0027 The role of short-circuits and perceptive resolution in the progress of knowlegde accumulation

fig. 1) Human neurons: the cradle of perception, perceivable only through electrone microscopes

If extended to supercede the boundaries of the solar system, the human environment can be understood as a dynamically intertwined and cross contained construction of two subsystems: the physiosphere and the antroposphere. Being part of the physiosphere and forming the sociosphere, humanity is striving for ever more knowledge and control about itself and its surroundings. The changing limitation of knowledge, the reason for that change and the mechanisms or possibilities to surpass these frontiers are discussed in this essay.

The philosophical question if the physiosphere could exist without the antroposphere (because it is only through the antropospherical mind that conceives the principle of a physiosphere, that the latter exists) shall not be discussed here. Of course many other combinations of subsystems are there to explain the world, the point of view applied here allows best for the monitoring and understanding of knowledge and progress.

The physiosphere, ruled by the principle of constraints, provides time, matter and anti-matter, oscillations and the five known forces as well as the biophysical system (plants, animals and humans). The behavior of its components is determined by fundamental rules, describing the behavior and interaction of any small number of components in the most general and therefore most abstract way. Currently, the most abstract pool of knowledge is limited by the fact that events can be understood at very small scales (Quantum Theory) and at very large scales (Theory of Relativity), but not in moderate, 'human' scales (Penrose). Less abstract bases of knowledge, like weather or plate tectonics, are limited by the impossibility of collecting a statistically relevant (large enough) set of data and conducting the analysis. From this point of view, the limitation of knowledge seems to be grounded in organizational and technical reasons.

fig. 2) Mathematic behaviour of perceptive resolution and the corresponding geometric prinicples

The antroposphere, determined by the human will for progress (or, in other words, more comfortable survival), contains all of human behavior, all actions, reactions, interactions, all thoughts and ideas, feelings and wishes, possessions, life and death. It functions within the boundaries of the physiosphere and incorporates any physiospheric components on being specified and becoming meaningful. Progress within the physiosphere's biological subsystem, which again contains parts of the antroposphere, could be defined using the well known term 'evolution' (in 'Summa Technologiae', Stanislaw Lem describes the sum of technical innovations as an evolutionary process). In an endless experiment, in a countless number of trials and errors, matter and anti-matter have undergone the development which has led from a singular point at the origin of time, to the genesis of the universe, to the occurrence of life, to the human being (we are aware of other theories that wouldn't like to grant to humanity the honor of being the coronating event of evolution...).

Evolution as a directional process was triggered by constraint, by forces from inside the participating elements and races, without any influence from outside the system. When man rose from the monkey and formed more elaborate groups, families and then societies, he introduced the antroposphere. This fast changing system is striving after order, (as opposed to the physiosphere, which is, according to the second law of thermodynamics, moving towards chaos). This is possible because humanity is using intelligence and continuous work of reordering to defy thermodynamics. So it is possible to say that the antroposphere is driven by the will for progress, that it is self-triggered, short-circuited.

The principle of evolution is also present in the way we conciously understand, invent and develop things: in the concept of trial and error. Using tools in order to accelerate evolutionary steps and also conducting simultaneous experiments, whose output is directly fed into the input of the next generation of experiment (feedback), we generate a short-circuited environment, which outputs results at increasing speed. But at some point, when there are too many results within a too little span of time, our short-circuit cannot accelerate anymore, analysis becomes impossible with the currently available rules and tools. That is the moment, when a paradigm shift is likely to occur. The current paradigm, or the consequential limitation of knowledge is based on the perceptive resolution of the physiosphere. The state which lies beyond maximal momentary perception is called chaos (or, one is tempted to say, God).

Man spends his life trying to understand his environment. To understand the antroposphere, he needs knowledge about the physiosphere and the interconnections between the two. To be able to trigger paradigm shifts, new rules have to be found, which usually happens when new tools allow for the better, more complex perception of facts (microscopes, computers). The antroposphere develops at exponentially rising speed, with breaks needed for inventing and shifting to new paradigms, the whole mechanism is a warped feedback of a feedback: Because progress is based on simulative evolution, which again is based on short-circuited data feedback, progress is needed to overcome paradigm barriers. And the indicator for the need of a new paradigm is the perceptive resolution, the given that limits the amount and the grain size of processed data. Knowledge is directly linked to progress and limited to (nearly!?) infinite...

Perception Now since we perceive that we are seeing or hearing, it must either be by sight that something perceives that it is seeing or by some other sense. But given the consequent identity of the sense that perceives sight and that which perceives the color that is the object of sight, there ill either be two senses with the same object or the one sense will perceive its self. Further, if the sense that perceives sight, [the] only alternative to an infinite regress will be that there be some sense that perceives its self.
Rem Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 1995

Chaos1 First there was the chaos. Then, on the second day, God concentrated the masses and made the earth.
The Bible

Chaos2, Chaos3, Hazard State which is unexplicable, bound to the momentarily available rules of the physical system. The marginal areas of chaos can be explained by increasing the perceptive resolution. Hazard is the field within chaos, whose explainability is based on physical rules beyond the maximal momentary perceptive resolution.

Progress2, development Process of an entity of factors which leads to an increase of the degree of order. Due to the principle of equilibrity and the given that entropy runs from small to big, progress of the system forces the anti-system to decrease its degree of order.

Perceptive Resolution
Knowledge of perceived rules and laws allows conclusions which exceed the momentary amount of knowledge of facts. By the time when all conclusions are taken, all logical combinations of rules and laws have lead to results, rules and laws must be used onto themselves to obtain a more detailed set of rules and laws. Then, the perceptive resolution has been increased.

Directional Process, Entropy Most physical processes are irreversible, the probability of the system performing a process forward and reverse is unlikely. Particles experiencing a process move from an arragement of low probability to a more probable one (Perceptive Resolution).
Thermodynamics Main Statement #2

short-circuit1 Massive reduction of resistance within an electrical circuit. Collapsing resistance in non-electrical systems (which are working slower than the speed of light) leads to an augmentation of the processing speed.

short-circuit2 Single evolutionary steps don't lead to evolution, it usually takes several mutations to reach a significantly higher degree of order.

Evolution Basic principle of the auto-development of the physiosphere. Generally used to describe the occurence and rise of life (Darwin). The process of a system reaching a higher degree of order. In general (long time span) a directional proccess.

Regression as a uni-Directional process Evolution takes place in a situation of concurrence. Several mutations rise independently at the same time, some (one) will survive, due to different reasons (adaptibility, physical advantages). If the surviving mutation is not satisfying (Dinosaurs), evolution continues from a lower level of mutation, from a species that has been underlying. What seems to be a step back is only a dead end.

Simulative Evolution Progress based on virtually performed evolutionary steps (trials and errors, actions and reactions). Successful development is not a question of the number of performed evolutionary steps, since failure can partly be foreseen. Basing progress on trials and errors carried out like a chessmaster who knows several possible moves and counter-moves asks for a high amount of repetitions of the experimental run, to actually cover the grand number of possible mutations. This leads to the conclusion that the necessary simulations can only be processed in a reasonable amount of time using the help of computers. Even there, the number of computable problems is still limited.

Time1 Unit to distinguish between past and future. Unlike formerly said that the speed of time’s course is constant, the perception of time is in constant acceleration (ex’’ in the time/resolution diagram).

Literature

1) Stanislaw Lem, Summa Technologiae, Frankfurt a.M., 1976
2) Bernard Cache, Earth Moves, Cambridge, USA, 1995
3) Roger Penrose, The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, Cambrige UK, 1997
4) Deleuze/Guattari, Rhizom, Berlin 1976
5) Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau, S,M,L,XL, New York, 1995 6) Manuel de Landa, Nonorganic Life, in Incorporations,editor Jonathan Crary e.a. NY 1992
7) Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, 1970