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<p class="MsoNormal">But go deeper again, and electrons have half spins.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">From: </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> on behalf of Jon Zingale <jonzingale@gmail.com><br>
<b>Reply-To: </b>The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br>
<b>Date: </b>Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 3:52 PM<br>
<b>To: </b>"friam@redfish.com" <friam@redfish.com><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[FRIAM] Optimizing for maximal serendipity or how Alan Turing misdirected ALife<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">In another post, Glen mentions an application of the parallelism theorem to 2nd<br>
order privacy. I wish here to express caution wrt application of this theorem to<br>
questions of consciousness, private or otherwise. Because conscious experience<br>
(say in the sense of Tononi) may in fact be or contain fully-integrated and<br>
irreducible complexes, parallel-experience should be handled as a potentially<br>
very different thing than its serial cousin.<br>
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In some ways, what gives material life a foot up on simulated life is a sense<br>
of <i>maximal serendipity</i>. To a large extent, I feel that this is the central<br>
argument of analog-high-fidelity loving nerds. There is a recognition that<br>
functions (plural) may in-fact follow from form. In those fiery digital vs. analog<br>
debates, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that transistors are by their very<br>
nature, <i>analog devices</i>. They are chunks of matter influenced by the world at<br>
large. The function space for how such matter is influenced is likely non-<br>
enumerable, much less what can be done with such influence. The imposition</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">that a transistor
<i>behaves</i> digitally is an imposition demanding that the device</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">act as a unit for symbolic manipulation, to act within clearly delimited bounds.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">Consider, by analogy, the tails of aquatic mammals. Before they were tails,<br>
these appendages were evolved for walking. Later, they would be improved upon<br>
for swimming. Nature appears to work with what is readily at hand, and the space<br>
of possible functions is not likely to be concretely specifiable. To my mind,<br>
this is where the hypnotizing concept of a Turing test led the program to develop<br>
artificial life, astray. Here we set up a useless paradox. We demand that whatever<br>
system we design <i>forcibly</i> participate in our investigation. We demand that it</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">behave</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333"> like a good and servile device, and then we complain that we have failed.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">Perhaps, my chair is conscious in-part because it, like the sadists, says no. I am not<br>
necessarily committed to this position about my chair, but I do think it points<br>
to the self-defeating nature of Turing tests. In another post, Merle emphasizes<br>
the importance of identifying transdisciplinary research. In particular, she<br>
mentions its connection to the <i>adjacent possible</i>. Whatever will one day be called<br>
ALife, will only be interesting if it is capable of exploring such a domain.<br>
In an effort to contribute to this program, I advocate for taking seriously ideas<br>
like embodiment and potential for serendipity. Given consciousness, the question<br>
of <i>How do we know? </i>maybe the least interesting path of investigation.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">I suspect that I am preaching to the pulpit, but I thought it fruitful to write</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">down these ideas. Thank you for the space to do so.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:#333333">Jon</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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