stuart Kauffman – An Autonomous Agent

The End of Certainty – Ilya Prigogine

anautonomousagent — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 20:05:10 +0000

The End of Certainty by Ilya Prigogine provides insight into the natural processes which give rise to the novelty of life. Despite being published in 1997, there are so many great quotes and concepts which are still applicable today, that I will just say, “Read the book!” It will also help to read Stuart Kauffman’s book, Investigations, either before or after reading Prigogine’s book. Approaching from a different angle, Kauffman explores biological processes of nature which give rise to novelty and creative adaptive structures. Both books talk heavily about the dynamics of equilibrium and entropy. In the words of Prigogine, on page 67, “…matter at equilibrium is ‘blind,’ but far from equilibrium it begins to ‘see.'” Thus, non-equilibrium systems can think and observe the world, whereas systems in equilibrium are ignorant of all outside processes.

The approach of Prigogine lies in understanding the importance of Poincaré Resonances on dynamics and the construction/destruction of correlations at the microscopic level. How these resonances and these correlations behave leads to macroscopic features and the breaking of time symmetry. He deals with solving these Large Poincare Systems outside of the Hilbert Space; this is a concept which is important to biology and human social sciences. Because in these fields, we are always dealing with a system (human beings) which is far from equilibrium and behaves in novel and creative ways.

In other words, life, as a non-equilibrium dissipative structure emerging from the non-living world, needs to be studied under the auspices of “The End of Certainty.” Irreversible processes and long range correlations are critical to understanding the development of self-organization and the novelty of life.

All social sciences deal with a biological organism (humans), which is a product of non-equilibrium processes. Even Prigogine and the book itself are correlated with the mass of knowledge produced by humanity in the 20th century. In other words, his ideas and those of all scientists are subject to the same non-equilibrium dynamics which Prigogine talks about in his book. Resonances and correlations in the social sphere can lead to amazing discoveries or a lack thereof.

One subject that I think could see development from Prigogine’s ideas is economics. Economics should be considered: “The study of non-equilibirum dissipative structures created by the self-organized social species known as homo sapiens, to reproduce and adapt in the biosphere called ‘Earth.'”

What I thought about the most was the concept of correlation creation and destruction. In terms of self-organizing systems and financial markets, perhaps crashes are correlation destruction events, while bubbles are correlations spreading through time. And after a crash occurs, correlations can be created which makes a crisis even worse.

Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine – Huston Smith

anautonomousagent — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:47:00 +0000

I was introduced to the works of Alan Watts by a meditation teacher about three years ago. Since then, I have been interested in mysticism, cognition, Buddhism, and scientism. Don’t ask me why, but these subjects just captivate me. I have been reading the works of various authors such as Douglas Hofstadter, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joseph Campbell, Stuart Kauffman, Francisco Varela, and Jiddu Krishnamurti; but what am I trying to learn; WHY?

Probably, this question will never be answered, but being only 23, I have barely began to experience the reality these authors seek to understand. I can live this reality and hopefully discover something worth telling others. Anyway, besides reading, Yoga and meditation have been my most direct experiences with the spiritual nature of the mind and universe. And just a few days ago I watched a video with Huston Smith. He makes me want to travel the world and experience other cultures. I have started reading his autobiography, Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine. Smith appears to be a fascinating individual and I think that I have much to learn from him. Perhaps you have read Smith? If not, I highly suggest that you do.

YouTube Channel – WarOnYourMind

anautonomousagent — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 18:06:00 +0000

Started watching the Harvard Distinguished Lecture Series with Daniel Dennett. I enjoyed the lecture on Mind/Brain/Behavior and recommend watching it. Check out WarOnYourMind on YouTube for similar lectures.

Geoffrey West Question and Response

anautonomousagent — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:27:00 +0000

The other day I heard Geoffrey West’s talk on sustainability, cities, cells, organisms, and complexity. He mentioned the universal scaling law which exists in biological systems called the “3/4 power law,” (see Kleiber’s Law for an example). After the lecture, I asked the question: What about organisms on other planets, do you think they will obey this “3/4 power law?”

Watch the actual question on YouTube.

West’s response was interesting. He basically said that it would be likely only if these organisms followed the same networking structures and patterns which we observe in Earth’s biosphere (for example, most people are familiar with networks which are hierarchical). In other words, there may be network structures on other worlds, unfamiliar to any scientist here on Earth. If there exist such unknown networks which have guided the evolution of these alien organisms, then these organisms will not obey this “3/4 power law.”

Fascinating response, especially considering the general Astro-Biology ideas of Kauffman. These ideas hypothesize a biological science which can explain all life in the universe, not just life in Earth’s biosphere.

Geoffrey West Videos

anautonomousagent — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:23:00 +0000

I’ll be attending a talk by Geoffrey West soon. Many of his ideas are great additions to the work of Stuart Kauffman, Ricard Sole, and others at the Santa Fe Institute.

List of talks and lectures by Geoffrey West:

On Metabolism and Scaling Laws

Geoffrey West: The surprising math of cities and corporations

Geoffrey West On Complexity

Scaling Laws In Biology And Other Complex Systems

Urban Friction

YouTube Playlist

Stuart Kauffman Videos

anautonomousagent — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:01:00 +0000

Stuart Kauffman provides many insights into nature, evolution, and other subjects in the following videos:

YouTube Playlist

Stuart Kauffman – Beyond Belief 2007

The Re-Enchantment of Humanity: Dr. Stuart Kauffman

Stuart Kauffman on Beyond Reductionism

Reinventing the Sacred with Stuart Kauffman part1

Stuart Kauffman: Yuk ‘n’ Yum

Stuart Kauffman Returns to Gund 1/2

Stuart Kauffman – Mind in the Poised Realm

Biologist and complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman on preadaptations in evolution

The Future Materials of Earth’s Life-Forms

anautonomousagent — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:47:00 +0000

In Investigations, Stuart Kauffman writes about the adjacent possible. While reading this section I couldn’t help but wonder whether the idea of pollution needed revision. For example, imagine 700 million years into the future and the organisms which may exist. At this time the adjacent possible will have explored one long path in the space of possible paths. I think it would be extremely likely for there to be life forms which incorporate materials which humans have deemed “pollution.” Fish or insects may roam the planet with polyethylene skin or shells. Or imagine a creature with a defense mechanism made of concrete or steel, much like an ankylosaurus — but with a concrete ball at the end of its tail, instead of a calcium bone. I can envision such possibilities but could they actually occur? As long as materials like concrete, polyethylene, or steel ended up in the food supply, I think this is a potential outcome of evolution.

Thus, are the materials we consider pollution a bad thing for the environment? Because in the future they could be a valuable resource for an organism. Certainly these materials may be toxic to modern life-forms, but what about evolution. Polyethylene never existed in the universe before and neither did concrete, steel and many other materials created by man.

Maybe the young parts of the universe, like the outer arms of spiral galaxies, look at the old galactic center and think “wow! look at all the pollution in the center of the galaxy. There is so much carbon, copper, iron, and oxygen which react with our precious hydrogen.” In other words, pollution is only relative.

Edge.org

anautonomousagent — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:58:00 +0000

An excellent website, the Edge.org contains many videos and conversations with modern geniuses. I discovered the site while searching for Stuart Kauffman (see page on him at Edge). Also, check here for a list of books by these smart men and women.

Origins of Order – Stuart Kauffman

anautonomousagent — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:41:00 +0000

Origins of Order, by Stuart Kauffman, provides a new look at evolution through natural selection. Instead of holding that the main creator of order is genetic drift with Natural Selection, Kauffman explores the idea that order can spontaneously form under various conditions in the natural world. Kauffman also emphasizes the importance of co-evolution among organisms in creating complex evolutionary systems. All of these ideas are explored through the mathematical tool of fitness landscapes.

The book, although long and dense, provides deep insights into the nature of life and evolution. The concepts presented involve mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and biology. I would recommend this book if the reader likes these topics and has enough time (or is fast reader). (ISBN-13: 978-0195079517)

Investigations – Stuart Kauffman

anautonomousagent — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:08:00 +0000

Investigations seems to be a further expansion of the ideas presented in Kauffman’s book Origins of Order (see other post). As a note, I found that both are very dense and hard to read. However, the concepts presented within are worth the effort. The book provides a novel approach at explaining the origins of life. I found the most fascinating concepts in the novel to be the Adjacent Possible and the idea of Autonomous Agents.

An Autonomous Agent is simply a system which reproduces itself and carries out a work cycle.

The idea of an Adjacent Possible shines light on the idea of entropy in the universe. Investigations contains an entire section talking about Maxwell’s Demon and the nonergodicity (see ergodic hypothesis) of the universe. Briefly, the Adjacent Possible is the set of all “next” states of the universe. To give an example, consider the early universe. Consisting almost entirely of Hydrogen and Helium, we would say that the universe was in a “Actual State” of Hydrogen and Helium. The Adjacent Possible of chemicals would be the empty set — that is, no chemical states can be “formed” from Hydrogen and Helium (gravity has yet to create stars). Then, once stars began to form, the Adjacent Possible began to include more states; elements like Carbon and Oxygen are the “next” states in the interior of stars under the right temperature and pressures. Fast forward billions of years and human organisms are creating “next” states in the chemical Adjacent Possible (assuming alien civilizations have not already created these states). For example, humans have created nylon, plastic, Teflon, and various other molecular states. These states would have been considered elements of the Adjacent Possible in the early 20th century; now, they are elements of the “Actual State” of the universe.

Thus, the universe can be considered nonergodic. It has yet to explore, and most likely will not explore, a large portion of the possible states of the universe.

Kauffman also talks about economics. He explains that modern economic theories fail to predict and account for the persistent innovation of human “goods” into the Adjacent Possible of “goods.”

I would highly recommend Investigations. It really is a must read! (ISBN-13: 978-0195121056)