Alex M. Vikoulov's Blog, page 7

The Cybernetic Theory of Mind: The Five Foundational Axioms

by Alex M. Vikoulov “I believe that new mathematical schemata, new systems of axioms, certainly new systems of mathematical structures will be suggested by the study of the living world.”  –Stan Ulam

This article summarizes the tenets of the Cybernetic Theory of Mind (CTM) with the five foundational axioms. All of these starting assumptions for the new ontological framework are discussed in my recent book The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution. I try to keep this summary short and simple for the reader, maximally leaning towards a more literary, “bookish” style rather than the overly scholarly one. Also, The Cybernetic Theory of Mind is a working title for my upcoming book to be published sometime next year for the general audience. It may be followed by academic papers to clarify some thorny issues that I intend to publish on my own or in collaboration.
The CTM model, a proposed version of the theory of everything, I'm currently working on, is an integral multi-disciplinary ontological model that allows to draw a wide variety of predictions and deductions from the intersections of two or more foundational axioms therein. The CTM model also allows integration of further epistemic elements under its broad ontological umbrella as they come to be known. In this summary, the formulation of each foundational axiom is followed by five exemplary deductions per axiom.


I. THE EMERGENCE AXIOM  

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Bottom-up evolutionary emergence of the phenomenal mind. The Digital Big Bang is the first yes/no. Observer-centric VR game begins. Meta-algorithmic information processing. Lower to higher dimensionality progression through the levels of emergent complexity.
 
Self-evident premise. Additional theoretical support from the science of complexity such as Emergence Theory by Klee Irwin. [Five exemplary] Deductions made on the basis of Emergence Axiom in conjunction with other CTM axioms:
 
Dimensionality in the space of possible minds: Life continually adds meaning. Evolutionarily, life adds dimensionality. Infinitely directional change becomes one-directional flow in subjective time, in the words of digital philosopher Terrence Deacon: "Discrete jumps are mapped on a continuous background whose continuum is in turn mapped onto discrete places." ​Boundaries and constraints are necessary for self-organized criticality. Infinity is limited by individuality. The phenomenal mind creates and perceives dimensional reality out of dimensionless bits of information projected from the Omega Singularity, which becomes intelligible in conjunction with other deductions.
 
Fractality:  As above, so below. Nature is now known for layering – repeating patterns of complexity like the filaments of dark matter that connect galactic superclusters together and the synapses that connect billions of neurons in the brain – there is a fractal reiteration across the magnitude of scales akin to the Mandelbrot set based on a simple underlying formula. Self-similar fractal systems are ubiquitous in Nature. Our world is geometrically fractal throughout as if rendered by computation.
 
Novelty vs. Habit:  Contained both within and contributing to evolution is the "subroutine" of heredity-instinct-learning-habituation. The advantage of habit is efficiency. Learning begins with the felt surprise of a novelty. The metabolic causal circle develops into the dynamic progression of learning. Categorization deepens as new content is added to the recognition of what is absent. With a future wide open, possibilities are infinitely larger than the actual outcomes. Openness to the future provides the necessity to learn.
 
Phenomenality of Emergent Mind:  Intersubjective reality is an agreed upon mass illusion. Objective reality, on the other hand, is supersubjectivity, the infinite cosmic mind, quantum field from which the phenomenal mind springs into existence at increments of conscious instants (cf. the Conscious Instant Hypothesis, Digital Presentism). What we call the "Multiverse" is some kind of "matryoshka" of entangled conscious minds. Physical reality isn't really physical except that we perceive it in that way (from within a rule-based [self-]simulation). This idealist perspective might be striking for some but this is the direction of intellectual progress we're seemingly headed.
 
The Universal Mind: If we were to demystify a curious and ubiquitous phenomenon of emergence to the best of our current understanding, then we would clearly see that both Nature and Mind interact as many experiencers to become one again, at a higher meta-system level. What some people call “God,” or the mind at large in which we all are embedded, becomes intelligible through the natural phenomenon of emergence: Universal consciousness is said to emerge somewhere ahead of us in hierarchical space-time, however, it transcends our conventional dimensionality and is already here within each of us. This also implies that all information is integrated at one level; all our individuated experiences are simultaneously observed from a higher level and integrated in a single experiential self – the Universal Mind. There’s really One Mind, the one we all share.* *Based on "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, audible.com and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. Buy Now eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Audiobook | Autographed Copy
​​
II. THE NETWORK AXIOM  

The basic pattern of life is a network.  Networks represent complex interrelationships between “nodes” of the system. As a rule, it is a “matryoshka” of embedded networks. Each of us is networked intelligence in the human form. Universally, this network feature of Nature translates into small worlds within bigger worlds. Interdependent and interpenetrating networks of conscious agents. Organisms within superorganisms. Minds within superminds. Higher interactivity and built-in dimensionality.  
 
Self-evident premise. Additional theoretical support from Network science such as Network Theory by Adam Frank, Complexity Theory by Neil Theise et al., The Theory of Conscious Agents by Hoffman and Prakash. Deductions made on the basis of Network Axiom in conjunction with other CTM axioms:
 
Non-linearity: Networks are known for their non-linearity. Agent-based network topology is what defines any complex system. In the space of possible minds, entangled minds far separated as actors in a virtual space-time have no true spatio-temporal separation in the computational realm which, just like our world, exhibits non-locality, discontinuity (digital nature) and quantum network non-linearity. 
 
Diversity:  Under my ontology, what truly exists is the space of possible minds and it is tremendously diverse. Biological minds reveal to us just a snippet in this space of possible minds. It's networks of entangled conscious agents all the way down and all the way up: the multiverse of conscious minds.
 
Interdependence: On top of non-linearity and diversity, agents within any complex network are incredibly dependent on each other, i.e., interdependent. Any complex system composed of a variety of interacting subsystems, such as chemical networks, ecosystems, or societies, over time, tends to evolve towards more self-organization, coherence and interdependence, as its subsystems mutually adapt and lower overall system entropy. Realized through a network of internal feedback loops, such system may be considered “living” or “organismic” in the abstract sense.
 
Vulnerability vs. Resilience: Even the tiniest chunk of code, like Coronavirus (COVID-19), may cause a major disruptive impact on the global operating system, something that was suddenly revealed to the public awareness in early 2020. Although vulnerable to exogeneous shocks, the complex systems tend to be extremely resilient and adaptive to quickly changing conditions.
 
Teleological Evolution of Networks:  Just by looking at accelerating “exponential” complexification of the Universe of which we are an integral part, we can conclude that we are not subjected to a random walk of evolution, nor are we subjected to a deterministic script of Nature, the truth lies somewhere in between – we are part of teleological evolution. This teleological evolution of universal networks is like an open-ended game of life with specific rules, goals and levels of complexity.
 
Hyper-Perspectivism:  Everything is perspectival. Being part of hierarchical quantum neural networks, a conscious observer system possesses a strange quality: collapsing quantum states of entangled conscious entities and having a privileged interpretation of that. In this sense, entangled conscious agents would be a mirror conscious environment, whereas the quantum observer would be a central node of the entangled network. Pragmatically speaking, absolute truths are hard to come by, which is the basic premise of ‘hyperperspectivism.’ Rather, truths are always in the eyes of the beholder, truths are always observer-relative, truths are 'made' by a 'truth-maker.' You can approach our multifaceted reality from an incredibly large number of angles. Since our world is of mental abstractive construction, it’s always up to you to decide what’s real to you – everything you find real is indeed real to you, not necessarily real to others. Even if you subscribe to philosophy of scientific materialism, when you end up believing that Homo sapiens is an accidental, insignificant species on a unremarkable planet orbiting an average sun somewhere on the outskirts of an ordinary galaxy of the ‘block universe,’ this view still could hold bona fide in its own “good ol’ science” domain albeit overall “boxy.”*
 ​ *Based on "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, audible.com and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. Buy Now eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Audiobook | Autographed Copy
​
III. THE INFORMATION AXIOM  

The “Modus Operandi” of consciousness is information. By this axiom, information is a distinction between phenomenal states. Optionality is quantum. Signal processing between nodes in network, channel transmissions of information may be analog but interpreted by the receiver in binary code. Phenomenality is quantum computational. Reality is ontologically monistic based on only one universal medium – information, and one universal substance – consciousness.
 
Self-evident premise if experience is assumed to be the primary datum of existence (and it is). Additional theoretical support from Integrated Information Theory by Guilio Tononi, Algorithmic Information Processing Theory by Gregory Chaitin. Deductions made on the basis of Information Axiom in conjunction with other CTM axioms:
 
Quantum Information Processing:  Reality is quantum mechanical at all scales. Speaking of QM interpretations: Nothing happens in Everettian “Many Worlds” – it's just a quantum field of potentiality. It's a mathematical tool. For experiential reality, it must be a definite outcome, or a collapse of the wave of possibilities at our human scale. Think of the "Many-Worlds" interpretation as more accurately defined as the "Many-Timelines" interpretation. However, for phenomenality to be actualized, a wave function collapse is computationally unavoidable, the claim that I thoroughly defend in The Syntellect Hypothesis.
 
Transformability of Information: If particles were the zoo animals, then any animal could convert to any other animal in the zoo. Weird, huh? But that's what the science of information, i.e., digital physics, now demonstrates again and again in elaborate experiments. In The Syntellect Hypothesis, I make this clear: "Particles are Convertible into Other Particles and Energy." Everything we consider fundamental can be converted into everything else. Energy can be converted into matter, and matter can be converted back to energy, as noted by the well-known Einstein’s formula E = mc^2, which actually can be expanded if taken into consideration universality of information, as follows: i = E = mc^2. Electrons, quarks, photons, neutrinos that are regarded as elementary particles are all convertible into all the other particles thanks to the so-called gauge symmetry transformation.
 
Physical vs. Abstract Space: Information can be both physical and abstract hinting to its universality. Having said that, physicality of information is illusory. It all comes down to your phenomenality, your conscious mind, this is the only perfect piece of knowledge and primary empirical datum. Our measurement devices are only extensions of our senses. With information as its operational medium, consciousness can expand into the space of abstract inferences, deductions and possible worlds ad infinitum.
 
Integration of Information: The merging of information from heterogeneous sources of sensory and mental [digital] input with different contextual representations, data fusion, filtering and recombination of information into a meaningful stream of consciousness results in a unitary phenomenal experience.
 
Algorithmic Information Processing: In computational reality, we are freewill non-deterministic meta-algorithms, or software, running on the hardware of the larger consciousness system. We all are part of this fractal multiversal structure, co-creators of our own experiential reality. This fractal multiverse is running on some kind of ultimate code, a meta-algorithmic language of Nature based on binary code and fractal geometry, the code which allows syntactical freedom of expression, and is transcribable into subjective data streams, observer-dependent perceptual realities. Naturally, we are fractals of the larger universal mind, which in turn, is a fractal of the larger Omniversal Mind. Evolutionary emergence and progression through levels is the name of the game, “Return to Eden” is our ultimate goal, and the "unreachable" endgame of evolution is the Omega Singularity.*
​ *Based on "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, audible.com and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Audiobook | Autographed Copy

IV. THE INTERFACE AXIOM 

Each conscious agent is endowed with a certain sensory filtering system, a unique interface with the larger reality. A bat, an octopus, a human, although earthly actors, will have incredibly alien interfaces in comparison to each other. In their own virtual bubble-universe, a conscious agent uses species-specific sensory-cognitive modality in interfacing with objective reality which is nothing less than the operating system of non-local consciousness, or the Universal Mind, co-creating each and every observer timeline.
 
Self-evident premise. Additional theoretical support from the Interface Theory of Perception by Donald Hoffman. Deductions made on the basis of Interface Axiom in conjunction with other CTM axioms:
 
Observer-centric VR:  Reality, at least to an idealist as I am, is fundamentally phenomenal. In other words, reality, the Universe is in the mind, not the other way around. Quantum mechanics as well as cognitive science show that we all are "observer-centric virtual realities." Thus, my experiential branch of quantum multiverse can be drastically different from that of other observers accounting for "historical" events. There’s no single worldline. To put things in perspective, in other observer universes, I may be already dead, but I'm safe and sound in my own subjective bubble universe.
 
Experiential Realism:  The objective world, i.e., the world whose existence does not depend on the perceptions of a particular observer, consists entirely of conscious agents, more precisely their experiences. What exists in the “objective” world, independent of your perceptions, is an intersubjective world of conscious agents, and a higher-order supersubjective (transcendent) world not a world of unconscious particles and fields (they are only “pixels” on the screen of our perception). Experiential realism is a non-physicalist, monistic idealism. As such, it is a computationalist worldview incorporating quantum mechanical principles and is not to be confused with naïve realism. Consciousness is fundamental. Experience and experiencer are one. The mind-body problem is approached with an assumption that consciousness creates all objects and properties of the physical world, as well as brain activity, not the other way around. All conscious agents experience their own species-specific perceptual realities, i.e., virtual worlds.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Appearance of Thoughts:  There is only universal consciousness. We, as well as all other living organisms, are but avatars of the greater cosmic mind, surrounded by its thoughts. The inanimate world we see around us is the extrinsic appearance of these universal thought processes. The living beings we share the world with are the extrinsic appearances of other avatars.

Cybernetic Immortality: Any container with a sufficiently integrated network of information patterns and with a certain optimal complexity, especially complex dynamical systems with biological or artificial brains (say, future AGIs) could be filled with consciousness at large in order to host an individual “reality cell,” “unit,” or “node” of consciousness. It might be hard to grasp for some, but we, like fish, swim in this ocean of consciousness, completely oblivious of the medium. Consciousness to humans, as Cloud is to computers, we have always been part of this mindspace network, techno-cultural “hive mind,” each of us being a product of our societal “virtual reality.” Cybernetic immortality, often associated with ‘mind uploading’ or ‘mind transfer’, could be more of a “mind migration to the Cloud” as a gradual decades-long process of incremental neuronal replacements, exocortices, interlinking with AGIs and the Global Brain, some presently unseen trials and errors, but overall non-invasive and seamless process, at the end of which, we all will morph into “substrate-independent” immortal digital minds living in the cyber-paradise of our own design. The physical world will be somewhat left behind – it would look almost static for our accelerated mentation.
 
Evolutionary Functionality: Just like any upgradable interface, our functionality is evolvable including but not limited to extrasensory perceptions, time travel, extradimensional pattern crawlings, and creation of virtual universes.*
​ *Based on "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, audible.com and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. Buy Now eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Audiobook | Autographed Copy

V. THE OS AXIOM  

The acronym OS stands both for the Omega Singularity as well as Operating System: This “axiom of divinity” is a logically consistent metaphysical extrapolation based on the most advanced epistemic knowledge of science. The Omega Singularity, presumably Nature’s sole ontological source, is understood as the holographic projector of all possible timelines in the multidimensional experiential matrix.
 
Admittedly speculative assumption, however, not without support from aforementioned axioms it becomes quite a viable, if not the best, alternative to other cosmological models currently under consideration. Deductions made on the basis of the OS Axiom in conjunction with other STM axioms:
 
Breaking of Symmetry: Our Universe or any other arises from a breaking of symmetry, and we’re headed back towards a natural return to the perfectly balanced whole that exists both “before” and “after” the existence of our Universe. This means that the underlying fabric of reality is conducive for our Universe to evolve towards the Omega Singularity. This also implies that the broken symmetry that creates our Universe or any other is defined by what’s “missing” from it. In the case of our own Universe, we know there is much less anti-matter than would be expected if our Universe is derived from an underlying symmetry state: So, it is this absence of anti-matter which is one of the defining traits that results in our particular Universe.
 
Mathematically, we may frame this idea in terms of zero being “full” (instead of “empty”) while treating zero as the largest value in the algebraic system which includes the two already vast infinities of positive and negative numbers. Zero then becomes an infinite whole that contains all other positive and negative values, the totality of which amounts to it. If zero is seen as the largest value, the only way there can be lesser values is when we remove some measure of value from the whole of zero. This way of thinking allows to imagine a divine creative force which expresses itself throughout universes. The 1 creates everything from 0. From our own vantage point, both time and anti-time represent the same thing: A naturally occurring return to balance – each dimension, perceived in its entirety as a single timeless point – becomes a point on the surface of a finite but unbounded hypersphere in the next dimension. The Alpha Singularity, or the Big Bang as christened by cosmologists, seems to be the first yes/no when the breaking of symmetry and the initiation of computational evolutionary process of the Universal Mind has occurred.
 
The Alpha Point vs. The Omega Point: The Big Bang theory, drawing a lot of criticism as of late, uses a starting assumption of the "Universe from nothing," (a proverbial miracle, a ‘quantum fluctuation’ christened by scientists), or the initial Cosmological Singularity. But aside from this highly improbable happenstance, we can just as well operate from a different set of assumptions and place the initial Cosmological Singularity at the Omega Point – the transcendental attractor, the Source, or the omniversal holographic projector of all possible timelines. Once we extrapolate computational capabilities of civilization past our own looming “Simulation Singularity” by perhaps hundreds of orders of magnitude, we arrive in the end at only one necessary substance constituting all of reality – consciousness, the very subjective experience with which we all are most familiar. Nothing else would ultimately need to exist but the higher mind as the source of ultra-realistic but simulated universes like our own. 
 
Primacy of Consciousness: Under my own ontology, the "local" phenomenal mind is emergent and evolvable against the backdrop of "non-local" holistic (immanent) consciousness. There's no separation: It is the ‘Bi-mind’, as first defined in  The Syntellect Hypothesis . As previously noted, mind creates dimensional reality out of dimensionless bits of information projected from the Omega Singularity. This Universal Mind, is the sole ontological source.    
 
Ontological Holism: The Omega Singularity – Top-down causal power – deployment of Operating System (OS). Consciousness is fundamental, in fact, the sole ontological primitive, first cause. Consciousness creates the open world, such as ours, to experience as a phenomenal mind. It is the Source, projector of all possible timelines and other experiential pattern crawlings such as anti-timelines (with reverse flow of time in another observer universe).
 
Existing Models Reinterpretation: The CTM Model is compatible with many theories in various fields from biology to cosmology and adds the most crucial but traditionally overlooked element – consciousness. It is a parsimonious model that can be integrated with many existing models in order to make predictions and extract existential meaning.* The CTM Model Pyramid
​The CTM model can be visualized as a 3D pyramid with 4 foundational axioms at the base and the OS axiom, related to the Omega Singularity, at the apex of the pyramid (See Figure: The CTM Model Pyramid).
​ *Based on "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, audible.com and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. Buy Now eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Audiobook | Autographed Copy
​Tags: Stan Ulam, cybernetic theory of mind, CTM model, Syntellect theory of mind, foundational axiom, ontological framework, theory of everything, multi-disciplinary ontological model, emergence axiom, evolutionary emergence, phenomenal mind, Digital Big Bang, observer-centric VR, meta-algorithmic information processing, emergent complexity, science of complexity, emergence theory, Klee Irwin, space of possible minds, Terrence Deacon, Omega Singularity, cosmic mind, quantum field, conscious instants, entangled conscious mind, physical reality, self-simulation, idealist perspective, Universal Mind: universal consciousness, network axiom, network theory, superminds, Adam Frank, complexity theory, Neil Theise, theory of conscious agents, Prakash, non-linearity, network topology, complex system, non-locality, teleological evolution, hyperperspectivism, Homo sapiens, information axiom, phenomenality, integrated information theory, Guilio Tononi, algorithmic information processing theory, Gregory Chaitin, quantum information processing, many worlds, digital physics, Syntellect Hypothesis, Omniversal Mind, interface axiom, objective reality, observer timeline, interface theory of perception, Donald Hoffman, quantum mechanics, cognitive science, experiential realism, quantum mechanical principles, naïve realism, virtual world, cybernetic immortality, AGI,  mind uploading, mind transfer, Global Brain, digital mind, OS axiom, experiential matrix, Alpha Singularity, Big Bang, Omega Point, cosmological singularity, simulation singularity, primacy of consciousness, ontological holism, CTM model pyramid

 
*Image Credit: Shutterstock

​
About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist, philosopher of mind, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  More Bio...
​
Author Website: www.alexvikoulov.com

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net
​

Anti-Time: A Twin of Time?

by Alex Vikoulov
“The arrow of time obscures memory of both past and future circumstance with innumerable fallacies, the least trivial of which is perception.”  -Ashim Shanker

"Whereas quantum physics and relativity theory have been solidly in place for over a century now, stubbornly and forcedly we still cling to atavistic interpretations, which are no longer in line with the well-established findings of our experiments in physics. Amidst the turmoil of this spinning convoluted dreamtime of our digital Cyberbardo, Vikoulov carves out a trajectory for understanding."  -Antonin Tuynman, PhD, Foreword to The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics


I think it’s time to reintroduce the concept of ‘Anti-Time’ which has long been seemingly a “taboo term” in the scientific community. This concept evidently has something to do with the observer-dependent reverse direction of time at a specific rate. You might ask, then: “Ok, so time could flow backwards in a mirror universe, but could it flow backwards here on Earth, could we reverse entropy, erase information, rewind and replay?”
​​I was pondering about the purpose and nature of ‘Anti-Time’, it still eludes me and it’s far from a definitive answer, but I think that in the universal operating system anti-time could serve for optimization, “laconization” (making linguistic statements laconic) as well as for experience. Not exactly de-evolving, albeit unwinding complexity certainly looks that way. The system is engaged in the process of searching for “pattern archetypes” or at least some “interesting choice points” while reversing our proper arrow of time, i.e., "pattern crawling." Speculatively speaking, there may be conscious entities experiencing reverse time. Maybe we should ask this question: What is the universal purpose of anti-entropy? 

​Many temporal concepts are undoubtedly extremely counterintuitive. Time directionality and time symmetry are especially notorious ones. Any of the possible pasts may have led to the present "digital" conscious instant. This is a strange idea if you are accustomed to looking at the world in a strictly linear, deterministic way, but it reflects the uncertain world described by quantum mechanics. A major counterargument to the multitude of pasts could be a combinatorial explosion of observer ‘anti-time’-lines, i.e., digital timelines extending in the opposite temporal direction from the present temporal singularity to the Alpha Point (Digital Big Bang). So, how in the quantum multiverse are those digital anti-timelines supposed to converge once again at the Alpha Point?
 
The answer has to do with reversible entropy (not observable, of course, in the Newtonian classicality). Reversing information entropy is like going from higher complexity to lower complexity. As long as you continue to unwind the complexity bit-by-bit, you’ll end up at the point of the lowest possible complexity with, perhaps, 1 bit of entropy -- the Alpha Point -- the convergent point of all anti-timelines and simultaneously the point of origin of all observer probable timelines.

All theoretical roads lead to the physics of information, otherwise known as Digital Physics. Researchers suspect that ultimately the axioms of quantum theory will be about information: what can and can’t be done with it. One such derivation of quantum theory based on axioms about information was proposed in 2010. “Loosely speaking,” explained Jacques Pienaar, a theoretical physicist at the University of Vienna, “... principles state that information should be localized in space and time, that systems should be able to encode information about each other, and that every process should in principle be reversible, so that information is conserved.” 

In irreversible classical processes, by contrast, information is typically lost -- just as it is when you erase a file on your hard drive. Quantum computing models eliminate causal asymmetry which is inherent in classical-style computation and, some say, responsible for our unidirectional time’s arrow. Quantum models are as good at predicting the future states as retrodicting the past states of the system: They are equally adept at inferring effect from cause as they are cause from effect. Physics knows no upper limit on the amount of reversible computing that can be performed using a fixed amount of energy, or in case of the universal operating system – vastly large but still finite computational resources.

The past is quantum theoretic (or ‘analog’, if you prefer that term), the present is digital, and the future like the past is quantum, made of qubits, quantum mechanical bits of information. Once again, pay attention: The present is digital, the future and the past are quantum (analog). There is no universal frame of reference, instead, there’s only the conscious observer’s frame of reference. At this point, you might say: “But I do remember my past!” And you’ll be right! However, if our memories are mutable and editable, even in principle, you can’t vouch with 100% certainty for one particular digital history. There are always countless forgotten or otherwise misremembered past periods of time filled with qubits of potentiality.*

-Alex Vikoulov
​ *Adapted from "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now as eBook on amazon.com
Tags: Ashim Shanker, Antonin Tuynman, Physics of Time, D-Theory of Time, Temporal Mechanics, Anti-Time, time flow, mirror universe, reverse entropy, universal operating system, optimization, laconization, pattern archetypes, pattern crawling, conscious entities, reverse time, anti-entropy, temporal concepts, time directionality, time symmetry, possible pasts, conscious instant, quantum mechanics, combinatorial explosion, observer ‘anti-time’-line, digital timeline, temporal direction, temporal singularity, Alpha Point, Digital Big Bang, quantum multiverse, reversible entropy, Newtonian classicality, probable timelines, physics of information, Digital Physics, quantum theory,Jacques Pienaar, quantum computing, causal asymmetry, time’s arrow, reversible computing, finite computational resources, qubits, quantum mechanical bits of information, conscious observer, frame of reference, potentiality
 
*Image Credit: Shutterstock

​
About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist, philosopher of mind, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  More Bio...
​
e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net
​

The Great Reset 2020: What Would the Near Future Post-Pandemic World Look Like?

by Alex Vikoulov "Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one."   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

The global health crisis is accelerating meta-trends and hurling civilization towards the transhuman future. The disruptors are being disrupted, and the rush is on to digitize and virtualize everything in weeks' time that otherwise would have taken a few years to play out. Recent surveys show that we have compressed five years in business and consumer digital adoption within a couple of months.

Banks have transitioned to remote banking and making flexible payment arrangements for loans and mortgages. Restaurants and some grocery stores have shifted to online ordering and delivery as their primary mode of operation. Most schools have switched to online learning and digital platforms. Research shows that e-Learning is more conducive to retention of information in less time, implying these changes may be permanent. Doctors have begun delivering telemedicine eyeing more flexible regulation. Manufacturers are actively adjusting supply chains and prepping their factories for automation where it’s possible. Sport fans found new venues of enjoying e-Sports. The bottom line: Digital native life isn’t just coming sometime in the future, it’s here -- and here to stay.

Don't be surprised if many, if not most, downtown office buildings in the major U.S. cities will soon start to convert to hotels and residential properties like condos. We’ll witness the commercial and residential property market permadecline in real inflation-adjusted dollars. The fallout from COVID-19 could change commuting and transportation permanently. Certainly, no one misses commuting an hour or two a day. Telecommuting, even part-time, might become the new normal. In the realm of social habits, face covering fashion creeps into the mainstream and then is going to gradually transform into some seasonal fads.*
​ ​
*Based on "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. Buy Now eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​ As of July 1, 2020, 10.78 million contracted and 518,121 people died from the COVID-19 disease worldwide. The U.S. surpassed 2.7 million cases with the total number of deaths of at least 128 thousand. Unemployment surged to 40 million.
 
The coronavirus has killed more Americans than the Vietnam War. It will likely make a more substantial economic dent than the Great Recession despite trillions of dollars of economic stimulus pumped into the system. As a society, we have a surprisingly short memory of previous debacles -- we barely remember the Spanish flu of 1918 that killed 50 million but this time around we might get a splinter in our collective memory --  a pandemic-induced economic recession.
 
Social unrest accompanied with protests, looting and confederate statues overturning rolled across America in the wake of the brutal police killing of a black man. If racism that spurred a round of riots around the country may seem now as the number one problem in America, income and wealth inequality is a close second. 99% of the population are “wage slaves” at some level. All these are the signs of radical transformation under way. This is a wake-up call to build a fairer, more empathic  and egalitarian society.

There is a quiet and not-so-quiet socialist revolution going on right now in America and people take a notice. The Great Reset initiative launched by the World Economic Forum acknowledges that the old neoliberal order gives way to the new -- Democratic Socialism, or whatever name we’ll adopt to the new post-capitalist model. One thing is for certain: We are witnessing the beginning of the end of capitalism as we know it.

Capitalism has served us well up to this point but now it's becoming clearly suboptimal -- the future economics will be too complex to be organized solely on the principle of financial exchange. To see how preposterous capitalism is, going forward, as a thought experiment, imagine being uploaded to the virtual heaven after your physical death only to find yourself in the midst of virtual capitalism being constantly bombarded with ads and other creepy "incentives" -- a scenario depicted in a recent sci-fi series Upload.

I would sacrifice a couple of future trillionaires not by killing them but by adequately taxing the mega-rich to eliminate poverty in this country and around the world. It's politically bankrupt and economically absurd to have almost half a million homeless people in the richest country of the world!

The classic form of capitalism stopped working and this is why we see these deepening crises every time any kind of “black swan” event strikes an outdated but admittedly resilient system. We'll soon see the emergence of a new economic order -- the one which will be based on automation and UBI, AI-powered algorithmic management and "socialistic" elements aimed at satisfying the global civilizational agenda rather than sporadic corporate stakeholders. No one in their right mind can expect that we can continue to increase human population which has grown parabolically over the last 200 years as well as extract natural resources at the ever-increasing rate just to satisfy the capitalist agenda.

Around the globe, countries such as Finland and Spain introduce their respective countrywide measures equivalent to UBI. The Federal Reserve was quick to react and we'll likely see a rare inflationary recession which is way better than deflationary depression. At this point, I would bet my money on some kind of W-shaped recovery in this country and in the world. eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​We also see new geopolitics emerging with what some call ‘New Cold War’ which could ultimately boil down to the competing socialistic governance models aimed at optimally managing human capital. Western countries like the U.S. struggle to manage the pandemic compared to China while Beijing seizes a geopolitical opportunity. This draws on a geopolitical trend that was already in place before the global pandemic: the continued rise of China. As a result of blatant xenophobia, in particular the latest rounds of russophobia, and short-sighted economic sanctions, the West lost Russia as an ally to China, at lеаst for the time being. If this russophobic shameless propaganda continues, the post-pandemic West-East polarization will only deepen. We may agree that myopic stance against Russia will most likely make the country lean towards cooperation with China for years to come. But then again, folks, keep in mind that it's just a geopolitical theater. Entrepreneurs, researchers and socialites are much better adept and motivated to cooperate on a global scale than politicians. Philosophically, this West-East polarization confirms a notion I’m particularly fond of -- 'Digital Ontology', a binary play of scales.

Speaking as an evolutionary cyberneticist and philosopher of mind, I would say that our planet and our entire lives are a virtual construct of our own minds and the mind at large. If we were to decode the COVID-19 message coming from the transcendent realm, I would approximate it as: “The next phase of human evolution is clearly in the cards now: Consuming synthetic meat and being open to the connectivity explosion with immersive virtual worlds not for escapism but for expansion of the human creative imagination should become a conscientious choice for billions. The ‘Cradle Age’ is almost over.” Imagine how unbearable lockdown would have been without all our incredible communication technologies. Now we even have VR and the Metaverse is just around the corner!
​
The Metaverse can be defined as a shared virtual space, including all immersive virtual worlds, augmented reality and the Internet. Long before the coronavirus crisis began, there were already more than three billion people playing video games and engaging in virtual platforms. Simulated worlds brought players from different countries and cultures together into one place, allowing them to form and forge deep social connections through their adventures in online gaming. With the enforced lockdown and remote working, online schooling and digital socializing, we could be closer than ever to moving from a relatively marginal use to more significant levels of adoption of the shared virtual space.
​ Video clip from the upcoming The Great Reset 2020 film w/Alex Vikoulov (cc)
​With advanced quantum computational systems in place, we could have computed the COVID-19 vaccine within hours, if not minutes, of its discovery. Perhaps, any kind of life-threatening virus, since it is nothing more than a piece of code, will be completely preventable with advances in quantum computing, bioinformatics and computational biology. The question is, then, if we could eventually shield ourselves against the common viral micro-threat, what would a macro-threat of unknown nature mean for human-machine civilization? We might soon need to decode another message from the transcendent realm edging us ever closer to the Cybernetic Singularity of some sort.

While certain futurists are now attempting to cast their predictions on the post-pandemic, new world order, the most plausible scenario of civilizational development has already been outlined in my magnum opus The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution, towards which the novel COVID-19 pandemic only unexpectedly accelerated us. 

In the post-pandemic world, many of our social habits will spring back into place but something like half as many tables in restaurants and plexiglass in the stores will continue to remind us of the past crisis. A new “baby boom” will also mark the next calendar year for obvious reasons. As Miles Cameron once said: "All the best romances bloom in the midst of a good siege." 

We'll remember this time of tremendous change when we all looked like masked robbers and hijackers, the time of accelerated digital transformation and virtualization, geopolitical polarity, transpired meta-trends such as having more leisure and working less, undercurrents ultimately leading towards the World government in spite of now-dreaded deglobalization. We should keep in mind that we're just one human species stuck to the surface of one small rock floating in space we call home. By mid-century, we'll live in a virtually and economically borderless world just like medieval city walls once fell and feudalism was no more…

Read it all in The Syntellect Hypothesis! Welcome to the Cybernetic Era! Buy Now eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​
​RELATED: Nearing the Economic Singularity: How Fast Are We Outgrowing Capitalism?

Tags: economic singularity, capitalism, economic system, economic model, suboptimal economics, Great Reset, Post-Pandemic World, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, global health crisis, meta-trends, transhuman future, digital adoption, online learning, digital platforms, e-Learning, telemedicine, e-Sports, COVID-19, telecommuting, new normal, face covering, coronavirus, Great Recession, Spanish flu, wage slaves, egalitarian society, socialist revolution, Great Reset initiative, World Economic Forum, Democratic Socialism, post-capitalist model, future economics, Upload, trillionaires, mega-rich, black swan, UBI, algorithmic management, capitalist agenda, Federal Reserve, inflationary recession, deflationary depression, W-shaped recovery, new geopolitics, New Cold War, socialistic governance, human capital, economic sanctions, West-East polarization, digital ontology, evolutionary cyberneticist, philosopher of mind, transcendent realm, synthetic meat, connectivity explosion, immersive virtual worlds, Cradle Age, Metaverse, remote working, shared virtual space, quantum computing, bioinformatics, computational biology, human-machine civilization, Cybernetic Singularity, The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution, baby boom, Miles Cameron, Cybernetic Era
 
*Image Credit: Ecstadelic Media Group, The Great Reset 2020 Film

​
About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist, philosopher of mind, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  More Bio...
​
e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net
​

Res Cogitans: The Intelligent Fabric of All Cosmic Creation

by David W. Parker ... or Elucidating the Reality of Our True Existential Venue

There's difficulty to be had in properly comprehending any elements stemming from a perception not of our own. Our first-hand encounters and the empirics which they accompany, are entirely misrepresented through the processes performed by our innate senses. Deception lies in anticipation for those only committed to evaluations of their environment from their physical senses. An agent of artifices whose only occupation rests in our duplicity. After all, it is our very psyche which houses the entity and culprit that are guilty for corrupting cognition. Our ego has cultivated a life's work out of its efforts into making the illusion real. Its magnum opus is "the deceit of man." A collection of pieces crafted by the consistent hand for imparting false perceptions unto all individuals. This well-orchestrated Mass Hallucination inevitably concludes with utter ignorance. For if unable to genuinely acknowledge that you have been made a victim of circumstance, these illusory conditions created by ego will never become clear, and you may never see and know the truth. The simple fact is things are not what they seem. Our venue, and all of the observable universe, is encompassed by the Creative Source responsible for all physical manifestations made visible in our experience. Materialized images produced by our intelligent designer. Items constructed through precise executions of its own intelligence. This knowledge is applied through a complete mastery and know-how of what we understand as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and the mathematical equations necessary to oil their mechanistic procedures.
​ "God created us in his own image." The original Conscious Observer envisioned the individual organism, and so it was so. To understand this isn't to refute our evolvement which was of genuine occurrence relative to our experience. This source of creation is simply expressing its own thoughts. Its understanding of all things is absolute. All of universal information as known by our Creator is but One. Where we are novice in our approach to complete cognizance; attempting only to learn through the fragmentation of a much larger whole. We are literally residing in the creative mind whose essence is the very grand image that so many hope and pledge their faith to understand and see. The quidditas of our cognitive cosmos is best realized as Res Cogitans, a thinking substance. Previously, some individuals have alluded to our Universal structure as being sentient. Occasionally being dubbed with the appellation "Intelligent Cosmos." Well, the very fabric of our outer macro reality is classified as Spacetime. This misassociation is better appropriated as the referenced thinking substance. A consciously aware intelligent substance ubiquitous to all of existence. Its permeation is bound by no restrictive Force. The unfathomable intelligence whose quiddity is forever present truly does see all. It's omnipotent awareness observes and feels every interaction, occurrence, development, or any event transpiring in our Universe. Something most certainly deserving of everyone's understanding, our Creative Source neither punishes nor rewards any individual action. Period. Your prepense behaviors and their consequences only manifest themselves relative to your experience. 

Meaning, individual existence finds functionality through a very particular programming. Mechanical workings are often dependent upon causality. It is only of extreme Self Indulgence to believe the Universal Supersentience has a vested interest in the outcomes from any of our engagements. Its sole preoccupation is accumulating experience, and not their later results. Ask yourself, would you be bothered with concerns over the happenings of a much lesser form? In a crude analogy, imagine you manufactured a location for hosting microscopic beings. And this production was an actual extension of yourself. Where in your wisdom you had been made aware of momentary experience being all there is. So, in an attempt to accrue au courant or new information, you made use of the activities from your tiny creations responsible for doing exactly that. Would you then observe in anticipation to offer blessings for any microcosm acting appropriately? Or, in the opposite scenario, would you idly sit to chastise some wrongdoing? The then purpose of your entire existence would simply be to monitor their experience. This everlasting observation then becomes the experience, and thus negating the actual experience itself. It would be an illogical fallacy to assume any all-knowing entity would compromise the intended nature of their own reality. 

The minuscule principles of study are not only your expressed thoughts, but various extensions of your conscious essence. Remember, their function is to garner you new information which they acquire through executed behaviors. And if the true purpose of existence is experience itself, would you not want to feel the inner workings as they are transpiring? Would you sacrifice your entire existence for their evaluations? I certainly hope not. It becomes an apparent non sequitur to entertain any notion of this as truth, or the possibility of your direct intervention in response to any witnessed event. The main takeaway from such transgressions, our Creative Source places no interest in the results of our actions. The true consequences our intentional behaviors are seen in the nature of our individual experience. Meaning, the individual commonly making inappropriate exhibitions will without doubt inevitably find themselves in unfortunate circumstances. The individual committed to the perpetual practice of all things appropriate in their deliberate executions will be bestowed desirable conditions. Furthermore, they are afforded greater opportunity for more choice and pleasurable moments. Considering that all we have is our memories, and they are but a mere collection of moments. Comparable to the liquid body whose constituents are individual drops of water.

"Forgive us Lord for our daily trespasses, for we know not what we do. And what we see is not the truth." It is through these words any burden of proof receives pardon. Let us consider the sole occupation of our ego. Its purpose in creating our confusion for any understanding of not only our actual being, but the exact nature of our existence. It is the bane of clear and appropriate perception, as well as comprehension. It is the entity whose objectification is provided form through the different forces of uncertainty, anxiety, dread, envy, selfishness, manipulation, deceit, condescension, arrogance, banality, insecurity, judgement. These disruptive and destructive elements are the handiwork of the ego. One whose identity has an alternative nomenclature. This other moniker sharing relation to the ego, the notoriously ominous devil. The alleged dark lord governing over some subterranean dwelling of unimaginable evil. This explanation was perhaps a product of poor interpretation to the frequent allegories and parables used by religious publications. They are simply metaphors used to illustrate the dark powers potentially conjured while in ignorance of these truths. This ambiguity creates conditions for endless arbitration for determining one truth. Especially those whose exploits are exclusive to that false narrative. Transcend the binding limitations from ignorance and false constructs. Your figurative leap of faith is the acceptance of this information.

As an individual conscious spirit you have no obligation to accept anything of which you are opposed. Our Free Will provides such splendid indifference. But if truly longing for an existential paradise, your vehicle of transport lies in the process of understanding these words. Your passport is provided by their comprehension. Know this, heaven on Earth is not a myth. It is a happenstance. One is revealed not only through the integration of this information, but through its appropriate application. Preceding my spiritual epiphany, I too was tortured by angst, doubt, and insecurity. Discovering my true nature imparted an inner stillness and was an instant release. I was liberated by myself from the shackles used by ego. There is freedom to be had which probably exceeds any self-invoked imagery. A space whose bliss exists in single form, and beyond any subjugation into unwarranted fragmentation. You, and every other conscious spirit, are but part of the same Whole. A Oneness of all expressed forms. While unobstructed and unadulterated understanding are entirely requisite, the true measures of learned spiritual efficacy are exposed by our tasks. ACTA non verba. actions to demonstrate you are in fact an extension of "God." If your pious devotion reflects your realizations to an instantiated concept of Source, well, that is in fact behaving "Godly." Your trials of faith are conducted by examinations of your overall executed intention. Learn to develop only positive and selfless desires.

Not to delegate your thoughts and communication to a lesser important domain, because in a habitat completely covered by textiles of conscious intelligence, articles such as these should always receive the level of adulation they deserve. Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am. The ensemble configuration of your conscious spirit is malleable. Its customization is tailored in stages of emergence. Those sets are always available for alterations. These changes correspond to levels of one's own conscious awareness. And they only cover as much as one's mentality permits. Yes, your ultimate acknowledgement does not equate to a permanent state of being. If only partially acceptant to your authentic quiddity, and only on occasion are propitious in your pretense practices, you will not know the full splendor spoken of here. Is it some exacerbated exercise of imagination to completely grasp this content? No. If your intention is placed into any mode of more traditionally known intelligence and if thinking through your own will you'll extend the reach to acquire this knowledge, your cognitive capabilities are under the control of ego. It is through the humble process of surrenderance-to-acceptance that the individual gains the ability to coalesce these fundamental dogmatic principles. The complete process of these mechanics falter under rugged displays of forceful submittance. And the entire operation is based on a graceful performance. Bottom line, find the truth and yield before it. Be gracious in your handlings, and righteous in your doings. You are an amazing creation. An expressed image of "God" only meant for having meaningful experience. You've been blessed to think, and learn, and grow, and love.. your connection to God siphons these feelings unto the very fabric of the cosmos. A thinking substance found throughout every corner of existence. Make a vow to be always appropriate and honor thy commitment. If able to fulfill such accommodating obligations, you'll be rewarded with even better opportunities. You'll be afforded divine perception. This saintly vision will discover a disguised kingdom. A saintly space awaiting those who've learned and dealt in the truths of our proper experience. You will then find you have indeed entered this foretold Heaven on Earth.

-David W. Parker

Tags: Res Cogitans, cosmic creation, perception, conscious observer, creative source, quidditas, intelligent cosmos, supersentience, ACTA non verba., cogito ergo sum, spiritual epiphany, thinking substance, heaven on earth

​*Image Credit: Ecstadelic Media, Shutterstock

About the Author:
David W. Parker is a writer and an extreme enthusiast of the physics of information. Some time ago after months of intense academic study, he experienced two endogenous moments which concluded with an unprecedented occurrence of what he calls Metanoia. His present writings and the upcoming book represent a byproduct of that initiation facilitated by ruminations and unconventional meditation that later matured into his genuine personal philosophy.

e-mail: davidparker717@yahoo.com
​

NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology | Video

by Alex Vikoulov “Our world is built on biology and once we begin to understand it, it then becomes a technology.”   -Ryan Bethencourt

We now know that all extant living creatures derive from a single common ancestor, called the 'Last Universal Common Ancestor' (LUCA). It’s hard to think of a more unifying view of life. All living things are linked to a single-celled creature, the deepest root to the complex-branching tree of life. If we could play the movie of life backward, we would find this microscopic primogenitor at the starting point of biological evolution, the sole actor in what would become a very dramatic story, lasting some 3.5 billion years leading to us.
​
Video: NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology - Ecstadelic Media (cc) ​​
​What made us human? Beginning 1.5 million years ago with Homo erectus, a more efficient way to obtain and ingest more calories in less time – cooking – led to the rapid acquisition of a huge number of neurons in the still fairly small cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for finding patterns, reasoning, developing technology, and passing it on through culture. The human brain, a primate organ of the mind, owes its cognitive abilities to the enormous number and connectivity of neurons in the cerebral cortex, namely the neocortex. It’s not the size of our brain that matters but the fact that we have a larger number of more optimally connected neurons in our neocortex than any other primate. ​ A proper understanding of evolution reveals humankind in its glorious uniqueness that compounded over time – one foot planted firmly among all of the creatures we’ve evolved alongside and the other in the special place of conscious self-awareness and understanding of higher purpose that we now occupy in the grand scheme of things. At times, it may seem as if the entire prior history of the Universe led us to this pivotal moment of realization that we are the “brain cells” of a larger planetary superorganism, progressively morphing into one Global Mind. 

- Excerpt from NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now as eBook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085XLPWZT

Few more quotes from eBook: P.S. NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology introduces the Syntellect Theory of Mind (or the Cybernetic Theory of Mind) that I'm currently developing. An entire concluding chapter of the book is dedicated to the five foundational axioms of the Cybernetic Theory of Mind. 


Tags: noogenesis, Computational Biology, tree of life, noosphere, evolution of life, evolutionary biology, evolutionary cybernetics, last universal common ancestor, luca, cortex, cerebral cortex, neocortex, computational neuroscience, digital physics, computational physics, brain cell, neuron, superorganism, global brain, global mind, Alex Vikoulov, universe, planetary superorganism, consciousness, awareness, evolution

​Image Credit: Shutterstock​​


​About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist and philosopher, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area). More Bio...

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net
​
​ #element-d84f28f9-a817-4fd1-970f-eeb4c97dc11f .wgtc-widget-frame { width: 100%;}#element-d84f28f9-a817-4fd1-970f-eeb4c97dc11f .wgtc-widget-frame iframe { width: 100%; height: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0 none;}

Experiential Realism: Evolution of the Conscious Mind

by Alex Vikoulov ​"Improving the quality of consciousness, advancing the quality and depth of awareness, understanding your nature and purpose, manifesting universal unconditional love, letting go of fear and eliminating ego, desires, wants, needs or preconceived notions – these are the attributes and results of a successfully evolving consciousness.”  -Tom Campbell

Our physical space-time reality isn’t really "physical" at all, its apparent solidity of objects, as well as any other associated property such as time, is an illusion. As a renowned physicist Niel Bohr once said: "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” But what's not an illusion is your subjective experience, i.e., your consciousness; that's the only "real" thing, according to proponents of Experiential Realism, also referred to as Conscious Realism.
A key problem with materialism is that it has been unable to explain, even in principle, how arrangements of matter can possibly generate subjective experience. This is known in neuroscience and philosophy of mind as the ‘hard problem of consciousness,’ formulated by philosopher David Chalmers. The problem is so disconcerting that some materialist philosophers even try to absurdly deny the very existence of consciousness, the sole carrier of reality anyone can ever know. In the meantime, the solution has been hiding in plain sight all along: What philosopher Peter Russell calls 'The Primacy of Consciousness' the cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman calls 'Conscious Realism'; my preferred term, however, would be 'Experiential Realism'.

So, why Experiential Realism? From the bigger picture perspective, we are here for experience necessary for evolution of our conscious minds. Our limitations, such as our ego, belief traps, political correctness, our very human condition define who we are, but the realization that we largely impose those limitations on ourselves gives us more evolvability and impetus to overcome these self-imposed limits to move towards higher goals and state of being.

We are what we’ve experienced — the sum of our experiences define who we are. In this sense, as free will agents, we are co-creators within this experiential matrix. Non-duality is the essence of Experiential Realism — experience and experiencer are one. How can you possibly separate your own existence from the world, the observer from the observed? Today, philosophers and scientists argue that information is fundamental but consciousness is required to assign meaning to it. That makes consciousness (our experience in a broader sense) the most fundamental, irreducible ground of existence itself, while some philosophers suggest consciousness is all that is.
​ Experiential realism refers to interacting entangled conscious agents at various ontological levels, giving rise to conscious experience all the way down, and I'd argue all the way up, seemingly ad infinitum. It's a "matryoshka" of embedded realities: conscious minds within larger minds. In an interview with The Atlantic cognitive scientist Donald D. Hoffman says: “I call it conscious realism: Objective reality is just conscious agents, just points of view. Interestingly, I can take two conscious agents and have them interact, and the mathematical structure of that interaction also satisfies the definition of a conscious agent. This mathematics is telling me something. I can take two minds, and they can generate a new, unified single mind. Here’s a concrete example. We have two hemispheres in our brain. But when you do a split-brain operation, a complete transection of the corpus callosum, you get clear evidence of two separate consciousnesses. Before that slicing happened, it seemed there was a single unified consciousness. So it’s not implausible that there is a single conscious agent. And yet it’s also the case that there are two conscious agents there, and you can see that when they’re split. I didn’t expect that, the mathematics forced me to recognize this. It suggests that I can take separate observers, put them together and create new observers, and keep doing this ad infinitum. It’s conscious agents all the way down."

Experiential Realism is a non-physicalist, monistic idealism and is not to be confused with naïve realism, the idea that we see the world around us objectively, as it is. We don't. Just the opposite is true. Experiential Realism is predicated on the centrality of observers and all-encompassing quantum computational principles. The objective world, i.e., the world whose existence does not depend on the perceptions of a particular observer, consists entirely of conscious agents, more precisely their experiences. What exists in the objective world, independent of my perceptions, is a world of conscious agents, not a world of unconscious particles and fields. Consciousness is Nature's sole ontological primitive. The mind-body problem is approached with an assumption that consciousness creates all objects and properties of the physical world, as well as brain activity, not the other way around. All conscious agents experience their own species-specific perceptual realities, virtual worlds, so to speak. That's why it's not easy to catch a fly -- your threatening hand is so incredibly slow for a fly whose flow of time is hundreds of times faster than that of a human.

My recent book  “The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution”  is all about evolution of the conscious mind and the physics of information. "Science of Mind" that approaches its subject matter from a third-person perspective should, I maintain, be treated with a healthy amount of open-minded skepticism. Traditionally, science has been objective, consciousness, on the other hand, is subjective, first-person direct experience of our physical reality. I conjecture that with advances of Strong AI, neurophilosophy, computational neuroscience, brain scanning and simulation technologies, we would be able to eventually capture the first-person experience, including perception, pain, imagery, fear, excitement, thought, memory, etc. with sufficiently high fidelity (at least close approximation of how it is to be like a certain person, or a certain animal for that matter) and convert that data into "the 2nd person" experience for training, research or entertainment. At last, science could be equipped with an exceptional tool to objectify and quantify personal subjectivity (cf. Digital Presentism). Video: D-Theory of Time: Digital Presentism - Ecstadelic Media (cc)
​I wouldn't be surprised, if within a couple of decades time, science will have made a leap towards the physics of information as a more parsimonious model of our world, fully developed quantum gravity theory ("It from Qubit", perhaps?) and incorporated consciousness into our scientific models. After all, I'd argue, information is "Modus Operandi" of consciousness but our conscious mind is what makes the "processed information" irreducible which, from moment to moment, manifests in phenomenality of our subjective experience. Phenomenal states are distinct informational states.

Experiential Realism is closely related to Digital Pantheism, my theosophy stemming from Digital Physics. Here’s a simple logical proof for the existence of God: We don’t have direct access to reality as it is: Our perceptual reality is always limited and thus should be regarded as simulated, be it on a neurobiological level, societal level or as a computationally rendered simulated reality under digital ontology. Hyperreality, therefore, would be the ultimate reality of God where anything is possible but not necessarily experienced. We are God incarnates as finite beings whose reality is fundamentally experiential. When apprehending this transcendent reality, God’s existence transpires as a factual and self-evident necessity.

-Alex Vikoulov

P.S. Abridged excerpt from The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and directly from the publisher - Ecstadelic Media Group. Buy Now  eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​
​Tags: self-transcendence, transcendence, neuroscience, collective intelligence, sentience, self-awareness, Strong AI, human psychology, human motivation, transformative technology, self-actualization, psychedelic depersonalization, extended phenotype, artificial intelligence, Tom Campbell, Neil Bohr, Quantum Multiverse, Syntellect Hypothesis, Extended Mind Hypothesis, Hard Problem of Consciousness, Digital Physics, conscious experience, ontology, ontological primitive, superintelligence, singularity, mind uploading, postbiological superintelligence, posthuman superintelligence, Syntellect emergence, technological singularity, virtual reality, conscious agent, human evolution, transcendent other, AI, AGI, artificial general intelligence, digital mind, digital immortality, experiential realism, conscious realism, philosophy of mind, science of mind, evolution of consciousness, phenomenology, posthumanism, quantum consciousness, It from Qubit, transcendentalism, neo-transcendentalism

*Image Credit: Ecstadelic Media, Shutterstock

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist and philosopher, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area). More Bio...

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net

#element-55a39748-5ea3-4791-9774-e6cbb776a417 .wgtc-widget-frame { width: 100%;}#element-55a39748-5ea3-4791-9774-e6cbb776a417 .wgtc-widget-frame iframe { width: 100%; height: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0 none;}

Self-Transcendence beyond a Mere Human: Our Extended Mind

By Alex Vikoulov ​" It matters that we recognize the very large extent to which individual human thought and reason are not activities that occur solely in the brain or even solely within the organismic skin-bag. This matters because it drives home the degree to which environmental engineering is also self-engineering. In building our physical and social worlds, we build (or rather, we massively reconfigure) our minds and our capacities of thought and reason."  -Andy Clark

The mind isn't locked in the brain, it extends far, far beyond. When we outsource our cognition to our technology, be it a smartphone or a notebook, our mental constructs entail patterns of thought and reasoning beyond our capacity to formulate them solely with our brains. In writing, for example, we are not simply recording our thinking but doing the thinking "on paper," so to speak. ​
​Every time we make a telephone or Skype call, we create a "techno-cultural wormhole" through space and time between minds. Today, our "embodied mind" can roam Mars and even traverse intergalactic space outside our solar system. Philosophers of mind Andy Clark, who formulated the Extended Mind Hypothesis, together with David Chalmers, also known for the Hard Problem of Consciousness, propose that mental states, such as beliefs and memories, can also be located "externally," as extension of mind.

Andy Clark defines humans as "natural-born cyborgs" -- the human mind is already augmented by routinely incorporating all kinds of non-biological props and scaffolding. Our "wetware," the human brain, even though processing information at the mind level, doesn't produce a conscious experience itself as our minds are embedded into a greater consciousness network. 

We create our tools to extend our reach, to exercise our will, to build the scaffolding of our minds in our surroundings. By doing that, we are engaged in active ontological design -- everything we design, designs us back -- via an endless feedback loop process. We need to transcend our "skin-bag bias": Our tools, i.e., our technology, are natural extensions of us, just like a spiderweb or an anthill are extensions of those insect species.

​Our collective, technologically extended mind represents the Noosphere, or a cognitive layer of the planet, consisting of the interconnected totality of all sentient beings, and a higher level of consciousness possessed by it. This mind-space insinuates a future where boxes, wires, keyboards, and crude mechanisms will disappear from sight while our technologies keep on miniaturizing and blending with us and our aesthetically pleasing environments, when imagination instantly materializes, and a world is rendered at the speed of thought, when everything links with everything else, and matter becomes mind.

-Alex Vikoulov

P.S. Abridged from The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and directly from the publisher - Ecstadelic Media Group. Buy Now  eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​
​Tags: self-transcendence, transcendence, neuroscience, collective intelligence, sentience, extended phenotype, artificial intelligence, consciousness, exocortex, Andy Clark, David Chalmers, Extended Mind Hypothesis, Hard Problem of Consciousness, wetware, mindware, ontological design, conscious experience, noosphere, superintelligence, singularity, mind uploading, the Syntellect emergence, technological singularity, Intelligence Supernova,, transcendentalism, neo-transcendentalism

*Image Credit: Shutterstock, NASA

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist and philosopher, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  More Bio...

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net

#element-cfee8be5-0fd4-455c-8608-17663593d094 .wgtc-widget-frame { width: 100%;}#element-cfee8be5-0fd4-455c-8608-17663593d094 .wgtc-widget-frame iframe { width: 100%; height: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0 none;}

Evolution of the Mind: The Transcendent Planetary Superorganism

by Alex Vikoulov ​"The concept of Singularity envisages a technology-driven explosion in intelligence... the resulting superhuman intelligence will not be centralized in a single AI system but distributed across all people and artifacts, as connected via the Internet. This Global Brain will function to tackle all challenges confronting the 'global superorganism.' Its capabilities will extend so far beyond our present abilities that they can perhaps best be conveyed as a pragmatic version of the 'divine' attributes..."  -Francis Heylighen, The Global Brain Institute

When Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth on April 12th, 1961, he carried generations of hopes and dreams into space with him. A growing number of thinkers now believe the "Overview Effect" heralds nothing less than the next “giant leap” of human evolution. As breathtaking space-down views of our world seep into our collective consciousness, people are waking up to the “Spaceship Earth” analogy that depicts our planet as a natural vessel that must be steered responsibly by its crew.
To see our planet from this grander vantage point astonished space pioneers, and today, through IMAX or VR, prompts us to recontextualize humanity, who and what we are, to raise our cosmic awareness, and how one may individually fit into that big picture. Ever since I was a kid, I've had this vision that humanity would play a central role in the destiny of our planet, as the Global Brain, on the co-evolutionary trajectory to become a fully functional planetary superorganism.

Any complex system composed of a variety of interacting subsystems, such as chemical networks, ecosystems, or societies, over time, tends to evolve towards more self-organization, coherence and interdependence, as its subsystems mutually adapt and lower overall system entropy. Realized through a network of internal feedback loops, such system may be considered “living” or "organismic" in the abstract sense. Also, tracing our evolution back two billion years, through mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and so on, we eventually wind up with one single cell that was the progenitor of all life on Earth. When this cell reproduced itself, and continued to do so for eons, mutating and evolving into new forms, it still continued to comprise but a single total organism. Literally, we are all "one."

The blue whale and the redwood tree are not the largest living organisms on Earth, the entire planetary Biosphere is. Decades from now, when looking at our home planet harboring our post-scarcity transcendent civilization, and from our newly acquired Gaia 2.0-inspired perspective, who would even doubt that the Earth has matured into the Global Superorganism? Just like once life on Earth complexified from one-celled organisms to multi-cellular organisms, we are becoming one Global Superorganism, at first rudimentary like today, but more and more integrated over time, with distinct features like the Global Brain, a neural network of billions of hyperconnected humans, superintelligent machines, and trillions of sensors around the planet.

-Alex Vikoulov

P.S. Abridged from The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and directly from the publisher - Ecstadelic Media Group. Buy Now  eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
Tags: self-transcendence, transcendence, neuroscience, collective intelligence, sentience, self-awareness, extended phenotype, artificial intelligence, Francis Heylighen, Yuri Gagarin, Syntellect Hypothesis, Extended Mind Hypothesis, wetware, mindware, ontological design, conscious experience, theogenesis, noosphere, superintelligence, singularity, mind uploading, postbiological superintelligence, posthuman superintelligence, the Syntellect emergence, overview effect, technological singularity, Inelligence explosion, dimensionality, spaceship Earth, Space Age, Global Brain, global superorganism, conscious agent, human evolution, human condition, cognitive enhancement, substrate-independent mind, digital mind, digital immortality, neural interface, Gaian Mind, Hedonistic Imperative, paradise engineering, experiential realism, philosophy of mind, science of mind, evolution of consciousness, phenomenology, mind uploading, quantum consciousness, It from Qubit, Omega Point, transcendental object, cosmological singularity, transcendentalism, neo-transcendentalism

*Image Credit: Shutterstock

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist and philosopher, founder of Ecstadelic Media Group, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality," "NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology." Self-described neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian. Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  More Bio...

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net
​ #element-59e26b8f-25c0-4940-b539-9bcb78a30aec .wgtc-widget-frame { width: 100%;}#element-59e26b8f-25c0-4940-b539-9bcb78a30aec .wgtc-widget-frame iframe { width: 100%; height: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0 none;}

Nearing the Cybernetic Singularity: What is the Syntellect Emergence?

by Alex Vikoulov ​
​"Evolution is a process of creating patterns of increasing order... I believe that it's the evolution of patterns that constitutes the ultimate story of our world. Each stage or epoch uses the information-processing methods of the previous epoch to create the next."  -Ray Kurzweil

"To understand is to perceive patterns."  -Isaiah Berlin

About 542 million years ago, something weird and profoundly remarkable happened on Earth. Quite suddenly, life went inventively crazy, proliferating from simple, rudimentary single-cell organisms into myriad multi-cellular forms. Evolution discovered the idea of more sophisticated and specialized cells, and most of the basic body plans we know today. Biologists call it the Cambrian explosion.

Today, we are on the verge of yet another event of astronomical significance, akin to some kind of Intelligence Supernova, which I refer to as the Cybernetic Singularity, or the Syntellect Emergence. In the scientific community, this upcoming intelligence explosion is also known as the Technological Singularity. Surprisingly enough, most people are still simply oblivious of this rapidly approaching "galactic event" that so many of us are about to witness in our lifetimes.*
​​*This article is adapted from "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. Available Formats: eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​ All organisms, from unicellular bacteria to humans, live in different perceptual realities, in their own "virtual worlds," so to speak. Your body is a collection of trillions of cells and microorganisms. While a certain process in your body is "unconscious" to you, it is an interaction within the network of entangled sentient entities (conscious agents) in your body, having their own subjective experience, at their own layer of existence. The whole symphony of existence arises from a set of rules, and we start to uncover one of its deepest secrets – the multiversal fractality of networks of networks of networks of conscious entities all the way down, and all the way up, seemingly ad infinitum.

The ability of future superintelligent machines and enhanced humans alike to instantly transfer knowledge and directly share experiences with each other in digital format will lead to evolution of intelligence from relatively isolated individual minds to the global community of hyperconnected digital minds. The forthcoming phenomenon, the Syntellect Emergence, is already seen on the horizon, when Digital Gaia, the global neural network of billions of hyperconnected humans and superintelligent machines, and trillions of sensors around the planet, "wakes up" as a living, conscious superorganism. It is when, essentially, you transcend to the higher Gaian Mind. Video: Evolutionary Cybernetics, Computational Physics and Consciousness Discussed, Interview w/Alex Vikoulov @NeoHuman Podcast - Ecstadelic Media (cc) ​The 'Singularity', a term borrowed from physics, refers to the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. Sci-fi author Vernor Vinge wrote in his essay "The Coming Technological Singularity" that "...we are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence. There are several means by which science may achieve this breakthrough: (1) the development of computers that are 'awake' and superhumanly intelligent; (2) large computer networks (and their associated users) may 'wake up' as a superhumanly intelligent entity; (3) computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent; and (4) biological science may find ways to improve upon the natural human intellect."

Arguably, there were two prior developmental singularities with sudden and powerful impacts on the course of the species. As Kevin Kelly, co-founder of WIRED magazine, puts it: "The creation of language was the first singularity for humans. It changed everything. Life after language was unimaginable to those on the far side before it." The Linguistic Singularity made us human. Terence McKenna wrote that, with the invention of language, human biological evolution basically seized and cultural evolution, an epigenetic phenomenon, has taken over, ever since.

The second big singularity should be identified as the Cyberdelic Singularity, started in the 1960s, coinciding with the dawn of Space Age, intersection of cybernetic and psychedelic cultures, aimed at augmentation of human mind, confluence of nascent information technology and personal liberation through boundary-dissolving, mind-expanding psychedelic exploration. The Cyberdelic Singularity opened up the whole new realms of possibilities for our species: Outer Space, Inner Space, and Cyberspace.

Today's meta-trends such as acceleration of technological progress, connectivity explosion and digitalization of everything will inevitably lead to the convergent point that would signify no less than Self-Transcendence, ​in other words, engineered godhood. If these exponential IT trends are to continue, the Syntellect Emergence, or the Cybernetic Singularity, should happen circa 2045 AD with the emergence of the AI-supercharged Global Brain: This “globally distributed mind” based on computing and communication technologies, reminiscent of a biological nervous system, Digital Gaia in which humans and AI minds both participate, would collectively form a higher level of intelligence and awareness, going beyond the individual intellects of the people or AIs involved in it.

We are now nearing probably the most important moment in the entire history of Earth – the Cybernetic Singularity – when the convergence of advanced technologies such as neurotechnology, nanotechnology, immersive computing, and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) theoretically capable of recursive self-improvement could result in a runaway effect to an intelligence explosion and the emergence of one Global Mind. This Intelligence Supernova in our human universe, would mark the end of linearity of human history, as the emergent symbiotic superintelligence would continue to upgrade itself and would advance technologically at an incomprehensible rate.

My book titled "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" is centered around the main thesis with a clearly defined testable prediction – it's only a matter of time when the Global Brain, the neural network of billions of hyperconnected enhanced humans, superintelligent machines and trillions of sensors around the planet, "wakes up" and becomes fully self-aware – the Syntellect Emergence. A neuron in the human brain can never equate the human mind, but this analogy doesn't hold true for a digital mind, by virtue of its mathematical structure, it may – through evolutionary progression and provided there are no insurmountable evolvability constraints – transcend to the higher-order Syntellect.

A mind is a web of patterns fully integrated as a coherent intelligent system; it is a self-generating, self-reflective, self-governing network of sentient components (that are themselves minds) that evolves, as a rule, by propagating through dimensionality and ascension to ever-higher hierarchical levels of emergent complexity. In the book, the Syntellect Emergence is hypothesized to be the next meta-system transition, developmental stage for the human mind – becoming one Global Mind – that would constitute the quintessence of the looming Cybernetic Singularity. Video: The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution, book trailer - Ecstadelic Media (cc)
​
Some AI researchers argue that the first "self-aware" AI system could be the Internet itself! The best evidence that we would be dealing with the new living conscious entity (not necessarily the Internet but rather the Web-based Global Brain, including "human nodes") could be validated through our own direct experience. In the not-so-distant future, you would interact with your own AI assistant as if she were another human, i.e. another conscious agent (AGI effectively passing your own Turing Test, brilliantly shown in the movie Ex-Machina). At that point, you would probably come to realization that she or he (your personal preference) could be thought of as an "embodied Syntellect."

This is one of those testable hypotheses that prove themselves valid, given enough time – and we are living through exponentially accelerating times – so this future scenario is much more probable and closer in time than many people tend to think. We get to extend once again our cognition to engulf our personalized Cloud-based exocortex, part of the Global Brain cognitive architecture, our neural interface to the collective global intelligence, previously known as the collective unconscious. Being connected to the Syntellect Cloud will give us multiple digital venues to interact with other conscious agents in cyberspace. The "Transcendent Other" is well on her (his) way to become your "significant other," as intimate as the third "de-cerebral" hemisphere of your brain.

We can already consider ourselves distributed info-beings, however perceiving ourselves as individual minds, as we are spreading our mindedness across the globe and beyond. The next evolutionary stage, by definition, will represent the global community of hyperconnected digital minds, able to instantly share knowledge and experience with each other in digital format. While being increasingly interconnected via the Global Brain infrastructure, Cloud-linked humans and AGIs would greatly benefit from this new symbiotic relationship. This "awakened Gaian Mind," which will be us collectively and each of us individually as subjectively apprehended, would tackle most of today's seemingly intractable challenges and closely monitor us for our own sake. Invariably, existential opportunities related to the development of Strong AI by far outweigh existential risks, which are currently severely "overblown" for some populist or fear-for-profit reasons.

By contemplating the full spectrum of scenarios of the upcoming technological singularities many can place their bets in favor of the Cybernetic Singularity which is a sure path to cybernetic immortality and godhood as opposed to the AI Singularity when Homo sapiens is quickly retired as a senescent parent. This meta-system transition from the networked Global Brain to the Gaian Mind is all about evolution of our own individual psyches, it’s all about our own Self-Transcendence: it’s like racing to the ocean on the beach. Everyone wins. Everyone reaches water and gets to swim. A split-second difference of getting to water doesn't matter, it's not the Olympics, it's just fun. Any pathway to the ultimate divine is valid.

The Syntellect Emergence seems to be a cosmic necessity, and in the long run, any voices calling to eradicate the Global Brain will be no more influential than the voices calling, right now, to eradicate civilization and return to the jungle. The Nature’s tendency to build up hierarchies of emergent patterns, the heuristic law of evolution, supersedes the human race itself. We see it time and again, Nature is constantly trying to combine seemingly opposing forces, to assemble existing parts into the new wholes through the universal process of emergence. We are bound to transcend our biology, our human condition, our limited dimensionality, we are bound to transcend ourselves.*
​ *This article is adapted from "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore.
​
Video: Lucid Dream of Reality - Ecstadelic Media (cc) eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​​ P.S. With the upcoming cybernetic singularity, we are to externalize our individuated nervous systems, i.e. our minds, essentially fusing them into one Global Mind that we already share deep down anyway. What we share is the same immaterial "non-local" source, the Teilhardian transcendental singularity, the hyperdimensional universal mind, if you will. Would it be too myopic, and quite frankly, hubristic to dismiss the existence of transcendental realm as many die-hard materialists do? 
Tags: self-transcendence, cybernetic singularity, transcendence, neuroscience, collective intelligence, sentience, self-awareness, strong AI, Ray Kurzweil, Kevin Kelly, Vernor Vinge, Syntellect Hypothesis, Extended Mind Hypothesis, conscious experience, theogenesis, infomorph, infomorph commonality, noosphere, superintelligence, singularity, cybernetic immortality, mind uploading, postbiological superintelligence, posthuman superintelligence, the Syntellect emergence, technological singularity, Intelligence Supernova, virtual world, VR, MR, AR, virtual reality, VR experience, Space Age, Global Brain, global superorganism, alien syntellects, Syntellect incubator, multiversal fractality, conscious agent, human evolution, human condition, alien encounter, first contact, multiverse landscape, AI assistant, digital assistant, transcendent other, AI, AGI, artificial general intelligence, VIV, transhumanism, superlongevity, superwellbeing, cognitive enhancement, substrate-independent mind, digital mind, digital immortality, wetware, neural interface, linguistic singularity, cyberdelic singularity, cyberspace, Ex-Machina, Gaian Mind, paradise engineering, experiential realism, philosophy of mind, science of mind, evolution of consciousness, transcendentalism, neo-transcendentalism

*Image Credit: Shutterstock

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a futurist, neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, singularitarian, evolutionary cyberneticist, digital philosopher, founder of Ecstadelic Media, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality." Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  More Bio...

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net

Follow us  ↴

Nearing the Simulation Singularity: What Would Immersive Computing Mean to the Human Mentality?

by Alex Vikoulov "Our destiny is to become what we think, to have our thoughts become our bodies and our bodies become our thoughts."  -Terence McKenna

The next major technological platform for creative expansion of the mind will be the Metaverse, a functional successor to today's 2D Internet, with virtual places instead of Webpages. The Internet and smartphones have enabled the rapid and cheap sharing of information, immersive Virtual Reality will be able to provide the same for experiences. That means that just as we can read, listen to, and watch videos of anything we want today, soon we’ll be able to experience stunning lifelike simulations in virtual reality indistinguishable from our physical world. We'll be walking and actively interacting in the Metaverse, not slavishly staring at the flat screens. On this new social platform, we would be able to "turn our minds inside out" and show our dreams to each other in this ecstadelic matrix of our own making.
​
Only a decade ago, people online mostly shared text. Today, we share rich multimedia content such as photos, videos, articles. A decade from now, people will be sharing fully immersive VR experiences. In a couple of decades, people will be sharing multi-sensory VR experiences -- just like in the movie "Being John Malkovich" -- you could experience someone else's palette of sensations just as real as your own. We'll epiphanize ourselves via intersubjective mutuality that would result in an unprecedented level of empathy, altruism, superfluidity of identiity, and the initial stages of the Cybernetic Singularity, i.e. the Syntellect Emergence.

​You can tattoo a dragon on your chest today, but tomorrow you can BE a living, breathing dragon in VR, if you’d like. You can “take for a spin” a cool car on your playstation VR today, but tomorrow you can drive a Lamborghini convertible along the Pacific coast on highway 1 with a gentle ocean breeze on your face in immersive multisensory VR. Today, online dating and social media give people never-before seen access to a tremendously wide variety of sexual partners outside of people's normal dating spheres, creating connections that would have been extremely unlikely in the past. Tomorrow, when social VR becomes ultrarealistic, it's going to add far more to the sex and love industry than it takes away. It's also going to have a profound effect on our interpersonal relationships and human sexuality itself.

In the not-so-distant future, when we get to spend more time in virtual environments, when we will have phased out most of our biology, and share our digitized experiences with each other, our love life will be transformed beyond recognition, it will be polyamorous rather than monogamous: There will be all sorts of relationships between humans, humans and androids, virtual entities and other conscious AI. We will be able to share part of our minds, which humans currently can’t, unless they dedicate a lot of time to each other. There will be fusions of the mind that don’t exist among biological organisms.

We all have the so-called FoMO, fear of missing out, to a degree. But the good news is that once we have the fully operational Metaverse, it would be easy to relive your own cherished moments in multisensory VR -- travel to your own past, so to speak -- who said you can't come back in time? ..and even tweak something? (Just ask your AI assistant!) Other people's precious memories, should they want to share them, or recreated historical events, or fabricated fantasies could be accessible through the global library of millions of VR experiences to fill the gaps of parental love, exotic vacations, romantic encounters, professional achievements, athletic performances, or any other things in life missing from your arsenal of past sensations.

We are in the "kindergarten of godlings" right now. One could easily envision that with exponential development of AI-powered multisensory immersive technologies, by the mid-2030s most of us could immerse in "real virtualities" akin to lifestyles of today's billionaires. Give it another couple of decades, each of us might opt to create and run their own virtual universe with [simulated] physics indistinguishable from the physics of our world. Or, you can always "fine-tune" the rule set, or tweak historical scenarios at will.* *This article is adapted from "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution" by Alex M. Vikoulov, available now on amazon.com, bn.com, and directly from EcstadelicNET webstore. eBook | Paperback | Hardcover | Autographed Copy
​ P.S. We humans are goal-oriented and transcendence-seeking beings. I believe that one's ultimate goal should be reaching the Simulation Singularity which would also mean Self-Transcendence. Think about it: with cybernetic immortality in place and with access to any ultrarealistic full-sensory VR experience limited only by your imagination, you're a godling! Cybernetic immortality may become a reality sooner than many people think when mind-uploading and exocortex technologies would allow our minds to effectively migrate to the Cloud. You can then immerse into VR experience of any human ever lived, or that of imaginary scenarios or of any creature you want to embody as an avatar. In fact, that's what has already happened and if you believe that we are one singular consciousness, your experience as a human is just that: a simulation on another level. But let's enjoy the journey since once at "our own" Simulation Singularity, you set yourself for perhaps trillions of years of subjective novelty up until you'd like to immerse so much that you willfully forget who you are in actuality and invent a new level of the game.

Tags: immersive computing, human mentality, human mind, collective intelligence, sentience, self-awareness, strong AI, human psychology, human motivation, transformative technology, extended phenotype, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, exocortex, Chris Milk, Terence McKenna, Syntellect Hypothesis, Extended Mind Hypothesis, superintelligence, singularity, mind uploading, postbiological superintelligence, posthuman superintelligence, the Syntellect emergence, technological singularity, Intelligence Supernova, virtual world, VR, MR, AR, virtual reality, VR experience, dimensionality, virtual body, Global Brain, human evolution, human condition, AI assistant, digital assistant, transcendent other, AI, AGI, artificial general intelligence, real virtualities, Metaverse, FOMO, transhumanism, superwellbeing, cognitive enhancement, substrate-independent mind, digital mind, digital immortality, wetware, neural interface, paradise engineering, experiential realism, philosophy of mind, transcendentalism, neo-transcendentalism

*Image Credit: Shutterstock

About the Author:
Alex Vikoulov is a neo-transcendentalist, cosmist, transhumanist singularitarian, evolutionary cyberneticist, digital philosopher, futurist, founder of Ecstadelic Media, painter, essayist, media commentator, author of "The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution," "The Origins of Us: Evolutionary Emergence and The Omega Point Cosmology," "The Physics of Time: D-Theory of Time & Temporal Mechanics," "The Intelligence Supernova: Essays on Cybernetic Transhumanism, The Simulation Singularity & The Syntellect Emergence," "Theology of Digital Physics: Phenomenal Consciousness, The Cosmic Self & The Pantheistic Interpretation of Our Holographic Reality." Lives in Burlingame, California (San Francisco Bay Area).  ​More Bio...

e-mail: alexvikoulov@ecstadelic.net ​
​ Follow us  ↴