[Fis] An Agenda of Control

[Pedro C. Marijuan]

Dear Joseph,

I finally went through that video, in part stimulated by your critical 
comments. My impression, particularly at the beginning of the talk, was 
positive: that the fundamental physical reality might partake of a 
similar organization to life is quite congruent with the "informational" 
point of view. I was strongly reminded of Michael Conrad's: "When we 
look at a biological system we are looking at the face of the underlying 
physics of the universe." This was in Madrid 1994, at the foundational 
conference of FIS. Well, perhaps some aspects of the last part of that 
talk were not so well focused in my view, but at least always appeared 
open to argumentation if I properly interpret the style and the context. 
Does a not so well-solved part destroy a whole direction of thought? I 
think we must be open to the give and take, and contribute to salvage 
the best parts of interesting speculations (if that's the case here), 
even for our own intellectual interest. Couldn't our own common fis 
enterprise be toughly criticized in similar grounds? Just to conclude, I 
am reminded of one of the most famous short essays by philosopher Ortega 
y Gasset, it was about the "frame", just the frame of any painting 
("Meditación del Marco" was the title in Spanish). Sholarship is able to 
create exciting reflections/discussions... on anything.
So, addressed to all FIS colleagues, why we don't accept this new 
discussion challenge?

Friendly regards
--Pedro

El 13/07/2016 a las 19:15, Joseph Brenner escribió:
>
> Dear Pedro,
>
> Most of us would agree that standard Western science does not give a 
> complete answer to questions about life and mind. As we try to seek 
> better foundations in general and for information science in 
> particular, we may be able to benefit from knowledge resources which 
> have not been fully exploited, those of the 'Past' and those of the 
> ‘East’. I myself have written a paper suggesting that a metalogical 
> rejunction is possible in which logic recovers its original status as 
> inclusive of all other disciplines. As Brian Josephson writes in the 
> Abstract of one of his lectures, “Eastern mystics may have relevance 
> to scientific understanding.” Fritjof Capra explored such parallels in 
> his important 1967 book /The Tao of Physics./However, many 
> interpretations of what mysticism is are possible.
>
> There is a further major /caveat /to keep in mind: there are different 
> ways of understanding “what is missing” in science (see Terence 
> Deacon’s discussion of information) and what kind of additions could 
> be made. On the one hand, we may legitimately associate quantum 
> fluctuations with Indian (not Eastern) ideas of things continuously 
> moving in and out of existence. On the other, as we have discussed in 
> connection with Conrad’s ‘fluctuons’ at least once in the FIS Group, 
> it may NOT be correct to say that such fluctuations are or can carry 
> meaningful information.
>
> Recent postings to the FIS list have been made by people associated 
> with a project embedded in a major university (Cambridge, UK), the 
> “Matter-Mind Unification Project”, now the “Theory of Condensed Matter 
> Group” which Josephson has directed. This effort has sought and still 
> seeks to incorporate doubtful, self-confirming forms of Western 
> thought and activity. Personally, I do not wish to be associated with 
> the Circular Theory of Ilexa Yardley, in which “the core dynamic is 
> the conservation of a circle”, which is a misunderstanding of 
> dynamics. I do not wish to accept nature as controlled by some “Master 
> Algorithm”, any more than I do Peircean Thirdness. I do not wish to be 
> associated with paranormal phenomena, cold fusion and observer created 
> reality, all of which are part of Josephson’s project.
>
> A characteristic of this thought is its dogmatism of completeness, a 
> theory of everything, in which things are linked by a “subtler 
> dimension which we have identified with the Platonic realm” (Yardley). 
> One might argue that the Tao is also a theory of everything that also 
> sees things linked in a way different from that of, say, chemical 
> bonds. The major difference is that understanding the Tao does not 
> require abrogating science in order to replace it by a self-serving 
> ideology. Deacon has characterized the ‘homunculi’ and ‘golems’, 
> disguised as physical principles, that interfere with thought; 
> ‘wishful thinking’ is the most charitable term that can be applied.
>
> Other FIS members may find these ideas harmless, perhaps even amusing. 
> I consider them perversions of thought by people with an agenda of 
> control. The one positive result of these postings has been to cause 
> me to re-examine the assumptions in the logic of the included middle 
> of Stéphane Lupasco. This as some of you know is the basis of my 
> ‘Logic in Reality’ and its Principle of Dynamic Opposition (critical 
> formulation by Lupasco /ca. /1951). I conclude that no new and 
> doubtful physical concepts need to be introduced to address the 
> essential aspects of life, mind and information. That information has 
> ‘dual aspects’ has been more or less explicit in everything I have 
> tried to write in the last eight years. But these concepts are not 
> simple; one cannot use the principles of quantum mechanics 
> directly. Hence I do not expect to find a large audience nor, to be 
> frank, a large market. I simply hope they may deserve some more 
> discussion on the FIS list.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Joseph
>


-- 
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Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta X
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
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