Section Headings
- Material Explanations exhausting their Explanatory Power
- Could Info Energy interact with Material Energy?
- 1. How does Information interact with Matter?
- 2. Where does the Interaction between Matter & Information occur?
- 3. What is the Source of Info Energy?
- The Info Energy Cycle: Mind's Influence on Body
- Choice in the middle of Info Energy Cycle
Material Explanations exhausting their Explanatory Power
What mechanisms allow the worlds of matter and information to interact?
The evidence is fairly incontrovertible. Life employs information to make decisions. She then employs these information-based decisions to direct her material component, the Body, to behave in such a manner that will enable her to self-actualize. On the most basic level, this could be the urge to persist. The question arises: what mechanisms enable this interaction between the worlds of matter and information?
Open to Material Explanation
We are certainly open to more traditional explanations of a material or electronic nature. Let them dispel this seemingly miraculous interaction that occurs relatively continuously in our daily lives. At each moment we seem to make decisions based upon environmental information, some automatically, others with lesser or greater intention.
Completed material systems still unable to address human behavior.
Interestingly, many material descriptions of reality thoroughly explain their piece of the puzzle. However, these completed logical systems are still unable to address huge swatches of human experience. Scientists have effectively reached the end of their line of research and still have not been able to provide insight into significant aspects of human behavior.
With God Particle, Matter research has exhausted the potential of addressing human mystery.
For instance, we’ve completely mapped the cognitive centers of the brain without finding the center of consciousness or an explanation for the Mind/Body interaction. With the discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle, nicknamed the God particle, Physics have reached the end of this line of research. Refinements will go on for decades, but the limits of this area of investigation have been identified.
"Finding a Higgs [the God particle] more or less as expected is actually a bit deflating, Carroll [a physicist at Cal Tech] said, because physicists had also hoped that an unexpected type of Higgs might open windows into yet more mysteries of the universe. "Scientists always want to be wrong in their theories. They always want to be surprised, "he said. "It's a bittersweet victory when your theory turns out to be right, because it means, on the one hand, you're right, but on the other hand you haven't learned anything new that's surprising." (Santa Barbara New Press, March 15, 2013)
In other words, Physics has exhausted its ability to provide a matter-based explanation for decision-making. Our knowledge of atoms and electrons has yet to reveal anything significant about human behavior.
Quote: Genes don’t provide answer to human complexity, i.e. the ability to produce conscious action.
The Human Genome Project uncovered all the human genes without finding an explanation for the abundance of evidence that suggests there is a connection between matter and information. Further one of their esteemed colleagues has expressed doubt about the ability of genetics to deal with this mysterious evidence.
“In a commentary on the surprising results of the Human Genome Project, David Baltimore, one of the world’s preeminent geneticists and a Nobel Prize winner, addressed the issue of human complexity (Baltimore 2001):
“But unless the human genome contains a lot of genes that are opaque to our computers, it is clear that we do not gain our undoubted complexity over worms and plants by using more genes. Understanding what does give us our complexity – our enormous behavioral repertoire, ability to produce conscious action, remarkable physical coordination, precisely tuned alterations in response to external variations of the environments, learning, memory, need I go on? – remains a challenge for the future.”
As Baltimore states, the results of the Human Genome Project are forcing us to reconsider other ideas about how life is controlled. “Understanding what does give us our complexity … remains a challenge for the future.” (Biology of Belief, pp. 33-4)
The Nobel Prize winning geneticist exhibits admirable humility about his profession. His branch of science provides explanations for a significant piece of the puzzle. Yet he expresses doubt that genetics will be able to answer the questions surrounding human complexity, for instance how humans 'produce conscious action'.
John von Neumann, inventor of computer: "The Brain operates in non-electronic fashion."
The artificial intelligence community is still confident that there is a digital electronic solution for the mysterious interaction between matter and life. However, one of their own even casts doubt on the possibility that the human brain even works digitally – in an electronic fashion. Let us hear from the man, who laid the mathematical foundations for the modern computer and is arguably the most influential mathematician of the mid 20th century - John von Neumann.
“John von Neumann … pointed out that there were good grounds merely in terms of electrical analysis to show that the brain itself, could not be working on a digital system. It did not have enough accuracy; or, if it had all that accuracy, it did not have enough memory. There must be some other way. And he wrote some classical sentences saying that there is a statistical language in the brain, it is different from any statistical language that we use, we do not know how it goes, but this is what we have to discover. I guess that the discovery will take us the rest of the life of the universe. … I think we shall make some progress along the lines of looking for what kind of statistical language would work.” (Bronowsky, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, 1978, p. 103) (J. von Neumann, The Computer and the Brain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958).
Neuro-Scientists feel technological advances will provide answers.
Due to recent technological advances in our ability to scan the brain, many cognitive scientists, especially neurologists, are certain that the answer to the many mysteries of consciousness is almost within their grasp. However, as yet no material-based solution has been put forward to explain the social institutions that are designed to shape the thoughts and hence the decision-making powers of humans. The Catholic Church is just one of myriad examples of this kind.
Information-based explanation due to Living Algorithm correspondences
Instead of traditional approaches, we have chosen to explore an information-based explanation for this peculiar interaction between information and matter. Prior articles have demonstrated that the Living Algorithm’s mathematical system of information digestion correlates with many diverse features of cognitive science. This includes providing some plausible explanations for some long-term biological mysteries. This lends credence to the importance and credibility of viewing the digestion of data through the lens of the Living Algorithm.
Could Info Energy interact with Material Energy?
Energy is Connector
In material systems, physical energy is the connector. Energy allows all the diverse systems to interact. Heat energy is translated into mechanical energy in a steam engine. Nuclear energy is translated into electrical energy, which in turn is translated into the myriad forms of energy that drive our modern civilization. We suggest that info energy connects Life with the Body's physical energy. We further postulate that Mind Intent creates info energy by investing information with mental energy.
Intriguing Questions: how is info energy translated into mechanical energy?
This analysis raises some interesting questions. Assuming the analysis to be correct, how is this info energy employed? What does it actually work upon? Specifically, how is this info energy translated into the mechanical energy required to operate in the real world? What mechanism is at the heart of the transformation? Further, where does this interaction occur? Perhaps the most significant and controversial question is: What is the source of info energy? The plausible answers that we suggest for these questions are founded upon both the apparent ability of living systems to make choices and the apparent correspondences between the Living Algorithm System and empirical reality.
1. How does Information interact with Matter?
Let’s start with the question: how is info energy translated into the biomechanical energy required to move our material Body? What mechanism is at the heart of the transformation? How does this transfer of energy occur?
Sustained Attention generates an Experience that sparks the Gap.
The Attention/Living Algorithm synergy translates instants to moments to experience. Experience occurs when Attention is sustained for a sufficient duration to generate a Pulse. As the Pulse is completed the data stream attains 100% energy density. We suggested in another article that this accumulated energy density is required to spark the gap between the worlds of information and matter. It takes Sustained Attention over time to generate sufficient energy density to create the Experience that transforms Life. This interaction could take the simple form of firing a neuron to elicit a response to environmental stimuli. Reiterating; it is the Sustained Attention to Information that generates sufficient energy density to create the Experience that sparks the gap with the Material world.
This analysis provides a plausible explanation to one feature of the intriguing interaction between matter and information.
2. Where does the Interaction between Matter & Information occur?
Where does the transfer of energy from information to matter occur?
Transfer does not occur in our atom-based world.
The transfer definitely does not occur in our atom-based world. Virtually everything consists of atoms, and Physicists know practically all there is to know about atoms. There are few facts about our atom-based world that are indisputable. Atoms are not animate and they behave according to the automatic laws of Newtonian Mechanics. This knowledge is about as close to scientific fact as it comes. In fact, because Physics and Chemistry are able to make these definitive statements about atomic matter, they are called hard sciences.
Atom-based world is deterministic, therefore atom-based humans behave deterministically?
Because there is no wiggle room in the atom-based world of matter and living systems consist of atoms, many have also inferred that living systems don’t have the wiggle room to make choices. The reasoning is straightforward. Matter behaves deterministically. Humans consist solely of matter. Therefore humans behave deterministically. Although the logic inspires consideration, it ignores an abundance of empirical evidence to the contrary. For instance, this reasoning doesn’t address the multitude of cultural institutions that have emerged in all times and places that are designed to influence our decision-making process, i.e. religion, philosophy, and politics.
How to account for Complexity of Physical Universe after the Big Bang?
If the interaction between matter and information does not occur in our molecular atom-based world, where could it possibly occur? Let’s take our lead from Physics. In their exploration of the macroscopic world, an abundance of evidence indicates that our Universe began with what has been called the Big Bang. Although the evidence for the Big Bang is conclusive, a significant unresolved issue remains. How did this cataclysmic event lead to the complexity of our world? If the Singularity before the Big Bang were uniform, the resultant universe would also be uniform due to the automatic laws of matter. If the slightest irregularities are introduced into the Singularity, the resultant differences are too great to account for the subtle diversity of our physical universe.
Hawking: In the Subatomic World beneath the Quantum Limits of the Uncertainty Principle.
The esteemed writer and physicist Steven Hawking proposed an ingenious solution to the problem. He suggested that the irregularities in the initial Singularity occur in the subatomic world beneath the quantum limits of the Uncertainty Principle. Although the subatomic world provides a foundation for our atom-based molecular world, it is of an entirely different nature.
Electrons & Photons hidden inside a Probabilistic Box.
While atoms behave in a similar fashion to the particles of our everyday world, the electrons and photons of the subatomic world behave in an entirely different fashion. It is possible to accurately determine both the position and trajectory of particles in our molecular world. In the subatomic world of electrons and photons, it is only possible to determine position or trajectory, but not both simultaneously. It is as if electrons and photons are hidden in a probabilistic box. While scientists can predict the behavior of large groups of photons and electrons, an individual electron or photon can shoot out from the box anywhere and in any direction, including backwards and forwards in time. Because of the innate quantized (granular) nature of electrons and photons, scientists cannot look inside this box to see what is going on.
Subtlety contained in Subatomic Box: Not too Little; not too much.
Hawking’s brilliant proposal is that the irregularities of the original Singularity are contained in this tiny probabilistic subatomic box. This solves the dilemma. At the beginning there is some differentiation, although nearly infinitesimal. Thus the original explosion won't yield a uniform universe, nor will it result in a universe without subtlety. The variation in the singularity is just enough to generate the incredible diversity of our world. Not too little; not too much. Hawking’s hypothesis certainly qualifies as a plausible explanation for the mystery of the resultant complexity after the Big Bang.
Could the Interaction between Matter & Information also occur beneath the Quantum Limits of the Uncertainty Principle?
Let’s employ the same solution for the dynamic interaction between Life’s information digestion system and the material universe. We suggest, in like manner to Steven Hawking, that the interaction also occurs in these subatomic boxes beneath innate quantum limits. Due to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, we can’t look inside the box to determine what exactly is going on. The ultimate mystery is enshrined in the heart of the physical universe. However, just as Hawking employed this fudge factor to account for the resultant complexity of our universe after the Big Bang, we employ these quantum limits to account for the interaction between matter and information. These suggestive speculations both provide plausible explanations for their respective mysteries, but are in no way definitive, and perhaps can never be.
3. What is the Source of Info Energy?
We’ve provided plausible explanations for our first 2 questions concerning how and where the interaction between information and matter occurs. When a data stream’s energy density reaches 100%, info energy may interact with material energy. This interaction could occur in the subatomic world beneath the quantum limits established by the Uncertainty Principle. But where does info energy come from? Burning wood is a source of heat energy. Water turns turbines to generate electrical energy, which is converted into mechanical energy. What is the source of info energy?
What happens to the Info Energy from the Infinity of Data Streams?
Let’s start with the assertion that there are a practical infinity of environmental data streams that are occurring continually. Our senses just pick up a small fraction of these to give meaning to our world. A limited range of atmospheric vibrations provides fuel for our ears and eyes. Appropriate senses have evolved to receive and translate a small fraction of these waves. For the limited number of data streams that we process, there are millions that we don’t. What happens to all the info energy from this infinity of data streams? Why doesn’t it overwhelm the universe?
Data Streams must be digested before they acquire Info Energy.
Data Streams must be digested before they acquire energy. The digestion process translates data into information. If data is not digested, it remains a string of numbers. Evidence indicates that the Living Algorithm could be that translator.
The Living Algorithm, the tool of the System, is not the source of Info Energy.
Although the Living Algorithm’s digestion process transforms data into information, she just provides the method of organization. Just as a hammer supplies no energy of its own, the Living Algorithm, as the tool of the System, is definitely not the source of Info Energy.
Attention, the System’s eye, is not the Source of Info Energy.
We’ve argued that Attention provides the substance of the Living Algorithm System. The substance of Attention is required to perceive, recognize, and organize the informational space of a data stream. There is no info energy without Attention. As the eyes of the System, Attention tells the Living Algorithm which data streams to digest. Just as the eyes are not the source of biological energy, Attention is not the source of Info Energy.
Although Info Energy requires Living Algorithm and Attention, the Synergy not the Source
Although Info Energy requires the Living Algorithm/Attention synergy to exist, they are separate entities. Similarly wood and oxygen are required for fire, but are unique entities. The Living Algorithm is the tool that presumably digests the information in a data stream. Although she digests data streams, the Living Algorithm does not create the info energy. Attention sifts data streams – passing on those that are organized to Life and ignoring the rest. Although Attention provides this preliminary data stream differentiation, she does not provide the energy. If the Living Algorithm/Attention synergy doesn’t generate the info energy, where does this mysterious, almost miraculous, info energy come from?
Life is the Source of Info Energy.
As mentioned, Attention is an automatic mathematical process that Life employs to interact with her environment via the Living Algorithm’s digestion process. It is Life that directs Attention’s focus. Ultimately it is Life that imparts info energy to a raw data stream via the Attention/Living Algorithm synergy.
Mind Intent guides Life’s urge to self-actualize.
And what is this Life? In the Living Algorithm System, Life is defined simply as the urge to self-actualize – a feature common to all living systems, no matter how big or small. It is this primal urge that supplies the info energy. Mind Intent is the name we give to the mechanism that guides the energy. Mind Intent is an innate feature of Life. It is the guiding force that makes decisions for the good of the organism. Reiterating many of these decisions, but not all, have been put on automatic for reasons of efficiency.
The Info Energy Cycle: Mind's Influence on Body
Info Energy belongs to a Cycle
Let it be stressed that Info Energy belongs to a distinct cycle of events. It takes time for the Energy of the Mind to generate enough Info Energy to produce an effect upon the Matter of the Body. The energy exchange is not instantaneous, but instead requires effort over time to complete the process. Further, the transformation occurs in stages. Let's review how this important process transpires.
Senses transform Environmental Information into Data Streams.
There are multiple stages to the transformation of environmental information into material energy. Initially the senses (sensory mechanisms) digest environmental information to create individual data streams. This is the first stage of transformation.
The Living Algorithm transforms Data Streams into Trajectories/Rates of Change.
The Living Algorithm then digests the data streams that Attention focuses upon. The Living Algorithm's digestion process reveals the ongoing trajectories/rates of change of the data stream. This is second stage of transformation.
The 4 Languages of Information Digestion
These first 2 stages translate environmental information into a language that Mind can understand (more user friendly). Just as the Living Algorithm understands the language of data streams, Mind can understand the language of data stream trajectories, i.e. rates of change. Mind employs these rates of change (derivatives) in a virtual infinity of ways to serve Life's quest for self-actualization. On the most basic level, these data stream metrics (the derivatives) are employed to filter out random data streams. On the more sophisticated level, Mind employs the data stream metrics to determine which data stream to invest with mental energy. The application of Mind Intent over time transforms Data Stream Information into Knowledge. This is language that Life understands. Life employs this knowledge to direct the Body to do her bidding.
The Cycle of Info Energy
We can also view this same process energetically. The chart of this cycle is shown at the right. Life, according to our model, consists of both Mind and Body. The Cycle of Info Energy indicates how Mind interacts with Body.
Mental Energy via Attention/Living Algorithm synergy initiates the transformation process.
Mind exerts the Energy of Intent to focus Attention upon the instants (the sensory data points) of a Data stream. The Attention digests Sensory Data Streams via the Living Algorithm. The Living Algorithm’s digestion process transforms 'instants' into 'moments' (the trajectories/rates of change). This begins the transformation of mental energy into info energy.
Mind Intent generates Experience that produces an Effect upon Body
The Living Algorithm’s digestion process invests mental energy, via Attention, into the information contained in the data stream. This investment process imparts energy into the data stream’s information – info energy. Moments by themselves do not have enough info energy to influence the Body. Mind must invest mental energy via Attention for a sufficient duration of time to produce this effect. Once enough of these Moments have accumulated enough info energy, they generate an Experience. It is this Experience that produces an effect upon the Body.
Every element essential to complete the Info Energy Cycle
Note that every element in the Info Energy cycle is essential to the completion of the process. Life, as Mind Intent, is the Source of Info Energy. But this energy can’t exert an effect without the Attention/Living Algorithm synergy to digest the data stream. In similar fashion, the energy of Fire requires wood, heat, and oxygen to exist. The data stream is the fuel of the System. Accordingly, the Life/Attention/Living Algorithm synergy consumes data streams, transforming them into experience.
Repetitions are required to translate Moments into Experience
However, this is not an instantaneous affair. The energy from this interaction can only create a transformative Experience, if the Fire of Attention is sustained. Accordingly, time is a crucial element in the Info Energy process. Up to the point that Moments are translated into Experience, the Info Energy process is relatively instantaneous. Mind focuses Attention upon a potentially relevant data stream and the Living Algorithm begins to digest it. However, the translation of Moments into Experience – Information into Knowledge – takes multiple repetitions. And this takes time.
Choice in the middle of Info Energy Cycle
A constant evaluation process: Is the Data Stream worthy of becoming an Experience?
The transformation of ‘information’ into ‘knowledge’ is not a simple process of repetition. There is a constant process of evaluation going on. Mind regularly asks: Is it worth investing mental energy in this data stream to generate a Complete Pulse?
Or stated more simply: Are the Moments data stream worthy of being transformed into an Experience? Or is this information flow just a random data stream pretending to contain meaningful information? Should valuable mental energy be invested to convert the ‘information’ contained in this particular data stream into ’knowledge? Each of us makes endless choices of this nature on a daily basis. For instance: should I read the newspaper, watch TV, or take a walk?
Physical Energy is Automatic; the Transformation of Mental to Info Energy is Deliberate.
There are distinct differences between mental energy, physical energy, and info energy. The processes associated with physical energy, such as the conversion of heat energy to mechanical energy, occur automatically without mediation. In contrast, the process associated with converting mental energy into info energy is deliberate. Mind must sustain Attention on a data stream for a sufficient amount of time to transform its information into knowledge that will be useful to Life.
Transformation Process can be aborted at any time.
Further, the transformation of information into knowledge can be aborted at any instant in the data stream. There are at least 2 reasons that a data stream might be abandoned prematurely. In each case, the conversion of mental to info energy does not occur or is incomplete. In contrast, physical energy is indestructible, even though it goes through endless transformations.
Attention's automatic filter abandons data streams that lack sufficient acceleration.
One reason that a data stream is abandoned is based in Attention’s automatic filter system. As mentioned in prior articles, if the current data stream’s acceleration doesn't reach a certain level after sufficient repetitions, Attention automatically shifts focus to a fresh data stream. This system is designed to filter out random data streams, whose acceleration remains low.
Mind abandons data streams that aren't relevant to Life.
The second reason a data stream might be abandoned prematurely is because of Mind’s evaluation process. Mind's filters are much more sophisticated than Attention’s automatic filters. Mind’s filters are attuned to data streams that might contain information that could enable Life to fulfill her potentials. The question that is regularly posed: Shall mental energy be invested to transform ‘information’ into ’knowledge’ that will be useful to Life? Mind abandons data streams that seem to have no relevance.
To ride or pull out of the Info Energy Wave?
The point is straightforward. The Info Energy Cycle is based upon a mental decision. If Mind sustains Attention for sufficient time on a data stream, it generates a Pulse. This Pulse can be likened to a wave. Like a surfer, Mind must decide whether to ride the Information Wave to a full Experience or pull out. Mind must determine whether the wave is worthy of riding. This choice is firmly rooted in the fundamental process of transforming mental energy into info energy. Sustaining Attention completes the transformation process and generates a Pulse. A completed Pulse sparks the gap between Mind and Body. In other words, this mechanism is how Mind's choice influences Body.
A daily Question: Shall we invest Time & Energy transforming a Moment into an Experience?
Everyone regularly makes this choice on a daily level. We frequently ask ourselves questions that reflect the process. On the most general level: What activities do I want to invest my mental energy in? Should I invest my time in accumulating money, building a wall of security, or pursuing creative endeavors? The possibility of making this decision is the root of job frustration. Workers regularly ask themselves, "Do I want to continue investing my Life's mental energy in this job?" Of course lovers are plagued by a similar question. "Do I want to continue investing time and energy in this relationship?" Or on more trivial levels, "Do I want to spend my time on this movie, that party, or another concert?" The heart of each of these questions is the same. "Do I want to sustain my mental Attention upon this Data Stream for a sufficient duration to generate an Experience that will transform my Body."
The Only Choice, whether to participate or not; Not what action to take.
An interesting feature of this schema is that the only choice is whether or not to invest mental energy in the Information Pulse – to catch the wave or not. The choice is not what to do - what action to take, but whether or not to participate. It seems that Life employs Mind as a tool to convert information into useful knowledge. Life then employs this knowledge to make almost instinctive decisions. This is in line with a certain way of thinking described in The Inner Game of Music and Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Performance is enhanced when the conscious Mind is not involved in the process, whether it be making music or fixing motorcycles. In our model, Mind's function is to provide Life with knowledge. Life then takes the appropriate action. However, it seems that Life, which is associated with our primal emotional brain, moves rather automatically once the information is provided. The only real choice is whether or not to invest mental energy in the incoming information.
Check out the next article in the series to uncover what part Consciousness plays in this process.
To return to the narrative, read The Living Algorithm pays Homage to Life.