersection, the core rules must remain intact. Without impartiality, coherence is applied unevenly, privileging some while disadvantaging others. And without constancy, the anchor fluctuates unpredictably, like a clock that randomly speeds up or slows down, destabilizing planning, trust, and fairness. Each criterion is indispensable; violating any one undermines the anchor’s ability to maintain universal, objective coherence. Only such a transcendent, objective anchor can secure rights at the highest level, rights that begin at the state of being itself, and nothing less.

Yet the powerful resist this recognition precisely because it liberates the individual from their control. If one knows that their right to exist is secured at the ontological level, no rhetoric, no propaganda, no law, and no weapon can strip it away. Coherence at being undermines every false claim to authority. Thus, the propaganda continues: reduce rights to superficial attributes, appeal to emotion and convenience, dazzle with words, and keep the true standard hidden.

And so coherence itself becomes a tool for power. Honored in science, technology, and law, it builds strong labor forces, useful citizens, and orderly societies. But abandoned at the foundation, it allows the powerful to dispose of those same people when they are no longer useful. In this way, coherence is both upheld and betrayed. It is honored in practice, while denied in principle, leaving the majority both functional and vulnerable.

The question that remains is simple, will man continue to trade the irreplaceable for the imitation? Without coherence at the level of being, every other right is temporary, contingent not on truth, but on power. And power, when unchecked by reality, always consumes.