FQXi commentary iii Aug 5
Hi Georgina,
I so wish I had started earlier to review & comment on all the entries - but being new to this excellent essay competition I simply didn't appreciate the realities of it all !!
As you will have seen, my claim is that it is the full set of geometrical objects present here in our universe is that which constitutes 'information'.
May I quote David Deutsch again (this quote is in my essay) as I have come to think of his query-ings as amounting to handing me (us all) 'the answer' to information's identity on a silver platter !
'I'm speaking to you now : Information starts as some kind of electrochemical signals in my brain, and then it gets converted into other signals in my nerves and then into sound waves and then into the vibrations of a microphone, mechanical vibrations, then into electricity and so on, and presumably will eventually go on the Internet, this something has been instantiated in radically different physical objects that obey different laws of physics. Yet in order to describe this process you have to refer to the thing that has remained unchanged through out the process, which is only the information rather than any obviously physical thing like energy or momentum.'
Answer : David Deutsch's elusive 'thing' is geometrical objects plain & simple.
Geometric objects are the only phenomena that can be & routinely are copied / transferred on to consecutive sequences of widely different physical objects - from medium to radically different physical medium to radically different physical medium to radically different physical medium - & yet retain their shape - at least this obtains as to certain mediums as on many others they fade quickly away. Which is why we ourselves choose our mediums with a very careful eye to their ability to carry information (in its native that is geometric form) on themselves with optimum stability.
To save time & space I won't detail the manner in which each different medium Mr Deutsche mentions is able to hold & carry geometrical objects in itself - as most of us will already know how air & light can accomplish this particular feat.
I notice where you too equate information with form. Indeed, you give Christian van Baeyer's definition : "Information is the transfer of form from one medium to another." Which is patently what Mr Deutsch is speculating about too.
I myself came to this realisation long before encountering any one else who postulated it or even just chewed the notion over in their minds as does D.D.
I found your own tracing of 'information's' passage right into our own 'thinking machines' (my term) exceptionally insightful - & as it parallels my own to a great extent, so it also seems correct to me !!
The contribution I think I can make towards this line of reasoning & investigation is to 'elevate' geometrical objects up full 'informational' status by pointing out that all geometrical objects here in our universe carry information on their backs - literally - & that underneath each & every unit of (recognised) information will be found some one, another or assembly (pattern) of same - of geometrical objects.
My view is a panpsychic one which believes (on the best of evidence!) that a 'knowingness' exists at the heart, core & foundation of all material being. As a geometrical object exists on the surface of each & every material body here in our universe - regardless of that solid body's size, shape, composition, location & life history - then this 'duality' - this knowingness on the inside, with information on the outside, pretty much completes my picture of what we call 'solid matter'.
Now then, rather than plunge down into the quantum level of being I trained my focus on our own macro-, & also the meso-, levels of being & noticed that each & every solid object here in our universe is not only enveloped in its own all-surrounding plane (which I call its primary plane (when objects bang into one another they get secondary, foreign shapes impressed into them) but each is also fully enveloped in its own, self-generated, all-surrounding repulsive electrostatic force field.
I found it imperative to not conflate these two entities - the solid body's shape (its all-surrounding primary plane) & its electrostatic force field.
I then factored into my investigations the facts that it is any solid object's electrostatic force field which NOT ONLY 'TAKES THE EXACT MEASURE OF' (that is, reads !!!!) the electromagnetic properties of any other increment of solid matter it encounters - with which it comes into direct bodily contact - BUT ALSO PLAYS A VITAL PART IN PHYSICALLY - FORCEFULLY - RESPONDING TO that contact.
In short electrostatic force fields are both readers-of-information & also the powerful agents of whatever the solid body giving rise to them, does. Readers & doers.
If the subject increment of matter feels, senses, detects, reads, registers an entirely repulsive electrostatic force field on its fellow contactee -doing so with its own all-surrounding force field, it will then, simply by preserving/upholding its own powerful repulsiveness, 'kick back' at its erstwhile attacker for all its worth. Both participants in the interaction will forcefully repel one another.
And as each then literally directs its own kick back response in accord with what each reads concerning its fellow's SHAPE - its fellow's geometricity - then we can see that each not only reads its fellow's shape - not only that each 'takes the exact measure' of its fellow's shape, but, USES that information to guide & direct its reaction.
I came to consider that the definition of 'thinking' - as opposed to mere computing (which is just counting & calculating identical things) - is 'using information (not digits) to guide & direct action' & as this is precisely what all interacting increments of solid matter do - regardless of their own size, shape, composition, location & life history - then I felt compelled to conclude that 'thought' (as the use of information to guide action) is an innate capacity of matter & occurs on the most routine of bases no less than each & every time any two increments of solid matter interact.
If on the other hand our subject increment of matter reads a certain critical level of non-repulsivity within the electrostatic force field of the other bit of matter it encounters, then the two, rather than kick each other's butts, will literally & happily co-join together, thereby making a bigger & or better (more survivally robust) new - & often entirely different - whole.
The classic example of two previously separate things coming nicely together & thereby making a new & under-the-same-conditions-more-survivally/existentially-robust whole is the making of any water molecule. And the most inordinately complex instantiation of this process - whereby previously separate elements come together to make a bigger, better, brighter 'whole' - & doing so quite spontaneously & entirely under their very own self-generated power, direction & ability to do so, is of course life itself - you & me.
And it is my carefully studied opinion that all interacting is accomplished thoughtfully - that is to say, via the literal reading of information as literally advertised on the surface of all other interactees . .. .
What I feel I have discovered is all three key elements of, well, of all material being - of all material being here in a universe in which the elementary elements literally show themselves (to us & to each other) as having severally the power & ability to exist here as they (we) do - even though many of them when they encounter each other smash each other to pieces - or just damage & compromise the existential potential of the other. But also at times, join together nicely, complementarily & eventually produce not only each & every single, individual increment of what we ourselves call solid matter (in contrast to matter in its plasma states) & eventually us - we cognitively self-consciously aware entities who quite manifestly possess a distinction 'above' all other known increments of matter in that we can see & understand 'it all'.
And that all of these interactions are accomplished thoughtfully - again, via the use of information (in the form of geometrical objects existing on the surfaces of all interactees) as the means with which to guide & direct those interactions
But it only works out this way if it is not only a panpsychic cosmos - which in my interpretation means that there is some raw, pure knowingness at the penultimate quintessence of matter - but also that, critically albeit not only, each & every increment of this raw knowingness also wraps itself in an all-surrounding both SENSITIVE & POWERFUL electrostatic force field which entity (again) not only reads the electromagnetic properties of any fellow interactee, but also helps do all of the work - also helps forcefully & actively mount an existentially appropriate response thereto.
One of the physical features of reality which my investigations have made clear is that 'matter' - especially in its electromagnetic properties (rather than the 'gravitational' one !! - gravity is not only weaker than the electromagnetic forces but is roughly 40 orders of magnitude weaker !!!!! as we all know) - so yes, the electromagnetic properties are the only significantly & properly & fully agential 'thing' here at this 'our' level of macro/meso being.
In your essay - as in many others - you ascribe 'directive powers' to information. I feel that the evidence does not support this. Again I feel the evidence compels us to conclude that whenever any two lumps of solid matter bang into one another each literally READS the other's SHAPE - that is, literally reads the other's geometricity - WHICH IS AN ITEM OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE OTHER - & then concomitantly mounts its own reaction thereto with its own powefulness - which power & energy are housed or contained with the solid matter itself - not within the geometrical object riding on its surface.
AND ALL THE WHILE THE QUINTESSENTIAL KNOWINGNESS INSIDE THE LUMP OF MATTER KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON - IT KNOWS BECAUSE THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT KNOWINGNESS DOES - IT KNOWS.
Imagine a single entity composed of raw, pure knowingness. Indeed, of raw, pure SENSITIVITY (of raw, pure electromagnetic sensitivity) stranded way out there in the middle of the universe somewhere all on its own. It would effectively know nothing as the only manner in which its knowingness activates - FEELS anything - is when it literally bumps into another thing like itself. The archetypal case of 'I only come to know myself when I find myself reflected in my surrounds - & especially in our own situation, only as I bump into & bounce off of - or co-join together with !! other human beings.
Speaking of 'us' human beings, it is, of course, necessary to point out that we are different from the rocks & stones beneath our feet & the atoms & molecules in the air we breathe only in degree & not at all in kind. In other words we too - as already claimed - come to know ourselves only as we encounter whatever is separate from us & feel it. The only difference being that we - as the little bit of water trapped in between our two consciousness-generating panels (see my essay !!!!) can experience the world is via a sometimes very, very, very long line of proxies or mediums.
And as not a few of us have noted, what these mediums & proxies must do in order for us to obtain a good picture (literally) of the world, is deliver the SHAPES - THE GEOMETRICITIES - of the objects & events off of which these mediums first harvested whatever foreign shapes they now carry on their person (in addition to their own personal shapes) with maximum copying fidelity - with optimum fidelity of copy.
As I stress in my essay, the ensembles of geometrical objects which our brains gather together into their one last final summation, is not 'intended' for 'us' - these patterns are not intended for the private, personal delectation of the small amount of interstitial fluid which comprises us. No. 'We' just happen to be 'in the road' as it were. It quite accidental that we feel them as we encounter THESE GEOMETRICAL OBJECTS & ENSEMBLES THEREOF ONLY AS THEY GET TRANSMITTED THROUGH US - get transmitted through us on their way over to their properly intended destination, specifically our Reading/Triggering Panels - at least the trillions of trigger heads of all of the nerves innervating all of our motor equipment mounted thereon.
One of the many, many vital items of information (gems of wisdom) I discovered during my investigations is that a very large & clear distinction exists between mere computing & real thinking. Computing, which is merely counting, calculating & computing, can be easily accomplished with digits. Real thinking requires 'information' which I am insisting always exists as some one or another geometrical object - some one or another or assembly of (pattern) planes, lines & points. Always exists in analogue form.
So then, if what I am saying is true - & so far all this is 'objectively' 'observable, measurable, verifiable, quantifiable' phenomena - then 'all' we are left with is a little bit of water accidentally trapped in between our consciousness-generating panels, feeling, sensing, detecting a whole bunch of geometrical objects pulsing through it - which patterns are probably not instantiated in bioelectrical impulses but in patterns of neurotransmitter release !!! - so how then do 'we' 'know' a colourful, warm/cold, hard/soft, sound-filled, odourous, tasty, indeed, happy, sad, loving, hating, etc etc world ??
Here I think the answer lies in, er, 'mirror resonances' !! That somehow - & for this phenomenon I don't know the exact answer !! - when all of the visually derived geometrical objects hit 'us' & when all of the auditorially derived geometrical objects hit us, & when all of the buccally derived geometrical objects pound through us & all of the tactile-ly derived geometrical objects pulse through us - the quintessential knowingness that is at our heart, core & foundation - undoubtedly at the level we call the quantum one - literally resonates in tune with the medium on which those geometrical object are, after all, merely riding.
Two things happen when we come to know something. (1) we get literally hit by a solid object in the instance of the medium bring the (2) message on its back. We are impacted in two different ways by each medium-delivered information event.
Our own human-made communicating devices somehow - & we know quite well how - spit back out exactly the same 'experience-of-the-world' they first took in - or picked up if you prefer. And here I refer to the fact that light goes into our cameras & eventually re-emerges as light on our television & ipad screens. Likewise sound. And if I get it correctly - the virtualists among us are working on getting our recording & communicating devices to 'spit back out' ever more 'experiences' in precisely the same modality in which they took them in. Odour, touch etc.
So if we can make our machines do this I feel confident that that is pretty much what that small amount of water accidentally lodged where it is, also does. As a ball of pure knowingness, it is able to divide its knowingness into knowledge of the world rather well. After all it feels not only colour, sound & contact pressure, odour & taste but possibly something like a million other distinct feelings - balance, sick, well, happy, sad, sexy, hungry thirsty etc, etc, etc All of which seems to go well enough provided we deliver all of this 'up to it' not only in geometrical objects riding on them but also as deliverd on the backs of particular mediums which physically effect that little bit of water in ways that also cause it to literally vibrate/resonate in tune with the manner in which the originators of those geometrical objects, resonated . .. ......
Something KNOWS & as that little bit of water is the only thing in the whole universe that experiences every single feeling, sensation, thought, imagination, increment of knowledge we ourselves believe ourselves to consciously feel, sense, detect, know & experience then I feel we are compelled to make pretty much precisely the very distinctions concerning thought, mind & consciousness, that I make here & in my essay.
Very best regards - Margriet O'Regan
