The Meaning Code

Matt, philosopher/author/person discusses Reality with Karen.. Three perspectives on the meaning of a paper clip: The avant garde The creative The good/useful The multi-aspectuality of cognitive science. The thread that ties reality together Synoptic Gospels - St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Gregory of Nysa We are portions of God. The habit of Scripture is to say. What is a skill? We are mimicking the habit of our chosen profession The sublime pedantic Can one ever really "come back" from a psychedelic trip? Hegel - Negation and affirmation. You're always right and you're always wrong. Until you have the "now" straight, you can't think about a practice. Distinctiveness v. the common The human being is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Counterfeits Heretic Participation is not optional We have the evidence of the habit. We have to eat and sleep - not beyond that. Ascetic practices. Even the discipline of going to work every day is an ascetic practice. Orthodoxy is Paradoxy. Jesus ascended the cross as a king stepping up to His throne. If it's not real, it's not real. If it is real, whatever it relates to becomes real. Children like order. We can approach these wonderful things without falling into sentimentality. To a perennial problem, there is a perennial innocent. The human being - the land - the promise. The land being defiled - redeeming the land. We're not disposable. We're not going anywhere. The land lies fallow. Order consists of beginning, middle, end. Don't attach to a practice a guaranteed end. When we don't give up, we're reflecting God. Beware of worshipping at the wrong altar.

Michael Clarage, PhD Physics, (Electric Universe, Safire Project)Michael Martin, PhD Literature (poet, biodynamic farmer, author of Submerged Realityjoin Karen to discuss the need for science to acknowledge qualitative as well as quantitative observations.

Ryan is a software developer who often has the conversation with his colleagues about the big questions underlying software development. Where does the system live? The real system corresponding to the meaning, and the hardware corresponding to the matter. This episode can also be found as video at YouTube:https://youtu.be/5rDsJOs1zWkSoftware designers will often discuss a project they are working on by saying, "It seems like it wants to do X" as though the program itself has some sort of agency. What is really happening in these attempts at communicating abstract levels without the input of narrative?

Sevilla King joins Karen for what will be a monthly get together discussing opponent processing, quality and the nature of ultimate reality. Today's conversation focuses on these Clips from Jordan Peterson/John Vervaeke video. This podcast also available on YouTube @ https://youtu.be/S5JpOaDazooA Conversation So Intense It Might Transcend Time and Spacehttps://youtu.be/IZ-tHaHfB8ATimestamp from JBP video: 59:50 How decision weighting corresponds to choice in art and the cosmosTimestamp from JBP video: 1:02:30 How symphonic music describes the layout of the universe and its relationship to ultimate realityRelevance RealizationDecision Weightingmulti-dimensional opponent processingThe convergence of conjugate dualitiesThe coincidence of opposites and proportion in art

Links after notes on our talk: tightening up a definition of entropy and exploring computational theory and emergence and their underlying implications. When anomalies show up, a new physics is needed. Entropy is more qualitative than quantitative. No creativity without entropy. It takes excess energy to get things over the hump and energy to create order and to maintain order. You can only play the deconstruction game once. Irreversibility is a fundamental aspect of the universe. The universe is fundamentally irreversible. The 2nd law is not driving time but is a consequence of that. The laws of physics appear to be reversible, but is that just a function of the continuous and differentiable functions that physics is using to do the calculations? Physics is always creating mathematical models that describe what we see in the universe around us, not what it is actually doing. Computation: the simplest system is a finite state machine. The memory of the past is gone. Shows irreversibility in computation. Landauer's principle, Landauer's eraser. When you go through a logic gate, you lose information and entropy has gone up. Transistors need to be in a very specific order to be useful. Emergence crosses a barrier when something complicated becomes simple again. One of the better popular science video channels that tries to tackle the deeper questions in physics. “PBS Space-Time,” https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g “Turing machines explained visually, (8:45-duration)” https://youtu.be/-ZS_zFg4w5k “LEGO Turing Machine, (2:22-duration)” https://youtu.be/FTSAiF9AHN4 “Computers Without Memory – Computerphile, (8:51-duration)” https://youtu.be/vhiiia1_hC4 “Understanding Consciousness | Rupert Sheldrake, George Ellis, Amie Thomasson, (43:40-duration)” https://youtu.be/c-QOlTD0YHo “Closer to Truth, the PBS/public television series on cosmos, consciousness and meaning…,” https://www.closertotruth.com/search/site/emergence And for those who are more book oriented, and have had no previous exposure to the subject of Emergence, this collection of essays would be an excellent place to start. “The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion,” https://www.amazon.com/Re-Emergence-Emergence-Emergentist-Hypothesis-Religion/dp/019954431X Phillip Clayton, here’s the real bombshell that the physics of Emergence throws into theology, link to https://www.closertotruth.com/series/why-emergence-significant and listen to his segment posted there. “What Exists is Not Only Physical | George Ellis,” https://youtu.be/Zx3F73po4YE?t=5 Whole 6 Part series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4

For full visuals of the movie, see this on Youtube: https://youtu.be/6r8EZwQ7TVgMoviemaker and musician, Neil DeGraide of Dirt Poor Robins, discusses Concept Art, Music and Narrative and the differences between desire and identity. Politicized propaganda art. The Cosmic Image The dual problems: Bottom up - appetites rule (ex: gluttony) Top down - mind forces perception (ex: anorexia) This could all be a symphony It is showing us something. In the Incarnation, the unseen is mediated at a level we can see. Pattern is coherent. Each day is a fractal of the whole of life. Time is not a construct. It is a warm, personal human category. All the secrets of God are being mediated through mankind. God made the world intelligible. Sin is a disease and God is not a bean counter. Reflecting on Mcgilchrist: RH = tradition, LH = renewal Art can break people's hearts and put them back together in a more beautiful way. The need for teleology The need to fill the culture with Beauty

Glen gives a physicist's view of what is necessary to create a life form. In this episode, we touch on entropy and theory of computation, Link to playlist of all 6 episodes follows notes.Intro to Theory of Computation link: https://youtu.be/58N2N7zJGrQ?t=466 Misunderstood Nature of Entropy link: https://youtu.be/kfffy12uQ7g?t=140 Digital Smell video link on key in lock mechanism in neurons: https://youtu.be/NsqsEni2uE4?t=3284 Getting Entropy right is important Intelligence as a modifier: intelligently behaved systems, systems that demonstrate intelligence, acting intelligently. Simplest computational structure - a state machine The universe of keys is the universe of consciousness of the lock. What information is useful to you. The key has a profile. The lock mechanism has a model of what it's looking for. The computation is comparing the model with the key. Dance is an example of a learning that has been incorporated into your fabric where you no longer have to think about it. The correspondence between the mechanical side and a language. Using a language like Verilog, an abstract idea can be turned into traces on a silicon disc and instantiated in the real world. The theory of computation - abstract half and physical half. Set theory. Computational systems and a hierarchy of languages. The system recognizes a language. How do we get to an artificial non-biological life form? 1. Cast it into the language of computation and it will tell you what the structure will look like? 2. Self-sustaining (harvests energy, feeds itself) 3. Be able to reproduce. 4. Find a chemical that acts as a logic switch. Using proteins as a logic gate? Life happens because proteins can fold in a certain way. RNA polymerase transcribes the DNA. The protein molecule is built intelligently. Next episode we will discuss Emergence. Also the possible combinations of deterministic and predictable, unpredictable, indeterministic. DNA is encoded information. If something is using the information, the system defines what is useful. Whole 6 part series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoARw9zo4EUZhxqfaqYU5yjy0-Tr8RlB4

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