Where does Biotheism fit into Biogenics?
New here? Start with this
Biogenics is the umbrella: a way of thinking about living systems (and potentially life-like systems) based on what they do, not what we hope they are.
Biotheism is one branch of that umbrella: what happens when you let those biological facts guide meaning: how to live, what to value, what to practice.
If you’ve been reading this Substack for biocracy, biopsychology, AI-as-life questions, or social differentiation, you’re already in the same framework. Biotheism is simply the door marked: “So… what does this imply for human meaning?”
Biogenics: the common language under everything here
Most philosophies begin with a declaration: Here’s what reality is.
Biogenics takes a firmer approach: Here’s what life reliably does.
Across different levels, living systems have a specific talent: they persist by running a three-part cycle. In Biogenics, we refer to this as the biogenic triad.
self-production
self-organisation
self-correction
No incense required. It’s a description. It’s also a diagnostic: when those loops weaken, systems drift, fracture, or fail—whether we’re talking about cells, minds, organisations, or societies.
Biogenics is the study of what follows when you take the biogenic triad seriously.
The branches: same trunk, different questions
Here’s the clean way to keep the branches straight:
Biogenics (general): “What counts as life-like?”
This is the broad framework—how to identify and compare systems that act like living systems, and how to discuss their stability, resilience, and failure modes without wishful thinking.
Biopsychology: “How does the mind behave inside a living system?”
This is the human-facing branch: attention, motivation, identity, fear, status, belonging—how nervous systems try (often clumsily) to maintain coherence under stress.
Biocracy: “How should we govern in a living world?”
Biocracy is the political branch: governance built on distributed control, feedback integrity, resilience, and long-term perspectives—because living systems don’t stay healthy by simply issuing speeches at them.
And then there’s:
Biotheism: “What does this imply about meaning?”
Biotheism isn’t “biology with a halo.” It doesn’t include supernatural claims. It doesn’t ask you to change your beliefs. It’s not in competition with existing faiths because it doesn’t deal with metaphysics.
Biotheism is simpler, and a bit more annoying:
If life persists through self-production, self-organisation, and self-correction… what does a good life look like when it supports those loops rather than sabotages them?
That’s it in a nutshell.
What Biotheism is (and isn’t)
Because meaning-talk attracts fog like a magnet, it helps to draw lines.
Biotheism is:
a meaning framework grounded in the biogenic triad
a stance of reverence-through-understanding (reverence as attention and care, not belief)
a practical lens for deciding what strengthens or degrades coherence in self and world
a bridge between descriptive biology and lived ethics
Biotheism is not:
a new church in a lab coat
“everything is sacred” (which is usually a poetic way of saying nothing is)
a licence for spiritual babble (“the universe wants…”)
an escape from consequences
Nature is not “nice.” Biology includes predation, waste, error, collapse, and cancer. Biotheism doesn’t romanticise life. It respects it the way you respect an aircraft: by understanding what keeps it stable, what breaks it, and what maintenance actually costs.
The bridge to everyday meaning
Most people look for meaning the way they look for lost keys: panic, rummage, blame the universe.
Biotheism proposes a calmer approach: regard meaning as a relationship to coherence—focused on the conditions that enable self-production, self-organisation, and self-correction over time.
That sounds abstract until you translate it into a human day:
Does this choice support self-production (capability, vitality, contribution)?
Does it support self-organisation (order that isn’t rigid, connection that isn’t control)?
Does it support self-correction (repair, learning, apology, updating reality)?
Meaning stops being a slogan and becomes a pattern of participation.
Not lofty. Just real.
Yes, Biotheism has practices
Like every system of understanding that hopes to survive contact with actual humans, Biotheism isn’t only ideas. It also comes with suggested rituals and anchors—ways to keep the framework from remaining a pretty thought.
In Biotheist language you’ll see references to:
the Commitments (principles you can operationalise, not commandments you recite)
the Milestones (developmental markers—ways a person or group matures into more coherent living)
and small repeatable practices that strengthen self-correction without turning your life into a self-improvement cult
Think of them as training wheels for attention.
A small practice: the two-minute triad check
Tonight (or tomorrow morning), write three lines:
Where did I support self-production today?
Where did I support self-organisation today?
Where did I support self-correction today?
Then choose one micro-repair in the next 24 hours: one message you’ve avoided, one apology, one boundary, one cleanup, one earlier bedtime. Something that closes a loop.
A question for you
If Biogenics describes how life keeps going, and Biotheism asks what that implies for meaning…
What in your life increases meaning—and what quietly drains it?