Sunday, November 13, 2005

Evolutionary times

Some of the leading science philosophers and visionaries consider intelligence as being the fundamental driving force of our cosmos - in fact, as the essence of universal evolution:

Ray Kurzweil says that "intelligence would ultimately permeate the universe and would decide the destiny of the cosmos." In this scenario, intelligence would permeate the solar system as it become one giant supercomputer: ie. our non-biological intelligence would have converted the matter of the solar system into intelligent matter. Our solar intelligence would then spread through the galaxy and ultimately the universe. Once the universe 'woke up' into full conscious intelligence, it would then seek to create another universe with which to continue the evolution of super-intelligence. Thus, the universe would procreate. Some scientists postulate this as the origin of the 'multi-verse' hypothesis. And this would explain why our universe is so precisely attuned to our life - why the universal constants, the Plank constant, are so fine-tuned for life - because the universe was created in mind for the evolution from the atomic, to the biological, to the non-biological and cosmic computational intelligence.

Scientist James N. Gardner has even written a book on this called 'Biocosm: The New Scientific Theory of Evolution: Intelligent Life Is the Architect of the Universe' where he postulates that in fact we are part of a fantastic cosmic design/plan to further our intelligence towards the universal mind:

"We and other living creatures throughout the cosmos are part of a vast, still undiscovered transterrestrial community of lives and intelligences spread across billions of galaxies and countless parsecs who are collectively engaged in a portentous mission of truly cosmic importance. Under the Biocosm vision, we share a common fate with that community - to help shape the future of the universe and transform it from a collection of lifeless atoms into a vast, transcendent mind."

If this is the leading edge of science - where is it leading us to??

These are truly evolutionary times...

9 comments:

Unknown said...

This is interesting because I have discovered a similar theory that's base on an entropic interpretation of the anthropic principle.

Kingsley said...

Thanks 'island' - would love to hear of this theory you've discovered.

Can you explain more?

Kingsley

Unknown said...

Well, to make a very long story shorter...

We're here to make particles from vacuum energy, because this is the mechanism that causes the universe to have a big bang... eventually, I don't know how much physics that you know, but...

Follow this logic:

The physics derives that puncutated equilibrium is analogous to a *near* static universe, whereas, a big bang is analogous to an evolutionary leap.

When the universe has a big bang, it "convolves" its characteristics or traits forward to a higher level of entropic efficiency, just like humans did when we lept from apes to become the fire-breathing-monsters that we are today.

That our purpose in this universe, but the principle extends to become a biocentric principle once this clear need for intelligent life is defined, so we should expect to find similar beings doing the same thing on every banded spiral galaxy that exists on the same evolutionary "plane" as us, per the requirement of the anthopic principle that we occupy a preferred place and time in the history of the universe. This includes a whole layer of galaxies that evolved at about the same time as ours.

This prediction is currently being tested by SETI... they are wasting their time looking anywhere else... and, given our evolutionary and technological commonality, we should all come into contact with each other at about the same time and this defines a form of universal consciousness, in terms of self-awareness.

Kingsley said...

Island - interesting ideas...very close to what I've been looking into: reminds me of 'The Physics of Immortality' by Frank Tipler. Also, it has a similar path to cosmic complexity: the notion that progress, or evolution, requires a leap - a 'bifurcation' - onto a higher evolutionary level - do you know 'Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature' by Eric Chaisson? Also, the notion of using the energy from the quantum vaccum links in with - 'Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything' by Ervin Laszlo (which I highly recommend). Yes, I do feel that the quantum vacuum had/has a crucial role to play in forming the almost perfect universal constants that form the reasoning behind the anthropomorphic view - and 'The Anthropic Cosmological Principle' - another F. Tipler book? - which is where you are coming from I suspect. Do you know of any other sources I might follow up?

Thanks - Kingsley

Unknown said...

My website is:

www.anthropic-principle.org

Most of the books that you've mentioned as well as papers on the subject are referenced there, but my discovery came from an honest physics question...

But what about the hole that the "hole" left behind???

This fixes Dirac's Large Numbers Hypothesis, thereby completing and clarifying the anthropic principle while removing its tautologous and circular nature.

*Uniform* energy dissemination is the key to the flatness problem and the anthropic principle.

Kingsley said...

There's alot of good information on your site - I will read over this.

I'm interested in when you say: 'we should all come into contact with each other at about the same time and this defines a form of universal consciousness, in terms of self-awareness.'

Do you think this has similarities with what is talked about as the 'singularity'? Kurzweil discusses the universe becoming intelligent and conscious through being technologically engineered.

Thanks for your contact. I'd like to post some of our comments.

Unknown said...

Similarities, yes, but some of the ideas that Kurzweil promotes are out of my league, and some of them seem to violate the normal laws of physics. This stuff makes for fascinating speculation, but I personally am bound only to direct extensions of traditional physics, which makes what I have to say a lot less sensational, and brought about by a simple physical need.

My own concept is derived directly from what I hope is the most naturally logical biocentric extension of the anthropic principle. Given the same basic raw materials, as well as the continuity and commonality in the manner that the universes evolved to produce a layer of similar "sites" that are conducive to life.

Intelligent life should all come into contact with each other at about the same time in the history of the universe assuming that the above also means that we all started transmitting our radio signals at about the same time. This is restricted to the speed of light in a vacuum and distances between galaxies vary, so we won't be in contact with everybody at the same time, but everybody will make contact with somebody at about the same time and we'll all have some simultaneous, instantaneous, and common thoughts.

I have a sinking feeling that this is just physics and the effect is supposed to make us think twice about colliding matter and antimatter at high relativistic speeds in order to simulate the big bang, because an awareness of the potential danger of this will make us back-off and stretch-out the evolutionary process to the last possible minute.

It makes logical sense that extending the expansion process to the maximum amount of time before a big bang occurs is what enables the universe to leap a little bit more-flat configuration when we do have a big bang.

It should be noted that my causal mechanism for a big bang falls from matter generation in Einstein's static model, which creates an offset increase in gravity and negative pressure. The "counterbalancing effect" holds the universe flat and stable as it expands, and that vindicates Einstein by reinstating his abandoned finite *purposeful* universe. Not to mention what that means to the anthropic cosmological principle.

You're welcome to repost whatever you'd like. Thanks for the good conversation.

Kingsley said...

Thanks - having my own background in complexity studies, I can grasp concepts related to the 2nd law of thermodynamics (via Prigogine) - and the entropic spread towards equilibrium: I have hence requested our university library to purchase a copy of 'Into the Cool'.

I am somewhat unsure in regard to your comments that intelligent life is evolving upon similar time scales: I would question the notion that there is/was 'continuity and commonality in the manner that the universes evolved'.

However, I would love to be around to know the outcome of this! Meanwhile, I will continue to seek out knowledge to equip my understanding for the journey.

Thank You

Unknown said...

That's good to hear. The co-authors of the book are Dorion Sagan and Eric Schneider. They have independently derived a more local version of the same theory as me. Dorion is Carl Sagan's son, and Eric co-authored numerous papers on the subject with James Kay.

Like this one:
Schneider, Eric D. and James J. Kay. "Life as a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics." Mathematical and Computer Modelling 19(6-8): 25-48.

http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/u/jjkay/pubs/Life_as/lifeas.pdf

But this popular magazine article describes their position in layman's terminology:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/09/30/2003204990

I am somewhat unsure in regard to your comments that intelligent life is evolving upon similar time scales: I would question the notion that there is/was 'continuity and commonality in the manner that the universes evolved'.

It's known as the principle of mediocrity, and is the basis for SETI investigation. My point is that the anthropic principle dictates that it only applies to banded spiral galaxies that are on the same evolutionary time-line as us.

I can grasp concepts related to the 2nd law of thermodynamics (via Prigogine) - and the entropic spread towards equilibrium

The trick though has to do with the fact that this process releases high-energy photons that interact with vacuum energy to create masive particles from the vacuum.

Think of what happens if you could reach into the vacuum and rip out a large chunk of its energy and squish it down to make a particle.

1) You leave a hole in the vacuum which serves to increase negative pressure, which **causes** vacuum expansion.

2) The created particle increases gravity.

3) The offset increase of both causes tension to increase between the vacuum and matter.

4) This will eventually compromise the integrity of the forces that bind the universe and we will have *another* big bang.

5) Black Holes, Supernovae, and us... are the only known sources for this, and humans are by far more energy efficient at it than any of them.

That's why we're here.