Essay Abstract
As processes of emergence are of central importance for the evolution of the universe and everything in it, a situation may arise in a distant future where a "decisive transition" will take place. The latter is defined as that future evolutionary phase where a logical depth necessary to comply with the number of computational steps, which would be required for a comprehension of the "meaning of the universe", is within the grasp of computations. In this Essay, an exemplary model for the evolution of evolution is discussed. As a résumé, three propositions for model construction are presented, which deduce from the interlockings of very simple sets of feedback mechanisms types of irreversible complex behaviour, which may entail a universal tendency towards ever greater logical depth.
Author Bio
Gerhard Grössing was born in Vienna, Austria; M.S. from Iowa State University (High Energy Physics) 1980; dissertation on quark jets at the University of Vienna; graduation as Ph.D. 1983; then: research projects at the Atominstitut, Vienna, including, since 1984, the development of "Quantum Cellular Automata" (QCA). Monograph: "Quantum Cybernetics" (Springer, New York, 2000). Founding member and director of the Austrian Institute for Nonlinear Studies (AINS), Vienna, since 1990. Present main interests: foundations of quantum theory, computer models of emergence.