Speculative presentation from Brian Josephson …
I love the anti-reductionist “levels of reality” aspect – and the teleological “future directedness” of life. Explanation being distinct from predictability – no unique cause-effect or whole-part relations, and two-way causal & explanatory dependencies. Such basic common-sense stuff from the Nobel Laureate.
… note the parallels in his fundamental life idea with anthropic / fine-tuning concepts
… dynamic models with provisional stability – dynamic quality ?
… Ref Robert Rosen – “Life Itself”
… and the information web complexity / chaos too.
… conversation as part of life seeking new relationsips.
… stability in patterns despite constant change and reconfiguration at small and large scales.
… riding a bicycle (used that example myself in dissertation) as a complex system where stability arises.
… observation as part of system selection process – therefore part of the whole system
In summary the thesis is …
- Life is a different game to physics (which we need to understand more fully).
- Abstract systems-oriented considerations may capture life’s essence.
- In physics, it is generally believe that a further unifying level exists beyond the standard model and general relativity (but no-one is sure what it is).
- Life may exist at this level (without showing up in physics experiments).
… the life systems model is a game model, not an AI model
… Wheeler’s model … observation structures the universe.
… parallel of the cosmic question from theological and physical perspectives !!!
… reality is a much vaguer slippery thing than science presumes.
… materialism has had it’s day
… and much more … Wonderful stuff.