[Fis] [External] Re: " express matter and energy in terms of information"

[Carlos Gershenson]

Thank you Lou,

Indeed, we constantly use concepts that generalize particular instances of objects (physical or abstract), as they allow us to use finite information to communicate.
If we go to the highest level of abstraction, then we can simply say “stuff is”, and then everything is contained, actual and possible. But this description is not very useful (and needs no information). 
The balance between how much information to include in a description is contextual. I elaborate this more in
Gershenson, C. (2021). On the Scales of Selves: Information, Life, and Buddhist Philosophy. In J. Cˇejkova ́, S. Holler, L. Soros, & O. Witkowski (Eds.), Alife 2021: The 2021 conference on artificial life (p. 2). MIT Press. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00402__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!WMDtq6Ykk6E_nqv0HC_mKKI0umbS3avqDJuLcNcs0hl9f41ZYbZljXVr1opznbLpDV0ltSsjKq4b5kUbbfo$  
(Section “Scales” and Fig. 1)

Best wishes,

> On Feb 28, 2024, at 6:38 PM, Louis Kauffman <loukau at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Carlos,
> When I write P = {n | n is a prime number} and assert the existence of this set, I am asserting the existence of the CONCEPT that the set expresses.
> I am not asserting the existence in some realm of all of its members. This is my way to handle the epistemology of set theory.
> Set theory is a way to handle concepts. The concept of a prime number is not problematical in relation to any questions of existence.
> The same is true of the concept 2^{N} = { S | S is a subset of the natural numbers} and all the other sets that can be expressed in ZFC.
> 
> With this understanding it is fun to play with the fantasy that the primes or the real numbers are “actually there” somewhere. This is fun and helps in thinking about them.
> When I prove that a specific knot is knotted it excites me to realize that I have proved something about the infinity of instantiations of this knot, only a finite number of which I shall ever see. They all exist in potentia. 
> 
> These rhetorical flourishes about potentia, possibles and adjacent possibles are a similar incitement to fantasy as we get a feeling about worlds unseen.
> It is fun, but lets remember that just working with concepts and percepts is the main line.
> 
> Some concepts, maybe most, are tied up with their realizations. So if I am looking at Chess, I imagine the existence of all possible chess games. 
> "All chess games” is a concept just like “all primes”.  That it happens to be a finite set does not make it more accessible than the infinity of the primes.
> I can also indulge in the fantasy that I can “know” about “all chess games” but the only way to know about it is through a big sliice of experience with actual games and with 
> the hypotheses that people have made about general principles for the game.
> 
> The same is true for mathematics. The nice thing about infinite sets is that one has an open field for studying examples and finding principles that govern these examples.
> Concepts are not “just” abstractions. You need to find out how they work in actual instantiations. I think the reason mathematics works even though people could argue about potential versus actual infinity forever, is that mathematics does not need to worry about existence of anything except concepts and to hope that the arena of concepts that it uses is consistent for the logic that is adopted for dealing with them.
> 
> And again I repeat, concepts come along with percepts. Every percept you have is accompanied by concepts and by the possibility of new concepts that can inform it.
> Best,
> Lou
> 
> 
>> On Feb 28, 2024, at 10:43 AM, Carlos Gershenson <cgershen at gmail.com <mailto:cgershen at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> About latent/Platonic information:
>> I think we can agree that there are (infinite) primes that have never been written down. Do they exist? I think so, in a particular way. Perhaps, as it was mentioned, the difference can lie between information that has been observed, and that which has not. Like the tree falling in a forest with nobody there to listen (observe), I guess we can assume that ontologically the tree fell, even if epistemologically no observer can say anything about that. (I elaborate on this distinction between “absolute being” and “relative being” here https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://arxiv.org/abs/nlin/0109001__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!WMDtq6Ykk6E_nqv0HC_mKKI0umbS3avqDJuLcNcs0hl9f41ZYbZljXVr1opznbLpDV0ltSsjKq4bK5Gfi1I$  <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://arxiv.org/abs/nlin/0109001__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!UTF2fg6sqvtQgQb_nuxoj5voh6N_Gw_p9V5p01SPx3bPOcoH28OuL7JzSKI1rsIztIhpoxXFZaIVGWmRwZo$> although this is from my undergrad years and for sure could be updated).
>> 
>> Gordana: Isn’t ChatGPT an observer? I mean, LLMs can be said to be trained through “observation".
>> 
>> Best wishes,
>> Carlos
>> 
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> 

Carlos

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