Brendan Graham Dempsey, a writer, researcher, and director of Sky Meadow Institute, engages in a lively exploration of cosmic teleology and emergence. He discusses Aristotle's theories, delving into the purpose vs. goal-directed behavior debate. The conversation challenges the heat death hypothesis while uncovering deeper meanings in cosmic evolution. Dempsey also reflects on the origins of life, alien existence, and the fragility of complex organisms. Finally, he touches on intersubjectivity and AI's impact on human experiences, emphasizing optimism for our cosmic future.
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Teleology as Downward Causality
Teleology in complexity science can be seen as downward causality, explaining the behavior of components within a system.
A mama squirrel's purpose, or local teleology, is to raise her young, driven by evolutionary pressure to ensure survival.
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Entropy as a Driver of Complexity
Prigogine's dissipative structures suggest systems far from equilibrium self-organize into complex forms, accelerating entropy.
Life, from trees to brains, exhibits exponentially higher energy consumption rates, potentially driven by this entropic push.
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Complexity Goal vs. Entropy Byproduct
Increasing complexity requires more energy, resulting in greater entropy as a byproduct, not the primary goal.
Focus should be on the teleological goals of complexifying entities, not solely on entropy maximization.
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Jim talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey, picking up on a disagreement they had on Facebook about the teleology of the universe. They discuss Aristotle's influence on the topic, Terrence Deacon's work on naturalizing teleology, the distinction between purpose & goal-directed behavior, cosmic teleology, Teilhard de Chardin's "Omega Point," Whitehead's relational teleology, Ilya Prigogine's dissipative structures, energy efficiency comparisons between organisms & stars, the cosmic imperative of entropy production, energy rate density as a complexity measure, whether entropy is the goal or a byproduct of complexification, origin of life as contingent or necessity, Alexander Bard's emergence vectors, questioning of the heat death hypothesis, cosmic expansion possibly preventing maximum entropy, Webb telescope findings, Lee Smolin's evolutionary universe theory, philosophical implications of cosmological narratives, the deepening of interiority in cosmic evolution, Nick Chater's "The Mind Is Flat" argument, the importance of intersubjectivity, language's role in human experience, AI development & emotions, critique of transhumanism, the need to defend your emergence vector, and much more.
Episode Transcript
Jim's initial Facebook post
JRS EP268 - Brendan Graham Dempsey on the Evolution of Meaning
The Evolution of Meaning: A Universal Learning Process, by Brendan Graham Dempsey
JRS EP157 - Terrence Deacon on Mind's Emergence from Matter
Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature, by Eric Chaisson
The Mind Is Flat, by Nick Chater
"The Last Question," by Isaac Asimov
Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, researcher, organic farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to "promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most." He graduated summa cum laude with a BA in religious studies and classical civilizations from the University of Vermont and earned his master's from Yale University, where he studied religion and culture. He is the author of Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics and host of the Metamodern Spirituality Podcast. His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work.
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