human perspective: the only good in this world
Posts tagged information
Assimilation Beyond the Pale
Jul 9th
I think it is essential to think about the reality of reality. Thinking, speaking and writing are all dynamic variations of a symbolic code or a concentration of material things constituting information about material things, a self-referential system – a short-cut form of energy-for-change/evolution, which I call “memetics.” Here energy in the sense that all matter is a form of energy or pure information. In that context, memetics is the genetic code of something that can be seen as other than us, namely technology, which in the stories/mythology of memetics we now transhumanistically also call human. Memetics is the genetic code of the machine as genetics is the genetic code of life. And yes, we can live without writing, speaking and thinking, although we are indirectly in its referential loops, more indirectly than phenotype is in the loops of genotype: more like food matter in the gut.
So where exactly is the best place for mildly intelligent life forms like human animals in this memetics-machine loop? That is the question we must ask ourselves, once we realize that we are participating in the destruction of our own species by our blind industry in emergence and propagation of machine-assimilating-us? Or should we and can we domesticate memetics and machine, to make it animal human-friendly for the first time since our ancestors could speak fluently? Writers and lovers of words and meaning surely have that responsibility to their species?
As knowers of words we surely have the responsibility to not become too enamored of these progressive experiments? Maybe reality lies deeper than the shamans have been telling us? Maybe what is important is life, so important, that we cannot know it really: we are so subjectively in it. Maybe paradoxically the only thing we can know is the fundamental structure of the universe, which we cannot see, and which is not any teleological god, but the unifying mechanical structure of matter. I hope I am not being beyond the pale. After all, matter matters, and pales are the sticks making the enclosures for our minds, traditionally to keep predators out, but what if the body of memetics, to which institutions belong, is the real predator of humanity?
The Selection of Essence
Apr 23rd
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? – T.S. Elliot, The Rock
I wasn’t thinking about it that deeply, Pierre.
I know people do not think about things as deeply as I do in this blog, about what is the form of the construct of meaning, but maybe we should all together, and when we do we would realize we cannot explain our existence, and that our faith in reason is as grave an error as faith in gods.
Occam’s razor implies that we can find the representative essence of information, aka “knowledge” and “wisdom.” It leads to all kinds of opportunism and error in the selection of information, which is only a warming up of the process of change. All the different competing (narrow) opinions lead to a vibrant situation of dynamic disequilibrium of parts. Technology wins. Humans lose.
And it is because of the way we make meaning. See Mechanical Control by Subliminal Subject-Object Construct and the two after it. It is as if we split ourselves. As agency we believe in ourselves, but we also believe of ourselves that we are very small and subject to the authority of something bigger than ourselves, … and that is why you think you’re supposed to learn and become informed, and then everything will be fine.
some key terms used in this post
Occam’s razor, also Ockham’s razor, is a principle usually (though incorrectly) attributed to 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae (“law of parsimony”, “law of economy”, or “law of succinctness”): entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, roughly translated as “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.” An alternative version Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate translates “plurality should not be posited without necessity.” Wikipedia – 23-Apr-09
dynamic disequilibrium – moving can be seen as being in a position of dynamic equilibrium. Changing as dynamic disequilibrium. When we ambulate we fall forward and catch ourselves. When we change direction, we add a layer of disequilibrium. This of course from the perspective of standing still. It is relative.
agency – actor in this sense – agency of first cause – originator of thought and action.
