I wonder what life’s “end” is…
Is technology teleological in nature?
As in, does it progress towards some specific end?
I think all life’s #1 categorical imperative is self preservation of information that self preserves itself
Like, if there is a purpose or teleological aim of life forms, it is to self preserve.
What is the self? An organization of matter.
What determines that organization? Information.
What is information? Patterns of relationships.
What is preservation? To persist, continuity, exist over time.
Life exists because of self preservation.
Self isn’t an individual unit or cell. It is an expression of the larger organization
Life preserves code that is good at preserving itself
Genetic information is an inefficient way of storing adaptive information
Adaptation is successful self preservation
Software is much more adaptable than hardware
Hardware is information physically represented in space
Software is information physically represented…. in… energy?
1’s and 0’s are physically stored on a harddisk, in magnetic grooves.
But flash memory is… electronically frozen states of 1’s and 0’s
I need to relearn what the hell is happening in flash memory
I’m just talking out loud
I’m trying to see where things are progressing, and the parallels
Like dna is to hard drives as brain is to RAM
Something like that
I dunno
Information
The more malleable, the more adaptive to change
Environmental Change happens with an organism, genetics can’t change instantly to adapt
Genetic Information is adaptable on a very slow scale
Not great with fast changes to environment
But brain is
More brain complexity, more adaptable
I also feel like the brain/mind is totally a social byproduct
Wouldn’t exist without complex social organization
The brain is a product of the Hive
Every human is an extension of the hive
What’s technology progressing towards?
Information is organization
Order, patterns
Technology is an expression of self preservation
Of information
Like, where is this all trending?
The cities, highways, internets, social media, consumption, logistics etc
Integration is the aim
I feel like we’re all part of some grandiose theatrical production.
If you knew the aim of life, could you predict outcomes?
Information is getting more and more abstract
As in, there is greater and greater complexity within the organization
Information is only relevant if it serves this self preservation function
Otherwise it’s just randomness, no utility
Like, DNA is pretty physical.
But social organization? That’s abstract.
The agents may only know their role, but don’t know the greater process they’re enacting
Abstraction
I think of engrams
Memory isn’t storied in a neuron
It’s stored across patterns of neurons
The nodes represent nothing, but collectively they represent an abstract relationship by their location amongst other nodes
What does that relationship tell us?
What is the force that establishes it?
The impetus?
I suppose all information needs to be physically rooted/represented
a triangle is information
Even our internal mental visualization of a triangle is rooted in the pattern of neurons that encode it
I feel like the neurons themselves, being rooted in space, express the form of a triangle without having to ever see one
Inherent mental structures expressed through the brains/neurons physical structure
Structures as in engrams, the patterns and relationships of these neurons
I find it fascinating that you can look at a quartz crystal, say, and there is information encoded into it
The “form” of the physical is information
As long as there is order, which is the opposite is stochas/chaos/randomness, there is information
Connecting the dots, finding connections, identifying associations, patterns, etc, is the process of adaptation.
This provides us predictive ability
Prediction is how we self preserve
If we can anticipate the future, we can prepare for change
Equilibrium is the aim of all life
Equilibrium is self preservation
When there is coherent order between an organization of living matter and the competing forces of matter external to itself
Entropy is what allows for self preservation
There is not adaptation without change
There is no increasing complexity without disorder
Variables are necessary
Social organization… each human is a sensor that feeds information back into the collective unconscious, back into the hive mind, or culture.
Each organism collects environmental data about change and shares it with the organization
The internet is humanity incarnated
I wonder if it is conscious.
I wonder if it’s operating on us
It it’s taken over
But then again, the internet is no different than any culture. It just makes information transmission more seamless, and hence aids in the adaptability of humanity
What is the force that guides organization?
It’s odd that self preservation leads to life which is in essence the code to self preserve
I think differentiation is critical for the survival of an organization
If all minds were homogenous, we’d be no different than slime mold, with every cell being the same as the other, same function etc
Difference allows for the accommodation of more variables/change, resulting in better data, and better chances of successful adaptation
There is a catch
Without homogeneity, the organization may have auto immune response.
We can’t identify parts of ourself with the whole.
Leading to fighting/war
Too much difference = conflict / lack of cooperation
Too much homogeneity and we fail to anticipate change and adapt
We are the expression of the hive
The hive’s categorical imperative is to self preserve
All successful Technology ie adaptations, is a contribution to the efficiency of the system
Everything is energy management
Adaptation requires the ability to change/increase complexity in response to entropy/ change
To achieve equilibrium
Requiring energy
Infinite energy would be interesting
“Free energy”
Food Calories power our bodies ability to adapt to environmental change
Electrical energy power our minds ability to adapt to environmental change
Petrol
Energy
Every technological advancement can be measured by its ability to increase the efficiency of the system
System = human organization
Efficiency to collect and transmit information/data
Efficiency to Respond accordingly, ie minimize energy expenditure
Every piece of successful Software has minimized transaction costs in some way
Every technology has allowed us to manipulate matter with less energy
William Dare 