Life ruminates on her relationship with the Living Algorithm
3-31-12 Sa 0.9 hours trans 4-13-12
Blown away by recent developments
Life ruminates on all that she and the Living Algorithm have been through in their maturing relationship. “Whoa! Mind-boggling! That Energy Density article that I just read really blew me away. Whew! It’s hard to believe that information could spark the gap into the material world. Never would have guessed that my little Cell had such potentials. When I first met her Creative Pulse a decade ago, I had no idea that her power was so universal. I didn't even realize she had any connection with power. I thought she was merely an effective mathematical model for interruptions to a productive session.
We've come so far
I can’t believe how far we’ve come. Can't wait to see what's coming next. I remember Cell saying something about Attention and Learning. But let's not go too fast. Before moving on to our next series of encounters let’s reflect on where we have been to give us a perspective on where we are going.
An Ambiguous Beginning
Life frustrated with her mathematical options
Before we met, I was so incredibly frustrated with my mathematical options – Probability and Mechanics (traditional Physics). One could only describe my general features and the other only my particulate nature. I had almost given up hope of finding a mathematical guide – a mathematics that would assist me in my quest to actualize my potentials. Instead of providing guidance, the other types of mathematics that I encountered attempted to box me in with their equations. They confidently stated that all that they could see was all there was – like a blind man claiming that there is no such thing as sight because he can’t see.
Initially Disappointed with the Living Algorithm
I was so grateful when the Living Algorithm showed up. Yet her simplicity was disconcerting. When Cell said that she was the only equation in her system and that her graphs had no variables I was incredibly disappointed. Matter had variables, universal principles and all. I wanted some of my own. My expectations dashed, I reacted emotionally. After speaking for just a short while, I almost left before our relationship had even begun.
Traumatized by earlier relationship with Astrology
Because of an earlier relationship with the mathematical system of Astrology, I am wary when any other mathematics sidles up to me and tells me what I want to hear. Astrology claimed to address the features of my existence that were important to me – love, relationship, money, fame. Unfortunately when the astrological predictions were scrutinized more carefully, they were found wanting. For instance, wars and fights did not break out every time that Mars was afflicted, nor was their regularly love and harmony when Venus was in an auspicious location, nor was there a Messiah born every time that Jupiter and Saturn came into conjunction. There were some amazing prophesies to be sure, but there were an equal, if not greater, number of times that the predictions of this mathematical system were ambiguous or just wrong. Not to say that an insightful individual can’t reveal significant trends by reflecting upon starry patterns, but I was just looking for more – a relationship with more substance.
No other options
Reacting emotionally to this disappointment over my dashed expectations (too attached as usual) I turned to leave. But my bleak options blocked my swift exit. I decided to remain to hear what Cell had to say for herself. I really had no other option. Her cautious, yet confident, approach intrigued me.
To establish credibility, Life poses a series of questions.
Yet, I wanted to avoid a repetition of my astrology experience. I needed some assurance that the Living Algorithm had credibility. To this end, I remember pummeling Cell with a series of key questions over the course of our ongoing relationship.
Is there any evidence that supports Patterns of Correspondence? Yes!
I began with the basics. Is there any empirical evidence that supports patterns of correspondence between your mathematical system and my living systems? To answer this question Cell provided me with the Author’s first volume – The Triple Pulse of Attention. This initial volume established that there are indeed significant patterns of correspondence between the mathematical behavior of the Living Algorithm’s Triple Pulse and many sleep-related phenomena.
Life: “Why are there Patterns of Correspondence?”
Impressed but skeptical, I continued posing questions. “Why does your purely mathematical system correspond with my behavioral and biological reality? Is this connection descriptive, causal, or imaginary? Is there a confounding variable that links your mathematics with my behavior? What is the nature of the correspondence?”
Theory: Living Algorithm forms influence Life, because she employs Cell to digest information.
Cell responded calmly. “The contemporary scientific community does not have an explanation for sleep, or my patterns of correspondence with this everyday occurrence. As an alternative, let’s consider the theory that your living systems employ me, the Living Algorithm, to digest information. My digestion process provides meaning to the constant flow of sensory information streaming in from the environment. Due to this intimate relationship between us, you, Life, are informed by my transformations. One of my major transformations is the Triple Pulse.”
Life: “ Is there any evidence in support of this theory?”
I was so startled that I began to laugh. This laughter, presumably, was necessary to relieve the tension of two orthogonal planes intersecting for the first time. Unbelievable! My living systems employ the Living Algorithm to digest data streams? Not convinced and more than a little skeptical, I remember responding: “What evidence do you have that I would employ your services to digest the flow of information that I am constantly bombarded with?”
Plausibility of Life employing Living Algorithm to digest Data Streams
Cell: “Before examining more evidence that links our behavior, let’s explore the plausibility of the concept that you, Life, employ me, the Living Algorithm, to digest living data streams. In that regard what are you looking for in this relationship? What type of meaning do you want to glean from these living data streams? What capabilities must a mathematical system have to extract this meaning? What are your requirements? Let’s see if I can fulfill them. I think you will find that I can. Take some time to think about what you require.”
Could Life employ the Living Algorithm to digest Data Streams?
Life meditates to uncover her basic needs
I was somewhat taken aback by Cell’s response. She had shifted the focus of our discussion and my attention. I went into a deep meditation to regain a balanced perspective. In my meditative trance I realized that the living systems that I embody require a method of digesting data streams that organizes the information to provide immediate meaning. This includes descriptive measures that characterize the most recent moments as well as providing estimates of future performance. This period of quietude provided the insight into the basic nature of my needs. With this foundation in place, I texted Cell to arrange our next series of interactive sessions.
That text initiated the second phase of our relationship. This series of interactions is embodied in the article stream deemed the Living Algorithm System, or its more popular name – The Mathematics of Living Systems. It was a great learning experience.
Life establishes Requirements and Challenges
I established my requirements and then set some challenges. I needed some kind of system that would be able to describe the Immediate Moment in relation to Past Moments and Future Moments. Further the digestive system must incorporate the potential for Informed Choice. There were other requirements as well, including providing a Fungible Meaning Making Mechanism.
Talents of Physics & Probability inadequate
Due to the quantification that is required to deal with information flows, it seems evident that this system must be mathematical in nature. Physics and Probability, as the premier mathematical systems of our day, were the prime candidates for the position. It became apparent that their talents were obviously and innately insufficient for the task – not in just one way, but in many regards. Probability’s preoccupation with the general features of data sets renders him blind to the Moment. Due to the fact that Physics operates in a closed system, he is inherently unable to incorporate the potential for Informed Choice.
Excuses: Probability: Life doesn't understand Random
Of course, they both had their excuses. Probability said that I didn’t understand random data streams well enough. He said that any apparent meaning was an illusion derived from innate random clustering. He said something about the possibility of molecules spontaneously assembling themselves into a B47 jet aircraft. I couldn’t stop laughing. He didn’t seem to understand that the number of meaningless combinations is astronomically greater – rendering this probabilistic miracle a practical impossibility.
Physics: No such thing as an Open System
Physics, of course, maintains that all systems are closed and that open systems are an illusion. How silly! I, of course, agree that my material system is closed as he states. However, my information system must be open to the external world to enable an appropriate response to environmental stimuli. Physics and Probability are both so desperate to maintain their worldview that they come up with ridiculous explanations that ignore an abundance of evidence to the contrary.
Explanations requires multiple perspectives
Why couldn’t they just be mature individuals and admit their shortcomings, rather than trying to assert their dominance? Don’t they understand that we live in polytheistic universe that requires a multitude of perspectives to describe the complexity? Haven’t they ever heard of Gödel’s logical paradox that a system cannot be both consistent and complete? Are they not acquainted with Bohr’s complementarity principle that electrons are both waves and particles? Are these ideas something that they choose to ignore?
Could the Living Algorithm be Life's Operating System?
I was certainly pleased when Cell successfully fulfilled all these challenges. Cell’s System specializes in characterizing the Momentum of the Moment. The prime function of her mathematical digestive system is to transform meaningless instants into meaningful moments. Cell employs her Predictive Cloud to characterize these moments. Whether I, Life actually employ the Living Algorithm to digest information or not, Cell is the only mathematical system that fulfilled all my specific requirements for a Mathematics of Living Systems. The Living Algorithm could very well be my operating system.
Why did Life choose the Living Algorithm's Triple Pulse?
Although pleased, I was not yet satisfied. Certain questions had yet to be addressed. I remember our ensuing conversation as if it was yesterday.
Life: “You’ve established the plausibility of the notion that you could be my operating system. It is certainly possible that I, Life, could employ you, the Living Algorithm, to provide meaning to the ongoing flow of data. But why is your Triple Pulse associated with my human behavior? Why would evolutionary processes choose the Triple Pulse over your other manifestations? Why would I actually choose to employ some of the fundamental patterns associated with your Living Algorithm System? What is the causal mechanism behind our linkage?”
Living Algorithm & Physics have the same architecture of dynamics
I couldn’t believe it when Cell calmly stated: “I, the Living Algorithm, share a common ancestor with traditional Physics. This common ancestor provides the causal mechanism that links the living systems you embody with both matter and information.” Stunned that Physics would be involved with us, laughter was my only refuge – the best way to resolve inner contradictions.
Both employ the same constructs: space, time, matter, and energy
Cell continued: “Both Physics are I are systems of dynamics. Both of our dynamical systems, material and information, employ the same fundamental constructs: space, time, matter, and energy. Further, these constructs are in the same relationship to each other. The exact same architecture applies to both systems. Our common structure of dynamics is topped by Power and has five levels, not including the foundation. The causal mechanism that you seek is found in the dynamics of a data stream.”
Blown away by this new information, I bowed down and prayed.
Data Stream Dynamics
This conversation led to our next series of interactions. These are recorded in the 3rd volume – Data Stream Dynamics. This collection of organized electronic bits explores the parallels between the dynamics of matter and the dynamics of information. I think we were both surprised by the depth of the connection. We had some insights that startled both of us. I remember laughing merrily to release the cognitive tension when we inadvertently joined dissimilar orthogonal planes together.
Life chooses Triple Pulse, as most productive and efficient data stream
With this new understanding, we could now answer my original question. Why would evolutionary processes naturally choose Cell’s Triple Pulse for living systems? The analysis of information dynamics suggests that the Triple Pulse data stream is the most efficient and productive sequence for digesting information. In short, the Triple Pulse gets the most work done most rapidly. The Triple Pulse sequence is also the most efficient as it employs a minimum of info energy to do the work of transforming the state of the system.
Living Algorithm System: behavioral correspondence, a plausible operating system & a causal mechanism
To better assimilate where we are, let us summarize our findings thus far. Observational studies certainly indicate striking correspondences between the Living Algorithm’s Triple Pulse and multiple sleep related phenomena. Plus, the Living Algorithm System is the only existent system that digests data streams via a method that I, Life, require. It is certainly plausible that the Living Algorithm could be my operating system. Evidence to the contrary has yet to be found. Finally, the Living Algorithm generates a system of info dynamics that is based upon the identical structure of material dynamics. This system of dynamics indicates that the Triple Pulse is the most powerful sequence for digesting information. This provides a plausible causal mechanism as to why evolutionary forces would select for biological processes that would require nature’s creatures to sleep.
So far, so good. Then came the mind-blowing insight. This has to do with Cell’s Pulse of Attention.
What Mechanism provides the Link between Information & Matter?
Cell proposed the following seemingly self-evident proposition. If the living systems that I embody employ a mathematical method to process data streams, there must be a translation mechanism that links the mathematics with the real world of matter. What is that linkage?
Purely Material Linkage doesn't incorporate potential for Informed Choice
If the linkage is of a purely material nature, as the current paradigm suggests, then it is based upon the biochemical-electrical-mechanical interactions of atoms and molecules. The dynamics of Newtonian Physics describes these interactions almost perfectly. Of course as noted, the laws of Physics operate automatically and don’t incorporate the possibility of informed choice.
Counter Evidence: Religions proliferate to control Choice
Yet there is an abundance of evidence indicating that my humans are constantly making choices. For instance, the primary purpose of the myriad religions and philosophies of our fair planet is to control the choices that humans make. Why did these forms of controlling thought and decision-making emerge spontaneously all over the world, if people behave more or less automatically? The futility of this approach would have been apparent and the technique abandoned due to lack of practical utility. Instead, a seemingly endless number of religious philosophies have proliferated due to the presumed practical efficacy of the approach. To explain away this prevalent cultural form in terms of the automatic behavior of matter, which of course includes electronics, would be so overly complicated as to violate Occam’s law of simplicity.
Physical model can't explain many of Life's features
Further, there are many significant features of my living process that the exclusively material explanation has not been able to address. For instance, on a mundane level, why do so many of my creatures sleep? How is it that a basketball player suddenly becomes hot? What does it mean to be in the Zone? Why are there so many self-help books available, if we are helpless before our material fate?
What is the Translation Mechanism between Info & Matter?
The exclusively material explanation leaves many questions unanswered. To address these questions, let us try a different approach. Let us suppose that the Living Algorithm serves as Life’s information digestion system. As we've seen, there are certainly many indications that this could be true. If the mathematical method to process data streams is based around the dynamics of information, instead of matter, then what is the translation mechanism that links the mathematics of information with the real world of matter? What is that linkage?
Attention Pulse completely concentrates Energy Density of Data Stream
Einstein’s insights reveal that energy and matter are transformations of each other. A mathematical analysis of Cell’s Pulse of Attention indicates that the energy density of a data stream is roughly 80% in the middle of the Pulse. By the end of the Pulse, the data stream’s density reaches 100%. This is quite different from a random data stream, whose energy density hovers around 0%. Hence, the Pulse of Attention is an excellent, if not the best, method for concentrating a data stream’s energy density. However, it takes the entire pulse to achieve this concentration.
Could this concentration spark the gap?
This mathematical fact raises an intriguing line of questions. Could conscious Attention be a method of sustaining a pulse long enough to attain 100% energy density? Could it be that this complete concentration of info energy has the ability to fire neurons? Firing neurons leaves memory traces, catalyzes the excretion of chemicals, and initiates biological processes. Could this conscious firing of neurons also be a method for nudging our behavior one way or another? – A way of slightly shifting the forward momentum of our genetic and environmental forces? The tugboat and the Titanic. Could this concentration of data stream energy spark the gap between the living world of information and the inert world of matter?
Could Attention generate a Pulse of Attention that initiates changes?
Could it be that the sustained Attention of Consciousness generates a Pulse of Attention? We’ve seen that the energy density of a data stream is less substantial in the middle of the Pulse and then completely substantial at the end. Does this indicate that the Attention Pulse process first opens the organism to new information and then provides an opportunity to integrate the information? Does it make sense that the energy of the data stream is only concentrated enough at the end of the pulse to transform the state of the System? Does this mean that info energy translates into physical energy via the Attention Pulse process? Could it be that Cell’s Pulse of Attention is the translation mechanism between the living world of information flow and the inert world of matter? Is that why the living systems that I embody regularly employ the Attention Pulse in a multitude of affairs? Is there any experimental evidence supporting or disproving any of these claims?
Link
With these linkages, speculations and questions in mind, check out the next article – The Primacy of Attention.