TPF : Emergence, Physical vs Metaphysical

[Gnomon]

But do you think this 'capability of self-comprehension,' is only emergent through US and lifeforms such as us, or is he positing a general panpsychism, in the sense that, 'rocks contain some ingredients that could become part of a conscious combinatorial?' Would this have to follow if human consciousness is fundamentally information, and information is ubiquitous? — universeness

Although his concept of Dataome may sound similar to Panpsychism, as a professional scientist, Scharf would be loathe to use terminology that would incite ridicule from his peers. However, he does make use of edgy words like "hive mind" and "superorganism". As as non-professional amateur philosopher though, I'm not afraid to call a spade a pointy shovel, or a universal field of Data/Information a big Idea.

No. sentient rocks are not implied by the concept of Dataome. In any case, only a tiny fraction of the embodied information in the universe has developed the emergent quality of Sentience. But if pressed, Scharf might agree that the universe has indeed become self-reflective, by means of its sentient creatures. He does admit that "There is little doubt that something is going on with our species . . . ." I'll let you read the book, to fill-in the ellipsis.

[Gnomon]

I think he is responding, but not directly to you. I think he has chosen to maintain a political approach to you and I would personally prefer he responded to you directly. — universeness

Almost 10 years ago, when I first began to post on this forum, I did take ↪180 Proof
seriously, and was impressed with his extensive knowledge of philosophy. But after he made it clear that any of my responses to his comments would be treated as the repugnant babblings of an idiot, I eventually decided not to engage with him in political polemics.

Your science-based worldview seems to be similar to his in general, but you are less directly abusive in your responses to ideas that you find anti-scientific (i.e. metaphysics). So, I'm OK with your careful critiques of my personal worldview. Yet now, you seem ready to dis-engage.

PS__180 likes to imagine Gnomon as a tree-hugging hippie Hindu Buddhist Romantic, reciting poems of universal peace & love while lighting candles and smoking weed, despite his sentient crystals being made of synthetic zircon. But that could hardly be farther from the fact. Instead, Gnomon is a forty year subscriber to Skeptical Inquirer & Scientific American magazines. And Gnomon's 21st century Science is built upon a mushy quantum foundation of uncertainty & indeterminism that undermined the faith in Realism of Classical Physics.

PS__Where I view the universe as evolving in a positive direction (Enformy) 180 seems to agree with suicidal Macbeth :

Macbeth to himself :
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Idiom_talk-past-each-other.jpg

[Gnomon]

"I coined the term EnFormAction to encapsulate the directional (teleonomic) causation of Evolution." __Gnomon
I think there is no teleological connection to natural evolution via positing a universal data fundamental.
I think the current position that disorder can become order due to very large variety randomly combining in vast numbers of ways. Natural novelty need no teleological input. Teleology only comes into play via human design/intent/purpose. — universeness

Did you notice that I used the term Teleonomy*1 instead of Teleology? It's that kind of talking past each other that makes communicating with 180 so difficult. He substitutes his favorite antiscience terminology in place of my philosophical concepts. We are contrasting personal worldviews & opinions & beliefs*2, not scientific facts & truths. Serial Monologing with ↪180 Proof makes three years feel like ten.


*1. Teleonomy is the quality of apparent purposefulness and of goal-directedness of structures and functions in living organisms brought about by natural processes like natural selection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleonomy

*2. Replace "I think" with "I believe", and you will see the problem with trying to discuss empirical facts on a philosophical forum.

https://www.oysterenglish.com/images/Id ... -other.jpg

[Gnomon]

I think the verbal boxing between you is not severe. I have witnessed far, far worse. — universeness

I agree. I don't take ↪180 Proof's verbal punches as seriously as he seems to take my timid rejoinders. Most of his swings are whiffs anyway, because he fails to see the essential point of my thesis. Besides, he seems to think his mission on this forum is to be a Socratic gadfly, pointing out both their factual errors, and the errors in reasoning of those whose views contradict his own. I find his earnestness amusing, so I often conclude my posts to him with a "joke" emoji.

PS__The Joke symbol is supposed to be "tongue in cheek", but it looks more like sticking your tongue out. Which could be misconstrued. Maybe he thinks I'm razzing him. Or maybe those high-proof beverages make him hyper-sensitive.

PPS__My non-creedal Enformationism worldview is a calmly reasoned philosophical interpretation of 21st century Information & quantum theories; not an emotional eternal life expectation. So, when reply posters get riled-up, I don't get upset, because I understand that they don't understand what I'm proposing. They are reacting to the perceived evils of oppressive religion, or to the perceived folly of an anti-science belief system, instead of groking the mind-boggling possibilities of a novel information-centric philosophical worldview.

Gadfly : (god fly)
According to the words put into his mouth by Plato, Socrates believed that he had been sent by the gods to act as a “gadfly” to the Athenian state.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/socra ... te-4thc-bc

[Gnomon]

Superb summary of what transpired betwixt you and Gnomon. The salient points (of contention) highlighted for the audience's benefit, kudos.
Gnomon's thesis may need work, but it isn't philosophical crankery in me humble opinion, but que sais-je? — Agent Smith

↪180 Proof highlighted the points that are salient to him, but not to Gnomon. For example, although it includes some concepts that are similar to New Age philosophy, Enformationism is not about New Ageism or Mysticism. Instead, it was inspired by scientific Quantum & Information theories, which themselves have philosophical similarities to New Age notions*1.

But to label my personal philosophical thesis as a New Age screed is "cranky", in the sense of irritable & ill-tempered. Nevertheless, his pot-shots don't offend me, because they miss by a mile. The 180 degree difference in emphasis is why 180 dismisses Enformationism as "crankery", and Gnomon dismisses 180's off-topic posts as irrelevant. Your own posts are much closer in salience to what I'm talking about.


*1. the new physics and New Age ideology :
Although we are still lacking a complete quantum-relativistic theory of the sub-atomic world, several partial theories and models have been developed which describe some aspects of this world very successfully. A discussion of the most important of these models and theories will show that they all involve philosophical conceptions which are in striking agreement with those in Eastern mysticism ___physicist Fritjof Capra, 1986
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/them ... -ideology/

[Gnomon]

This got me thinking more about 'emergence.'
Since the early homo sapiens around 300,000 years ago, the 'knowledge' our species has 'as a totality,' been increasing. Each time we gain significant new knowledge, our technology increases and this has all sorts of affects on our species. It opens 'new options,' 'new possibilities.'
This 'direction of change,' seems to me to have been increasing in speed within the 300,000 years of the human story. The rate of speed increase seems to be increasing to the point that we are coming up with new tech at a faster rate than ever before. — universeness

I suppose your intent was to focus on the plausibility of a technological Singularity. But my attention was drawn to the question of "Emergence . . . of new possibilities". That question is central to my personal world view of Enformationism, which regards Generic Information (causation) as the Agency of Emergence, so to speak.

A good source of technical information on Evolutionary Emergence is the Santa Fe Institute*1. Its focus of research is on emergent complexity (such as Life & Mind) in the universe. Ironically, they use some surprising terminology, for a bunch of pragmatic scientists : e.g. Emergence ; Transcendence ; Teleology. In one chapter --- authored by mathematical cosmologist George Ellis, astrophysicist Keith Farnsworth, and biochemist Luc Jaeger --- they discuss the Emergence-related concept of "Downward Causation", which is another word for taboo top-down "Teleology". They say, "An essential element (and possibly a defining feature) of life emerges from this analysis. It is the presence of downward causation by information selection and control"(my emphasis). They go on to say, "Emergence is the appearance of phenomena at some scale of system organization that is absent from the lower elementary scales within it". Which is a roundabout way of defining Holism. The whole system "transcends" the properties of its parts, as a "transcendent complex" (TC).

I get negative feedback for using such taboo terminology, but these authors can get away with it because they have academic & professional credentials. In my own amateur thesis, I intuited that Natural Selection was the mechanism of causation by which novel systems (Transcendent Complexes) emerge from the random roiling of subordinate parts. The authors list, "in order of sophistication, the five mechanisms of top-down causation"*2. Then they expand on that foundation to say : "Darwinian evolutionary processes in living systems are therefore ruled from the bottom up, but also by fundamental emerging organizational principles that are hierarchically built-up and impose necessary constraints from the top down". Moreover, as you noted, the "speed" of natural emergence has increased exponentially since the natural emergence of artificial human culture, as the new Agent of Causation.

Likewise, theories of Technological evolution toward a Singularity, imply but don't make explicit the top-down Teleology of human intentions that transcend Natural Selection by means of Cultural Selection. Whether the dream of creating Artificial Life & Mind will ever come to pass is uncertain. But that humans can aspire to god-like powers, raises the question of how the ability to dream impossible dreams could emerge from mechanical grinding of material gears.



*1. The Santa Fe Institute is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, including physical, computational, biological, and social systems. ___Wikipedia


*2. Five Mechanisms of Natural Causation :
1. Deterministic boundary conditions
2. nonadaptive information control
3. adaptive selection criteria
4. adaptive information control
5. adaptive selection of selection criteria

[Gnomon]

↪Gnomon
— Agent Smith

↪180 Proof
— Agent Smith


Apparently you are trying to practice BothAnd philosophy by giving a thumbs-up to contradictory interpretations of the significance of essential Information : malleable Data vs causal Information. Did you watch the video? Are you now confused? Did you notice that it's about Shannon's abstract meaningless Data, not about Gnomon's mental meaningful Information?

↪180 Proof 's last post is intended to cast doubt on the Enformationism thesis by showing that the foundation of Physics (quantum) is indeterminate. But that open-ended undetermined quality (freewill) is what makes Meta-physics important to Philosophy. Ironically, the linked video could be used to support the argument that -- in its BothAnd physical & metaphysical forms -- "Information is the most fundamental element" (building block) of the world. 180's contrary interpretation may indeed undermine the authority of Physics for philosophical questions, because -- on the quantum level -- it's not describing Reality, but Ideality (human ideas about reality, not reality itself). Which is what Meta-Physics is all about.

In previous TPF posts and BothAnd Blog posts, I have discussed essentially the same problems with physics. I have even quoted Anton Zeilinger to support the fundamental nature of Information. But the post linked below, with quotes from George Musser may be more to the point of Quantum Theory's Virtual Reality, as compared to Gnomon's Metaphysical Ideality.


Virtual Reality / Metaphysical Ideality :
In his Scientific American article, science writer George Musser is talking about truth-seeking via analytical science. He begins with a common assertion of the superiority of science for revealing truths : “ Physics seems to be one of the only domains of human life where truth is clear-cut. The laws of physics describe hard reality. They are grounded in mathematical rigor and experimental proof. They give answers, not endless muddle.” That last remark may be aimed at wishy-washy Philosophy. But the confidence behind Musser’s introduction may be true for the 17th century physics of Isaac Newton, but doesn’t apply to 21st century Quantum Theory. . . . .
In contrast to his confident opening statement about physics describing “hard” reality, Musser again acknowledges that, “the deeper physicists dive into reality, the more reality seems to evaporate.” Moreover, “physical explanation replaces nouns with verbs.” Which, ironically makes sense in view of the Enformationism thesis, wherein the universal verb is EnFormAction.
https://bothandblog5.enformationism.info/page36.html


Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle sealed the fate of deterministic physics.
https://bigthink.com/13-8/einstein-quantum-ghost/
Note -- Got to go. I'll deal with 180's increasing entropy = increasing information next time.

[Gnomon]

Frankly speaking, I recommend you develop your theory of information in more depth. At present it seems its definition is just too loose to be endorsed or critiqued. — Agent Smith

Hey, professor! What do you think I'm doing on The Philosophical Forum. I'm an isolated retiree, with no academic environment for nurturing novel ideas. Agent Jones and 180proveit are my ad hoc thesis advisors. One tells me to abandon my thesis because it will never meet the stringent criteria for a scientific fact, while the other tells me to tighten-up the definitions.

I don't have a "theory of information". I rely on scientists for that. If you want more precise definitions of Information, please refer to those who make it their business to study such things. What I do have is a personal private thesis of Enformationism*1, which describes my amateur understanding of the multi-faceted role of Information in the universe. It goes beyond the limited scope of Shannon's engineering definition of Information, to include general philosophical applications, such as Ontological & Epistemological questions. You can "endorse or critique" my opinions on this forum, just as you would any other personal philosophical views.

Unfortunately, the primary critic of my thesis insists on criticizing the science behind it, rather than the philosophical implications of Information*2. Speculative Philosophical definitions will never satisfy his technical Materialistic criteria, because they deal in general interpretations & universal significance, instead of specific physical attributes & applications. I do have some layman's understanding of Information Science, but I'm not qualified to pontificate on such topics. I provide lots of links to articles by professional information scientists, that you can ignore or investigate as you see fit. But some of them get pretty technical & mathematical. If you are really interested in the esoteric details & definitions, you can see how they "develop" their theories. Perhaps their authoritative views & conjectures on Information theory will give you enough scientific substance to "endorse or critique". The bottom line here is : beyond communication/computer theory, Information science is at present, Theoretical, not Empirical. .

*1. l assume that you haven't bothered to slog through the Enformationism thesis & glossary, which would answer most of your concerns about development & definitions.
http://enformationism.info/enformationi ... lcome.html
https://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/

*2. I'll address his "increasing disorder (entropy) increases information (emergence)", critique in another post. I occasionally take-on his mostly irrelevant challenges, not for his edification, but to deepen & develop my own knowledge of the philosophical implications of Generic Information.

[Gnomon]

consider this video summary on 'quantum information' and, since increasing disorder (entropy) increases information (emergence), point out to me what Gnomon gets right or the presentation here gets wrong. — 180 Proof

Gnomon is not qualified to critique the video : What If Physics IS NOT Describing Reality?. But several scientists, that I have linked to, have also concluded that "Physics is not describing Reality?". More to the point may be to say that physicists don't know how to interpret what quantum physics is trying to tell us about Reality *1*2. The Enformationism thesis is just my 2-cents worth on that long-debated topic. Since the scientists can't agree on Reality, maybe philosophers can make a contribution*3. What Einstein called "a persistent illusion" is what Enformationism labels "Ideality"*4.

I'm not sure where that confident assertion came from : "increasing disorder (entropy) increases information (emergence)". But I must point out that it is not relevant to the thesis of Enformationism. That's because Entropy originally meant only "change" (en + trope = transform)*5. And in practice, Entropy has two different applications : Physical Entropy (change in material form) and Informational Entropy (change in meaning). In general, "Entropy is simply a measure of possible micro-states"*6. The ratio of that statistical probability to actual certainty is what Shannon realized was a mathematical value relevant to communication. So, "increasing disorder" (random microstates) does indeed increase possible options (uncertainty) for information, yet it decreases the order (certainty) that we call "meaning".

Regarding the implication that "increasing disorder increases information (emergence)", that phrase only applies to the negative emergence of more Disorder. But what we usually mean by "Emergence" is positive manifestation of more Order. So, the intended implication of 180's assertion is irrelevant to the normal meanings of Entropy/Disorder (negative) and Information/Emergence (positive). Entropy is an inverse proportion, which can be inverted to change its meaning. But, since Shannon, Entropy is usually interpreted as the opposite of Information/EnFormAtion.



*1. What Does Quantum Theory Actually Tell Us about Reality?
Nearly a century after its founding, physicists and philosophers still don’t know—but they’re working on it
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ob ... t-reality/

*2. The quantum revolution questioned the nature of reality :
If so, all the physical phenomena we perceive are just a “higher-level emergent description” of what’s really going on.
https://www.sciencenews.org/century/qua ... ncertainty

*3. The Illusion of Reality :
The Scientific Proof That Everything is Energy and Reality Isn’t Real
http://www.esalq.usp.br/lepse/imgs/cont ... t-Real.pdf
Note -- Since the evidence of our senses is the primary source of our knowledge of Reality, I wouldn't describe that perception as an "illusion". I suspect that Einstein was speaking metaphorically. Where the article says that "everything is Energy", Enformationism would say that "everything is Information" (power to enform, to cause change in form)

*4. Ideality :
*** In Plato’s theory of Forms, he argues that non-physical forms (or ideas) represent the most accurate or perfect reality. Those Forms are not physical things, but merely definitions or recipes of possible things. What we call Reality consists of a few actualized potentials drawn from a realm of infinite possibilities.
*** Materialists deny the existence of such immaterial ideals, but recent developments in Quantum theory have forced them to accept the concept of “virtual” particles in a mathematical “field”, that are not real, but only potential, until their unreal state is collapsed into reality by a measurement or observation. To measure is to extract meaning into a mind. [Measure, from L. Mensura, to know; from mens-, mind]
https://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page11.html

*5. The word entropy finds its roots in the Greek entropia, which means "a turning toward" or "transformation."

*6. The Ascent of Information, by Caleb Scharf, page 33
*6a. Forum Post : Now, let me backtrack a bit and reexamine your definition of entropy
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ionphysics

[reply="universeness;777252"]

[Gnomon]

Ok, but I emphasise the position that there is no empirical evidence, that teleonomy has ANY relationship AT ALL with 'natural selection.' — universeness

I'm aware that "Teleology" & "Progress" are taboo terms in biological science, because of their traditional association with Christian dogma. But the Enformationism thesis is not about biology or doctrine, and not intended to pass muster with atheistic scientists. It's merely an interpretation of the broader role of Information in Evolution & Emergence. And in blog posts, I provide links & quotes to the use of such terms by scientists.

As sampled below, some accredited scientists are beginning to revisit the notion of evolutionary progression, if not the terminology. If no forward progress, what's the point of evolution? Santa Fe Institute scientists have coined the term "Downward Causation" for "information selection and control" in biological & physical evolution. So, I feel justified in using the similar term "Teleonomy" for my personal thesis. Unless you can show philosophical (rational) evidence that refutes the notion of complexification in Evolution, which is a sign of progression from the inorganic simplicity of the original hypothetical Singularity, to the living & thinking organisms today. Time's arrow is pointing in some direction ; but is it going in circles, or toward some positive future state such as a Technological Singularity?

The Role of Teleonomy in Evolution :
In order to avoid the implications of "teleology," assumed to refer only to the process of evolution as directed towards goals, the discussants use "teleonomy" in reference to the biological organism as end-directed (for reproduction). . . . By using the concept of teleonomy, it is argued, one can avoid the issue of "mechanism" versus "teleology."
https://www.jstor.org/stable/186539

Teleonomy :
Revisiting a Proposed Conceptual Replacement for Teleology
https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 22-00424-y