Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Nature's Meta-system transition algorithm for intelligence

If we follow the evolution of life on Earth, we see an increase in complexity of living systems, which has allowed life to adapt to very different environments.

A quite limited number of atoms such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorous gave rise to simple organic molecules such as methane, ammonia, amino acids, phosphoric acid etc. These simple molecules formed the most basic building blocks to create more complex aggregates thereof in the form of macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins and lipids.

In turn the assembly of macromolecules in a complex architecture allowed for small prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria to evolve. With the advent of more complexity in the form of DNA and subcellular structures, the much bigger eukaryotic cells could form, which integrated prokaryotes as their engine to provide energy. Today we know these prokaryotes that still live inside our cells as the cell organelle which is called the mitochondrion.

Eukaryotic cells managed to cooperate and form yet more complex assemblies in the form of multicellular organisms. Whereas the first multicellular organisms were quite homogeneous as regards the types of cells they were built from, over time cells differentiated into different cell types and different cell types organised into organs.

Plants and animals arose in a versatile system of mutual exchange and mutual dependence. In the animal kingdom the limitations in size of the invertebrates, which were inherent to their heavy exoskeleton, were solved by inversing the support issue. The intelligent invention of an endoskeleton allowed for much bigger creatures to arise.

From fish to amphibians to reptiles to birds and mammals, we do not only see an increase in the abilities of the animals to adapt to their environment, we also see an increased tendency to be able to cooperate with the other members of the same species, giving rise to social structures, such as schools, flocks and herds.

In fact what we see as a pattern from these examples is that Nature evolved from simple singleton structures to more complex aggregated and integrated structures and that this is still an ongoing process.

Our human society is rapidly evolving to form a so-called "global brain". Not only do the transactions of goods and services establish a metaphorical global brain, with our invention of the Internet we are basically building a literal neural network which is sensing the whole planet via its Internet-of-Things sensor extensions.

We see that Nature has an inherent intelligence that appears to combine building blocks into bigger and more complex aggregates, which then in turn become new building blocks to build yet bigger and yet more complex aggregates.

This is in line with the definition which Ben Goertzel the Godfather of Artificial (General) Intelligence gives for Intelligence:

The ability to achieve complex goals

Presently, we are living in the dawn of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs: The very conceptualisation of the nature of intelligence, the self-organising pattern of the Universe.

In this chapter, I will discuss the way Nature appears to follow a kind of algorithmic pattern of what are called "meta-system transitions" when it is applying intelligence in order to evolve.

The aspects of human intelligence will be discussed in chapters 2-7, whereas chapters 8-10 are devoted to artificial intelligence. Chapter 11 discusses the elusive notion of "intuition" in Nature, humans and artificial systems.

In his book Creating Internet Intelligence Ben Goertzel brings "Complexity science" to a higher level. Combining notions of Turchin's "metasystems transitions", Buddhism, General Systems and Network theory and Peircean and Palmerian metaphysics, he tries to define the very essence of Intelligence. The insights presented in this book are of such a profound nature, that they may well one day be recognised as the ultimate intelligence algorithm that underlies every phenomenon in this universe.

What the algorithm of Nature is constantly trying to achieve is to assemble existing parts to build new wholes such that the "whole is more than the sum of its parts". Or put in one word, Nature strives to achieve "Synergy" or "Emergence".

Nature appears to achieve this goal in a few basic steps:

Nature starts by providing elements which constitute pure "Being", which prima facie exist independent of anything else (e.g. atoms or subatomic particles). This is the provision of a dialectic thesis. The provision of such elements can be considered the first step of Nature's intelligence process.

A reaction to a stimulus from the environment shows that the elements do not exist alone but are relative to something else. This can be considered as the second step of Nature's algorithm, which is a reaction to a stimulus resulting in a "Polarisation". In dialectics this is the antithesis.

Now the different elements metaphorically aware of each other can establish a "Relation", for instance, the atoms start to form bonds between them as the third step of the algorithm. This is the process towards the dialectic synthesis.

From the web of relationships now a pattern can emerge, which forms the new aggregated entities. The constituent elements of these entities support and sustain each other so that their whole is greater than the sum of their parts. In the example a molecule is formed from the atoms. Its geometrical representation is a tetrahedron. This is the actual dialectic synthesis and the fourth step of the algorithm.

Ben Goertzel has realised that this concept of "Emergence" is the key of evolution. This is how a mind's intelligence comes into existence: The combination of two or more parts can lead to a new phenomenon, a new entity in which the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

The new entity thus formed can be considered as a new "element" for building aggregates and can undergo this cycle again. This is how complexity arises in every system. It is the core of evolution and intelligence.

So the ontogenesis of holistic systems (i.e. systems where the whole is more than the sum of parts) is a four-step pattern or algorithm.

Now in my own words: 1) "Being" is followed by 2) "Polarisation or Reaction", the elements of which 3) engage in a plurality of "Relationships" from which 4) new entities "Emerge" by synergy.

Turchin's theories call the emergence of such a new meta-level a "Metasystem transition", which according to Goertzel amounts to the fourth step.

Figure 1: Metasystem transitions: In the first transition molecules form macromolecules such as RNA and lipids. These form prokaryotic cells (e.g. bacteria) with a cell membrane in the second transition. Thirdly macromolecules recombine to form more complex macromolecules such as DNA from which emerge eukaryotic cells (e.g. yeast). From an ensemble of eukaryotic cells multicellular organisms can be formed in a fourth transition. Thus cells recombine into organisms (such as humans) with an internal architecture of differentiated cell types in different organs in what forms a fifth transition. In a sixth meta-system transition we are organising ourselves into a complex society, which now by virtue of the digital revolution is building a "Global Brain" in the form of the Internet and the associated Internet-of-Things (IoT) ecosystem. By Myworkforwiki - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w7 index.php?curid=48996558.

Now I'd like to take Goertzel's concepts even further. If the "fourth step" results in a new entity as such, and therefore actually establishes a new instance of "Being", the step of a reaction to another entity on this aggregation level, a second entity, could be seen as a fifth step.

Note that in the Vedic tradition the so-called "5th chakra" is associated with creativity. Creativity requires inspiration, which in "Palmerian metaphysics" originates in so-called "Wild Being", arising from the interaction of what Palmer calls "hyper emergent entities": As a plethora of new different entities on a level starts to recombine among each other this creates diversity. This provides the element of the unexpected and establishes the non-deterministic stimulus for further development. The nature of this step doesn't appear to resemble a preprogrammed algorithmic step.

The relation that comes into existence in the process of creativity as the next step is the distinction of patterns, abstractions: a sixth step. Note that also the 6th chakra is associated with distinction.

From these trends then the new 7th level emerges, the sublimation and product of the creativity: A step of forming new entities, new knowledge and new intelligence as mental child: Athena born out of Zeus' head.

And thereby the circle of evolution on both microcosmic and macrocosmic level is round: The evolutionary process has in 7 steps returned to the essence of existence at yet a higher level of aggregation. "Seven" which is associated with Godhead in many cultural traditions: the 7 tones in music, the 7 colours of the rainbow.

The occurrence of "Sevens" in natural phenomena has even been suggested as being more than a coincidence as a consequence of the inner working of our brain according to R. Llinasin the I of the Vortex. As the quantification constant of the so-called "Qualia" (the individual instances of subjective, conscious experience, such as colour, pain etc.); as a result of the WeberFechner law governing the intensity of sensory activation and perception (s = klnA/Ag); as organisational principle in biological systems (which gives rise to e.g. the geometrical structure of the shell curvature of the Mollusc Nautilus).

Note that Ben Goertzel implicitly does mention these steps 5-7 as a repetition of steps 2-4 on a heterarchical level.

A key concept I cannot omit here is the fact that the patterns that emerge from a number of elements (which form at least a triad) can be expressed as "Abstractions": the expression of a simplification of the underlying phenomena. The pattern emerging from a triad a, b, c is the greatest common divisor at a different aggregation level. This pattern is a representation of phenomenal interactions as something simpler, which representation in itself is a new entity. This will become relevant at a later stage in this book.

It goes too far to discuss the mathematical and conceptual framework of how Goertzel defines Mind, Meaning, Emergence, Attention Randomness, Complexity, Pattern etc. here, but I'm convinced he is on the right track to unravelling the mysteries of "Intelligence" as universal principle.

The unveiling of these steps shows that intelligence itself is a process type pattern; an algorithm that can be described and be put into practice.

Thus I have come to the conclusion that Nature's intelligence follows a basic algorithm, consisting of the seven abovementioned steps.

One thing that kept resonating in my mind was the congruence of this concept with the five elements of Ben-Jacob's social learning machine (in bacterial colonies: the bacterial "creative web") about which I had read in the book Global Brain by Howard Bloom (chapter "From Social Synapses to Social Ganglions"). This is also referred to as "Bacterial Wisdom".

Here is the parallel, which shows that the principles of Peirce's, Palmer's and Goertzel's meta-system transitions follow in fact the same path of intelligence, the same algorithm that Nature also follows to evolve:

One: Bacterial colonies have a certain status quo in which a common language is imposed by a subgroup of bacteria called the "conformity enforcers" of the genome, to which all members chemically respond. This is the Thesis of the dialectic process before it is challenged; the first step. As long as there are enough resources in the environment to allow this thesis to persist, the colony can continue its population growth in a "boom" process.

Two: Colonies ultimately run into trouble as a consequence of exhausting their resources. This could lead to a "bust" or "fission" of the colony. Now a different subgroup of bacteria, the "diversity generators", is needed. These individual pioneers are needed to probe new alternative ways and resources: Mutants are generated which adapt to a changed scarcer environment and which are intended to become the discoverers of new resources. In any system this actually corresponds to the irritation or stimulus pointing to the incompleteness of the system: It creates the polarisation, the dialectic Antithesis. A second step.

Three: Enter the evaluation of the old paradigm vs. the new qualities of the pioneers, from within the species: The subgroup of bacteria called the "inner judges" enacts a comparator mechanism. Relations in the form of differences, correspondences and the spatiotemporal configuration of the new and old are probed and judged. A third step. In this screen those bacteria, which are failing outriders, commit suicide (elimination, pruning), whereas successful discoverers disperse an attractant of success. (In other systems, such as a computer system, the screening, pruning and determination of these relations would furthermore involve a classification and a ranking: hierarchical or heterarchical.)

Four: Depending on the circumstances either the old paradigm is maintained or if the mutants/discoverers are more successful, the resources are shifted towards the new heroes by a group of bacteria called the "resource shifters", thus establishing a new paradigm and new Thesis. The species has evolved due to the resource shifters.

This is the dialectic Synthesis: New features, which most often are the very distinguishing features between the old and new paradigm, have been added to the arsenal of the species and yielded an emergent property which gives an advantage over the species from which it originated. Goertzel's fourth step.

These are the four steps of intelligent evolution within the species. As Bloom describes, these laws also function to create emergent Global Brains within higher social groups, such as beehives, anthills, but also among vertebrae, yes even among humans belonging to a group.

Above I went even further and added a fifth until a seventh step, which stages correspond to repeating steps 2-4 on a heterarchical level as described by Goertzel. Also these concepts really fit well in what Bloom describes as the fifth element:

Five: Intergroup tournaments. The newly established species with new emergent properties encounters other species with new emergent properties with which it will be in competition: This is the step where interaction of numerous emergent beings occurs, which Palmer calls "Wild Being". This is the new Antithesis. This competition between the species will have to lead to new diversity generation and creativity to overcome or join the other(s). This corresponds to the fifth step previously mentioned.

Six: Again a process of comparison occurs, which I will call "distinction probing", wherein the differences, correspondences and the spatiotemporal configuration of the new and old establish their relation and re-evaluate their strategies. This corresponds to the sixth step previously mentioned. This is again a process of "screening and pruning" in which a plethora of different solutions are tried out and only the best ones are kept, whereas the rest is eliminated. In Nature this is typically what happens in evolutionary living systems, with as best example the so-called Cambrian explosion.

Seven: That species which has an edge over the other due to superior distinguishing features or that species which advantageously can mimic or incorporate those features of the contender and add it to its own arsenal may come out of the battle as the victor. If this occurs a new synthesis has been arrived at. It has achieved a "fusion" of the characteristics of both contending species.

Imagine two primitive prehistoric human tribes, which did not know of their mutual existence, encountering each other. Pioneers will probe the strength of the other. If it is clear that the contending party has a serious advantage, the first party will withdraw and establish a niche elsewhere. If the strengths are deemed comparable it may come to a clash. Either one party has a superior advantage, which the other party is unable to incorporate, or one of the parties mimics that advantage successfully, so as to come to a strategy combining its own advantages with the advantages of the contender, thereby arriving at a metasystem transition with an even more superior advantage. Another scenario is that due to exchange of goods and habits in a peaceful way a new synthesis occurs.

There can be two types of synthesis: mere juxtaposition and true combination. If juxtaposition occurs, the old and new paradigms are of comparable strength, each having their own qualities and specialisations. This often leads to the formation of "Niches", wherein the contending species coexist.

(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Is Intelligence an Algorithm?"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Antonin Tuynman.
Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---