1. The Primacy of Attention for Life

3. Section Headings

Why does Living Algorithm's Triple Pulse correspond with Life's Human Behavior?

To provide context for our following discussions, let us briefly summarize where we’ve been, to see where we are going.

Is there any evidence of correspondences between the behaviors of the Living Algorithm & Life? Yes!

The Triple Pulse of Attention, the first collection of organized scribbling, examined the correspondences between the Living Algorithm’s Triple Pulse and many sleep related phenomena. Although these were merely observational studies, the many correspondences raised some significant questions.

Why does the behavior of the Living Algorithm’s purely mathematical system correspond with behavioral and biological reality? Is this connection descriptive, causal, or imaginary? Is there a confounding variable that links mathematical patterns with human behavior? What is the nature of the correspondence?

Could Life employ the Living Algorithm to digest data streams? Yes!

Because contemporary science does not provide any explanation for the phenomena or the correspondences, we decided to consider the possibility that living matter employs the Living Algorithm to digest the constant flow of environmental information. To test the plausibility of this theory, we proposed some reasonable, yet essential, requirements for a data stream mathematics of living systems. The Living Algorithm’s mathematical system was able to fulfill each of the requirements – meaning, immediacy, relationship, and the potential for informed choice. The 2nd volume, Mathematics of Living Systems, chronicles this investigation.

Why did Life choose the Living Algorithm's Triple Pulse?

This study, of course, raised further questions. The 2nd volume established that living matter could employ the Living Algorithm to provide meaning to the ongoing flow of data. But why is the Living Algorithm’s Triple Pulse associated with human behavior? Why would evolutionary processes select for the Triple Pulse over other manifestations? Why would living systems actually choose to employ the fundamental patterns associated with the Living Algorithm System? What is the causal mechanism behind this linkage?

The Living Algorithm System & Material Systems share the same dynamical structure.

Data Stream Dynamics, the 3rd volume, addresses the question of causality. This volume establishes that both material systems and the Living Algorithm’s information system share a common dynamical structure. Under this analysis, living systems evolve to employ the Triple Pulse because it is the most powerful and efficient method for transmitting information. Further, Life evolves to employ the Pulse of Attention because it concentrates the energy density sufficiently to spark the gap between Mind and Body.

Data Stream Dynamics provides causal mechanism for Triple Pulse Correspondences.

The symmetry of these dynamic relationships, while plausible, is purely theoretical. The question arises: Is there any empirical evidence in support of the theory? Could Attention really 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? Could sustained Attention generate a pulse of energy that initiates changes?

Current Volume: Is there any evidence for the transformative potentials of the Pulse of Attention?

Is there any evidence that Life employs Attention to spark the gap between Mind and Body? In this regard, what is the nature and role of this mysterious ‘Attention’ regarding the relationship between Life and the Living Algorithm? In what manner does Attention interact with Life, the urge to self-actualize? Does Attention play a crucial role in biological existence? If so, what? Attention & the Living Algorithm, the 4th and current volume in the series, addresses these questions. We begin the volume with a discussion of the primacy of Attention.

Why Attention is Life's Substance

Handwritten 0.9 hrs 4-1-12 Sun Portland; trans 6-8-12; website editing 6-16-12; sealed 7-5-12

Attention is Data Stream's Substance, a component of Mass

To provide context and direction, let us summarize the salient sections of prior articles. We have provided evidence that mass has two components, substance and inertia. In the material world these components are joined in one package. Matter both provides the substance of the physical universe and behaves in an inertial fashion. In the Living Algorithm System, these two components are separate. In the Data Stream Momentum volume we establish that a data stream's density represents the inertial component of a data stream. In the article, Data Stream Mass, we made the claim that Attention is the substance of a Data Stream.

Attention required to impart Meaning to a Data Stream

Attention, at whatever level, from cellular to a complete human organism, is required to impart reality to a data stream. Without Attention from an organism, no matter how small, a data stream has no significance. Attention is required to impart meaning to the constant flow of environmental input. For instance, there is an infinite amount of environmental information that our sensory organs can't perceive. For instance, our sense of sight is only set up to perceive a small percentage of the electromagnetic spectrum. An organism must be able to perceive a flow of information from either conscious or subconscious levels, to be able to make environmental adjustments, read choices.

Can only pay attention to what can be perceived

Of course, sometimes a data stream can exert an effect on an organism without being perceived. For instance, even though humans can't perceive the ultraviolet light from the sun, it can still burn us. However, the perception of the sunburn comes via our senses of touch (ouch!) and sight (lobster skin). Accordingly, our reaction is derived from attending to the data streams taken in and digested by our sensory mechanisms. We can only attend to, and subsequently respond to, what we perceive, whether it be on physical, emotional, or intellectual levels.

Attention to environmental input on all levels of the biological hierarchy

Further, this attention to sensory input from the environment occurs on all levels of the biological hierarchy - from individual cells to the central nervous system. Each level senses, attends, and responds to its own environmental stimuli. For instance, the environment for the bulk of human cells is beneath the skin. Conversely, a human's environment is outside the skin. The environmental influences (data streams) that the individual cell attends and responds to are of a qualitatively different nature than the environmental data streams that our sensory organs digest.

Conscious and Subconscious Attention

Let us add some qualifying remarks to refine the meaning behind this data stream of words. We are employing some common words in a tightly defined manner. For instance there is both conscious and subconscious attention. Conscious Attention is associated with the potential to make the self-reflective conscious choices of everyday life. For instance, we pay attention to our mental and physical states in order to decide what we want to do - watch TV or write a book. On the other hand, we apply the terms subconscious attention and subconscious choice to these same processes that occur beneath the level of consciousness. For instance, our digestive system must 'pay attention' to the nature of the incoming food to 'decide' which enzymes to excrete. Even the elementary cell has the potential to make a flexible response to environmental input.

All levels make subconscious adjustments based upon subconscious attention

In this sense, every level of the biological hierarchy (from the cell on up to the central nervous system) continually and regularly makes subconscious choices (below the level of consciousness) based upon subconscious attention. The stomach attends to external input to make proper adjustments to enzyme levels. The body attends to a variety of data streams to regulate its temperature. In similar fashion, the ear attends to sound waves to adjust volume levels. Each of these adjustments is based upon paying attention to some external signal.

Each level of biological hierarchy makes adjustments to the environment.

Each level of the biological hierarchy has a certain flexibility of response, which it must exercise in order to survive. However, the range of response shrinks as we sink to the lower levels of the hierarchy. The cells' responses are almost automatic and hence predictable within a very tight range. On the other hand, a chicken's response to being thrown in the air is so erratic that the range of predictability is very broad indeed. The only thing we can say with certainty is that the chicken will land on the ground. How she arrives there is another matter.

Although Life's adjustment Range is Narrow, Matter has None

Although the range of possible choices, even for humans, is frequently so narrow as to verge on the automatic, living systems require a flexibility of response on all levels of the biological hierarchy in order to survive and thrive. Attention to external signals, at whatever level of consciousness, is required to make these choices (adjustments), no matter how refined. In contrast, the behavior of matter is automatic, not flexible in any regard. The difference between the automatic nature of purely material systems and the flexible nature of biological systems is so slight as to be unrecognizable. However, this difference between the two systems is a matter of kind, not degree. There is no continuum here. Matter does not adjust to external circumstances; it only reacts.

Attention differentiates Matter from Life

Life requires Attention to Survive; Matter requires no Attention to just Be

Life's ability to pay attention to environmental input is a point of departure from purely material systems. Both living and purely physical systems have a material component. However, Living systems must pay attention environmental input in order to survive. Because of the ability to pay attention, Life is able to make flexible responses to environmental circumstances. These flexible responses increase the organism's chances of survival. Conversely, Matter does not have the capability to pay attention. Due to this inability, Matter responds mechanically to environmental circumstances. Life requires Attention to fulfill potentials; Matter requires no Attention to just be.

Life's Attention vs. Matter: Open/Closed System & Energy Consumption/Conservation

Life’s ability to pay attention has other ramifications as well. Matter operates in a closed physical system. Because Matter operates in a closed system, the conservation of energy applies. This crucial thermodynamic principle holds that material energy is never lost; it just goes through transformations. In other words, material energy is continually recycled. Nothing is added or lost.

Attention enables Life to receive environmental information – info energy. As such, Life operates in an open information system. Accordingly, the energy conservation principle cannot possibly apply. Instead, the consumption of info energy is the dominant principle, as we have shown elsewhere. The difference between Life’s open system and Matter’s closed system is akin to the difference between a stream of water and a pool of water. The stream’s content is ever changing, while the water in a pool remains the same.

The distinctions between Life and Matter are vast. Due to Attention, Life operates in an open info system where ‘choices’ are made. Without Attention, Matter operates in a closed system where responses are automatic. It is evident that Attention is a key component that differentiates living and material systems. This discussion further illustrates why Attention is the Substance of Life.

Attention linked to a Sense of Time Passing

Besides the aforementioned features, a sense of time is yet another quality that Attention imparts to living systems. Attention, by definition, ‘attends’ to ongoing signals (data streams) to enable decisions about the future. Hence, there is a sense of the duration of time, even if it is only mathematical. Accordingly, Attention and a sense of time are intimately linked. Indeed, even the urge to survive is linked to this sense of time. Although matter appears to move through time, matter doesn't require this sense of time, as no choices are made in a purely mechanical world. Survival is not an issue for electrons and photons, or particularly for the indestructible atom.

Environmental Interaction: Matter Instantaneous – Life Consecutive

Newton's laws of material motion effectively eliminated the possibility of choice in material systems. His second law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This fundamental law of Physics implies that matter responds instantaneously, not consecutively, to forces that act upon it. The instantaneous nature of the interactions requires the infinitesimals of calculus to perform the calculations, as there is no space between the stimulus and the response. Although Newtonian mechanics is associated with cause and effect reasoning, it is only a matter of convention as to which is the cause and which is the effect. This is due to the instantaneous nature of the give and take. In contrast, the give and take is consecutive in living systems at whatever level of the biological hierarchy. The consecutive nature of the interaction leads to a sense of time and with it the ability to make adjustments to environmental stimuli.

Inseparable trio – Life, Attention, & Living Algorithm – a meaning-making entity

In effect, Attention is the bridge that links Life with the Living Algorithm System, or an information digesting system very much like it. Without Attention, the Living Algorithm is just a mathematical system that has no pragmatic meaning. Without the Living Algorithm, or something very much like it, to digest and provide meaning to the continuous data streams that she is subject to, Life could not survive. Without Life, Attention and the Living Algorithm System are meaningless. It could be argued that Life, Attention, and an information digesting system, such as the Living Algorithm provides, had to emerge together spontaneously, if Life was to survive through time. The trio is so intimately linked that separating them is impossible. Similarly, meaning requires a sense of time. The synergy of Life, Attention, and the Living Algorithm provides the meaning that is integrally linked with the sense of survival through the passage of time.

Empirical Evidence exists for Logical Claims

Although these claims are all logically reasonable, the graveyard of science is filled with reasonable ideas. However, there is already experimental evidence that supports this line of thinking. In fact behavioral phenomenon led the theory. We first noticed empirical evidence linking the behavior of Life with the Living Algorithm. We first uncovered 'what' happens. Now we are attempting to provide a plausible explanation as to 'why' it happens. This order is an essence of modern science. (For a historical development of this topic, see the article From Why to What.)

Working Definitions for Life, the Living Algorithm & Attention

Life + Attention + Living Algorithm = Meaning

Now that we have roughed in three essential aspects of any living system, let us examine the function of each feature. Let us begin with the self-evident proposition discussed above. Biological systems require both a mechanism that attends to environmental data streams and a mechanism that digests these same data streams. For ease of discussion, we will call this trio of inseparable elements Life, Attention and the Living Algorithm. This mutually dependent relationship creates meaning from environmental data streams. Living systems require meaningful environmental information in order to survive and even thrive. This meaning can come in myriad forms, for instance physical, emotional, or intellectual.

Tightening Definitions

We've been throwing around some words rather casually on the assumption that we have a common understanding as to their meaning. Let's tighten up the discussion with some working definitions. These definitions are meant to strip away connotation to enable us to better describe and analyze the interlocking processes.

Life = the Will to Survive -> Fulfilling Potentials -> the Urge for Self-Actualization

In the context of our study, Life is a living material system that makes adjustments (choices) to environmental input in order to actualize potentials. Frequently, fulfilling potentials is associated with personal survival. Often, but not always, fulfilling potentials pertains to survival of the species. In fact, it has been argued that species survival is more important than individual survival. This is seen regularly when parents willingly sacrifice themselves for their children or members of a pack or hive will sacrifice themselves for the good of the collective group. Due to our potentials combined with our complex social organization and our ability for self-reflection, the human will to self-actualize becomes a many splendored thing. But in each case, whether the birds will to sing, the plants urge to flower, or the humans intent to write a piano sonata, it is all lumped under Life's will to fulfill innate potentials – self-actualization.

Living Algorithm = a Mathematical Tool that digests Data Streams

In order to self-actualize her potentials, Life needs some help. Going it alone would have fatal consequences. She requires a mathematical mechanism to digest her data streams - so that they have meaning for her. We have suggested that the Living Algorithm is this mechanism. Despite our personifications, the Living Algorithm has no motive force. The Living Algorithm is a mathematical algorithm that digests data streams and has no material component. As a simple equation, the Living Algorithm provides information on command. She doesn't provide interpretation. In the context of our discussion, she is a mathematical tool.

Attention = a Process that employs the Living Algorithm tool to assist Life satisfy her urges

Life is an urge; the Living Algorithm is a tool. Attention is the process that employs the Living Algorithm as a tool to assist Life to satisfy her urge to self-actualize. Attention is the go between that links the Urge with the Tool. In similar fashion, the hand links the urge to nail things together with a hammer. Attention's process has several features that bear examination.

Attention: Life's original filter

Attention acts as a Relevance Filter

The Living Algorithm is a mathematical tool that digests any data stream indiscriminately – without intent. Further, the Living Algorithm generates, not one, but an infinite number of ongoing measures (data stream derivatives) for each data stream. These derivatives characterize the rates of change of any raw data stream from the environment. Attention, we speculate, is the mechanism that picks and chooses when to employ the Living Algorithm and which of her infinite number of data stream measures to transmit to Life. Accordingly, the Attention process acts as both a filter and a selector for the Living Algorithm and Life. Attention first must select the most relevant data streams to focus the Living Algorithm upon. Then Attention must choose the most relevant information to transmit to Life.

Attention: an Information Censor

In this modality, Attention acts a censor to prevent sensory or information overload. As Koestler states,

“In the nervous system, in particular, there is censorship at every step – to prevent overloading of the information channels and overshooting of responses.” (Act of Creation, 1964, p.449)

Attention provides this function. Our sensory apparatus takes continuous environmental information and translates it into quantified data streams. Attention's first task is to select which of a virtual infinity of sensory data streams to pass on to Life.

Attention/Living Algorithm synergy screens out irrelevant information

Life has no access to the raw data, as she can only understand the language of digested data streams. As so much data is bombarding her at all times, Life enlists the aid of Attention to filter out irrelevant sensory information and provide her with the most meaningful information. The Living Algorithm translates the language of Raw Data into a form that could be useful to living systems. Attention must first select which information the Living Algorithm is to digest. Attention then must decide which of the Living Algorithm's digested information flows to pass on to Life. From the digested information that Attention provides, Life makes adjustments (choices) to facilitate survival or her ability to actualize her potentials. Attention has a very difficult job indeed.

Attention's process: virtually Automatic

Compounding the difficulty, Attention's selections, we speculate, must be virtually automatic due to the immediacy of living systems. Attention must instantly determine which data streams to attend to and which information to transmit. Due to Life's fragility, lag time is frequently a fatal flaw. Accordingly, thresholds of selection and transmission must be preset to trigger automatic processes.

Life adjusts Attention's automatic algorithms

Although Life can't play around with Attention's code, she can adjust the dials to influence how Attention's matrix manifests itself. In other words, Life has the ability to choose what Attention focuses upon. Of course, this ability has limited parameters. In this sense, Attention feeds Life with the Living Algorithm's digested information. However, Life can request the type of information that she will receive. In similar fashion, humans set up certain automatic algorithms that computers employ to mine sales data. This automatic process places advertisements on our computer screen that are relevant to choices we have made when we open our Gmail, UTube, or our Amazon account. The Living Algorithm can be likened to the computer's operating system; Attention to the automatic algorithms; and Life to the human consciousness that set up the algorithms. Life also makes appropriate decisions based on the information that is supplied.

Attention and the Living Algorithm operate in tandem.

Although Attention and the Living Algorithm are distinct, we speculate that Attention and the Living Algorithm operate in tandem. Attending to a signal immediately activates the Living Algorithm. As soon as Attention selects a data stream to focus upon, the Living Algorithm begins digesting it. The digestive process reveals the rates of change (the derivatives) of the raw data stream.

Attention sifts Sensory Input for Life

One final point: each level of the biological hierarchy has its own sensory mechanisms. These mechanisms provide the environmental data streams that the Living Algorithm digests. This is the food for Life's information system. The sensory mechanisms translate the environmental data streams into a form that can be digested (perhaps quantified or digitized). Attention, at whatever level, selects which of these sensory data streams to put in the Living Algorithm’s information digesting system. Attention also selects which of this digested info food to transmit to Life. As the selector and transmitter of relevant information, Attention, we speculate, is mathematical in nature. Accordingly, Attention acts Life's orignial filter. Without Attention the sensory information is inaccessible, hence has no meaning for the organism. For instance, when we daydream the teacher's words are unintelligible sounds. The Attention/Living Algorithm synergy transmits the most relevant information from environmental data streams to Life. With this information, Life can make informed decisions that enable her to fulfill her potentials. This is yet another context where Attention provides Life with Substance.

Life/Attention/Living Algorithm synergy operates on each level of Biological Hierarchy.

The Life/Attention/Living Algorithm synergy operates on each level of biological hierarchy. For instance, in the context of this discussion, each layer of the hierarchy from the single cell to multi-organism communities has its own life force. The life force, at whatever level, has the same urge to fulfill potentials. Each level of the hierarchy has its own realm (environment) that its life force must attend and respond to. Accordingly, we propose that each level requires a mathematical mechanism (the Living Algorithm) that translates the environmental data streams into a meaningful form. Further, Attention is necessary to select and transmit the digested information to the life force. As such, our ongoing analysis of the Life/Attention/Living Algorithm synergy applies equally to all levels of the biological hierarchy. This generalization justifies our quest to understand the code of this living matrix.

How does Attention/Living Algorithm synergy work?

A question arises: How does the Attention/Living Algorithm synergy link Life with the Environment? How does Attention fulfill this crucial function? What mathematical mechanism does Attention employ to provide Life with the most relevant digested information? To find out, proceed directly to the next article in the series, The Random Screen.

For a cogent summary of Life’s perspective on this article, check out the engaging narrative – How does the Attention/Living Algorithm synergy work? This illuminating discussion should assist in the assimilation of this dense material.

 

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