The Meaning Code

Glen, the physicist, and Karen, relentlessly curious, continue to tackle the Nature of Life. Apologies in advance for the sound problems with the imported video. Mercifully, it's less than half a minute, so persevere and you will be rewarded. Scroll down for video links plus playlist to entire series of 6 episodes. Going forward, we will do a short intro that tackles another view of entropy, and then will move on to the fundamental nature of computation. In this video, we discuss thermodynamics, entropy (the process of converting one form of energy to another - the traffic laws for that process). Next time, we will discuss the aspect of counting states (from Boltzmann) The mathematics of the free energy principle is impenetrable, but nevertheless useful as a paradigm. In systems doing work internally, free energy tends to a minimum, entropy tends to a maximum. In physics, finding equivalent equations of state allows you to compute a solution. Looking for a.non-biological definition of life. Markov blankets, markov boundaries - a description of connectedness as opposed to dispersion. Boundaries can be functional, not just physical. Openness of boundaries - permeability. Plus, there needs to be an immune system that keeps from breaking up the group. Persistence over time is another hallmark of life. The boundary persists over time. Also a hallmark of strong emergence. Sensory states: asking questions. Making a measure of its environment. Active states: making a choice in responding to the information. What's in between are the inferences, the if/else/then, the decision matrix. Pop the hood and see what's underneath. Computation. Your senses are always looking for anomalies - for what has changed. The free energy principle as applied to AI - cost function, reward function, potential energy function. Macro states are defined by thermodynamic variables. The fundamental thing is the second law of thermodynamics. The concept of entropy was determined later as a mathematical way of describing the process of change in things. (In other words, entropy is not disorder, only defined as a change in things). HOMEWORK: Contemplate a key in a lock as an example of an intelligent system. Consider the lock mechanism is asking a question of the key. What shape are you? If the shape is correct, the lock opens. Intelligence is required, but the intelligence is built into the system itself. Inserting the key in the lock represents the sensory states. Unlatching or latching represents the active states. In between is the if/else/then built into the system by some intelligence. Next time, we will dive more deeply into entropy, then move on to computation, analyzing Paul Davies' idea of life as information. Glen would say that computation is more fundamental than information. We tried to watch 7:50 to 8:15 - Entropy is not Disorder https://youtu.be/vX_WLrcgikc Free Energy Principle with Karl Friston: https://youtu.be/NIu_dJGyIQI Whole 6 part series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4

The nature of the origin of life from the standpoint of a specific shared set of definitions of terms, We recap Episode 2 definitions of complexity, chaos, order, and entropy, + a deep dive into the history of entropy and its importance. Thermodynamic systems,Kolmogorov complexity measure Crossing the boundary to the outside, complexity is greatly reduced in terms of how you interact with it. Once boundary is crossed complexity transforms. Chaos can be looked at in various ways - from an archetypal context to an emotional state to the strict definition it has within physics. In disorder, there is a reference point you can go back to, but in chaos, there is no reference point. The matrix of predictability and determinism. Deterministic but not predictable describes chaotic systems Unpredictable and non-deterministic - a true random number generator Predictable but non-deterministic - a computer running a program (there's some intelligence out there that we are responding to) Information - Julian Barbour article, Bit from It. In the Shannon sense - how many bits In the sense of telling you something useful (i.e. tall or short, which can encompass a lot of different states. Yes/No questions don't necessarily map to number of states. In the sense of black holes, holographic principle. In the sense of semantic information Chaos - strange attractors are acting in phase space. Order coming. out of chaotic systems (unpredictable, but bounded) Shapes in multiple dimensions. Brain doesn't see the world the way Mother Nature sees it. Entropy definitions are incomplete. Ex: a measure of disorder, a measure of number of states - Boltzmann, Joule, Carnot, ClausiusEntropy is a bookkeeping device to make sure that you don't violate Carnot's principle. How much free energy depends on the difference between hot and cold. Entropy is the mileage indicator for the disorganization, not the disorganization itself. Carnot - The max efficiency is T hot minus T cold divided by T h Kelvin - perfect engine Clausius - perfect refrigerator Entropy is. qualitative metaphysical statement. Can't go backwards. Does the arrow of time only move forwards because of entropy? Or does the second law occur (does entropy always increase) because the arrow of time already has a direction? People assume science is a step by step process - but you stare at it for a long time, and then one day, the answer comes. Qualitative boundary between the inside and the outside. Inside: thermodynamic entropy ( states/probabilities/energies) tends to maximum disorder, only works at thermal equilibrium Probability of going. back is vanishingly small. Outside: Out of equilibrium will tend towards a new equilibrium and tend towards maximum forgetfulness. You can't go back because you have no idea where came from. (self-organized criticality & complexity economics. Any living system will degrade over time. When complexity on the inside is hidden, you're dealing with a simple object (emergence. Weak emergence -boundary is artificial - cylinders, pistons, etc. Strong emergence - system is making its own boundary (self-organizing, maintaining its own boundary. Playlist for the whole 6 part series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4

Glen explains his perspective on the physics terminology that is vital to exploring what life is and what it isn't. Glen's view from physics interacts with Karen's view from art at such intersections as boundaries, constraints, limitations and anomaly. Playlist for all 6 episodes follows notes.Next episode, Glen will talk about Science with a capital S. If you want to prepare for the discussion, watch these two videos: Cargo Cult Science with Richard Feynman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvfAtIJbatg&feature=youtu.be The Morality of Fundamental Physics https://www.cornell.edu/video/nima-arkani-hamed-morality-fundamental-physics Other videos with helpful information: Reversing entropy https://youtu.be/KR23aMjIHIY Maxwell's Demon https://youtu.be/favrMbfi1Pw John Wheeler paper he referenced: https://philpapers.org/archive/WHEIPQ.pdf Playlist for the whole 6 part series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4

John Vervaeke, Wolfgang Smith and Richard Smith begin with a discussion of relativism and what we can do about its negative aspects. Then begins a wide ranging discussion of the tripartite macrocosm and the tripartite microcosm and the overlap between John's work and Wolfgang's work. Many book recommendations included in the timestamps. Fuller bios of Dr. John Vervaeke, Dr. Wolfgang Smith and Dr. Richard Smith in previous conversation: https://youtu.be/5G9gk49VhKM Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:35 JV Discussion of Cultural Relativism; the limits of cultural frameworks 05:30 JV Plato is well aware of he many aspects of any object, even the visual aspect A through line is that which binds the aspects together. The Platonic framework All organisms are varied - a universal process has produced the variation 08:30 WS Relativism is intimately connected with the Cartesian bifurcationism (my res cogitates is different than yours). In today’s world, we are trained to be disrespectful 11:20 JV Relativism exacerbated by Des Cartes. Lack of respect. Elevation of subjectivity to be half of ontology has been problematic Clark’s Explorations of Metaphysics. Kant never gave an argument for the possibility of understanding other human beings. Wittgenstein: There is ‘no private language’. If there were a private language, you couldn’t be corrected. 15:45 WS Respect is a sine qua non for all else. Today, we create skeptics, critics, always negative to the consensus. To find Truth, one needs to start with sane human attitudes. 21:15 JV Nietszche, Freud, Marx have given us the hermeneutics of suspicion. Palo, Merleau Ponti, J. J. Gibson are giving us a hermeneutics of disclosure. Beauty as disclosing reality. What is needed is this kind of dialogic format focused on the hermeneutics of beauty. An ability to follow the through line.27:00 Many truths are only disclosed to us when we are willing to go through a transformative process. “Not just erudite, but wise.” Wolfgang Smith 30:15 WS You need to have a certain access to the truth before you get more truth. Contemporary teaches to doubt and question everything, so young people are deprived of truth. 33:00 JV That which is most real has intelligible coherence. And the opposite of that, held in tension to the first, is that the real is simultaneously what surprises, shocks, startles us. We need to live a stance as finite transcendents. Reality discloses itself in our finitude. Myths of heroism so we don’t despair of our finitude v. Myths of hubris so that we are constantly aware of our mortality. 38:11 WS The Platonic program - Platonists regarded the intermediary realm to be inherently mathematical (geometry) Sidereal/ planetary / terrestrial Seeing with the eye of the intellect 51:00 JV Difference between Platonism and Neo-Platonism (a continuity between Aristotle and Plato Tripartite in John’s understanding: Nous: The intelligible is that which is accessible only through the nous. Sensible: Corresponds to the corporeal Imaginal: Rituals link the intellect (the nous) and the sensible. 57:15 JV Realizing the through line - theory All the appearances have a throughline that points to something beyond. 1:00:30 JV This all has to translate into me becoming wiser 1:00:59 Geometry, the imaginal, the intermediary, the Pythagoreans, Proclus, theurgia, liturgy. Yogic transition of the imaginal and geometric traditions. Intermediary includes both the intellect and the imaginal Sacred geometry Truth and Reality Reverence and Virtue Thomas Taylor’s Commentary on the Timaeus Eric Perl’s Theophany: the Neoplatonic Philosophy of Dionysius Thomas Cheetham’s All the World is an Icon

Karen and Glen in Episode 1 of the series which will explore the question, What is Life? Future episodes will cover Thomas Kuhn and paradigms, Complexity v. Simplicity, Landauer's Principle, and a general overview of the meaning of and interactions between Entropy, Energy and Information. Playlist for all episodes follows notes.Nima Arkani Hamed video: https://youtu.be/5aAMJNVmdoY Hamed is an alpha dog in theoretical particle physics. It took courage for him to address the nature of morality and truth in relation to physics. He came to the conclusion that there is an objective Reality which is Truth with a capital T, and it is both knowable and accessible. In order to do physics, you have to believe that there is an objective reality. Hamed is on the periphery of the question of how we approach the perfect. You have to accept its pronouncement on you. You may work your whole life on a theory only to have someone else demolish it, and you will have discovered that your theory did not accord with Reality. Paul Davies video: https://youtu.be/GCD1ZT4IgAY (27:00 or 28:00) Brian Miller video: https://youtu.be/YAXiHRPZz0s How does life begin? Paul Davies' assumption is that physics has nothing to say about the matter, because physics uses the language of matter and energy and forces, while biology uses the language of information, coding, instructions. To start working on a design problem, you need a set of design specifications. In this case, we need a non-biological definition of life. To do so we must explore the interface of Entropy, Information and Thermodynamics. All of the arguments against the theory that biology was the basis for first life are statistical. Given the improbabilities, there's just not enough time. Maxwell's demon might be a fruitful approach. Has anyone worked out a way to create a Maxwell's demon using a chemical process? Every compression algorithm needs an error checking mechanism and a key to read it. The error checking mechanism is effective only if you keep all the parts together. The Whole is greater than the Sum of the parts. In the same way, God's Word has a built in error checking device which will always keep you from error if you are familiar with the whole Word and don't dispose of some part of it or take some part of it out of context. Jordan Peterson doesn't take Scripture literally. He takes it seriously. Glen takes it very seriously. Everything has a boundary, an inside and an outside. Entropy is only observable from the outside. Physicists talk about the black box view which is the external view, how the user interacts with the system. The white box view is the internal view, the internal workings of the system contained on the inside and not connected to the outside. PLAYLIST for the whole 6 part series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4

Brad and Karen dive deeper into the implications of "measuring up" and the balance between mercy and judgment.For the full YouTube, see here: https://youtu.be/qkDWTKNMI2cWe discuss the aspect of comparison, relationships between binaries, Iain McGilchrist's work on the two brain hemispheres, the role of the observer, etc. Link to Part 1 follows the timestamps.Timestamps00:00:00 Intro00:01:15 Navigating between two binaries, example: justice and mercy00:02:50 Migraines that shut down the left hemisphere, comprehending and apprehending00:08:30 Training horses, the blessing of anomaly, learning to listen with the right hemisphere00:10:00 Left hemisphere gives us speech, so a truth, once spoken, becomes a lie. 00:11:20 Finding practical meaning in this little corner00:12:37 Comparing wavelengths, frequencies is what we do, a kind of measurement, at multiple levels and over time.00:14:30 The observer changing what is observed. The feedback loop.00:16:30 Hiking in the Maui Rainforest is contact with reality.00:20:30 Thoughts on the measurement problem and its practical implications 00:23:00 We are also being observed, always. We shape the arena, the arena shapes us.00:31:00 The incarnation of Christ in us, the triad of Love (intention, communication and action)00:40:30 Having a question and balancing that with living real life00:50:28 Was Eve trying to become the Observer? Things have to measure up to my expectations. Unravels the web of Love.00:59:20 Action as the missing piece01:06:30 The perils of providing good content01:14:15 We are comparing frequencies or wavelengths related to context in art 01:23:00 Agape and action01:24:20 LovingMeasurement Problem, Part 1 The Ideal is a Judge: Gauge Blocks and the Requirement to Measure up. https://youtu.be/iT43zHL2Xp8

Jonathan Pageau joins for a conversation with Dr. Wolfgang Smith and Dr. Richard Smith about icons, symbolism and our connection to the Divine. Links to books and articles mentioned will follow the timestamps.Timestamps00:00 Opening chitchat01:20 Intro05:30 Wolfgang Smith’s Tripartite Cosmos icon12:00 Jonathan’s question about the icon20:15 Examples of 3 dimensional versions28:50 Jonathan’s icons42:40 Wolfgang responds to question about the aeviternal realm45:20 Jean Borella quote as an opening to the question of the symbolism of the Cross53:20 The connection to the Divine is what fill it with Reality, bringing up into Glory1:05:30 Without an identity, you can’t measure anything. Identity is a gift.1:15:30 The cup, the apple, identity and coherence over time an Wolfram’s Theory1:19:30 Obstacle is the gift1:27:50 The introduction of perspective in sacred art1:31:20 Wolfgang is encouraged meeting JonathanWolfgang's books (selected out of a long list)The Vertical AscentThe Quantum EnigmaCosmos and TranscendenceAncient Wisdom and Modern MisconceptionsThe new physics by Stephen Wolfram: https://wolframphysics.org

Perry Marshall, author of Evolution 2.0 and founder of the $10 million price for the origin of a spontaneously arising communication system joins Glen and Karen to discuss the fundamental nature of information, choice and the observer. Links to videos mentioned will follow timestamps. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:45 Origin of Life v. Origin of Species 05:14 Is something missing in the Intelligent Design argument? 07:35 Where does the idea come from in the first place? Information must become physical. 11:00 How many divine interventions are there supposed to be? 16:00 The limitations of the God of the Gaps argument. Information shows up. There has to be a mechanism, a chunk of hardware. This problem is not addressed by Intelligent Design 18:30 Does Code = Information? Many definitions of information. Shannon, for example. 22:00 Definition of code is symbolic information exchanged between a sender and a receiver, Between an encoder and a decoder, and it’s a digital communication system 27:25 Science v. Religion is a proxy battle for something deeper, perhaps what it means to be human. 33:30 Does Maxwell’s demon actually exist? 41:00 John Torday, A systems approach to physiologic evolution https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcp.25820 45:00 Information capacity is a capacity for choice. Freedom to select a one or a zero. 53:00 Maxwell’s demon lives on symbolic info, not bits and bytes. It’s what the 1’s and 0's represent symbolically. What is the sender looking at and the receiver sending onto? A bigger more holistic landscape than science can look at. 1:00:22 Free choice in quantum mechanics. The observer has free choice in what experiment to do. 1:05:45 Time acts on the rocks. The rocks do not act on time. We act on time 1:11:14 If you want to push choice down to the level of Quantum physics, you have to acknowledge that there are multiple pathways into the future which are all consistent with the past history of the universe, so you can’t have perfect determinism. Choice breaks that. 1:15:25 Following the question of the observer is a fruitful path. Glen’s suggestion: perhaps replace consciousness with agency. Consciousness is how WE experience agency, so it takes US out of the theoretical pathway. Reluctance to recast definitions into formal, mathematical statements hinders progress in the search for Origin of Life. 1:17:00 Stuart Kaufman and Set Theory 1:24:00 Heuristics leads to an outcome that is good enough. Inductive reasoning is a powerful skill set. The Meaning Code videos related to The Physics of Life: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4 The Observer: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZTm9ZRgC9OQINsbC1BxsPy Perry Marshall and Stephen Meyer on Unbelievable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHUEXn2upI&t=1s Perry Marshall, Denis Noble and Lee Cronin on Unbelievable https://youtu.be/Njuso5A2jts The Prize website: https://evo2.org The book: Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design by Perry Marshall

Karen and Glen get together for an informal review of items that have recently caught their attention relative to Stephen Wolfram's Theory of Fundamental Physics. If anyone wants to do a comment with timestamps, I will be forever grateful. At the end, Glen mentions John Walton and his reading of the first few chapters of Genesis. We talked about how great it would be to see a conversation between Jordan Peterson and John Walton, and after I started uploading this video, I saw that the Youtube Channel called Deep Talks had uploaded a video today of clips from those two, so here's the link to that: Jordan Peterson v John Walton on Deep Talks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiSGdDc3bQY&t=2s The art video from Chris Petkau that we mentioned: https://youtu.be/pYgUwolDuPs And Glen once again mentioned Nima Arkani Hamed's Morality of Fundamental Physics video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiSGdDc3bQY&t=2s Here's Wolfram on Lex Fridman # 124. Interesting things happen starting at 1:33:30 and again at 3:16:00 going all the way to 3:40:00 or thereabouts..

In Part 3 of this discussion regarding the role of the observer, Glen weaves together ideas of robust computing (demon horde sort) and distributed intelligence. He makes the claim that it could be mathematically verified whether or not computation is fundamental, and that if it turns out to be so, then language is also fundamental, since computation and language are inextricably intertwined. We also learn that handedness (chirality) is hierarchical. links follow timestamps Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:15 Recapping the end of Part 2 2:00 Central Planning v. Distributed Intelligence 3:00 Responding to viewer’s comments 4:45 PBS Spacetime on the participatory universe 8:32 John Wheeler’s biggest question: Whose bit? 12:20 Implications of observers and the quantum mechanical universe 16:20 A vision of Wholeness 18:30 A challenge for mathematicians 20:35 If there is a point where entanglement does not affect the next layer up, that would solve the Wigner’s Friends paradox and would also illustrate that computation is fundamental. 24:00 Robodog as a way to explore learning systems and language in robotics 28:00 An exploration of group intelligence and the conversation as adaptable 31:30 Handedness is essential and implies Hierarchy 33:30 The language called Forth 38:20 Context Free Grammar, indexed grammars, natural language processing 41:35 The layers of Grammar 47:30 Field workers will probably never be replaced by robots, not a menial task, very complex 51:35 If computation is fundamental, we need a covenant between Truth and Language 53:40 Trust Networks and Cesar Hidalgo 57:50 Decisions at the level of the input output are more effective than centrally planned ones. 1:02:00 Questions about Darwin 1:07:20 It depends on what question you want answered 1:07:45 Questions about Space and Time, the reality of Possibilities and Options 1:11:15 Computational irreducibility is more intuitive if you talk about languages Finite State Machines on Reason to Believe https://youtu.be/6FOJWxdTvms “The "Meta" Hard Problem of Consciousness and Quantum Babbling with Levin, Friston, and Fields,” https://youtu.be/J6eJ44Jq_pw "Cracking The Nutshell," https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheNutshell "Do Electrons Have Free Will? The Conway-Kochen Free Will Theorem - Closing the Free Will Loophole,' https://youtu.be/7ZqUEAACfyk PBS Space-Time, “Does the Universe Create Itself?” https://youtu.be/I8p1yqnuk8Y?t=600 "Robust-first computing: Demon Horde Sort (short version)," https://youtu.be/lbgzXndaNKk "Forth the Hackers Language," https://hackaday.com/2017/01/27/forth-the-hackers-language/