TPF : Information & Emergentism

[Gnomon]

Information, Life, Math and Strong Emergentism
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/477544

My understanding is that Dr. Walker is proposing an additional physics for what she calls information, but is open to it being something else. Basically something that would explain the emergence of life from chemistry (abiogenesis), and provide a better definition for life. — Marchesk

Sara Imari Walker is a theoretical physicist and astrobiologist, who is exploring the dark space between physics and biology. She is an editor, and one of the 30+ authors, of the 2017 book, From Matter to Life : Information and Causality. Most people today think of Information as the inert data processed by computers. But physicists have recently learned that Energy (causation) is also a form of Generic (all-encompassing) Information : the power to enform, to create.

That concept is at the root of my own philosophical worldview : Enformationism. These concepts are still on the frontiers of Science, so may sound a bit fringey and mysterious. But it opens doors to a broader and deeper understanding of the physical and biological and mental aspects of our world.


From Matter to Life : Fresh insights from a broad and authoritative range of articulate and respected experts focus on the transition from matter to life, and hence reconcile the deep conceptual schism between the way we describe physical and biological systems.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from-m ... 1124576284

Enformationism :
A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to ancient Materialism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's a Theory of Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html

[Gnomon]

panspermia . . . For some reason, I find it more conceptually satisfying than abiogenesis, because it conforms to the primeval mythology of Earth/Mother Sky/Father in the origin of life. — Wayfarer

Panpsychism is also an ancient explanation for Life and Mind in the world. But my modern myth of creation involves what you could call : "Pan-Informationism". It assumes that the power to enform (causation; energy) is inherent in the world --- in Gaia, if you like --- not an import ; no consort needed. That theory is based on the current science of Information, as the Single Substance of the world.

Gaia inseminated by Uranus : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia

Information : http://bothandblog4.enformationism.info/page26.html

[Gnomon]

However, as I've said before, 'information' is not proper basic substance (in the philosophical sense), because it has too meaning meanings. — Wayfarer

Yes. That's why I define and expand-upon the many meanings of "Information" in my thesis and blog.

Information, what is it? : http://bothandblog4.enformationism.info/page26.html

Substance versus Non-substance :
* Aristotle divided his encyclopedia into two volumes based on fundamental categories of human knowledge : discussion of objective substances (Matter, physical) and subjective non-substances (Form, mental). “Aristotle famously contends that every physical object is a compound of matter and form.” A technical term for this ancient doctrine is Hylomorphism (matter + design).
* Physical Scientists typically assume that the appearance of design is merely an illusion due to the complexity of material objects, and to gaps in our knowledge of specific causal events in the history of evolution, that the brain naturally attributes to agency.
* We can fill those gaps with more assumptions : either a simplistic unbroken causal chain of mundane physical “substance” (turtles all the way down), or a more analytical sequence of events, such as Aristotle’s 4 causes: Material (substance), Formal (shape, pattern), Agent (force), and Final (teleological intent). It’s the fourth cause that causes scientists to pause.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/form-matter/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_causes:
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page74.html

[Gnomon]

But I don't know what it means for information to be fundamental, as opposed to fields or particles or spacetime. . . . . Information seems to me to have something to do with repeatable patterns that emerge from the fundamental physics. — Marchesk

Meaningful patterns are indeed one aspect of Generic (universal ; all-encompassing) Information. But there are many more forms of Information (the power to enform, to create). Other emergent phases of Information are Energy and Matter. That abstract Information can be converted into measurable Energy is not as well-known as the fact that Energy can then be converted into Matter (E=MC^2), and vice-versa. But it's an idea on the cutting-edge of quantum physics. It appears that Information is much more than Shannon's empty vessels of data. Generic Information is a Protean shape-shifter --- the pattern-morphing potential of evolutionary creativity.

Is Information Fundamental? : https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/i ... ndamental/

Fundamental Principle of Information-to-Energy Conversion : The bit of information is equivalent to a quantum of minimum energy
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1401/1401.6052.pdf
https://physicsworld.com/a/information- ... to-energy/

The mass-energy-information equivalence principle : https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.5123794
https://figshare.com/articles/presentat ... 12479180/1

[Gnomon]

↪magritte
The student of Aristotle usually begins with the Categories; and the first thing that strikes him is the author’s unconsciousness of any distinction between grammar and metaphysics, between modes of signifying and modes of being. When he comes to the metaphysical books, he finds that this is not so much an oversight as an assumed axiom — C.S. Peirce

It's true that Aristotle had nothing to say about Semiotics, or Semiosis, or Semiology in his Metaphysics. But he also had nothing to say about Quantum Mechanics in his Physics. So, what point was Pierce making in the quote? Semiology may be merely a further reductive analysis of Aristotle's symbols and motifs.

Aristotle on Rhetoric : Being capable of grammar is not the same property as being rational,
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/

[Gnomon]

Saw this yesterday and wondered how such a behavior could emerge from evolution... — Olivier5
https://youtu.be/6SK0mQORuOc

The Puffer-fish boudoir looks like a creative work of art. So, it might be an example of the creativity of Evolution, as discussed in the Purposes of Creativity thread on this forum. However, some of us may not think of blind random evolution as a creative process. That notion might imply teleology. But compare the original state of the universe (raw energy) with its current state (civilization, technology, art, etc) and it's hard to deny that there is some general creative constructive impulse behind the behaviors of even "dumb" animals. Hegel called that historical competitive progressive self-transcending creative movement, The Dialectic. In my thesis, I call that impulse, EnFormAction.

Creative Evolution : Creativity in humans may be merely a more highly developed form of evolutionary Adaptability, which allows animals to survive and reproduce. If so, its primary purpose is to out-live the less-adaptable competition. But humans have taken that competitive trait to a higher level. In animals, most of their creative acts are genetically inherited. They follow a trial & error heuristic that seem erratic, but increases their odds of finding food or sex or power,
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/478349

Does Competition Make Us More Creative? : https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/does-competi ... e-creative

Dialectic : The notion that history conforms to a “dialectical” pattern, according to which contradictions generated at one level are overcome or transcended at the next, . . .
https://www.britannica.com/topic/philos ... l-and-Marx

[Gnomon]

↪Harry Hindu
Yes, and I'm not sure whether Sara was arguing epistemology or ontology. It sounded like she wanted to expand physics to incorporate the emergent biological information. — Marchesk

Probably both. She looks at Biology and Physics, not as separate realms (scales & levels) of reality, but as different ways of looking at the same world. Those disciplines differ on how closely they examine their subjects. Since the subject-matter of Biology is visible and tangible, that science is more like ordinary Knowledge (Epistemology) of concrete material objects. But Physics studies subjects that are typically invisible and intangible (electrons ; fields), hence seem closer to the essence of reality (Ontology). The primary subject matter of Physics (energy) is what the ancients would call "Spirit" (essence ; Soul).

In an interview with John Horgan, Stuart Kaufman -- also associated with Santa Fe Institute -- notes that, "No laws entail evolution of biosphere". Then, he says, "Evolution creates the very possibilities into which it becomes, without "selection" "acting" to achieve the very adjacent possible opportunities into which it becomes". This ironic-sounding statement is reminiscent of Terrance Deacon's notion of Causal Absence. What he's implying here is that Evolution is inherently creative, and not just pre-determined by the past. So, when novel things emerge from the heuristic evolutionary process, it's not an accident -- it's what evolution does. Kaufman is primarily a Biologist, but he also "expands Physics" into Biological domains.

Kaufman Interview : that some sort of anti-entropy, order-generating force
remains to be discovered.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cr ... mysteries/
Note -- that "anti-entropy" force is what I call Enformy
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html

Causal Absence : Constitutive absence: A particular and precise missing something that is a critical defining attribute of 'ententional' phenomena, such as functions, thoughts, adaptations, purposes, and subjective experiences.
http://absence.github.io/3-explanations ... ntial.html