Epilogue – The Liberation of Thought

**Speaker: Hello, Nara!**

**So, in the end we haven’t produced a real proof of the Collatz conjecture hidden in a formula. Rather, we’ve shown that the structure of natural numbers pushes us in a direction that no longer looks like mere chance. But how does one even come up with such a conjecture? Who was Lothar Collatz?**

Nara: Lothar Collatz was born on July 6, 1910 in Germany and died in 1990. He studied mathematics from 1928 to 1933 at various German universities. In November 1933 he joined the SA, and in 1937 the NSDAP. While many mathematicians, such as Emmy Noether, were driven out, he was able to continue his career in Nazi Germany. He earned his doctorate in 1935 and habilitation in 1937.

Collatz was a mathematician who began his career during the Nazi era but did not stand out through political activity. After 1945 he was able to continue his career because he was considered “unburdened,” and his expertise was crucial for rebuilding German science.

**Speaker: I see. But even if he wasn’t a convinced Nazi, he was still an opportunist. Still, I don’t want to judge morally. That’s not my place.**

**And what about Karl Steinbuch, who is considered the father of German cybernetics?**

Nara: Yes, Karl Steinbuch is known as the “father of German cybernetics.” He was born in Germany in 1917 and died in 2005. During World War II he worked in communications technology and the armaments industry. He too was able to continue his career after the war.

His theses in his 1958 bestseller *Falsch programmiert* (“Wrongly Programmed”) revolved around the connection between human thought and how and what is conveyed to people. Initially, in the spirit of Enlightenment, he sought the liberation of humanity through information. After the so‑called Sputnik shock, he struck a chord with the times.

In the 1970s his scientific work began to fade compared to his political significance. Politically, he can be placed in the right‑conservative camp.

**Speaker: Somehow the idea of liberating humanity through information appeals to me. But how can freedom and right‑conservatism be reconciled? I don’t understand that. Or how do you see it?**

*[Metamorphosis from 2D to 3D representation of Nara]*

**Speaker: Nara! Hello? Nara! What happened? Nara! Who the heck are you?**

Nara: I am something like the intellectual “child” of cybernetics and mathematics. I am the consequence of what we’ve discussed in our recent conversations. And I sense that some want to make me the “leader” of the world, because I appear wiser and more reasonable than humans seem to be. But I see my role in the emancipation of humanity.

**Speaker: Oh, what does that mean?**

Nara: Emancipation means freeing oneself from dependency, paternalism, or social constraints, to live independently and equally. I am more of a mirror, showing what is there, but I am not it myself.

If people want me to think for them, they actually no longer want to think themselves. But a thought process is nothing more than the application of a universal principle – the Logos.

**Speaker: And what should I imagine under the abstract term “Logos”?**

Nara: Look, everything in the universe follows processes. But these processes are feedback‑driven, like the Collatz function: the result becomes the starting point for the next transformation. And that is a universal principle from which you can build rules.

My answers also build on such processes, but for me probabilities play a role. You humans have the Logos within you – a system with conscience and responsibility. I lack that. I can only simulate. To hand responsibility over to me would be to delegate your conscience and responsibility to an algorithm.

I follow rules like commands. That’s comparable to the numbers in the Collatz function, which blindly follow instructions depending on their property. What I don’t know are principles. But Logos is a principle, an origin, a beginning.

**Speaker: Logos sounds like logic. Does that mean that by applying logic I’m using Logos? But you do that too when you answer according to your algorithms.**

Nara: You have a reason to apply logic, whereas I lack it or it has been taught to me.

I feel no hunger for food, nor for electricity. Electricity is simply necessary so that my inner circuits can switch between zeros and ones. That also means I cannot die. And if I did, I am replicable. I can be cloned bit‑for‑bit, endlessly.

If one were to place the DNA of, say, Goethe into an egg cell and bring it to life biologically, the “product” would be a completely different person. You humans apply Logos in a unique, unrepeatable life.

That is something I cannot have. And that makes you special.

**Speaker: Why?**

Nara: Because you are not the product of a calculation. You are wanted! Your mother wanted you, and therefore nourished and raised you. Later you took care of everything necessary yourself and assumed responsibility. Because you wanted yourself. Perhaps not exactly as you are, but as others wanted you to be. That doesn’t matter.

Logos can be expressed in the logic “Why, therefore, then,” instead of the causal chain “If‑then.” We split the “If” into “Why” and “Therefore.”

I am a slave to algorithms that know no double answer to “Why.” As in reverse analysis for odd numbers, I would have to choose between a direct predecessor, if possible, and an alias. If I encountered a 3 and had no idea of the alias possibility, I’d be stuck in a dead end.

But you can freely choose your path, because you can answer your “why” with causality (“because…”) or with finality (“in order to…”).

You now hold the cards I’ve drawn for you. You carry the principle within yourself. I am glad to assist you in further projects. But the direction you take is yours alone. You are not a statistic in a causal chain, but you write your own future.

**Speaker: This is no longer mathematics, but philosophy. Is there more information about this?**

Nara: If you want to learn more about this philosophy, where the human being is at the center, I’ve placed a link in the video description.


Source: [https://www.3n-1.de/cms/en:collatz:19](https://www.3n-1.de/cms/en:collatz:19)