Why is Info Energy so controversial?
It is curious that the illustrious minds since the Scientific Revolution did not consider how mental energy, independent of its material component, might influence the physical realm. Neither did they consider how a human digests information and how this affects personal transactions. Because of its computational abilities, the personal computer was certainly an essential tool in developing this line of thought. But why were there no prior speculations as to these possibilities?
Descartes: Thinking implies Being, but Behavior not subject to Thought
Perhaps Descartes’ famous statement, “I think, therefore I am,” may have been a beginning stab in this direction. This statement indicates that Descartes realized that our ability to digest information (the act of thinking) makes us what we are. After realizing this fact, he asserted that there is an unbridgeable chasm between this thinking mind and our material body. He made the additional claim that universal laws reigned supreme. He went on to assert that a Divine Mover (God) set things in motion and then stepped back and watched events unfold automatically. This notion denied the potential for biological choice, placing everything under the sway of abstract, perhaps mathematical, universal laws. Thinking is the root of being, but divine universal laws rule behavior. Under this analysis, thinking has no effect upon the predetermined behavior of the Universal Flux.
Descartes' separation of mind and body enables scientific revolution
Descartes' separation of mind and body into two parts was a powerful contribution to the growing scientific revolution. This perspective enabled scientists to study the body (or matter) as an independent entity. This shift freed the scientific community from the animistic superstitions and traditions that had obstructed the investigation of the empirical world for so many millennia. Descartes’ notion of universal laws of motion combined with Galileo's pragmatic results enabled Newton to formulate his absolute and invariable laws of motion. These investigations inevitably led to an understanding of the force of gravity. It is undeniable that Descartes’ method of breaking things into parts in order to study each component individually is incredibly useful as a scientific technique.
Following Descartes' lead, Contemporary Science investigates material nature of Thought
It could further be claimed that his brilliant contributions laid the foundations for future investigations into the innate nature of our physical world. Following Descartes' lead, the scientific community has continued to search for universal laws that govern the behavior of matter. This approach includes modern neurological investigations regarding the material basis of thought. Another approach to thinking focuses upon statistically significant correlations that might govern human behavior. Both approaches totally ignore the interaction between an organism and the physical environment via the digestion of information. This dynamic interaction between organism and environment is an essential feature of living systems and the root of our ability to make choices.
Western Intelligentsia blinded by Descartes' materialist Perspective
Many claim that Descartes was the father of modern scientific determinism. The extreme followers of this way of thinking hold the somewhat bizarre notion that everything is the result of subatomic collisions between inanimate particles. Music, Love, Passion, Inspiration, Beauty, what do these holistic concepts have to do with quarks, neutrons, or even molecules? Some have argued that Descartes’ prestige was so great that the intelligentsia, at least in the West, have been blinded by his materialist perspective.
Cognitive dissonance due to violation of Descartes' materialist paradigm?
What concept have these great minds failed to see? Judging by their brilliance, was their lack of insight because they excluded possibilities that fell outside of Descartes' mind/body paradigm? Was their blindness somewhat self-induced, in the sense that they didn’t want to perceive an alternative that violated all their professional training – that elicited cognitive dissonance? What concept has eluded the brightest thinkers of our day?
Info Energy will evoke extreme reaction
One simple concept – Info Energy. Doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch. Sounds vaguely plausible to the Outsider. And yet the Scientific Insiders know. They will certainly react with alarm at the notion of such an audacious concept. The scientific community, including Einstein, screamed when confronted with the Uncertainty Principle. Wait until you hear the reaction to info energy. It will make the prior hubbub sound like a whimper.
Controversial notion: Info Energy sparks gap between immaterial and material
Why is the notion of info energy so controversial? Why does it push so many scientific buttons? Why is this simple construct so unacceptable to the current scientific mindset? Simply speaking, it goes against the traditional constructs associated with Descartes’ mind-body dualism. If the scientific community entertained the idea of info energy, then they must also consider the possibility that the mind might influence the body. Is it possible that info energy sparks the gap between the immaterial and the material realms? Could info energy combined with mental energy be the lightening bolt between biological information digestion and matter?
Energy bridges all Systems; Info Energy must interact with Material Energy to be Energy
You see, energy is a marvelous concept. Of all the concepts of Physics, it is perhaps the most miraculous! It combines all forms of energy in a single equation - heat, mechanical, electricity, etc. The transformation of energy from one form to another occurs within this grand equation. In other words, energy is not an independent phenomenon. If info energy existed independent of other types of energy, it is not real energy. For info energy to be real energy, it must interact in some fashion with other forms of energy. In other words, info energy must somehow connect to the ‘real‘ world of matter. (Listen to the groans and shrieks of the temple priests - employing their magic charms to ward off evil - perhaps even calling in their minions to burn the Apostate - the Heretic – the Sinner against orthodoxy.)
The Arrow between Matter & Info points both Ways
A Self-Evident Proposition: Life must have mechanism for translating Info Energy into Biological Energy
It seems a self-evident proposition that info energy must interact with the real world. If this seemingly revolutionary proposition will cause so much shrieking and gnashing of teeth, why is it self-evident? Living systems, as information processing systems, must have some method of translating their digested information to satisfy their biological needs: hunger, thirst, and sex. Decisions reached by organizing information must be translated into biological energy.
Contemporary paradigm: Arrow points one way only from Matter to Information
The current scientific mindset holds an alternate view of the interaction between mind and body. Many contemporary scientists, following Descartes’ lead, are firmly committed to a material explanation for human behavior. From this perspective, organisms react automatically to environmental stimuli without really making choices. Because there is no decision-making, there is no need to deal with info or mental energy. In fact, the current paradigm holds that there is a material explanation for all phenomena, human or otherwise. The arrow points one way only – from Matter to the entire Universal Flux. Accordingly, matter can exert an effect on information, but information cannot exert an effect on matter. Our electronic wonderland is a testament to the power of this materialist perspective. The automatic rules of matter have allowed scientists to transform our world in unimaginable ways. The TV, radio, and Internet are examples of this technological miracle.
Contemporary: Information Neutral = No Energy to change
With this mindset, information is a neutral entity that can be manipulated by the material world. As a neutral entity, information has no energy. Energy is required to change the state of a system. Hence, neutral information cannot change a material system. An arrow pointing from information to matter is definitely outside the current paradigm. The scientific determinists must deny this connection as it tumbles their edifice. The Tower of Destruction. The dark forces hold on desperately to the end, as they feel their power fading before the coming light of the Dawn. {Editor: This may be a bit of an over reaction on the Author’s part. He does have a burning desire to animate his life.}
Living Algorithm System: Arrow points one way only from Information to Matter
In these many pages we have developed the notion that information has energy. As such, we feel Info Energy has the capacity to change the material world. We have provided empirical evidence for this connection. This evidence is based in both cognitive experimentation and in traditional cultural forms. In this article stream, we provide analysis to show how information might transform the material world. In the Living Algorithm System the arrow points from information to matter. Info Energy bridges the chasm between the two orthogonal orthogonal universes of Information and Matter.
Expand paradigm: Info Energy enables two way Arrow between Matter & Info
In the 1st volume, Triple Pulse of Attention, we provide abundant examples of symmetries between the Living Algorithm’s information patterns and Life. The miraculous world of electronics is a mute testament to the ability of matter to affect information. The even more miraculous world of Life is a testament to the ability of information to affect matter. Accordingly, the arrow between information and matter points both ways. Just as Material Energy transforms Information, Info Energy transforms Matter.
Links
With these linkages in mind we can at last move to our next volume – Attention in the Living Algorithm System.
We highly recommend beginning with the Foreword to Attention & the Living Algorithm. This allegorical article summarizes our progress. As the Sufi Nasreddin said: “To understand where we are going, we must look at where we've been.”
To move immediately to new information without consolidating the old, read the 1st chapter of the new volume – The Primacy of Attention.