[Fis] Fwd: Contingency biological signals: Sex and Being

[Krassimir Markov]

Dear Jason,

You asked: If the Big Bang Theory is correct (or if it has to be correct
since we do have an alternative), 1- When did gravity emerge? (and how) 2-
When did water emerge? (in the cosmos, and in our solar system, and on our
earth)? 3- We roughly know when our planet's life emerges, but when did
consciousness emerge? 4- Did "information" emerge before or after
consciousness?

Of course, I am not genius to know everything. Now we have AI to support us.

The answers to the first three questions are from AI. The last, about
information, is mine.

*1. When and How Did Gravity Emerge?*

This depends on what you mean by "emerge":

*As a fundamental force:* Gravity likely existed from the very beginning—at
the Planck time (10^-43 seconds after the Big Bang). In the earliest
moments, all four fundamental forces may have been unified, then gravity
separated first as the universe cooled.

*As a distinct phenomenon:* During the inflationary epoch (10^-36 to 10^-32
seconds), gravity became distinguishable from other forces. The
gravitational constant and spacetime geometry as we know them were
established.

*As structure-forming:* Gravity became cosmologically significant around
380,000 years after the Big Bang, when matter and radiation decoupled.
Gravity could then pull matter together to form the first structures—stars,
galaxies, etc.
2. When Did Water Emerge?

*In the cosmos:* Water molecules (H₂O) first formed roughly 1 billion years
after the Big Bang, once the first stars had created oxygen through
nucleosynthesis and dispersed it via supernovae. Hydrogen was abundant from
the Big Bang itself.

*In our solar system:* Water was present in the protoplanetary disk about
4.6 billion years ago, incorporated into asteroids, comets, and planets as
they formed.

*On Earth:* Earth formed ~4.54 billion years ago. Water likely arrived
through a combination of:

   - Water trapped in minerals during Earth's formation
   - Cometary/asteroid impacts delivering water (particularly 3.8-4.1
   billion years ago during the Late Heavy Bombardment)
   - Oceans were probably established by ~4.4 billion years ago

3. When Did Consciousness Emerge?

This is profoundly difficult because we lack consensus on what
consciousness *is*:

*Simple awareness/sentience:* May have emerged gradually with the first
nervous systems—perhaps 600-700 million years ago in early animals. Some
argue even simpler organisms show proto-conscious responses.

*Self-awareness:* Likely much more recent. Evidence suggests some mammals,
birds (corvids, parrots), cephalopods, and great apes show
self-recognition. This might have emerged multiple times independently over
the last 100-200 million years.

*Human-like consciousness:* Modern human consciousness (with language,
abstract thought, self-reflection) emerged sometime in the last
200,000-300,000 years with *Homo sapiens*, though the exact timing is
debated.

The hard problem is that consciousness leaves no fossils. We can only infer
it from behavior and neural complexity.
4. Information Emerged With/After Consciousness
The Proper Hierarchy is:

*Before consciousness/sensors:*

   - Only physical interactions between entities (particles, fields, forces)
   - These interactions cause changes, transformations, i.e. *reflections*
   - But  reflections are no "data"—just causality, just physics happening

*With sensors (biological or otherwise):*

   - Sensors transform physical  reflections into *data*
   - A photon hits a retina → becomes neural signal (data)
   - A molecule binds to a receptor → becomes chemical data
   - Data is the *reflection captured/registered* by a sensor

*With consciousness:*

   - Consciousness recognizes/interprets data as *information*
   - Information = recognized data = data + meaning

The Complete Sequence:

   1. *Physical interactions/reflections* (always existed since the Big
   Bang)
   2. *Sensors* (emerged with early life, ~3.5-4 billion years ago—even
   simple cells have chemical sensors)
   3. *Data* (emerged when sensors began registering reflections)
   4. *Consciousness* (emerged 600+ million years ago with nervous systems)
   5. *Information* (emerged when consciousness could recognize and assign
   meaning to data)

The DNA

DNA base pairs are not data—they're just molecular structures interacting
physically. They only become data when:

   - Cellular machinery (sensors/readers) registers their patterns
   - Transcription/translation machinery "reads" them

Even this might be generous—it's mechanical registration, not true data in
the conscious sense.

So: *interactions → **reflections **→ **sensors → data → consciousness →
information*

With respect,

Krassimir
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