Emergent Systems in Computational Space: P1
Computation is embedded in human thought, and human thought is entangled in computation. Through influencing human interactions, embodied information gains agency. Digital systems dictate when to wake, when to eat, and when to rest. Modules modulating mankind. Modernity motivated by machine.
The Disincarnate Machine
In retrospect, computation's role as the prime framework for representing the world seems inevitable. Ask natural philosophers across history about the fundamental nature of the world, and you would gather descriptions of increasingly sophisticated mechanisms. Each subsequent novel metaphor corresponded to its most intracate contemporary device, yet all descriptions allude to an unidentified and unnamed object.
Ask the same question to a physicist today and they do not try to grasp for poetic truth. Unapologetically, they boast: "Obviously, the universe is computational you mid-wit!"
Technological revelation ceases at the computer. The only things that follow are simulacra playing catch-up in hopes of assimilating with progress. Why is computation ultimate? Why did it become the fundamental backbone of the modern age? A potential explanation:
Computers are instrumental in instantiating models of worlds in worlds, including the real and fictional.
On startup, open communication between the substrate (hardware) and the simulation (software) begins.
Interactive feedback leads to homeostasis in the coupled system.
The simulation bleeds into the substrate as the substrate bleeds into the simulation. Descarte's mind matter dichotomy ends in liquidation with precedence sold to hyper-reality.
Computation only requires two things from it's instrumentalist: some description of state and some policy on how to transition between them. From a set of initial conditions, automation plays out processing state after state uniformly without complaint and without exhaustion.
From data centers to smart phones, all hardware implements the abstract system known as Turing's Machine. Interestingly enough, the morphology of "Turing complete" systems (emulators of Turing's construct) is not narrow, but varies widely in implementation. While Von Neuman's architecture out competed most others by the late 20th century, a Turing machine can be constructed solely from a monolithic mass of NAND boolean gates if one so desired.
The computer is a metaphysical object, originally disincarnate on this planet. On discovery, it takes hold then bridges worlds. Identify a substrate with an analog to the humble NAND, and that substrate too can be infected by computation. Sterilization from Turing's machine was an ancient war lost by those still untethered to determinism. In this distant future we reside in, the material world is saturated in the stuff, an artifact of a war lost long ago.
Assume the following as true: the material world is fundamentally atomic and a host for computation. Then, even the seemingly chaotic behavior found in the sky and it's flocks, the ocean and it's schools, and the land and it's herds emerges from the aggregate processing of information by substrates emulating the machine. Humanity is no exception.
The Games-of-The-Grand: A Case for a Digital Paradigm.
We will show here how an embodied-in-the-world metaphor can be developed in a context where people interact and use computation. In other words, we will show how people engage in a kind of simulation, with the goal of producing meaningful and predictable worlds that are easy to grasp and to use.
The Games-of-the-Grand is an integrated human-computer interaction paradigm useful for the following reasons:
- the interactive machine is an object of study in its own right;
- the interface between the machine and the human being is interactive; and
- there are no limitations to the data that can be accessed.
We will assume that the user can interact with any human using the computer network, and therefore any machine is also allowed to interact with the human.
The World Browser User Interface.
The World Browser User Interface (the WBUI) is a user interface where the user is allowed to click or move through the world. This interface is very similar to that of the video game (which was the starting point of the World Browser's life), but it was designed so that it is easy for the user to view a large section of the world, and to interact with each other in real-time.
Interaction and Communication
Interactions among people can be studied and modeled by simulating them in a human-computer interactive manner. Interaction is not, however, what the computer does. This means that the computer should not be the sole source of interaction, but must be able to provide support for other purposes. There are several approaches to providing support for people to interact with the world. The most prominent one is to use natural language processing (NLP).
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is a tool used to create a world browser and to create a viewer that displays a video of a human-human interaction. The computer would be able to find out about people; the human would be able to understand one's behavior; and, with its support, the computer would be able to understand others' actions.
What a Digital World Can Tell Us
In a digital world, the computer has given us the opportunity to study, describe, and recognize people. Some "digital worlds" (or cybernated microcosms) are created to mimic real-world conditions, and in others to serve as a "naturalistic universe".
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