Philosophising about meaning and future of the world * Dutch Synopsis *

See below :
Why does the World exist
What is the purpose of it all
evolution of life
universal principles ?
priorities in my life on earth
Robot future
A Gaia Superbrain .

- - Why World Exist , LH 2022/06/22 - 2023/11/19 :

Why does the World exist ?

The Universe as a Mathematical Construct.
. Note. For a bit more elaborate text see World as math construct
Prelude 1. What is Consciousness? Well, our brain is composed of a myriad of streaming entities. The "owner" of this brain is experiencing this as Consciousness.
Prelude 2. How could develop Life so nicely? That was by using Chemistry, Natural Selection and more.
. But why does exist our Universe at all? Well, what does mean "exist". I have currently the idea that ALL math constructs do in the same sense physically "exist". Also inconsistent math constructs do "exist". Many simple math constructs have a complicated outcome, for example the Mandelbrot Set, this is a two-dimensional set with a relatively simple definition that exhibits great complexity, especially as it is magnified. The set is defined in the complex plane as the complex numbers c for which the iteration of z starting with z=0: z*z + c ==> z , remains bounded. i.e. in which z does not diverge to infinity. ^ A math construct with a bit more advanced definition might describe already more typical aspects of our world ...
. And any part of any math construct that has a structure resembling a human (or animal) brain will experience consciousness. Compare Wikipedia "Mathematical Universe Hypothesis".
. So our brains are substructures of some sufficiently advanced math construct. Our decisions we make as a Living Creature (and maybe as a God) coincide with the rules and effects of the math construct, this is no contradiction, it are just two different ways of interpreting the decisions. One could compare this duality with the (quite different) duality in quantum theory, in that one can describe physical matter as waves but also as particles.
. There is still a problem with "ALL math constructs" . The rules of our world extended with some Divine Revelations is also a math construct. Why dont we experience living in that world? Possibly the Probability of a math construct plays a role also, in that math constructs with simple rules are far more probable than math constructs with more complex rules... How the validness and the probability of a math construct are established, that is quite unclear to me.
. Maybe also FINITE math constructs are far more probable. Indeed it seems that our Universe has a FINITE (though very very large) number of constituents, and there is a minimum non-zero length-measure (Planck-length) etc.
. My conclusion is: Our Universe with Life (and Gods) is there by chance. There will be myriads of other Universes, with other physical laws etc., without any form of Life. But there will still be very many Universes WITH intelligent life of some sort.
. And life on our good earth could just like that be extinguished by an all-out nuclear war or by another worldwide disaster. There will probably be no God that can inhibit that, we as inhabitants of the earth must try to arrange that this will not happen.
.

- - Purpose of it all , LH 2014/06/15 :
. Here will follow some of my older aproaches to the question why does the world exist.

What is the purpose of it all ?

- As many folks will do , I tend to think again and again about what is the meaning of life , the existence of mankind and the whole world .
- What is the purpose of it all ?
- Well , one can see the world as part of an extensive piece of art , which gets shape by all activities in this world and beyond . And each of our own individual actions contributes to it , how little it may be .
- The "purpose of it all" then is to develop this piece of art and make it more and more beautiful .
- When you are satisfied with this view , then there is no need to assume the possible existence of a god , but it is still acceptable as I explain below . Gods may be part of it all .
. Please realize that a math construct as presented here just before maybe can also have "meaning" and contain gods in some sense.

- - godsidea LH 2013/10/21 :
Is there something like a god ? .
- Already as a student I came convinced that we will never know . So any idea about a god can be defended , it can neither be proved nor disproved . I would say better adopt an idea with which one feels good , and which also possibly improves solidarity in the human world society.
- Well , I feel satisfied with the idea that there is a "supreme idea" or rather a complex of supreme ideas that give meaning to the world . Please note that I imagine the constituting ideas may be conflicting and competing with each other .
- To be in agreement with the great world religions I call this complex of supreme ideas "the gods" , or simply "god" . I donot see essential problems with this attitude .
- At the unfolding of these ideas there come into existence the basic principles of logics , mathematics and physics . From these basic principles in its turn develop the laws of nature , with the metrics and the powerfields . From that in its turn originate our whole world with its plethoria of star systems and far more , and through evolution all life and humans and their consciousness and society .
- In a sense god is sitting deep in us . Our relation to god can be viewed in two complementary ways , a bit reminiscent of the two complementary descriptions of the quantum world , as a set of particles and as a field of waves . One the one hand all our thoughts and deeds are an outcome of that first creation by god , influenced by chance since that is part of the basic principles . On the other hand we are an autonomous "part of god" and we ourselves decide what will happen , by an act of will (free or not free) .
- One can imagine that god is "looking" continuously at all details in this world so also to "us" . And using that information and the errors seen , god can in some sense eventually create another "world" with less errors . In this respect our deeds have meaning in that it enables designing a better world .
- The feeling that god is looking at us may also increase openness of men about their actions . This can be seen as a benificiary effect of religion .

- - evolution LH 2013/10/21 :

Evolution of life - how was it possible ?

- It is astonishing that just with selection and combining , very complex structures came into existence . There have been discovered various mechanisms that facilitate the course of evolution (compare e.g. the book "The origins of life" from J M Smith & E Szathmary , Oxford U P 1999) . But still the wonder of evolution is hardly to comprehend .
- Well , nature is based on logic and mathematics . And logic and mathematics easily allow for complex structures . As an example I mention the Mandelbrot figure with its endless number of different subfigures . It can be generated by a relatively simple rule .
- Logics and Mathematics made possible the Evolution of life and more .

- - univprincs LH 2002/06/27 - 07/03 :

"Universal Principles" , do they exist ?

1. What about an absolute "universal principle" or even "universal laws of nature" ? Do they exist ? Why should they ?
- To my opinion (since ten years now) the cosmos is a plethoria of many "principles" and "laws of nature" , not always harmonic with each other, competing or trying to co-exist with each other.
- Admitted, some laws of nature have a very wide area of validity, encompassing the whole physical world within sight and even more.
- Such laws therefore are "valid" for all testable cases . But these laws need NOT be universal in an absolute sense .

2. Analogously there will be NO universal principles and laws for the whole of humanity .
- It may happen though that there is gradually formed and agreed to one set of principles and laws that is accepted by most human groups.
- But then the laws must be very sophisticated to be able to apply it in very different human environments, also in the "alternative" sub-groups with special views of life.
- No, I think in the next centuries we will succeed to form a set of principles and laws acceptable by most human groups, but not (not yet ?) ALL human groups.

- - my priorities LH 2024/02/04 :
Priorities in my life on earth.
. All creatures and objects in the Cosmos have a value, some less value and some more value. For me intelligent creatures have more value than arbritary creatures. But in case of conflict I will try to harm other creatures as little as possible, not more than needed.
. I want to make life more easy and interesting, particularly for myself and the humans in my direct environment, but also for all humans including those in future.
. Thinking of the future, humans maybe will live crowded in a dirty and monotonous environment. But luckily with intelligent robots. I do want to help making this life better, but not at all cost.

___________________

- * * * - - ROBOTSFU 200304111621 LH - * * * -

- - - ROBOTS
- - - - or
Thoughts about the far future of computers .

- from L. Horowitz , written August 1976 , based on talk during Summer Course English at Knuston Hall, Wellingborough .
- Typed and slightly adapted 11 april 2003 and 2010/01/03 (and added two addenda 2004/08/22) .

- I like to tell you something about what I am interested in, so I choose to talk about my thoughts about the distant future (as opposed to "near" future) of computers .
- When I was young I thought much about it . I like to talk about it . For ease I go on chronologically .

- History of my interest .
- From about seven years old on, I remember, I made fantasies about a magic machine which you could ask to make everything you wanted, from pencils through microscopes, autocars, houses till giant airplanes and many other things .
- When I was twelve I built from merely twenty blocks of the game of dominoes a structure which I called : "duplicator" (in Dutch language: "verdubbelaar"): when you put in a single block, two came out (picture I , not shown here) . And this structure was made of only one kind of stone .
- At sixteen I fancied about machines who could calculate the chemical properties of molecules .
- At eighteen I made fantasies about computers that could do all sorts of things, for example designing of better and better computers, and so on and on.
- At twenty I studied the details of computer-programming of that time (1957),
- At twenty-four I thought out a computer model for the functioning of human memory .
- Well, at twenty-three I wrote a small article for a student periodical, about the imitation of the human mind by computer .
- Because I am still interested in it, I want to explain this to you in more detail .

- Brain and Mind .
- As a prelude I want to say something about the conception of the "will" of human beings . Some philosophers say that this "will" is something very special, something extra, beside of the normal laws of nature . I believe no, it is not ; at the contrary, the laws of nature are an expression of the will of the constituent parts of nature, the laws of nature are a description of well.. what nature wants !
- Now first something about the mind . The brain is part of the system of nerves of a human being . The mind can be conceived simply as the complex of electric currents that are flowing continuously through the brain .
- This complex of currents is highly complicated indeed, so complicated that in any case it cannot be understood as a whole by a human being, and can exhibit properties of intuition and purposefull behaviour indeed . Now it seems possible , in principle , to make a system of electric elements, that imitates the system of nerves of a human being , so ... it can convey the complex of electric currents that I just mentioned , so it can carry a mind .
- And indeed, the currently available so-called computers, are a first step to this, but the largest of these computers are in 1976 a thousand times too small, and their structures are probably not so suitable .
- But when you have got a structure that can carry a mind, you have still to put in a mind into the structure and develop that mind , I mean by some learning process . This now is the big problem. The developing is comparable with the problem of educating a human child, but more difficult because we have no example in educating a machine . What mind should be put in , in order that it can be developed properly ? It is indeed a very big problem .
- But when this all has been accomplished, then one has got a thing that one could call perhaps a "robot" . I like to denote it here with the name "metal man" , to stress that it has a "will" of itself, like a "man" : indeed, only the material of the well.. brain is different .
- (addendum 2004/08/11 :) The metal men will have very fast connections with each other (one may compare today's computer-datalines) so they form all together a (computer-)network with a high degree of common consciousness , and act as a unity .

- Further speculations . 2010/01/03 - compare also Technological singularity .
- I think in the long run, it will be possible to make such a "metal man" and it will be made ; it can last hundreds or thousands of years, but it will happen. Of course before it comes to that, many things of all kinds will have happened in this world .
- And now I like to continue this fantastic picture of the far future .
- Various kinds of "metal men" will exist . They will also repair each other and support themselves . "Metal men" will make soon other "metal men" , and "super metal men" that can do a thousand times as much .
- Original men will play only a subordinate role in the world . The sequence of evolution of life on earth is extended: .. - primeaval soup - unicellular organisms - animals - vertebrates - mammals - apes - humans - metalmen - supermetalmen - .. ?
- The supermetalmen develop science and technology to now unknown possibilities . More and more desires of men and metal men will be fulfilled . Will once all desires be fulfilled ? Probably not . Again and again there will come up new desires .
- Fiction: contact creatures on other worlds.
- And superfiction: change or augmentation of the physical laws of the universe. The last thing goes extremely far indeed, but perhaps by cooperation of creatures of the whole universe this can be accomplished ..
- (addendum 2004/08/12 :) An example of how something that resembles a new physical law could be established : agreement between all computer-networks of the Universe (or most of them) to try to direct their magnets (or their magnets of a certain kind) to point to a fixed starsystem .
You may compare also e.g. Wikipedia Kardashev scale .
- Anyhow this resembles science fiction , I rather stop now .
___________________

A Gaia Superbrain

Another vision on the far future .
2016/12/11 (last rev.2017/07/06) :
Transposing human brains to robots
This idea is not new , compare e.g. Wikipedia Mind uploading .
- Nowadays more and more technical devices are being developed to ease tasks for us humans , and more and more medical implants and treatments get possible to protect human bodies against threats . This will continue , and it will result in a world with an extensive computer-network with many robots . And with some super-brains residing in computers , being a follow up of today's searching machines , data mining machines etc. . Human beings are then free from work and can then happily devote their life to artistic activities and sports , maybe completely so within 150 years .
- But there will be many humans who want more , they want eternal life .. This wish will stimulate the development of techniques that can transpose a human brain , I mean the complete contents of a brain , to a robot or computer . If you donot want to let end the "life" of the brain by a traffic accident or the like then you must make more copies of the brain , so that if one copy vanishes you can "activate" another copy . It would even be possible then to "double" your life by activating two copies or more .. but I think there will come laws that prohibit or limit the activating of more copies of your brain . I imagine these things will be possible in 300 years already .
- But the development will not stop here . Human beings like very much to have social contact with another . This will stimulate the development of systems of direct communication between brains , presumably also including the above mentioned super-brains . The result is that all those brains will get more and more intensive communication with each other , which will lead to one big multi-facet world-brain , one could call it a Gaia-multi-brain or Gaia-brain . Of course some of the constituting brains will be not friendly or even fighting other brains , it will be a task for the community of brains to keep in check those fighting brains .
- I imagine the Gaia-multi-brain will then gradually evolve to some relatively stable condition , still with a lot of variation and rebelling brains within it . Maybe such a stable condition will be reached already within 600 years from now .
- It may be that kind of copy-gaia-brains will be put down on nearby celestial bodies . Then if the Gaia-brain on Earth regretfully might go astray , then there will still be the gaia-brains on the planets . Or anyway the gaia-brains might develop by themselves . It will be hard to put down a copy-gaia-brain or the like on any celestial body further away .

- And well , I would not know whether there will ever come any contacts with super-brains from other civilisations . We seem to be confined to our Solar System , but still this gives huge possibilities .
- To my opinion we humans should have some feeling for the wonderful prospects of mankind in the far future .

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