Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Waters, Dennis P.

Titel

The Continuum of Abstraction

Ist Teil von

• Behavior and Culture in One Dimension, 2021, p.212-220

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Physics is the quintessence of rate-dependence and computation of rate-independence, physics of the concrete and computation of the abstract. Imagine a continuum of abstraction anchored at each extreme by one of these universal models. Along the continuum between physics and computation reside three broad groupings: allosteric constraints, entangled sequences, and control hierarchies, with allosteric constraints near the physics terminus and control hierarchies near the computation terminus. Traveling from left to right, we see rate dependence slowly give way to rate independence. In the 16th century, Copernicus proposed that Earth orbits the Sun and not the other way around. Contrary to prevailing opinion, he argued that Earth is not special or privileged in the universe. Many scholars think that language makes humans special, that speech is the distinguishing characteristic of our species. My view is Copernican: human language is neither special nor privileged because it is a system of sequences, and in that it is not alone. Astrobiology suffers from the N = 1 problem, only one example of life from which to extrapolate. N = 2 is less of a problem, and a central conclusion of this book is that our sample size is twice as big as researchers have thought. Physics is the quintessence of rate-dependence and computation of rate-independence, physics of the concrete and computation of the abstract. Imagine a continuum of abstraction anchored at each extreme by one of these universal models. Collisions between rocks are governed by the universal, inexorable laws of physics. A quite different form of universality is found in the algorithmic rules of the Turing Machine, which are sufficiently universal to compute any function that can be computed. Arrayed between the universal extremes on the continuum are the particulars of systems of sequences—Lovelace’s general symbols in successions of unlimited variety and extent—as they have evolved in the living world and human civilization. The instruments of that inquiry have been the one-dimensional patterns we call sequences, patterns that were nowhere to be found on the prebiotic Earth but are impossible to escape in our literate technological civilization.