Emergence and a Strange Thing called Human Choice

February 27, 2022April 4, 2022 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

More complex things “Emerge” from a background of simpler things, argues the diversely talented physicist, Sean Carroll, in his book The Big Picture. It is a “secretly profound idea that there are many ways of talking about the world, each of which captures a different aspect of the underlying whole,” he writes. (1) (This is a follow-up post, see Things Emerge for initial ground work.)

(**The Caltech Physicist, Sean Carroll.** Photo from Physics Forum.)

Let us now consider an application of this idea of Emergence to a real-life situation.

In no way does a single atom choose, and it seems hard to imagine how a collection of atoms could do much better, we can state rhetorically. But Choice does exist, argues Carroll, and “it would be difficult indeed to describe human beings without it.”(3) A basic tenant of Carroll’s Poetic Naturalism is that each “way of talking”, each emergent and “effective theory,” has its own vocabulary, its own ontology of objects, that it describes with consistent and orderly relations. I am confused by the contentions of radical reductionists and eliminativists. They want to think about “persons” and undoubtedly use the idea in their everyday life, yet make theoretical contentions that exclude central parts of what seems to be “personhood.” You cannot eat your cake (pizza) and have it too.

1371589622878 — (If all we do is determined by causal forces far different than *the qualities of good pizza*, then arguing about ‘best pizza’ is an empty charade, as would be debating free will.)

Carroll contends that they make a category mistake.(4) They illegitimately mix two ways to talking. Physics-talk or person-talk, “either vocabulary is perfectly legitimate, but mixing them leads to nonsense”, he contends.

It is confused to say, different electromagnetic wave lengths cause us to see different colors. It is no help to say different patterns of neural activity causes us to see them; at least we should say, color is associated with these physical events.

Another example of this confused way of thinking, I believe, occurred recently on the WEIT blog. A light-hearted debate arose over which is better pizza, Chicago style deep dish or NY style thin. Coyne—the defender of a form of “determinism”—jumped in to advocate for deep dish; being from Chicago, it’s his favorite. But I commented, raining on this light-hearted parade, that “Who cares?” “If humans have no free choice in the matter and are not responsible for their likes and dislikes (as Coyne believes), then what is the point of debating; other than the fact that the debaters can do no other than what they do—debate. It is a debate whose outcome is already determined and whose terms are ungrounded. So what is the point?” I concluded.

So at the Level of “person-talk”—at which this pizza debate took place— there must also be talk of some things or qualities more or less like what we call “texture,” “spiciness,” “aroma,” “flavor” (sensation terms) More essentially, “person-talk” seems to need ideas something similar to “responsibility,” some talk and reality of “social roles,” a concept of “us” or “our people,” “choice and decision,” “antecedents and consequences,” and then of course a variety of “things that are not persons.” All these are the concepts that make talking of “persons” important and coherent: all these are ideas and qualities at that level. This will be a topic returned to, here in The Connection: What is person-talk?

Carroll’s contention is, being a no-free-willer, no-true-chooser AND debating what is the best pizza, is nonsense, pointless, vacuously circular. How can physics explain your preference of pizza? The two sets of terms just don’t match up.

Humans Do Choose

Choice is a deeply human characteristic, Carroll says. I think it would be best to say “person,” because humans in comas, or with extreme mental deficiencies, do not make choices. Persons are deeply characterized as “choice-makers.”

Carroll gives us a simple example. In the morning, you walk to our closet to choose a shirt for the day. Should I choose this blue one or that yellow one, you wonder. “That is a decision you have to make,” he says, “you can’t just say, ‘I’ll do whatever the atoms of my body were going to do.” (5)

chongqing_highway_070617 — (**Choosing is not just a mental act,** it is built into the way we live.)

Two points about this. First, I would like to emphasize that your choosing is not just an issue in your head —as if it were only a mental state and possibly an illusion. If you are standing in front of your “closet,” you ought to be thinking about “choosing.” That situation is built into the physical design of your house:.it is built into the way we live. Our mental perspectives is necessarily connected to the physical arrangement of the environment.

Your wardrobe hanging in front of you is equally a physical thing that is all about choosing from among it. Driving down the road, every intersection is a choice-opportunity. At a grocery store, aisle after aisle of choice-opportunities, and on and on. It is deeply confused to think you could take human beings and our ways of life and just pluck out the idea of “choice” (switch this mental state) and still have something nearly the same.

This issue goes deeper still, The rudiments of choice go back into biology, into single-celled organisms and plants in general. They and their environment—from Our point of view—are Structurally Organized to create optimal ‘choices,’ rudimentary ‘decisions.’ To us, their environment to them would seem limited, and their responses often predictable. That is ‘proto-choice.’ A creature far more sophisticated than we might think the same of our decisions, but our decisions do not seem that way to us! There is a very “deep” and complex relationship between living things and Their Environment, the two are very much designed for each other. That environment (as it seems to the organism) and that living creature are not part of the vocabulary of physics—physic’s talk is at least several “levels” down the scale of complexity. It is far more abstract.

1280px-cognitive_bias_codex_en.svg_ — **Person’s “choose” because they have incomplete knowledge. That is our condition.** Wikipedia diagram.

Secondly, and the point Carroll emphasizes, no matter what a physicist might know will happen next, You Don’t. As you stand in front of that closet, Choice is real for you because you are limited in your ability to know. Carroll says it is a matter of “epistemic access”. It is “the unavoidable reality of our incomplete knowledge (that) is responsible for why we find it useful to talk about the future using the language of choice…” “None of us knows the exact state of the universe, or has the calculational power to predict the future even if we did”, he writes; “we know about the rough configuration of our bodies and we have some idea of our mental states…given that incomplete information…” we choose and “it’s completely conceivable that we could have acted differently.” (6)

The Conclusive Point

This is the conclusive point, to my way of thinking. We have strong evidence, as Carroll argues, that the course of our world is (in some sense) predetermined. Its course is physically necessary, but we do not have practical access to that knowledge. From our limited and inclusive participation in that world we have been rightly designed to act as if the future is open and that our choices are significant there in.

I think that the wide-ranging physicist, Sean Carroll, has brought us a long way in our consideration of Emergence. Whether I will agree with his final conclusions, I am not yet sure. I have a suspicion that he may be too physics-oriented. Physics is vital, but so are many other ways we talk and act.

Notes— A few page references: 1) 93 2–4) page 379 5) 380, 6) pages 380-1

cropped-img_34702-e1565808476815-11 — When we are Particularly Impressed with the Beauty, Coordination and Good Fortune of Our World. Logo by Marty.

New Things “Emerge”

February 20, 2022February 27, 2022 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

“Huston, We have a problem,” was astronaut Jim Lovell’s famous call to Earth. Let’s put in a similar call. Somehow we humans get colors, joy, death and freedom from a washed out bunch of subatomic particle. That is getting a lot of Qualities out of much less substance. (See the preceding posts for the ground work on this theme.) I know it takes a bunch of math, to get from there to here, but is it ever really enough? Here is someone who can help.

Sean Carroll is a noted physicist from Cal Tech. Known for his wide ranging interests and knowledge, he also has a desire and ability to share his expertise with a broader audience—me and you. He has written The Big Picture, a book from 2016 that exemplifies his versatility and desire to communicate. Its subtitle is “On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself.” Yes, wide ranging.

So, in the very broadest sense, Where do all the different things around us come from? Dr. Carroll will help us answer that question.

Physics and the ‘hard’ sciences are not my forte, so I needed to tackle this book — some 450 pages of it — to solidify (or refute) the claim that interesting and more complex objects “emerge” from the quantum fields and sub-atomic particles that are now known to be “the basis” of our world and the universe (“itself”). We all know that all things are matter and energy, but we sure have a lot more to say about “things” than just that!

Carroll is a “Compatiblist”, a philosophical position that argues that both the objects of physics are real and significant, and so are the objects of our ordinary world that we call ‘people’, ‘zinnias’ and ‘the Atlantic Ocean’, to name but a few. The microscopic and the macroscopic largely fit together without too much tension, he believes (1). In The Nature Religion Connection, this is also our belief, but how does it happen? How are we both “persons” and swarming masses of sub-atomic particles, for example? Carroll believes we can be these two seemingly different kinds of things without too much confusion.

free-will-big-cover — (Note each letter suspended from a puppeteer’s string.)

Others do not believe the world around us does has so many different and wonderful kinds of things and abilities! Radical Reductionists believe that since the objects and laws

of physics underlay everything, macroscopic objects lose their status (in some important sense) as real, or legitimately significant (2). Too much of the way we think of these macroscopic objects does not fit with our ‘scientific vision’, they claim. Neuroscientist and famous atheist, Sam Harris contends that ‘free will’ is an illusion and the choices we make are caused by mechanical forces outside us and in. There is no free will, no freely choosing, therefore, we should eliminate such talk.

Biologist Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago,, believes we do not freely choose and, therefore, talk of ‘responsibility’ and ‘morality’ is also unfounded (see his popular blog, Why Evolution Is True, or WEIT). These folks are called by Carroll not only reductionists — macro objects are really micro objects — but also “eliminativists.”

(**A double-petalled Zinnia** from the garden of Greg and Sheri. **Is a flower still a “flower”** if we speak of it only in atomic terms? Photo by GregWW.)

Their position has undeniable cogency; why talk about ‘the same thing’ in two very different ways? For example, a Zinnia is a collection of sub-atomic particles and also a biological object with needs, satisfactions and efforts. Which way of talking is more important, which way is true? Should we talk in both ways? If so, how do they fit together? After all, atoms in themselves do not have needs; they do not even have a color, yet the above zinnia seems beautifully orange and has a need for sunshine.

The flavor and attitude of this eliminativist claim might be captured in this famous quote by Ernest Rutherford, the experimental physicist who in 1909 was crucial in discovering the structure of the atom. He not only diminished the significance of macro objects but also the less fundamental sciences; he said “all of science is either physics or stamp collecting.” (3) If you want to really know how things are, study physics, that was his rather arrogant contention.

gold-foil-experiment-diagram-rutherford-jj-atom-substance-1909 — (Rutherford’s famous gold foil experiment. **“All science is either physics or stamp collecting,” he said.**)

I must admit that I feel a significant degree of confusion about this connection of the microscopic to the macroscopic world. How much can we eliminate from a particular discourse, or change the discourse entirely, and still be talking about the same thing? To me, a flower exhibits some distinct qualities different from inanimate objects, and this is the historically recognized belief. People make “choices” and are “responsible” for their actions, we also believe, but such talk has no place when considering atoms.

And aren’t these empirical claims; don’t we just see it? A flower has color; it grows, blooms, makes seeds that then reproduces “itself” in a very similar flower—its offspring. We can manipulate its breeding and encourage the enhancement of some traits by contrast to others in the offspring. We know there are “laws,” “rules,” by which this happens. It is called the science of biology. So, is a “flower” still a flower if we decide to speak of it only in atomic terms?

The Power of Physics

Some day, our knowledge of physics may expand to the point that the behavior of all things may be predictable in advance. Crazy to think, but Carroll says that, “in principle,” that day is already here! Physicists now possess accurate and detailed knowledge of the workings of the universe but also “an effective theory of the everyday world.”(4) He calls it “the Core Theory” and it is “the specific set of fields and interactions that govern our local environment.” He continues, “Everything we want to think about human beings has to be compatible with the nature and behavior of the pieces of which we are made” and then adds an interesting proviso, “even if those pieces don’t tell the whole story.”(5)

That is the crux of the entire debate. What sense can be made of that proviso? How can the particles and forces that compose us at the most basic level behave as physically predicted, yet, not be all that is worth saying? What more can be added that does not fall into silliness and superstition?

Here is the equation that puts ‘the nail in the coffin’; it is the physics that is the basis for the prediction of all that happens around us, and with us, in our macroscopic world. Its called “the path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics”.(6) It was pioneered by Erwin Schrodinger but this is the “compact and elegant” formulation of contemporary physicist Richard Feynman, reports Carroll.

Carroll has added to the equation the solid lines and descriptions that distinguish the different sections of this formulation: “quantum mechanic”, “spacetime”, “gravity” etc. In general, the equation describes “the quantum amplitude for undergoing a transition from one specified field configuration to another, expressed as a sum over all the paths that could possibly connect them.”(7) That is what W is, it is the amplitude of a wave expressed as an integral that is “summing up an infinite number of infinitely small things”: “the possible things the field can do in between the starting and ending, which we call a “path” the field configuration can take”, says Carroll.

I can assure you, the above equation is not the style in which his book is written. If it was, I would not have gotten beyond page one! The above equation is the only one to appear and it does so in an appendix as an effort to give the reader a taste of the unvarnished work of contemporary physics. It is amazingly impressive stuff, and Carroll contends that its accuracy and specificity is such that even if in the future scientists come to think of its components in very different ways, this formulation will still be true in its own terms and for the domain to which it applies forever! (8) Vive la physique!

Some Things Emerge

Interestingly, Compatiblists are themselves Eliminativists concerning some issues. Carroll argues that our most basic framework for understanding what is real is physics with its Core Theory, exemplified by the above equation. This eliminates any good reason for talk of gods, souls, ghosts, or mind (as something beyond the physical) and even what he calls the “strong emergentist” position (which will be discussed later). They all are incompatible with physics and the evidence that supports it.

800px-proton_quark_structure.svg_ — **(Protons and Neutrons establish a new set of standards by which to consider the world. A level up from the world as quarks and gluons.** “A proton is composed of two up quarks, one down quark, and the gluons that mediate the forces “binding” them together.” Wikipedia)

He does offers us a list of objects that do legitimately “emerge” from the more basic and simpler underlying pieces of the Core Theory. This is where we start to return to the Core Theory as not telling “the whole story.” This “whole story,” he says, includes (9): protons and neutrons, stars and light, life, multicellular organisms, consciousness, language and abstract human thought. These are an ascending hierarchy of abilities and complex objects (we might say) that spell out what is possible from the simplified world of physics.

But, there are more mundane examples of emergence. An automobile is composed of atoms, but they are seldom mentioned. To design a car, its atomic substructure is not referenced. To build a car or repair one, only its functioning parts at the macroscopic level are referenced. Things like “pistons,” “bumpers,” “drive shaft,” “chassis,” “brake,” “accelerator” are used because these terms are most useful and are obvious to us. To drive a car, we never consider its subatomic structure! This is a dramatic example of emergence, and thanks to biologist Richard Dawkins for it.

f1.medium — (**Our first Eukaryotic Ancestor.** Diagram of the merger of free-living Spiochette and an Archaebacteria. **Out of Two came One.** Thanks to PNAS, 2006)

How do these higher level objects form valuable additions (beyond physics) to our understanding? This is “that crux of the problem” mentioned earlier. It is a “secretly profound idea that there are many ways of talking about the world, each of which captures a different aspect of the underlying whole,” he writes (10). Carroll is, philosophically, a Naturalist; this is his basic commitment to science as the doorway to what is real “at the deepest level.” Then, when he adds the “other ways of talking”, “emergent theories” and capturing “the whole story”, he admits he has now become what he calls “a poetic naturalist”. (11)

“Poetic naturalism is a philosophy of freedom and responsibility,” he very pointedly declares (12). Though physics captures the universe fundamentally, there are other “useful ways of talking about certain subsets of the basic stuff”. They are useful to us for various reasons. First, “it would be horrendously inconvenient if ” to explain anything “we were to list a huge set of atoms and how they were arranged.”(13) Second, and most importantly, “we really do learn something new by studying emergent theories for their own sake, even if all the theories are utterly compatible” (with physic’s theories). (14)

So we are Both vast conglomerations of particles and scientific forces, And persons who ‘eat, love and pray,’ to borrow the current phrase. In the next passage, let’s apply the Idea of Emergence to these two different kinds of “Us” and see how that works out!

Notes— Since this post is a review of aspects of this book, I thought a few page references would be appropriate. I did attempt a close read of this material and it is a respected work. 1) page 379 2) page 19 3) 105 4) 177-9 5) 6-7) 437 8) 179 9) 102 10) 93 11) 15-19 12) 21 13) 108 14) 108

Gradualism and The Great Chain of Being

February 13, 2022 ~ GregWW ~ 2 Comments

How did it all start? Where did all the different things come from?

We have been considering this big and broad question and have come to some conclusions. To think that in the beginning “Something came from Nothing,” is fruitless; no “god” can help us, for that concept is as mysterious as the problem we started with. (See previous passage.)

So, we have agreed that “More has come from Less” and that is, in deed, the modern answer. We are all quite familiar with the idea that, in some sense, everything is “just” matter and energy. The noted physicist Sean Carroll was quoted in the previous passage, that in a very important way, everything is gravity, electromagnetism, electrons and nuclei.

(**Depiction of The Big Bang.** You can’t say much existed here. Though, in these first few seconds/nanoseconds a whole lot of a couple kinds of things were really cooking! Thanks to nbcnews.com)

But it should be pointed out very quickly, that what we seek here—in the Nature Religion Connection—is not a scientific explanation of our ordinary world, but a re-enforcement of much of it. Too often a scientific explanation is a reduction of a very ordinary and important thing into terms very much unlike it. “Color” is electromagnetism. A “person” is a biological human animal. “Consciousness” is really neural activity, and Purposes do not exist at all in the world as understood by our most basic sciences.

Yes, many intelligent people believe that the hard sciences, with the help of Darwin and evolution, have chased Purposes (teleology or goals) from nature. “Life is pointless, in a cosmic sense,” they contend. But, this position comes to nonsense, and these thinkers “should add, for consistency’s sake, that science has also demonstrated the unreality of colors and of life itself…Atoms are all there is, and atoms aren’t colored, and aren’t alive either,” contends a philosopher more formally introduced below.* That the character of scientific explanation has its limitations is what should be concluded and that is an old and persistent contention among some philosophers (and scientists) going back at least into the 17th century and Rene Descartes.

Nor does The Connection seek religious supports and explanations for many of these important ordinary ideas. Persons are unique because of their relation to God, it is said, and their possession of an immaterial “soul.” Consciousness and life are themselves “Spirit” and not simply matter. Of death it has long been said, ‘The spirit passes from the body.’

Both Science and Religion have to be re-aligned. Here at Nature Religion Connection we seek a viable modern philosophy, one that has great respect for the accomplishments of science, but also a sense of its limitations. Not quite the same can be said for religion; there we seek something more like a re-invention and a rehabilitation of religion’s still existing archaic forms and habits.

Gradualism

So let us return to our topic, Where does all the variety of the world come from? How does it happen? It has Evolved, we have concluded, through enhancements in structure and design. And Evolution does not allow just anything and everything to appear; there is a very long and connected Chain of developments. It is getting More from The Less that immediately preceded it, a gradual bumping up.

Yet, a few things still stick in our “craw” on this topic of More from Less. Is not there a “leap” from non-life to life, from matter to consciousness, from neural activity to ‘seeing color,’ from things being caused to things that freely choose, to name just a few such stark contrasts. What of “the gap” between “good” and “evil”?

**Daniel Dennett, of Tufts University in the Boston area, is a guiding light for the Nature Religion Connection.**

But, in reality, there are no drastic gaps, there are only shortcomings in our intuitions and imaginations, argues Dan Dennett, one of the leading philosophers and commentators on our times.

On the above topic of the problem with some scientific explanations, Dennett contends there is “an equivocation” evident among biologists, for example. “Talk of functions and purposes is really only shorthand, a handy metaphor, and that strictly speaking there are no such things as functions, no purposes, no teleology at all in the world,” biologists are forced to awkwardly contend in the end, says Dennett.* They admit that really ‘eyes’ are not for seeing, ‘hearts’ are not for pumping; each—and all—are merely a clump of atoms with no further implications, no more to be said beyond the laws of physics.

Dennett disagrees; there is much worth saying beyond atom-talk. On all the drastic contrasts listed above, he insists that there are between them a series of Gradual Changes, slight adjustments, incremental installments that create slightly different things, sometimes more complex things, more capable molecules, states, and creatures. There is more we should understand as real, than what physics may contend. “Evolutionary processes brought purposes and reasons into existence the same way they brought color vision (and hence colors) into existence: gradually.”* Billions of years of tiny attempts form the evolutionary road to where we are today. Gradualism is one of the principles of our viable modern philosophy.

(Representation of **“a spherical-shaped, measles virus particle,”** courtesy of the CDC Its size is approximately 20 to 30 millionths of a millimeter.)

For example, viruses occupy a gray zone, neither alive nor dead. Viruses both reproduce and are incapable of reproducing on their own. We can, in a sense, appropriately call them “a bug,” as in “flu bug.” Yet we know they do not eat (metabolize). They are sort of alive, as are early stage fetuses and brain-dead patients. There are different “levels” at which we find it useful to describe many objects.

The Great Chain

Sensitivity and consciousness are other examples of borderline phenomena. In our ordinary world, we tend to think of a continuum of creatures who possess lesser and greater degrees of “mindfulness”—of consciousness and sensitivity. An ant is like a little person, in some ways. It is full of intentions, scurrying about with jobs to do, goals to achieve. Many of us feel a twinge of regret if we step on one. ‘Oh, it must have felt pain,’ we say, but we acknowledge that the ant is not a full-blown person or consciousness when we kill a hundred of them with insecticide when they invade our kitchen.

(At the center of The Tulip: **“Pistil, Color, Petal,”** photo by GregWW.)

A plant is even less sensitive than an ant, but the family dog ranks way up there —fully conscious (?), loyal, nearly a person. This continuum of growing consciousness, abilities, and ‘person-ality’ is what Dennett calls “a deep fact, the kind you build a theory on.” This fact reflects the history of the evolutionary appearances; a fact recognized in western culture starting as far back as Aristotle and very prominent in the middle ages. There is a Great Chain of Being.

This Great Chain started with God at the top and ran down to angels, humans, animals, plants and finally most inanimate objects. It was thought to be the manifestation of God and Value into the world. In this sense, Gold was thought to be “the highest” mineral; the Lion the highest animal, and the Rose or Oak the highest plant. The King and Queen were the most valuable and god-like of humans. The Sun, Moon and the Planets were thought of as “the most noble” objects, ‘the eternal orbs.’

(**The medieval social order** was meticulously outlined in The Chain. Notice in this rendition, **Actors rank just below Beggars and just above Thieves.)**

Of course, this Great Chain is “a top-down model of creation,” points out Dennett. Initially it was used as a central argument against Evolution. “Only Absolute Wisdom could create lesser wisdoms and abilities. From Absolute Ignorance (inanimate matter) no creation occurs,” argued a prominent 19th century English critic of Darwin. Nonetheless, the chain exhibits an awareness of the Gradualism in nature, especially biology. Today’s best understanding of it is as The Tree of Life.

**(The History of Ancestry** among living things is generally agreed to demonstrate (in many cases) **a growing degree of complexity of Design and increases in Ability.**

What does this Tree of Life, this Great Chain, really show us? It shows us Life Evolving from non-life, Purposes gradually rising from pointlessness, Advanced Civilizations starting out as bacteria, and Consciousness as a product of insensate materials. In 2017, Dennett wrote his book From Bacteria to Bach and Back (The Evolution of Minds) to demonstrate how it is possible for Whole Things to be More Capable than the Pieces That Compose Them: more intelligent, more free, more responsible, more loving (at least sometimes).

An Enhanced Imagination

Finally, Dennett contends that if you are still skeptical of gradualism and a believer in metaphysical leaps, you need to up-date your intuitions and imagination. A “bottom-up” vision of creation is readily available in fields beyond evolutionary biology.

For example, machines can, now, think! Not only do we have home computers that help us write, calculate, find information and organize ourselves, but we have specialized computers that write first-class music, play chess and solve puzzles too complex for human researchers. Alan Turing’s first modern computer broke the German submarine code (The Enigma Code) back in WWII.

(IBM’s *Deep Blue* **computer** **beats** **world champion in 1996.** Deep Blue was capable of considering 200 million possible chess positions per second. Thanks to IEEE Spectrum.org for photo and info.)

The so-called “miracles of God” are rivaled on a daily basis by modern science and technology. Doctors replace organs, artificially inseminate pregnancies, and study the body’s interior through various scans and pictures. Scientists read the genetic code of living things and search deep into outer space for signs of other life. Ordinary people routinely communicate with each other in real time across countries and continents.

Dan Dennett, himself, has participated in this enhancement of our imagination by convincingly arguing that humans are very fancy, evolved, biological machines, and that soon human designed machines (robots) will come to be considered “persons,” though not biological persons.

**Robin Williams as** **The** ***Bicentennial Man, 1999 movie.***

All these are “intuition shakers” and “imagination stretchers” contends Dennett, and they facilitate the belief in what was once considered merely a shameful, godless fantasy: The Bottom-Up Creativity by the Gradual Accumulation of Design. Yes, we have gotten More from Less Gradually through the process of Evolution.

What new and larger system or creature might we be able to imagine ourselves a part of?

Shame, shame! **Now here is a kind of critter that didn’t do much with the opportunities life afforded them!** But what a chauvinistic thing to say! Hey, they persist!

*From Dennett’s Bacteria to Bach and Back, page 38, 34 and 37-38.

*GETTING MORE FROM LESS at The Connection! —–*Logo by Marty

God and Evolution: Something from Nothing, or More from Less

February 6, 2022 ~ GregWW ~ 2 Comments

I almost stumbled into a theological debate the other day (pre-pandemic). It was at a family gathering , and I was under strict orders from the wife to keep things light. A young in-law (undoubtedly trying to set me up) commented that he was taking a required course in theology. He was an incoming freshman at the University of Dayton (Ohio), a Catholic school. Surprisingly, he said he liked it; he appreciated its logic and its abstract thoughtfulness.

An older in-law chimed in saying that he too took that course many decades ago. He is a graduate of U.D. and slightly religious, but mostly he is a very practical man, a successful business owner and a person not inclined to obtuse thinking in any form. Yet, one idea from the course had stuck with him all these years, he said: “that in the beginning there was nothing, and now there is something. God was necessary to get something out of nothing.”

Trying to follow directions, I declined to respond directly to that idea. Instead, I suggested other theological arguments were also of interest, like the argument for God —as the Grand Designer— from the Intricate Design exhibited in the world. Even the “ontological proof” is a curiosity, but that is where the discussion pretty much ended.

(**God The Father,** by Conegliano (1510). **The Design of Our Planet and the many things upon it** has long been an impressive fact calling for some kind of explanation: “God The Father” as the master designer and craftsmen.)

So where do Things come from, in this largest and basic kind of way?

“The vast majority of life is gravity and electromagnetism pushing around electrons and nuclei,” contends physicist Sean Carroll in his widely read book, The Big Picture, On the Origins of life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself. Here, I will try to provide an answer that goes beyond Carroll’s four components. After all, “people”, “color”, “jet airplanes”, all sorts of “living things”, and “the Sun” —to name just a few— also seem to exist, and somehow “come from” gravity and the others.

But getting these macro objects from such a micro world is itself quite a leap, it seems. The way we talk about, and see, and even have feelings about, these familiar concrete things is very different from such rather dry abstractions as “electromagnetism.” I must admit that when I am trying to get along with my wife, I don’t think of gravity or electrons at all! (Maybe I should, for God knows, I have tried almost everything else!)

**The Big Bang,** some 14 billion years ago, **very few different kinds of things existed then!** Image courtesy of ThoughtCo.com 6/11/19

The Traditional Answer

The traditional problem does not involve electromagnetism, of course, but it maintains the same flavor. Some Magic must be imposed upon some very inferior substance or even nothing at all — “The Void.” A divinity must intervene. Some ‘breath’ (the Greek noumena) must be added to “the dust.” Some ‘spark’ must be applied; a spark like a common earthly spark —in some ways— but much more potent due to its immaterial character. You need to add some ‘spirit’ to matter; some supreme being must be at work, it is said.

Concerning “something from nothing,” the answer I could have given my theistic relative is this: “You have painted yourself into an intellectual corner. In common experience and scientific research, we never discover the predecessor of a thing to be nothing, or the working components of a thing to be nonexistent (no insides!). Yet this is how you have framed your problem —“How from nothing, something?” It is little winder that you need to go fishing and come up with an equally baffling idea for an answer, God.

**(Our Solar System** is a system within our galaxy. **The Earth and its many systems** are in our Solar System. Image courtesy of California Academy of Sciences.org)

So, “there is no something, from nothing,” and that is a satisfying answer suitable for any free-wheeling family get-together. But what of More from Less? If there are processes inside of processes, and cycles on top of cycles, these may come together (sometimes) in a new way and create a new thing and new qualities and abilities emerge in that object. “‘Emergent’: important word that,” says noted biologist and commentator Richard Dawkins.

In other words, from a world of gravity and electromagnetism, now we have a world with Color, Language and Flight. Where did they, and all the rest, come from? Is there some deep mystery that needs more than a physical explanation for us to understand it? Is it “a leap” as unlikely as ‘getting blood from a turnip,’ as the old saying puts it?

Getting More from Less

No, it is not a metaphysical leap, but it is Evolution that does the job. And, in one sense, we do need a special explanatory principle. Evolutionary Theory is how we explain the origin and existence of complexity; it is how we explain “Climbing Mount Improbable,” says Dawkins.

“The basic Darwinian motif” is “in the beginning there was some relatively unstructured and unsophisticated raw material; mutations of one sort of another occurred; and out of this emerged something novel,” contends Dan Dennett, philosopher and cognitive scientist. This novel thing will be more structured. It will be the outcome of a more sophisticated organization, a more designed “raw material.” That is how to get more from less: Enhance the design!

(An evolutionary line of descent exists from this simple ancestral insectivore to all this later diversity of form and ability. Diagram from ResearchGate.net)

The new qualities or abilities may be as humble as the combination of two atoms —hydrogen and oxygen— that are usually characterized as gasses, combining to form a liquid, water. This leap from gas to liquid does not shock us, though maybe it should considering it is a precursor of more startling things to come.

For example, it seems that the proper combination of six inanimate chemicals can lead to life. To add insult to injury, for those confounded by that apparent fact, five of those components can be purchased at your local hardware store (and in the right proportions) for around $100. The sixth can be attained by distilling urine!

Of course, as in the case of all Emergent Qualities, the ‘magic’ is in the recipe. It is like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. At this moment, various biochemists around the world are working to put those six basic components of life back together to recapture in a laboratory what apparently occurred 4 billion years ago deep in the ocean near a volcanic vent.

**(The Earth as a complex collection of systems.** Has **The Biosphere** reached the stage of development where it too is on the verge of existence as **a Single Living Organism?** Diagram courtesy of NASA)

So, we have ‘many things under the Sun’ because New Things with new Qualities have Evolved and Emerged. We all have a pretty clear intuitive sense of what this means, though firming it up theoretically is harder, that will be the job of subsequent passages. The following passage will attempt to show how intuitive this succession of evolved occurrences really is and one of the basic rules by which Emergence and Evolution occurs.

Let us end with a list of Emergent Objects; places where new abilities and qualities occurred, as formulated by the noted physicist Sean Carroll. To his credit, he is one of physic’s most forthright advocates of the idea of “Emergence” and of the different “Levels” at which we can consider “the same” object———–

For after all, I am…a 21st century American, a person, a biological organism (a composition of 11 major organ systems), a collection of single cells, an assemblage of biochemicals, an ongoing inorganic chemical reaction, an object with a given mass, density and inertia, …and finally Carroll’s “gravity and electromagnetism pushing around electrons and nuclei.” Gee, isn’t that swell!

Sean Carroll’s list of Emergent Transitions:

—Protons and Neutrons out of Quarks and Gluons (in the early universe); Atoms out of Electrons combining with Nuclei (several hundred thousand years after the Big Bang); the first Stars; origin of Life; Multicellular Organisms from the merger of individual single-celled organisms; Consciousness from neural activity; origin of Language from sounds and signs; original invention of Machines and Technology. (List from previously mentioned book, page 102.)

So you can’t get Something from Nothing, but you can get More from Less. In the following section, we will consider some of the “rules,” or it might be better to say “logic,” of Evolution and Emergence.

It is amazing the number and variety of things, qualities and abilities that exist in this world. It is time to close the gaps between all the different ways we experience and understand this diversity. What ways do we have to hold it all together? Surely the ideas of Emergence and Evolution are important to that effort.

**The Sistine Chapel ceiling** is a Physical Object that *“communicates*,” an idea or ability *not* at home in the vocabulary of the inorganic substances that compose it. Meanings and significances ***Emerge*** from it that have been central to Western Societies and Culture.

**HOLDING IT ALL TOGETHER? The Tree of Life** was a literal contention in **Norse Mythology.** Called **“Yggdrasil”** (pronounced the “Y” as a short “i”), it was said to be **a massive ash tree** at the center of the cosmos. Depiction from 1847, unknown artist.

Campaigning and the Pandemic

January 16, 2022January 16, 2022 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

These two do NOT easily fit together! Yet here in The O-H-I-O it must happen. In November of this year (9 months from now) an election will be held crucial to this state and to the nation. Ohioans will elect a new governor and a new U.S. Senator. The recent Republican Party strangle-hold on this state must end! The newly drawn voting districts for this state are already being challenged in the courts by the Democratic Party, but also independent organizations as reputable as The League of Woman Voters (Update: The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that both maps for the state legislature’s districts and for our US Congressional Districts were unconstitutionally biased in favor of the Republicans that created them. They ordered new districts to be drawn once again!) A moderate (in some ways) Republican Governor, Mike DeWine, is under fire from the extreme right wing of his own party. The Democrats are fielding a strong candidate for Governor in opposition, Dayton Mayor, Nan Whaley, who has distinguished herself and her leadership abilities during several dramatic events in that city—a mass shooting and a tornado.

Nationally, the Senatorial race in this state is huge. The U.S. Senate is tied, 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the decisive Democratic vote in a tie. If Ohio goes Democratic with this seat, it will be a shift in this current stand-off (but only one of among a number of decisive races).

Democrat “TJ” Johnson for US Senate

I have been working with a local, long-shot, candidate, Traci “TJ” Johnson. I fear the front-running Democratic candidate, Congressman Tim Ryan, will not adequately motivate the crucial Democratic voting bases in the big cities (Black Democrats) and in the suburbs (especially women). Even if TJ does not win the Democratic primary, at least she can help stir up interest, concern and awareness about the significance of this election. She will promote a bigger turn-out. See the earlier post—-https://naturereligionconnection.org/2021/11/28/tj-johnson-for-u-s-senate-from-ohio/

I have mostly been writing for her website and other campaign material, and making phone calls to create a campaign team. I have not gathered many signatures to qualify her for listing on the May primary ballot. I cannot go out in this pandemic, and now the Omicron surge, and interact with numerous and random people. This is not a good situation. I already have lung issues. Yet, here comes this crucial election!

Here is what I have written recently, in response to a Pac’s (Political Action Committee) request for information on these issues, before they will consider donating money to TJ’s campaign: Church and State, and Gun Violence.

The Separation of Church and State

“The right to worship in one’s own way is as fundamental as any Human Right. That our government and its agencies must steer clear of religious partisanship has once again become an increasing concern,” insists TJ.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when some Americans have insisted upon bringing their religious beliefs full square into the political realm. A very vocal wing of the Republican Party insists that they are “Pro-Gun, Pro-God, Pro-Life.” This is inappropriate and maybe even frightening.

First, it is unfortunate that the ownership of a gun has risen to a symbolic level comparable to belief in God and the respect for the value of human life. Gun ownership is not that important. Second, by “Pro-God,” these Americans have shown themselves to mean “Pro-Christian God.” Third, the decision that a human life starts at conception, or at the first audible heartbeat, is not a generally accepted standard. It is not endorsed by the scientific or medical communities. If you wish to believe in those standards, that is your private opinion, and one that often seems based in your specific religious affiliations.

In conclusion, the American Government is not Christian. Abortion is a basic option reserved to each woman in consultation with her doctor and loved ones, with some modifications based on community standards. Gun ownership is now a political issue only because too many gun-holders, sellers and manufactures are irresponsible and in violation of the general welfare of our community and themselves.

“Do Something” About Gun Violence

Once again it’s time for Ohioans to choose: continue with the bloodied status quo, or try to change it. There is no good reason that an 18 year old Ohioan is not old enough to buy a beer yet can buy an AR-15 Assault Rifle. There is no good reason that background checks are not universally required — close the gun show loophole! There is no good reason for our streets to be flooded with weapons easily accessible (often to teen-agers) for the use in robbery, homicide, domestic abuse and accidental discharge.

In recent years, four of our major cities have ranked in the nation’s top 50 in homicides per 100,000 population –Cleveland, Dayton, Akron and Cincinnati. Columbus and Toledo have set new homicide records in each of the past two years. The overwhelming majority of these murders occur by gun.

In 2019, a mentally disturbed 24 year old killed 9 and wounded 17 on a summer’s evening in Dayton in a shooting rampage that lasted less than 30 seconds. Daytonians gathered in the aftermath and shouted to the Governor, who was surveying the scene, “Do something, do something!” The Republican controlled State Legislature has refused. The U.S. Congress has refused.

“A majority of Ohioans have consistently voiced their support for reasonable increases in gun controls. When elected I will recharge this campaign to save lives and restore civility in this state and around our nation,” pledges TJ.

Choose to Limit Guns, Choose “TJ” Johnson!

Reading “Catcher” with High School Juniors During a Pandemic, and Other Activities

November 27, 2021November 28, 2021 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

Yes, I have been busy for the last two months and blogging has not been one of my activities, so I felt an explanation necessary.

Holden Caulfield in *The Catcher in the Rye.* Thanks to the Little, Brown and Company for drawing.

A teacher friend of mine at one of the high schools asked me to start the year for her in her English III classes. She enticed me by suggesting I could read ”Catcher in the Rye” with them. She had a unit plan all drawn up fro it. Well, I bit on that, and it was really fun and interesting. This is not a high income, high academic school. I wondered how many kids would get involved with it. But Holden Caulfield’s nonconformist, underachieving, emotionally damaged personality won out with a majority of them.

I read many of the major parts aloud —four times a day sometimes— so not to put all the burden on them to read on their own. I had a captive audience. I was curious how effectively I could read Holden’s free-flowing and affect-filled narrative. I did OK, sometimes all I could notice was the silence of the room as I read; students were either listening or quietly involved in their own thing—-social media or games. I tried to diminish those options but it is more like choosing your poison — off-task and disruptive or off-.task and quiet.

A large number of students expressed appreciation for the book as expressed in their essay answers. Just the unusual amount they wrote was testimony to their commitment. I felt obligated to read almost all of it, since I preached that detail and subtlety was necessary to give this book its due. It was a blessing and a curse, as I read and read over 100 tests with 15 essay questions each.

I, myself, gained a new appreciation for the book. Interestingly , all the events in the book were to have taken place over about four days, it seems. A number of kids explained their interest in the book as a curiosity with Holden himself: Did they like him or not? We had some pretty good discussions about Holden’s idea of ”a phony,” and whether Holden himself was a phony? Some kids were convinced that he was and that the whole theme of the book was not to grow up and be ”mature.” Apparently some of the ‘Cliff’s Notes’ and ’Spark Notes’ available on line, that some kids accessed too frequently, was pushing that interpretation. I kept suggesting other themes.

Holden is a gripping character, if you are at all prone to that kind of nonconformity. One evening I found myself in the grocery store thinking about ”the phony” standing in front of me. It made me laugh; that Holden, he is infectious.

I read —on line, of course— that JD Salinger carried a copy of the manuscript in his backpack as he fought at Normandy in WWII. You know, he never did sell the rights for a movie, even when Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to play Holden. According to someone who sought to have the book banned from public schools, Holden says ”goddam” 435 times. But I did a little censoring myself, I skip over chapter 19 (but it was still there for anyone who wanted to read it) because there is some homophobia there and a little elsewhere. That topic also led to a decent discussion with some of the groups about how times had changed.

The Pandemic also is worth mentioning. It greatly complicated the teaching. Early on we had 5 and 10 kids absent in each class and for 10 days at a time. Kids would get sick and I would get a call from the principal’s office asking who had sat near them earlier that day or the previous day. Many of those kids would then be quarantined. I had to keep accurate seating charts, space desks out, and keep kids from congregating unnecessarily. Due dates tended to disappear because I couldn’t keep track of who was out and when, and I didn’t even try. Masks were optional but a fair number wore them.

There were discussions about getting vaccinated or not and some kids had the craziest ideas. I, and most teachers, got vaxxed up real quick. A fair number of kids did also, when it became available to them. The quarantine regimen eventually changed and number of infections slowed, and attendance picked back up. Curiously that created a new problem. These juniors had not yet had a single undisrupted, normal, year of high school. As the room filled back up behaviors started to change. Some of those kids were out of practice at being students. That is the point at which my time was done; the teacher came back from maternity leave. Good luck to her and to so many of those wonderful young people I met. To even some of those that weren’t so pleasant to teach, it was hard to say good bye!

**Why did Holden keep asking the cabbies what happened to the ducks in Central Park when winter came?** Answer: Because he was a little concerned about what he would do next, too.

Tomorrow a follow-up post on THE OTHER ADVENTURE I HAVE EMBARKED UPON that slowed my Blogging————————————————————————POLITICS!!!————————————————

**Making all the** **Connections** at the *NatureReligionConnection.org*

On “Goodness” in General; ANW Weights In

October 17, 2021November 17, 2021 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

Alfred North Whitehead taught at Cambridge for decades and then finally at Harvard. He co-wrote Principia Mathematica, published 1903-5; with Bertrand Russell, which attempted to build upward from the principles of symbolic logic all the truths of mathematics. It was a multivolume effort that Russell once quipped had been read cover to cover by about a dozen people in the entire world. Whitehead individually wrote the esoteric Process and Reality, but also the popularly successful Science and the Modern World (1923), a book still well worth reading on the origins and nature of the natural sciences. The material used in the following is from his lectures published as Religion in the Making (1926).

What Makes the Good, so Good

“The universe is through and through interdependent,” in this way A.N.W. sets the stage for his broad and basic characterization of Goodness and Evil.

In this interdependence it is both the individual things considered in themselves and all things taken together as a unit that are both valuable, determinate, and real. Goodness and evil is the interplay of this unity in difference, and this forms “the topic of Religion” in its broadest and most non-denominational sense. Religion is about “individuals in community,” he contends.

And the power of his Metaphysic comes full bore in Whitehead’s contention that, each individual is “an occasion” that “has in its nature a reference to every other member of the community…each unit is a microcosm representing in itself the entire all-inclusive universe.” Wow, how ’bout dat for a contention! It is not unique to Whitehead; it is a basic contention of all philosophical holism going back to Gottfried Leibnitz in the year 1700 with his Monadology and further back to the Greeks and Parmenides with “The One” as “the only true being.”

**The interplay of Whole and Parts makes for the drama of Good and Evil.** M.C. Escher drawing, ***Day and Night*** (1938).

Now a problem soon arises. This massive interconnection is a massive mess. All the individual things and all things taken together, where and how are there any boundaries? ANW contends that this unity among difference is “a boundless wealth of possibility.” So, how does one actual resolution occur? One actual world appear?

ANW contends it is “a balance” of all these factors and thus “an epochal occasion.” It has a unique character among all these possibilities and this for only as long as it actually lasts. “God is the determination whereby a (single, one–GW) definite result is emergent.” “God…imposes a balance on the world,” a moral order. GOD is this one actual realization of a world and its universe among all the abstract possibilities!

“God” serves this role in Whitehead’s system. He also remarks that this kind of reasoning gives no relief to those seeking grounds for belief in a personal god. And Whitehead’s God has its limitations. The balance, that is this God, is not “a complete determinism.” The world at any one time “is not completely self-consistent; it changes; it is a “temporal world.”

Evil is this inconsistency within the world. The individual members of any actual world often suffer physically or mentally, and evil is also “the loss of the higher experience in favour of the lower experience.”

So, Change is real and vital in reality, in Whitehead’s system. Creative Change is the progressive link between the real but abstract Ideas and Possibilities and an actually existing individual world (an epochal occasion or God). Evil is a regressive link between these. Evil is the growth of suffering in some actual existing community and the loss of “higher forms of experience” replaced by lower forms.

Progress is the creation of “vivid experience;” out of all the mess and possibility; Reality seeks some “definiteness” of feeling and experience, and in this way “the mental” is of greater Value than “the physical,” though definitely emergent from it. Greatness of Quality is the contribution of “all the elements of a complex whole…to some one effect, to the exclusion of others.” One thing, one group of highly related things —a community– actually occurs. It is a unity in difference.

**A Unity in Difference** —*Omnibus Est.* An Actually Existing Community of Similarities evolving from, and to the exclusion of, the vast realm of remaining indeterminate Possibilities. *The Tree of Life as an actual and living work of Art.*

Discussion:

There is surely much to be said here. Is Human Experience better in some way than Canine Experience? Is it even legitimate to call it more complex? Why is Complexity an improvement over Simplicity? A great philosopher who also taught at Harvard with Whitehead, John Dewey, contended that his goal as a philosopher (in one way) was ‘to achieve a sophisticated innocence’ of character and outlook. So, isn’t the above characterization of good and evil just naïve. In what sense is it Objective and not simply biased (anthropocentric), personal and Subjective? After all, Goodness is just a Feeling (we often say)!

ANW prejudiced his metaphysic from the very beginning by declaring that All Things are Real; Feelings and Thoughts are as real as Atoms and Gravity. In fact, in his system, feelings and thoughts are more Valuable than the merely physical. All is of value, and it is of the nature of Value that it comes in degrees, I believe he contends. Some things just are Better; they possess a greater degree of Goodness! A Complex Unity like The Tree of Life becomes of a higher quality when one of its members (us) becomes Aware of Themselves as participants in that Unity of Design and Existence. A human experience can be of a higher quality than a dog’s because of our Self-Awareness of it and our abilities that arise from that, contends Whitehead.

***Hand With Reflecting Sphere*** **(1935)** **by M.C. Escher**

——–Well, isn’t that Good! Over the years, I have often said,——— ————————–“It’s good to be good!”—————————–

More Enchantment in a Good World?

October 3, 2021October 3, 2021 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

Our World can often seem a special place. In recent posts we have been exploring this Sensation and Judgement (See posts: The Strange Sensation and An Enchanted World). In this post let me present another outstanding case; for really, everyday and every moment is itself a bedazzlement of consciousness.

Let me quickly interject, this efflorescence (to use William Blake’s word) of the world around us is Not always a pleasant thing. I seek to avoid the status of “Pollyanna.” Often the world is lit in tragedy and pain but even then, it is our world, our Quality-Filled panoramic creation. As several philosophers and psychologists have testified, as much as the Natural Scientific Description of the world holds, Our Practical Vision and Belief in the world will be at least Something More or Other Than that hard science description.

(**John Singer Sargent’s** **Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood** **(1885).** Here we have the world reaching ***an enchantment at the Third Level***: One, Nature as Monet’s wife and the wood; Two, Monet representing it; Three, Sargent representing that act of Monet’s representation!
Reality at the third level of Enchantment or **Reflection.** Representations are circling about and influencing each other. Each is **an act of selection** among Reality’s infinite options.)

Philosopher and theorist extraordinaire, Dan Dennett has championed what has become known as “Illusionism.” The theory that Evolution has created and sanctioned for us a highly oversimplified, but efficient, take on the world. Let’s face it, our Common Sense approach to the world ‘chunks’ microscopic things in very peculiar and interesting ways— like persons, animate things, macroscopic functioning solids (like carbon and washing machines), liquids (like Chardonnay and water), gases (like oxygen and ‘air’). This way of seeing Phenomena has not done too badly. We have science, democratic rights and values, art and The Ohio State Buckeye football team. Granted, that characterization of Common Sense is selective; Common Sense is also full of bull shit, like belief in gods, ghosts, most Republican Party politics, and sasquatch. Common Sense, though, is also always under the process of revision.

**A famous photo of a supposed female Big Foot.** Thanks to the Gimlin film.

**Donald Trump as the MAGA leader for America. Just another Big Foot!**

The goal, here at naturereligionconnection, is to update and rationalize Common Sense. This will involve a demystification of many concepts, such as free will, value, quality, reason, personhood and nature. We must “save the phenomena;” which is the world and ourselves in the way they seem to us, but we must revise our thinking about these SEEMINGS in the most reasonable way. Much of that has already occurred throughout History.

(At the highest levels of abstraction in scientific thinking, most **Macroscopic Objects** do not exist in the way we tend to think of them and use them normally. Is **‘water’** a single thing, or a herd of things? What are the limits to what we call **‘a chair’?** **Macroscopic objects are *highly significant* to us as Persons.** Karl Marx sought to revize the way the The Capitalist Economic System *seemed* to **“Workers of The World.”** “*Arise!”* he said, and now we do have a world that is filled with many political and economic ***Socialistic*** interpersonal relations. It was enchanting to receive an unemployment check, when as a substitute teacher, schools were closed to substitutes due to Covid.)

Another Cool Example of Enchantment: more Bird Song, but now with Stravinsky

The Nightingale, who plays the opening role in a morning’s bird-song in Europe and other parts of the world, sings in a manner inspirational to the early Modernest Classical Composer, the Russian, Igor Stravinsky. Here is his Song of The Nightingale.

(This performance lasts over 21 minutes, do not feel obliged to listen to the bulk of it, but it is a worthy piece. Interestingly, this video shows the Musical Notation, the score itself. A Bird’s Song transformed into Human Musical Sound but also into our Written Representation of musical sound.)

(These sounds can also be displayed on an Oscilloscope which changes sound into electrical signals and then displays their pattern graphically. We, humans and other Conscious Creatures, are capable of recognizing, modifying, using and creating Patterns in Nature that are significant to us. We really work Nature over. It’s An Enchantment! Afterall, the story you tell about yourself is who you are, in many ways. It, too, is a Pattern constantly maintained and developed.)

Our Latest Songster: The Nightingale

(More melodic than the Lark, but not nearly the profusion of sound and effort. The Nightingale is known and named for its habit of song starting before The Break of Dawn. It is the first bird to sing each morning in its European, African and Asian habitats. But can it be worthy of Stravinsky or he it? You be the judge, but I can hear the resemblance!)

Bird Song

Do birds enjoy singing? Do birds appreciate the melody of their particular song? Is “song” a good thing? Similarly, do dolphins enjoy swimming? Do dog pups like to wrestle? Does“Play” and “Art” exist to non-human animals? In many ways we would say “Yes, it seems so,” and we would have good grounds for saying that. Afterall, we enjoy singing and melody; we often like to swim and dive, wrestle and frolic. We have the insight to “see” these feelings and activities develop in the creatures of the Tree of Living Things. They seem to grow from some incipient stage to more explicit and full-blown forms. These qualities are a Reflection of ourselves; “They are nature singing our song,” says psychologist Nick Humphrey (see post, A Strange Sensation).

Presentation, presentation! **Architecture, landscape, and Interior Design** in the nest creation of the male South Pacific **Bowerbird.**

But how does nature sing our song? Nature starts simply and often with other motives. In biology, it is generally acknowledged that Bird Song starts for very venal reasons. Birds want to attract mates and establish territories. Bird calls do much the same, but they may also warn of danger as with the Blue Jay. These are very Functional motivations. They are not about an enjoyment of the song for the sake of the song itself. Yet as one famous biologist put it, “Nothing transcends itself like nature.” The ‘enjoyment’ of song, for the sake of song itself, is pioneered in birds and maybe realized in humans. We may also add that the enjoyment of color may start in insects, but is more fully realized in the human visual arts.

(Bees have a greater ability to see ultraviolet light but no photoreceptors to allow them to see red. A curious tradeoff.)

In Chapter 3 of Dan Dennett’s book (Breaking the Spell, 2006) on the scientific explanation of Human Religious Practices, Dennett askes “Why Do Good Things Happen?” That is a strange question! He is not asking about some specific ‘good’ occurrence, like the end of WWII for which we know many particular events; he is asking why anything “good” ever happens or exists. “Why do humans fight wars?” begins to get sufficiently broader; but also, “Why does Color exist?” one of our favorite fascinating phenomena here at NatieRel.

Is there an answer to such broad questions? Well, Philosophers have traditionally thought so (see the post series What is a Philosopher.) Religions have also posited Reasons for the occurrence of good things (and bad). In The Iliad, Homer wrote that King Agamemnon offended the goddess Artemis and she prevented the winds from blowing and the Greek fleet from sailing to start the Trojan War. He was forced to sacrifice his daughter to appease the goddess and start the winds, but instigating the ire of his wife. To religion, it’s the gods that are responsible for both good and bad.

**(The Cavendish Banana** is today’s most popular comercial banana. It is seedless. It is entirely dependant on assxual reproduction aided by humans. **Human breeding is a form of** **Coevolution.** Humans have made many *cultural* adaptations in order to make these bananas available almost worldwide, and these bananas have made genetic adaptations.)

Coevolution is the reason good things happen, proposes Dennett, not gods! Coevolution, and not just Evolution, because coevolution involves a specific circular relation or feedback of causes between specific kinds of organisms that stimulates a series of adaptations on each of their part. Dennett cites “the bargain” struck by some plants and animals around 600 million years ago. Seeds happened to become housed in something vaguely like a fruit, something that stored some sugar, an easy energy source for the animal. Over eons, fruits and the animals that sought them, both evolved in sophistication. That is Coevolution. Dennett cites several other examples.

(**One of the classic examples of Coevolution** is the **“arms race”** between cheetah and gazelle. Each has evolved greater abilities and characteristics such as speed, agility, camouflage and herd instincts in their historical cycle of interaction.)

(**Stotting by gazelle** is a display behavior that verges on what we would call play, but probably has more to do with impressing a stalking cheetah. It is, as if, the particular gazelle was saying, “Don’t bother with me, I am very robust.” **Stotting is an apparently pointless, but impressive, leap into the air.**)

Coevolution is an important cause of increasing complexity in our world. It is in Complexity that Good Things lay. It is also in the break-down of complexity that Evil and decline occur. It is in highly complex Brains that an experience of color occurs along with neural activity. It is in groups of cooperating humans that Language arises and is perpetuated, and then complex Ideologies grow — with gods, democratic rights, free choices, art, and even supposed ethnic and national superiorities.

**(If all the matter were evenly distributed through the universe, estimate scientists, there would be 5.9 protons per cubic meter**, not even a single atom! And since matter tends to collect around itself via **gravity**, most empty space is far more empty than that!)

In what we would call empty space, it really is rather empty. No good thing or bad thing happens there, that is the least we can say; maybe we should go further and say, Empty Space is a bad thing if Evil is the degradation of complexity, then this is the bottom layer. So, yes, by comparison to Complex Things and Events, no events at all is really bad. (So, The Holocaust was better than empty space? Maybe what makes The Holocaust massively evil is its disappointment, its betrayal, of all the wonderful accomplishments of humanity at and up to that point in history. We feel a tremendous Guilt with the Holocaust —how could persons have done that to other persons? We feel no such disappointment or guilt concerning empty space.)

In our Complex Living Environment there are vast opportunities for Numerous Creatures and Qualities to Exist and Interact. “*Goodness” may be* the Maximized Harmony and Coexistence of the greatest number of these. **“Goodness” is the harmony of the greatest number of creatures, qualities, and abilities** **in existence simultaneously in Community.** That is at least a good start at a description of it.

Stay tuned for more on The Nature of Goodness———————————————————————–The famous Alfred North Whitehead takes a crack at it.

***I W*****ISH WE HAD MORE UNITY IN OUR DIFFERENCES TODAY!!!** Logo by Marty!

Revitalizing “The Soul”

September 19, 2021January 23, 2022 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but my “Soul” could sure use some revitalizing! I have felt rather exhausted, not so much physically, but mentally and “spiritually.” It is not that I am depressed, just worn out; beleaguered by a world in which too much has gone wrong recently. I am looking for some hope once again, and maybe that is all that it is, Feeling Rather Hopeless.

British psychologist and philosopher, Nicholas Humphrey, has offered some help in the form of two books: A History of the Mind (1992) and Soul Dust (2011). Metaphysical Hope, we might call it. True, both books are rather old, but still good, and each about 200 pages long. Nice that Humphrey, in writing a history, has respect for our time and forbearance. I hope to follow his example.

A “Soul”? Surely it is farfetched to think that this ancient and regrettably ongoing superstition has any modern beneficial use. Could it possibly accurately help describe our Human Condition? Could it help me shake these blues?

I will go out on a limb, with Humphrey, and suggest that it does. “Soul” has helped return some sparkle to my outlook. This rehabilitation is based (somewhat) in the belief that we humans often ‘know’ or ‘sense’ more than we realize about these “deep,” philosophical and religious issues. The turn of the 19th century German philosopher, Hegel, certainly thought so. He argued that mythology and traditional religion were a dim and eerie form of what an accurate philosophy of the world would look like. Humphrey contends something similar, that philosophical thought and awareness is natural to human beings, at least in some rudimentary forms.

Our New Soul

So, Humphrey attempts to revitalize this familiar concept in a rather straightforward way. Of course he jettisons the idea of the soul’s immortality and its immaterial character, but hangs on to what may be the true point of these, the Soul’s Transcendent Character.

The soul is the self, initially “a core self” and then eventually “the Ego” which is a larger and more complex self built from the core. Any self must transcend. It most last from moment to moment, day to day, year to year. It must transcend time, not totally as if godlike, but definitely forming a fairly durable duration. Also, it must transcend space and particular events and bodily faculties. The self is a unifier, an integrator in time and space. “I” have a toe, and the pain in it is equally its pain and mine. I see red, and that sensation is equally an activity at the surface of my retina, various events in my brain, and in general an experience of mine.

This general transcendental character of the self, and especially its supposed immaterial character, is demystified by Humphrey by postulating a Neurological Loop and a progressive sequence of development in it.

But if a Self is a “Soul,” why not just stick with “Self”, why up the rhetoric to soul?

Surely some magic must be added, and that is where Quality and diverse qualities enter the story. Humphrey contends that about 300 million years ago, our reptilian ancestors —predecessors to all birds and mammals— evolved a Brain complex enough to “have” Phenomenal Experiences. In other words, it was “like something” to them (these creatures) to be them and to live their life. If they were damaged, they now felt pain, that is what damage was for them. They now experienced color, for example; or even enjoyed the taste of a juicy insect just devoured. Red was no longer just an electromagnetic wavelength responded to, but an experience of “redness” and also a behavioral response. Food was no longer just a biochemical necessity and a series of biochemical reactions but an activity “savored,” a satiation “appreciated,” a “craving” mitigated. That is what it was “like to them.” It was a new situation—an experience—for any “thing,” at least in our section of the universe.

An “interiority” was now introduced, contends Humphrey! It was the dawning of not only “selves” and “souls” but also “Minds.” A kind of “interior theater” was established where not only the events that happened to a thing were recorded but they were interpreted and represented as something to me or for me. Qualities “appear” in the world. Perspective was created, and with that a variety of perspectives appeared. There is no perspective without differences of perspective.

**(Is this *you*, neurologically pictured?** A mathematically describable, on-going, neural event of this form may be you! In three dimensions, it suggests what “perspective” may look like physically.)

Neurologically, the perception of the soul’s or self’s continuity and transcendence is naturalistically understood as an ongoing looping event occurring among the neurons in the brain. “Specialized neural circuits” exist and were selected by nature for their form as shown above. A flowing and continuous reverberation in the brain that takes time and potentially builds on itself. One that thickens and quickens at some points, but also relaxes, slows and thins at others. A loop and series of loops that may possibly offer in physical terms a kind of diagram for what an ongoing self may look like in brain activity, and what self-reflection may be based in. These kinds of self-reflective, varying but continuous events, can be mathematically described; they are called “discrete delay differential attractors.”

Humphrey admits that, in some ways, these neurological contentions are highly speculative and unusual. In effect, he is suggesting a neurological hypothesis based on its logical form, a logical form that has characteristics that seem to resemble the “shape” that consciousness and self-consciousness could take physically to be what it seems to us to be phenomenally. This is unusual, the logic of the problem of consciousness is leading the search for physical, neural, patterns.

In the above diagrams, let us say a sensation has occurred and is recorded in one small section of the brain, some small set of neurons. Its significance is ‘judged’ by the ongoing reaction of neurons around it. If it is a significant sensation, the initial pattern of responding neurons will be repeated and expand into larger sets of neurons that still maintain some of the basic pattern. Somewhat like the flower of a plant, a side-shoot of this activity may split off and ignite a repetition of that pattern in different parts of the brain. All eventually echoing back, returning to the initial sensation, as if a determination of its character and judgment of its significance. In a less significant experience, far less activity would occur but it would still maintain the above continuous, flowing and recursive character.

**Some scientist characterize the processes displayed** **above as “self-organization.”** They have the character of a somewhat closed, continuous but varied development. This kind of Pattern is often seen in nature, as demonstrated in the above diagram and the photos from the backyard garden of Greg and Sheri. (Feet of GWW).

But the magic continues and escalates when a final observation is added. The self is better described as a soul when its absolute uniqueness is recognized. At no other point in all of history — past or future — will the same perspective exist that is The Basis of You. What the world seems like to you, who you seem like to yourself, seems to us to be a complete and irreplaceable creation. Not immortal in its physical existence, but immortal in its uniqueness. It is comparable to other Souls, but incomparable to them in strict identity. A Soul is a world-historically unique collection of Seemings and observations of Seemings themselves. Each is a perspective all its own. “The self comes into being at the moment it has the power to reflect itself,” writes Douglas Hofstadter. This self-reflective loop is what we have come to highly value.

This Unique Approach

This approach was pioneered years ago by Artificial Intelligence researcher Douglas Hofstadter and philosopher Dan Dennett. They co-authored a successful book called The Mind’s I in 1982. Previous to that, Hofstadter wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning and NYTimes Bestseller, Godel, Escher, Bach in 1979. Each book features the new insight that a self, and any “product of Mind,” has a looping, continuously self-referential but varying character.

Godel: Mathematics Turns in on Itself

In about 1930, Kurt Godel (last name pronounced with a long “o” and short “e” and equal emphasis on each syllable) proved that self-reference was impossible to avoid in any theory of the basis of mathematics. In response to Bertrand Russell’s and Alfred N. Whitehead’s voluminous Principia Mathematica, which tried to show math as built up from the bottom based on self-evident principles in a kind of pyramid form. Godel proved that all theories of math’s foundations could not have this form, but contained Self-Referential Statements. They seemed to ‘hold themselves up by their own bootstraps,’ we could say.

Yes, self- reference or self-reflection is a strange kind of thing. It often leads to paradox. Hofstadter contends Godel’s work was an application to math of linguistic puzzles such as the statement “I am lying.” How are we to take this? Standing alone, and on its face value, it cannot be either True or False! Or, how do we take this pair of statements? “The following sentence is false. The preceding sentence is true.” They are “Strange Loops” that throw us out beyond them in search for further Context, or indicate to us a closed and circular form that is both logical and paradoxical.

M. C. Escher: Reality as if Turning in Upon Itself

A Dutch graphic artist working in the early to mid 20th century, labored in obscurity until he was almost 70 years old. His works are an exploration of the concepts of infinity, symmetry, reflection, perspective, and tessellation, says Wikipedia. Hofstadter values them as powerful portrayals of the effect of Self-Reflection. Each is a demonstration of a Strangely Looping Process.

(***Print Gallery,*** 1956, lithograph. Said to be one of Escher’s own favorite works. The ‘dead spot’ in the middle of it is Escher’s signature. In 2003 several Dutch mathematicians contended they had **“solved”** **the puzzle of the void, the empty spot** If the work is taken to be drawn on an “elliptic curve over the field of complex numbers” (whatever that means), the void disappears with a continuation of the drawing.)

Hofstadter contends Print Gallery displays three kinds of “inclusion.” The seaside town is “in” the picture being viewed by the boy, the boy and the picture are pictured “in” Escher’s work, and the entire idea of it is “in” Escher’s mind as represented by the void.

Bach: Bouncing a Theme Back Upon Itself in Many Different Ways

Hofstadter uses Bach’s piece A Musical Offering and its historical context as the background for his final example of Reflection, Variation, Recursion, and Self-Enclosure as displayed in his book’s title, Godel, Escher, Bach. I can barely begin a description of this piece’s musical character, but I will try. In the end, I will present a simple example of this musical form that will make sense to all, as it did finally for me.

(***Flute Concert in Sanssouci,*** by A. von Menzel, 1852. The flutist is **Frederick the Great of Prussia.** Frederick was known as a military strategist but also as one of European history’s most acclaimed patrons of the arts. In 1747, he was finally paid a surprise visit by the now acclaimed eldest Bach, Johann Sebastian. The evening’s program was cancelled and replaced with pieces by Bach and improvisations involving the king. **A Musical Offering** grew from that, and was later presented to the king in his honor.)

A Musical Offering is a Fugue involving six parts! Reportedly even a four part fugue is difficult and a five part is rare; Bach himself only accomplished several of these in his collection The Well-Tempered Clavier. In a Fugue, each part, or ‘voice’, has a distinct melody to play, but all melodies are craftily designed to fit with each other as all are played at some points simultaneously. In this sense, each note of each part has multiple roles to play; it has its primary role in its own part, but secondary roles in relation to all the additional voices. A Fugue is an intricate work, like a finely woven tapestry.

A Canon is the simplest kind of Fugue, explains Hofstadter, and the simplest kind of Cannon is The Round. We all should be familiar with singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat as a round. That is the simplest Cannon, a variety of voices sing the same song over against and in contrast to itself. It creates a delightful effect.

Here is another noted Round, Frere Jacques. Thanks to the Missoula Valley Youth Choir!

Hostadter’s point is, in all these cases, Nature and Human Nature has ‘twined’ and intertwined itself about itself, and Reflected back itself, in ways that has set a foundation for more complex phenomena to appear to occur at what is called Higher Levels. New Things Happen, based on The Foundations of The Old. Hofstadter: “a higher-level view of a system may contain explanatory power which is absent on the lower level.” Like music, like art, like ethics, like science, all happen at levels beyond the microscopic. Its a more interesting life at this “chunkier” level!

A popular Canon— Pachelbel’s Canon, in two contrasting voices.

Stay Safe, Stay Connected. The naturereligionconnection.org

Standing In Front of the Class as The Towers Fell

September 12, 2021September 12, 2021 ~ GregWW ~ Leave a comment

(This post was mostly written yesterday morning, 9/11/21.)

Twenty years ago today, at almost this exact time — 9am, I was standing in front of a small class of seventh and eighth graders. The final bell signaling the start of the day had just wrung. I was new to that school, having just transferred from a different assignment; but we were all rather new considering the school year had only started a week or so prior. A teacher from across the hall came to the door that day and simply said, “You might want to turn on the television, something important has just happened.”

I did not intend to write this post and tell this story, but his morning I found myself unable to think of other things. It was hard, of course, not to think of 9/11/2001 in recent days. The television, newspapers and radio that I peruse has been full of it, and rightly so. What really got me reflecting is that, once again, I was going to be standing in front of many young and impressionable minds, the day before –a Friday– this tragedy’s 20th anniversary. What should I say to them about it?

Sadly, I chose to say Nothing! I considered talking to them of it; they were not even born in ’01; I felt I had an obligation. And it would have been a difficult discussion. The students at the high school, at which I am now substitute teaching on a long term assignment, are not a highly sophisticated group, but they are a diverse group. We have a significant population of Muslim students and a significant group of working class white students who come from politically conservative families (when these families choose to be political at all.) I wish the current situation was more ideal. I would have liked to try it. Imagine attempting to explain the religious background of this historical event.

**Our current pandemic situation in Ohio.** We are starting to return to some of the same New Case Numbers that we saw at our peak. Fortunately, Deaths are much lower than in December and January.

But our current situation is far from ideal. I am at my maximum in work and issues. In my 8th period class, out of 22, 15 were not present, but of those absent, 4 were out for reasons not of sickness or quarantine. Our high schoolers are encouraged to wear masks but only middle schoolers and lower are required to mask by our district. I am occasionally called by administrators and asked to look back at my notes and try to recount to them who was in contact or near or wearing a mask in the vicinity of a particular student now positively Corona-tested. And those students that are frequently attending, many of them are not re-adjusting well to a return to full-time learning. Motivation and on-task behavior are a frequent issue. I am teaching mostly juniors in their English class, and they have not had a normal and uninterrupted school year since their 8th grade year!

So, I chose not to mention 9/11 and no student did either. We have enough of our own tragedies today.

But, 20 years ago, we did not. Why did I turn on the television that day 20 years ago? I was teaching a Special Education class that was composed of mostly a small group of boys with ADHD, anger issues, non-compliance, and less severe autism. I have often thought since then, why did I so automatically just tune in? I think I had the confidence that I could walk them through whatever was happening.

No sooner than we tuned in, and no sooner than I was explaining that it was a terrorist attack, The Second Plane came curving into sight and crashed into the second tower! We sat in shock and watched, as did much of the rest of the nation!

My students handled it well, and I talked and explained and re-assured them for many hours that day. We did not watch the reporting for the entire school day, and an hour or two in, I decided to attempt to return to some normal school activities. I told my students, that is what we must do, that “the terrorists want us to panic and stop doing what we should do.” That went really well, those young guys rose to the occasion.

There are two things that stand out in my memory from the rest of that day. First, throughout the day as we sat trying to focus on school work, the PA system began to increasingly interrupt us calling individual students to go to the office for dismissal. Parents were taking their kids home. Kids were calling home asking to be removed. By the end of the day, it was strange sitting there and talking to the students who remained, many of whom were kids in my room (thus part of the nature of Special Ed — families a little bit different).

Secondly, I remember a comment by one of my students, a rather highly-charged eighth grader This special ed. class had what is called, “a levels system.” It was to monitor good behavior and reward increasing or decreasing opportunities according to performance. “Level 1” was the lowest level for students needing the most guidance, the most structure, the most care. They were not even allowed to walk down the hall alone to the fountain, an adult had to escort them. After watching and discussing the tragedy for quite awhile, his comment was “I feel like I want to be on Level 1.” My response was, “Joey, I think we all feel that way.” Indeed, in the days of that tragedy 20 years ago, we all needed extra care, extra guidance and whatever additional security we could find. Today’s world feels a bit the same.

Category: The Connection (varied topics)

Emergence and a Strange Thing called Human Choice

Humans Do Choose

The Conclusive Point

New Things “Emerge”

The Power of Physics

Some Things Emerge

Gradualism and The Great Chain of Being

Gradualism

The Great Chain

An Enhanced Imagination

What new and larger system or creature might we be able to imagine ourselves a part of?

God and Evolution: Something from Nothing, or More from Less

The Traditional Answer

Getting More from Less

Campaigning and the Pandemic

The Separation of Church and State

“Do Something” About Gun Violence

Choose to Limit Guns, Choose “TJ” Johnson!

Reading “Catcher” with High School Juniors During a Pandemic, and Other Activities

On “Goodness” in General; ANW Weights In

What Makes the Good, so Good

Discussion:

——–Well, isn’t that Good! Over the years, I have often said,——— ————————–“It’s good to be good!”—————————–

More Enchantment in a Good World?

Another Cool Example of Enchantment: more Bird Song, but now with Stravinsky

Our Latest Songster: The Nightingale

Bird Song

Stay tuned for more on The Nature of Goodness———————————————————————–The famous Alfred North Whitehead takes a crack at it.

Revitalizing “The Soul”

Our New Soul

This Unique Approach

Godel: Mathematics Turns in on Itself

M. C. Escher: Reality as if Turning in Upon Itself

Bach: Bouncing a Theme Back Upon Itself in Many Different Ways

Stay Safe, Stay Connected. The naturereligionconnection.org

Standing In Front of the Class as The Towers Fell

STAY SAFE! The NatureReligionConnection.org

Humans Do Choose

The Conclusive Point

Share this:

Like this:

The Power of Physics

Some Things Emerge

Share this:

Like this:

Gradualism

The Great Chain

An Enhanced Imagination

What new and larger system or creature might we be able to imagine ourselves a part of?

Share this:

Like this:

The Traditional Answer

Getting More from Less

Share this:

Like this:

The Separation of Church and State

“Do Something” About Gun Violence

Choose to Limit Guns, Choose “TJ” Johnson!

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

What Makes the Good, so Good

Discussion:

——–Well, isn’t that Good! Over the years, I have often said,——— ————————–“It’s good to be good!”—————————–

Share this:

Like this:

Another Cool Example of Enchantment: more Bird Song, but now with Stravinsky

Our Latest Songster: The Nightingale

Bird Song

Stay tuned for more on The Nature of Goodness———————————————————————–The famous Alfred North Whitehead takes a crack at it.

Share this:

Like this:

Our New Soul

This Unique Approach

Godel: Mathematics Turns in on Itself

M. C. Escher: Reality as if Turning in Upon Itself

Bach: Bouncing a Theme Back Upon Itself in Many Different Ways

Stay Safe, Stay Connected. The naturereligionconnection.org

Share this:

Like this:

STAY SAFE! The NatureReligionConnection.org

Share this:

Like this: