Attention's Image Overlay Process & the ID Synergy
ID System + Time's 2nd Dimension enable Life’s High Degree of Order
After many promotional failures, Ma Musa directed my 71-year old self into a consolidation phase (elaborated in the Introductory section). Wandering down old corridors, he ‘happened’ upon his first Science Notebook ‘Spiral Time’. Rather than immature, the work contained some profound constructs, e.g. vertical time. So astounding, they demanded integration into my ID model. That is the purpose of this Notebook.
To that end, let us first summarize our ID model
In ancient times, many Greek philosophers, including Aristotle, believed that Matter was a function of Life. In modern times, this position is reversed. Life is now considered to be a function of Matter.
Why the about face? The scientific community conquered the realm of material behavior with a deterministic mathematics. This mathematical approach could only see quantifiable features of Matter. Unable to quantify anything else, they assumed that Matter was all there is.
However, if living systems have the possibility of influencing the material world, then the interaction between Matter and Life must be more complicated than simple determinism. Abundant experiential evidence indicates this interactive potential. For instance, we intentionally flex our muscles to move our bodies to obtain both food and sexual partners in order to survive as a unit and reproduce our gene pool. We exert our will to stay focused long enough to accomplish our goals.1
Life does have a material component that, of course, obeys all the deterministic mathematical laws. Life has another component that inanimate Matter does not have –Attention/Awareness. There is a general scientific consensus that inanimate objects, e.g. hydrogen atoms or tables, are not aware. In contrast, all cells are more or less aware of their surroundings. In fact, there is a general agreement that evolutionary processes operate in such a way as to increase Attention. As to be expected, heightened Awareness2 provides a survival advantage.
It is safe to conclude that Attention differentiates Life and Matter. One has it; the other doesn’t. According to our integrated ID model, Matter operates in time’s horizontal (linear) dimension, while Attention operates in time’s vertical (cyclical) dimension. Life exists at the intersection of time’s two dimensions3. Under this perspective, Life is the interaction between Matter and Attention.
Life = Matter x Attention
The laws and such in each of time’s dimensions are entirely different. For instance, Matter inhabits a closed energy system, where energy is conserved; Attention belongs to an open energy system, where energy is consumed4. Plus, Matter reacts to its environment, while Life via Attention interacts with its environment.
According to our latest model, Attention’s vertical/cyclical dimension is a feature of an information digestion system that is shared by all living systems. Matter does not digest info. The ID Synergy is the engine of Life’s open energy system.
The ID Synergy consists of 4 functional components: Feelings, Attention, Mind, Will (more soon). But to be honest, these elements don’t actually exist in a mortar and bricks location, or anywhere else for that matter. Rather they are convenient markers – nodes, functions and tendencies that assist in understanding the operation of the Synergy. That being said: For ease of communication, we will pretend that they really do exist.
It is highly probable that there are other ways of explaining and interpreting the Synergy. These perspectives are dependent upon point of view or reference frame. However, regardless of the interpretation, the ID system has the same function – transforming raw data into a useful form. No matter which constructs are employed this ID process must be somehow addressed to be a satisfactory model.
A key feature of Life’s ID system, non-negotiable, is Attention’s image overlay process (IOP). All life forms, including the ‘lowly’ bacteria employ the IOP to digest information – transform ‘raw’ data into a useable form. The IOP is the glue that links the ID Synergy’s four components.
IOP glue of ID Synergy
Attention’s IOP also enables the mathematical system that provides validation for our model. The Living Algorithm is the mathematical realization of this process. Data Stream Dynamics is the mathematical system associated with DSD. This math system reveals the patterns and rhythms associated with a quantified Attention.
IOP enables Math (DSD)
DSD establishes rules for quantified Attention.
Matter might also participate in an image overlay process. But the opacity between the overlays is 100% - no record/sense of the past. No temporal sense. No meaning. No sensing. No experience. No holistic system. Everything is immediate for molecules (Newton’s laws of motion).
Miraculously, along with Attention came a reduction in opacity – a translucency between overlays. With this reduction came an awareness of time passing – an experience of the past, no matter how slight. Plus the time between successive images provided an opportunity to adjust to circumstances – monitor and adjust.
The mathematics of DSD reflects this difference in opacity between Matter and Attention. The Decay Factor, D, is the only ‘constant’ in the basic algorithm by which Life digests data streams, i.e. the Living Algorithm. For Matter, D = 1. For Attention, D >1.
Under this framework, we are back to the ancient Greek conceptualization of the difference between animate and inanimate. Lacking translucency between images, Matter is simply a retarded form of Attention. Residing in the blindness of complete opacity, Matter has no sense of time. Without this temporal sense, molecules are stuck in the flat horizontal time dimension of Calculus.
Unsurprisingly, the scientific community seems to worship the absolute deductive certainty of the flat material plane. Rather than finding the right tool for the job, they instead try to club flowers with their tried and true, dependable hammer. Are they afraid of uncertainty? Or social censure? Rather than critical, we should be compassionate of these fearful souls – Insecure before the Void.
Don’t they appreciate the exquisite beauty of living ambiguity? Where foreground and background flip back and forth; where the good guy is actually the bad guy and vice versa. Maybe they prefer black and white to shades of grey – or even Living Color.
The ID’s Image Overlay Process is not independent. The IOP is a tool that requires an operator. By itself, this abstract algorithmic process is like a car without a driver – a material Universe without someone to recognize its marvelous patterns – Existence without Conscious Awareness to experience her wondrous miracles.
The Synergy drives the ID system. Without the Synergy, Life is merely a disorganized collection of randomly interacting molecules with no place to go – nobody to see – nothing to do – just reacting mindlessly, timelessly in a continuous, deterministic fashion ad infinitum. How ultimately boring!
This is where the ID Synergy’s 4 components enter the picture. Each of the components is necessary for the operation of Attention’s IOP process. For instance, Feelings provide the life force that energizes the ID system (simply speaking the urge and energy to survive and replicate). Attention provides sensory input, Mind analyzes and makes choices, Will executes the choices. In brief, the ID Synergy enables Life’s monitor and adjust process – our interactive relationship with information .
1) Feelings/Life Force provides the motivation to go somewhere – the urges, homeostasis and reproduction, balancing a busy life with creativity;
2) Attention/Awareness senses the environment – sees the road – via the IOP.
3) Mind/Executive analyzes the incoming data streams provided by Attention. He then makes informed choices as to how to best satisfy Feeling’s innate urges, e.g. which is the best route to take.
4) Intention/Will executes Mind’s decisions.
Without Intention, Mind is helpless – like a paralyzed human in the driver’s seat – knowing where he wants to go, but no way to start and steer the car. Intention is the ability to deliberately flex muscles, both physical and mental, with a distinct purpose - to satisfy Feelings’ desires.
Tying it all together: Mind makes decisions that are driven by Feeling’s appetites, based upon Attention’s sensory input, analytics provided by DSD/LA courtesy of Life’s IOP.
There you have it – the ID Synergy’s four components. Take a bow guys. Couldn’t have done it without you. Your contribution to our grand production can’t be overestimated.
Thanks, Ed. But we are nothing without our enormous supporting cast and crew of molecules, electrons, and photons. Hats off to y’all for playing your parts so well, in fact perfectly. We count on your absolute predictability. Thanks again for your stability in this chaotic world.
This brief overview provides an introduction to the workings of the Synergy. In the following chapters, we will discuss these terms and others (all familiar from everyday parlance) in more detail. 1) Feelings, 2) Attention, 3) Intention, 4) Mind, 5) Image Overlay Process, 6) Images, 7) Mental Energy, 8) Moments/Instants, and 9) Experience.
There are many reasons that our ID system accompanied by time’s 2nd dimension are necessary for Life. For instance, these features that are exclusive to living systems enable Matter to achieve the higher degree of order that Life requires. Let us be specific.
Via Life’s ID system, Attention provides mental energy to DS generated by cellular IMPs. This ID system via the Image Overlay Process (IOP) then transforms the Inanimate DSs of the IMPs into a form that is more useful to the cell – Living DSs along with their derivatives.
The interactions between DSs and their derivatives generate ever more complex Composite DSs. Cells employ these Composite DSs to form models. The models enable the cell (and all other living systems) to deal more effectively with environmental information.
Single cells join together to form tissues, then organs, systems and finally organisms. This hierarchy is present in many, if not most, multi-cellular life forms.
Cells -> Tissues -> Organs -> Systems -> Organism
At each new level in this complex living hierarchy, new composite DSs along with their models are formed by combining models et al from the lower levels. By employing the ID system in this way, living systems achieve a high degree of order.
Life’s complex organization of hierarchical systems far surpasses (by orders of magnitude) the lower degree of order found in inanimate matter. As Matter has no need to survive as an autonomous unit Matter’s four fundamental forces merely react to information,. Matter’s immediate and automatic reaction does not require a temporal sense.
Life (Degree of Order) >>>> Matter (Degree of Order)
Life’s ID system provides the temporal sense necessary to form a holistic system such as a cell and ourselves. As well as providing a holistic perspective, our ID system supplies the means to interact with info. Time’s vertical dimension, an indispensable feature of our ID system, adds another layer of complexity that is unavailable to inanimate material systems.
Lacking an ID system and time’ 2nd dimension, Matter cannot possibly self-organize to the same level of complexity. Locked into time’s ordinary horizontal dimension, molecules are unable to achieve the level of complexity that cellular life takes as a foundation.
Our ID system, which includes time’s 2nd dimension, enables inanimate Matter to achieve the high degree of order that living systems require. This is yet another reason that our ID system is an essential, albeit currently missing, ingredient for Life.
This initial article has already begun the process of introducing and integrating constructs from the author’s first Notebook into his ID model, specifically time’s 2nd dimension. Subsequent articles deal with these topics in more depth.
1 ‘Swerve’ is the name that Lucretius, an ancient Roman poet of the atomist Epicurean tradition, gave to this miracle. Lest you doubt his materialist credentials due to his antique epoch: Some, nay many, suggest that it was his re-discovered poem that inspired the search for atoms, which eventually gave rise to atomic theory. Not such a bad accomplishment for a single poem.
As an aside: the prime reason it survived was because Lucretius’ poem was so exquisite. Nobody could bear to throw it away or burn it. Rather centuries of Christian monks copied and recopied his original manuscript. The text was only re-discovered during the Renaissance by an antiquities hunter. Inspired by its content, courageous individuals passed it around.
This 1500-year-old preservation project is astounding for another reason (at the level of divine coincidence – meant to be – had to be Heaven’s Will). Our Christian fathers burned or destroyed all other Epicurean books, writings and even references. Playing with random impossibilities, the Universal Wisdom/Providence made a move. Heaven wasn’t going to allow this way of thinking be killed off by the small-minded.
What was so offensive about this philosophy? According to what has survived the Fire of Time, this philosophy (originated by Epicurus) expresses a very modern and scientific attitude towards living. As might be imagined, this common-sense philosophy took a major stand against superstitious dogma. Unfortunately, the Church held many of these beliefs tightly to its breast. To protect these ideas, hence self, the early Christian fathers condemned it to death – no torture, just execution. (For more read, Lucretius: Atomism, the Swerve & Holism)
2 In this article, nay opus, the two terms ‘Attention’ and ‘Awareness’ are employed as interchangeable synonyms. As such, utilizing one to define the other is akin to circular reasoning that goes around in circles without providing any new information.
3 A subsequent article ‘51.2 Time’s 2nd Dimension’ begins the integration of this difficult topic into our ID model.
4 See 44.3 Open Energy Systems