In Evolutionary Potentials we argued that the Living Algorithm, the core equation of Information Dynamics, could be Life's most basic information processor. The article suggested that this simple function might even provide the essential computational backdrop for the development of the senses, attention, and even digestion. This article continues on the same track, providing reasons why the Living Algorithm might perform this same computational role for drives and emotions, as well as the accuracy-driven form of information processing that is characteristic of electronics.
Again, note that this speculative article is merely an attempt to provide a plausible explanation for the experiential phenomenon surrounding Creative Pulse Theory. The truth or falsehood of these assertions has nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of the theory. It is just an unnecessary attempt to answer the Why behind the What of BD. No more necessary than explaining the Why behind the What of quantum-electro dynamics. (Check out From Why to What & Back Again to see how "why' is the philosopher's question, while 'what' is the scientist's question.)
There are two ways of viewing the interaction between the basic drives, such as hunger, and environmental data. Both lead to a same conclusion, namely that a probabilistic function is needed to make some vital predictions. Common sense tells us that the hunger urge is generated internally. A counter-intuitive theory is that the senses evolved/emerged to catalyze all of the basic urges that life requires for survival. Practically speaking the two approaches are so intertwined as to be inseparable. Indeed both mechanisms, internal and external, probably co-evolved/emerged as a form of redundancy to ensure that the organism would survive.
The counter-intuitive theory suggests that the senses create desires that drive the organism to interact with the world. On the most primary level smelling food elicits the desire to eat, which in turn elicits an external response. And digested environmental data dictates the direction of the organism’s response.
The common sense theory suggests that the drive to mate and consume comes from internal sources. Hunger pangs drive the organism to find food. The sex drive impels organisms to mate, etcetera.
If these internal forces are so powerful, why are there so many elaborate sexual rituals – throughout the animal world, not just on the human level? The senses of smell, color, sounds, and even touch are employed more to attract mates than to find mates. This is very clear in the canine world. The male dog doesn’t go crazy with desire until he smells the aromas, the specialized pheromones of the female. His internal urges never come into play until this time. Similarly most mating rituals are centered on attracting a mate with bright plumage, a special kind of sound, a particular aroma or even a magical dance. More frequently it is an invitation to mate, rather a trap for a forced encounter. More frequently the entire sexual encounter is based upon attraction rather than it is upon internal drive. The desires evoked by the senses trigger the innate internal drive for sex.
The relation between flowers and insects has the same attractive component. The aromatic fragrances and exotic colors of flowers evolved/emerged to attract bees and other bugs to propagate their species. If the bees were driven by purely internal urges, there would be no need for the specialized type of attraction that flowers have acquired. Hunger or instincts would have driven bees to do their job of pollen collection, without any need for enticement.
Re the human sexual encounter: it is actually against the law to follow internal urges without heeding the rules of attraction and consent. The young men go out on the prowl – seeking scents, sights, touches and sounds that attract. Attracted they approach attempting to elicit a co-attraction in the same way as the female of the species – employing scents, clothes, evocative touch and sounds to establish a mutual attraction. The sexual encounter only occurs after the complementary attractions have established a context of mutual consent – and not before. Fulfillment of desires without consent is deemed rape. If external desires evoked by the senses, rather than internal urges evoked by instincts, drive animal behavior, then rape would be considered aberrant behavior, rather than natural behavior that laws proscribe.
In fact major global religions have institutions and philosophies designed to control these desires evoked by the senses. The institutions of Buddhism and Catholicism both have monasteries to avoid the temptations of the secular world. The ascetics of India and China, and even the early Christian ascetics of Egypt, retreated to the wilderness to avoid the sensual traps of civilization. Indeed modern advertising is based around evoking desires for products (some useful, some not) by an appeal to the senses of sight, sound and even smell.
This line of reasoning suggests that senses frequently lead basic drives rather than just assisting them. We argued earlier that senses need some kind of attention to ‘remember’ this passage through time and some kind of processor to turn the sensory data into a meaningful form. Reiterating the logical chain: due to their existence through time, senses can’t provide any meaningful information to the organism without a mechanism to sense the senses (attention, according to CP Theory). The organism also needs computational mechanism – a data processor – to transform the raw sensual data into a contextual temporal form. Why? The senses transform the raw data into another form, whether visual, tactile, et al. This informational form continually decays and is refreshed in a self-referential fashion. To make any contextual sense of this data flow the organism needs a mechanism to crunch this ongoing flow of sensual data into a usable form. This does not occur by keeping the original message intact. Instead it has to do with a contextual averaging – which provides predictive and sensual information that is appropriate to the present moment – not a residual of the past. The Living Algorithm supplies this vital mechanism. She generates self-referential, regenerative central measures from any data stream, whether digested or raw. Under this line of reasoning, the biological emergence of a regenerative, self-referential, data processor, such as the Living Algorithm, preceded the senses and the fundamental drives, such as hunger and sex.
Let us suppose the alternative view that internal drives preceded sensory temptation. A probabilistic function is still required make predictions as to the best choice of direction or course of action. Knowledge of the central measures provided by the function would significantly improve predictions as to the location, range, and direction of motion of the object of this internal desire or fear. So regardless of whether drives of senses lead, a mathematical algorithm, like the Living Algorithm, is still required to translate sensory input or internal drives into a contextual form that the organism could utilize.
Let us look a little deeper at the notion of ‘instinctual drives’. What triggers these innate urges to seek out food, water or sex? Common sense says that a lack of water or food triggers thirst or hunger. But how does the organism know when it is short of these vital commodities? It must be surmised that there is some kind of measuring device that somehow determines a threshold that ignites the urge for food or drink. Likening this mechanism to the gas gauge of a car, when the tank of fuel dips below a certain level a warning light is activated. This simple signal tells the driver that the car will come to a dead halt unless it is refueled.
Mathematics is necessary to calculate the threshold value. And calculating this threshold value is not simple. It is based upon averaging multiple experiences over many life times. When is the food or water tank empty enough that these ingredients must be sought out? Determining this relative term requires knowledge of the average flow of food (input) and the average amount consumed (output). Knowledge of the ranges and tendencies of these input/output data streams would provide the organism more predictive precision. And, as mentioned, predictive precision maximizes the impact of the response, while minimizing energy or resource expenditure.
If this threshold that triggers the internal drives is a mathematically calculated quantity, as it seems that it must be, then it is a mathematical quantity that ignites desire. And if it is the Living Algorithm that performs the vital calculations, it can be said that the central measures of the Living Algorithm are heavily linked with the emotions associated with the primary drives of desire and fear. The religious philosophies of India, as well as common sense observation, tell us that all emotions are ultimately linked to desire and fear. If this is true, then all emotions are a result of mathematical thresholds being crossed. If these simple assumptions are true it is easy to imagine the co-evolution/emergence of emotions and sensory thresholds to ignite the desire for food, sexual partners, or drink – or the fear of predators, which come in somewhat predictable sizes, shapes, and speeds. Note even the aforementioned warning light on the fuel tank, with its obviously quantitative, non-emotional basis. When it has been on long enough a sense of panic arises spontaneously that drives the individual to find the nearest gas station. Similarly if the numbers in a bank account or the stock market start falling/rising an emotional response is evoked – that is frequently only related to potentials and not to reality.
We’ve argued that predictive data processing is essential for a variety of life’s fundamental features, including the senses and drives. Predictive data processing is quite different from ‘exact’ data processing, the type employed in electronics, and the primary focus of information theorists. For one, data processing whose function is to accurately transmit environmental or internal input through noise reduction, does not provide any predictive abilities. Shannon, the father of information theory, studied this type of processing in regards to the clarity of electronic transmissions, such as radio, television, computers, and spacecraft, where accuracy of transmission is all-important. In this case the internal codes that are required to ensure accuracy only predict the most usual forms that the message could take – as a type of redundancy testing. This type of data processing requires standards of expectations to establish redundancy patterns. Predictive algorithms, like the Living Algorithm, are required to provide these probabilistic quantities. As such, we will suggest that ‘sloppy’ predictive data processing functions preceded ‘precise’ data processing that require standards for redundancy tests. Of course, once these standards are in place the two types of processing, predictive and exact, compliment and supplement each other. The one refines the accuracy of the incoming data through redundancy so that the other can make more accurate predictions. Further predictions are made regarding most usual forms so that redundancy checks can be refined. The simplicity of the predictive Living Algorithm versus the complexity of code generation and redundancy testing also suggests the evolutionary primacy of predictive data processing.
The Living Algorithm provides crucial knowledge about the features of any Data Stream. Besides providing the computational backdrop for the senses and providing a form for Attention's attraction to Acceleration, the essential connection between these features and the senses connect the Living Algorithm up with the basic urges for food and such if the senses lead drive through attraction. If the primary drives for sustenance and sex are ignited by crossing a threshold, the Living Algorithm is required to determine this crucial value. As such the features of the data stream revealed by the Living Algorithm are connected to the evolution of emotions via the basic desires or urges. Finally the predictive power of the Living Algorithm also set the stage for ‘exact transmission’ data processing. Accordingly the development of the Living Algorithm as an evolutionary tool for prediction preceded attention, drives, emotions, and the senses. In fact this type of processing of environmental data is essential for the evolution/emergence of any of these basic components of vertebrate life. Under this line of reasoning we could safely say that the existence of the Living Algorithm was a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of Attention, the Senses, Drives, and Emotions. As such the type of data processing done by the Living Algorithms provided the necessary structure that enabled the emergent complexity of these important features of complex life forms.
If you are interested in a contrast between the context-based Living Algorithm and traditional context-based equations check out Content vs. Context-based Equations. If you are interested in some of the manifestations of the Living Algorithm, check out her two projects, the Data Stream Momentum and the Creative Pulse, and their experiments, the Triple Pulse Experiment, the Creative Pulse Notebook, and the Boredom Principle.