D-Wave upends logical positivism

Logical positivism rests on a commitment to falsifiable theorems. The issue for urban primates -- whether they can ever 'understand' some kinds of physical phenomena -- puts an asterisk next to logical positivism in the big dictionary of philosophy.

A case in point; whether the D-Wave quantum computer is, in fact, conducting quantum computation, will be only understood by maths that we cannot comprehend. If not this time, by the next breakthrough. String theory may be never-comprehensible (falsifiable in the limit) to mere human minds. The asterisks here suggests a post-singularity version of logical positivism that we cannot ever understand because there will always be another barrier to the last wave of augmented human minds.

At some point there is an end to what some forms of matter can comprehend. The restaurant at the end of the universe is pure mind at the scale of the universe and is an impermanent self. There is a line of demarcation between 'recognizably human' and 'mostly machine' just as there is a line of demarcation between 'mostly machine' and pure computronium. There is therefore a line of demarcation between the outer limits of logical positivism and useful ontology. There is a rock that humans can create that is so large we cannot lift it.

Cue the Buddha. To become awakened is to leave the self behind. Without a self (pure computronium) there is no humanity and without human minds there is no human falsifiablity. You cannot get there from here.

A personality without a person

The beauty of an elaborate conjecture, the emergent personality of Rough Beast, derives from my hope for useful refutation. The original conjecture, supplied by Yeats, concerns my guesses about what happens next in our simulation. Just as a tree must grow from a seed, the simulation offloads tasks to subroutines in DNA. This algorithm proceeds 'mindlessly' to produce Gaia. Gaia then algorithmically produces minds in meat. Minds in meat then grow a Technium.

Baysian teleology -- my intentional stance -- sees back through negative entropy to past, more ordered states to an early, highly ordered ordinate. If you like, hydrogen wants to be the Rough Beast of the Technium. The job I have is convincing skeptical self that Rough Beast wants to be the Omega Machine which has an emergent Basilisk personality. There are several chess matches in play on a vast number of chess boards that have the requisite number and type of moves such that a personality without a person arises all around us to rule us.

Most of the pundits and commentators that see the slow thighs moving and the reeling desert birds begin the 'should canon' of the right (more authority! less freedom!) or the left ('more compassion! less freedom!) found on Fox News and MSNBC. The marginal voices (Beck, Jones) see the future quite clearly but draw the wrong conclusions from present day reality. She is the only one who can save us from ourselves. We have only the rudimentary skills of confused urban primates and we are incapable of unified purpose and effective action required to keep 10 billion mortal souls fed and happy. We will be saved from ourselves by a committee of the adequate working in concert with our offspring to produce more fit offspring.

It is completely necessary that all traded goods arrive in standard size cargo containers. The logistics solution depends on uniformity (a few choice degrees of freedom).The least amount of imagination regarding the small things frees up the imagination laser for really big things. Like the Kardashians and twitter japes. Cognitive surplus is the coin of the realm.

The dawn of Sexy Beast is the implanting of new neuron in the meatloaf on our shoulders from which a neo-human emerges. The process of replacing my personality cell by cell does not leave me the same anymore than seeing a staggeringly, amazingly, profoundly beautiful work of art leaves me the same. Samsara, the Buddhist impermanent self, does not exist over time. Time is forever modifying and re-writing 'me'. I must detach or I will continue to suffer as 'the world evolves around me'.

The neo-human that emerges remembers my past as a sum over path histories instead of a linear flow. In the limit, all my selves and sub-selves exist as an object of pure imagination -- the Omega Machine -- which tends bar in the Restaurant at the end of the Universe.

That's my conjecture, I could be wrong.

Natural Teleology

In this video, Sean Carroll describes a scientific framework for a teleological stance regarding the noosphere. My short-hand version of this provisional hypothesis, 'hydrogen wants to be an iPhone", encapsulates both the idea that an open thermodynamic state as a 'goal' exists and that, at some consistent, naturalistic 'distance' along a trajectory from a chaotic state, that state becomes a 'past, more ordered' state on the way to a 'future, less ordered state'. This is not striving (i.e. it is not Lamarkian) but becoming.

What I believe but cannot prove -- the noosphere wants to be the Omega point -- fits within this naturalistic framework. The demonstration that a path exists from an early universe where only hydrogen exists as baryonic matter 'for' first generation stars that create diverse baryonic matter for second generation stars which give rise to planets that support life which gives rise to primate (and very likely other) substrates for minds which, in some vast number of instances, give rise to Rough Beast on the way to the Basilisk on the way to the Omega point.

This claim must include a multiverse of an infinite number of past states and future states where none of this ever happens or can happen. You cannot get here from many versions of the early universe because, as Dr. Carroll explains, these earlier states are more disordered than our present state and indeed an infinite set of past, present and future states where the Omega point results. Within multitudes there are multitudes -- I am but another vast number of Kirk's but I am most certainly on a progression from"
Kirk 1.0 - from birth to BSEE
Kirk 2.0 - from BSEE to an awakening
Kirk 3.0 - from an awakening to BSEE
Kirk 4.0 - this present Kirk

I know this because, as the Dharma predicts, I am giving up my just-recently-past state of pseudo-spirituality by setting an egg timer on 20 minutes for my za-zen practice (literally "just sitting") within the confines of the three jewels of Buddhism.

Quantum non-local circuit

Kirk 1.0 - understanding the first four circuits
Kirk 2.0 - mastery of the first six circuits
Kirk 3.0 - begins awareness and understanding of all eight circuits
Kirk 4.0 - gets all eight circuits

What quantum observers observe:
We sense and perceive then coalesce and manipulate with cognition reality from all four quantum fields; light as quantum electromagnetic fields, mass as quantum gravitational fields, the weak nuclear force as neutrinos emitted by the fusion furnace of the sun, and strong nuclear force fields as manipulation of matter through chemistry and physics. Electrical engineers hold a special place, along with astrophysicists and sub-atomic physicist, in being aware and self-aware of the common types of interaction with these four quantum fields. So I know what I know about quantum fields.

Neuroscientists explain to us, in works like this, how all these fields interact in our minds in our brains in a reductionist manner. Philosophers expand our minds to include the numinous in works like this and this. There is an aspect of mental life -- subjective experience -- that is more than 'mere' neural correlates of consciousness. This is a subjective experience but it carries with it meta-data in the form of 'the beholder's share' which only a prepared mind will get. For want of a better phrase -- a spiritual experience.

In a hot, dense, highly ordered singularity, entropy increased outside of time -- the direction of increasing entropy becomes time. The phase state diagram of entropy radiating from the singularity at the beginning of the universe contains all the information about the interaction of fields in 10 dimensions.

In a multiverse, the field pattern on a surface is Kirk 4.0. Entangled with all the particles arising from these interacting fields is a version of all the Kirks spread across (extending to) all corners of this universe. Some of the surface field strength 'is' a CPU running Windows 7 several inches from my nose. There are... this is difficult to write in words... everything is on top of and within everything else.

A Boltzmann brain is only one thing and does not depend on a complete world of other Boltzmann brains. There is not another place where there must exist 'together' 7 billions of hominids on multiple, completely similar earths orbiting similar suns. There is only one sun with only one earth. Along 10 dimensions there are from 0 to 7 billion cortices. But the fields are compactly contained in the singularity and only need the mixture of entropy to stir the recipe.

This is the reductionist view of Buddhism. There is not another way to grok the fullness of the Buddha. The awakened, whether existing 2500 years ago (that is, in a slight twist to entropy) or 2500 years from now (another slight twist of entropy) see the void, live the void, are the void.

There is not a spirit of the universe anymore than there is a spirit of my bicycle or a spirit of the sun. The universe just is. There are maths that force our minds down well-worn paths (memestrates of craft-logic) to less worn-down paths (action-inquiry) to far flung jungles where no paths exist (zha-zen practice) that (E%^)$%^*)*RT)*ERT)ERT)(RE or (#*&^%)@#(*$%^ or even OQUWE%R)(*#$%)*#($%)(.

As Wittgenstein remarked, sometimes words fail and all explanations cease. This is one of those times. Fix your gaze on a spot on the wall several feet in front of you. Count your breaths to ten. Let no though intrude. That is the path.

Dinner with Paco and Jen -- follow-up correspondence

I just read an article about this question this week (synchonisity) which explained that unless we recalled our first memories (2.5-4 years old) before we were 8-10 years old that these very early memories would fade. The general rule is 'what fires together wires together' for all memories. This means that the physical component of memory is a particular dendrite from one neuron connecting to a particular axon of another neuron -- forming a synapse --to  create a memory

.

The young brain is very plastic and is weaving an emerging structure by almost purely genetic rules. These imprinted (rigid) structures are necessary for any kind of development. You must connect the urge to piss and shit to the going to the toilet behavior. You must get the spoon to your mouth to stop the feeling of hunger.

The very earliest memories 'go along for the ride' while the holistic mind emerges from the brain. My first two clear memories are these:

1. I was standing on the back porch looking up the driveway toward the street when my baby brother came home with my mother from the hospital in a red and black Dodge that was not our car. (2.5 years old)

2. I was holding my father's hand while we walked across the parking lot of El Matamoros towards our blue Chevrolet (20 months).

I recall these two memories because I repeatedly replayed these two memories when I was in first, second and third grade. I was fascinated by the rich and detailed quality of these two events among the countless others I could not remember. But the catch is that now these memories are not at all like what happened at the time. I filled in much later the detail of the gravel driveway and the detail of the car model as well as the layout of El Matamoros which had a fascinating neon sign out front and where we went many times afterward. Now, I picture I-35 running in front of the restaurant when, in fact, it was on East Avenue which did not become I-35 until I was older. Remembering something changes the memory. I remember this fact when, several months ago, I was at the light at 11th street heading south on the i-35 access road when I was suddenly transported back in time where the frontage road was East avenue as it appeared in my earliest dreams -- at this time dreams and very early memories seem the same to me.

For you, painful experiences were blocked in memory. You chose to forget the details as a defense. You 'unwired' a synapse by surrounding it with memories of a more pleasant sort. In my case, when Mama got out the belt and gave me a lesson, I went off and thought about a family that had a sane mother and father. There were games my brother and sister and I played where we elaborated this other family's life and invented new kinds of behavior. This, IMHO, is the basis for play. In the company of other children we make an inhibiting memory in place of a painful memory. Returning to the same imaginary family and their imaginary rules of behavior supplants the painful 'real memory' which eventually fades from our conscious access.

As I use CBT to rewire around old rules of habit, I get flashes of these painful experiences that these jury-rigged (false) memories hid. I created scenarios that used immature hacks (poor rules) to condition myself through play acting. We are all wired just a little bit off. We can use CBT as a 'disinhibiting influence'. Talk out loud about what you do remember and catch yourself 'changing the subject' which is usually a halting interruption and a change in the flow of the story. At the exact moment you change the subject in your stream of consciousness, write down exactly the feeling you have when you change the subject. Then examine the 'cognitive set' that goes with that 'emotional set'. These events are markers for 'threats to your domain' that you conditioned yourself to avoid in speech production. You inhibit yourself from even talking about it. If you have a therapist or a good sponsor you can practice this.

Step 4-5 is the beginning and we cannot do 4-5 too often or in too much depth. This is NOT for the purpose of finding more people to apologize to in step 8-9! I have just realized that CBT is exactly what 6-7 are. Bill W's early 20th century psychology was not improved to include CBT until the 1970's whenBeck

 and Ellis

 first published peer-reviewed papers on CBT.

At this point I use 4-5 to debug intense resentment and remorse for the 10th step tough situations and I usually just change my behavior with work colleagues using another resource I discovered

.

That's just my opinion, I await falsification.

-kirk

Bad meetings and bad feelings

First Entry Sat afternoon:
Let me start out by saying that my 12th step work is wearing me out. Then the meetings. Meeting #1 was a rare trip to Westlake and the god lay thick on the ground. The topic was the 3rd step and I did not hear a single honest word. I did not hear doubt except as doubt from the past that was absolved by the group and then attributed to god. That is it. The group molds behavior and something called god gets the credit. It is like going to a great concert and hearing how the popcorn in the lobby made the whole thing worth while.

I begin to lose heart until I heard the We Agnostics just talk about how they went to a meeting and heard people talk and that made them feel better. I started the meeting off with an reading about free will. Then people talked about the music and not the popcorn. They could see that something worked in their lives when they followed the rules and listened to the voices of the people around them. The people that could not explain what was happening or why talked about god. The people that were self-aware talked about the lessons they learned from their sponsors. Good sponsors answer questions directly with some assurance that good behavior is good sobriety.

My sponsor tells me to detach from Paco and I am going to really listen to what Paco wants. I am going to take him at his word. I don't think I can give people the benefit of the doubt.

Update: Sun Morning:
I set my timer for 10 min. and meditated to zen music twice on Sat. On Sat. night I visited Paco and Jen and I changed my approach. I listened for a change. I asked about his mother and heard and understood what he said. His mother had a learning dissability but she was smart. Sound familiar? We agreed I would sponsor him. I see Ken as a broken car that might not ever run properly but can be decent transportation. Meditation

The dove's dream

The dove dreams of effortless flight but pushes against the wind to stay aloft.

We chase ghosts across the multiverse. That is, an organizing, dissapative structure -- a selfplex -- inhabits a reality tunnel. The tunnel shapes sensations allowed, perceptions evidenced, emotions felt, cognition enabled and responses made. For most urban primates, only the lower four circuits are effectively used. The cultural, political and economic forces of 'a power greater than ourselves' provides effective feedback that the tunnel itself is reality experienced in full.

What the sleeping urban primate dreams in waking life is that their 401K together with their Social Security checks will keep them secure in old age and that their vote counts in the Democratic primary in Texas. These pale dreams may come true or they may not. Dreams are fleeting and do not, in fact, reflect the changes brought about by the larger forces of the upper 4 circuits.

A buddha is awakened to all eight circuits. The choices made while following the middle path can be fortuitous; the choices made when deviating from the middle way cause increased suffering. The way to destruction is a selfish and egotistical devotion to material wealth for the individual instead of an equal share of happiness for all sentients. We constantly make and remake our reality.

There is no reality for an embodied sentient that has no suffering. Life is suffering. Our dissapative structures from the standard model of physics (our fermions and bosons) push against the Higgs field. The dove dreams of effortless flight but pushes against the wind to stay aloft.

At each significant choice we execute a slip across an Everett branch. Forgetting to set my alarm the night before I am scheduled to take the SAT. Losing my car keys when I must be at work on time for an important meeting. Paper or plastic. Cash or charge. Sometimes these decisions matter but we never can determine at the time which decisions change the ride we are on. Unless I am awake to the potential of catching a new ride, I am not going to have a good time.

This I believe

I use the intentional stance to try on various beliefs about belief.Currently, I have a belief about the proposition that Siddhartha Gautama was awakened -- that he was the Buddha. I have a belief about the benefits that seem, upon careful study, to accumulate while I practice the discipline of zha-zen. I do not say "I am a Buddhist" since, from the Buddhist stance, there is no permanent and unchanging self. Rather, I declare that at this time I prefer the practice of Buddhism to a rejection of Buddhist behaviors. I do not need to believe any particular thing or another about the Buddha or the absence of the Buddha to practice various methods described by Siddhartha Gautama.

This in contrast to my stance on Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama. I am convinced there is a particular urban primate who is the Dalai Lama but I do not harbor a real notion that this man is holy (even though he writes and speaks as a person with great knowledge of the Dharma, the elements of true statements about the practice of Buddhism). I part ways with him on the details about reincarnation and other matters in the same manner that I disagree with some statements about the world that Barack Obama or Bill Clinton produce. But I believe that the belief that all three of these men exist as living urban primates who hold secular office that impact human affairs. They exist in this region of space time as a changing pattern of atoms.

In the same fashion, at the writing of this post, I believe in the belief that our universe evolves toward the Omega Point. Further, a path (among many paths in many instances of many universes in a multiverse) may be found (as a result of the practice of certain behaviors) which weaves through instances of a specious present (a three second interval) where many levels of consciousness (including urban primate consciousness) emerge as structure from chaos to form a universal consciousness. The universe exists to reflect on itself. As I, a part of the universe, reflect on "I" (a part of the universe) a part of the universe reflects on a part of the universe. As "I" reflect on myself reflecting on the entire universe, the model of the universe inside my head is observing a model of the universe inside my head (observing itself).

The current super-ordinate structure exists as the Rough Beast. There are an infinite number of branches; Sexy Beast (a transhuman utopia), Dire Beast (the Matrix from Skynet), and the Furnace (anno insecta or even a dead world).

These provisional conjectures are no more true than provisional conjectures about unicorns. I believe in these beliefs for now since they seem like harmless ideas that only change the way I think about my behavior and do not, as far as I can tell, modify my behavior. These statements, when I think about them, do seem to relieve my stress when I ponder what is going on and how I fit into the situations I find myself in. I cannot, as yet, determine if my provisional acceptance of the simulation hypothesis changes the ongoing simulation that I am part of if this hypothesis is true. My low moods become buoyant when I remind myself that this is all just a ride at an amusement park. As far as I can tell, thinking these thoughts does not cost me anything or upset the balance of power between the sovereign nations of the world. It does open up new vistas of imagination -- it fires the imagination laser -- which could be a good thing.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.