emergence and complexity science

From: jimruttshow8596

This article explores the concepts of emergence and complexity science, primarily through the lens of Professor Terrence Deacon’s work, particularly his 2011 book, Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter [00:03:39], [00:04:31]. Deacon’s theoretical interests focus on explaining emergent phenomena such as the origin of life, the evolution of language, and the generation of conscious experience by brains [00:03:25]. The book integrates themes from various fields, including emergence, consciousness, complexity, and open-ended search [00:04:40].

The Concept of Absence

A core idea in Deacon’s argument is the concept of absence, which he believes has not been fully integrated into physical or mental theories [00:06:05]. Absence refers to a range of things, including purposes, meanings, and values [00:06:41]. For example, the meanings of words are not inherent in their physical sound but are about something not present [00:07:12]. Deacon posits that everything about us is with respect to absence, such as the possibility of not existing or the interest in something present linked to what it is not [00:07:40].

The difficulty in incorporating absence into scientific theories is compared to the historical problem in the West with the concept of zero [00:08:29]. Just as the acceptance of Arabic numerals and zero was crucial for developing recursive number systems and calculus, understanding absence is key to problems like consciousness and purposive processes [00:09:00], [00:11:40]. Many actions are driven by something that does not yet exist, like an intent to attend a memorial service causing physical motion [00:13:02]. This focus on absence also highlights that the very act of being alive is about maintaining existence against the natural tendency to break down [00:13:22], a process that requires constant work and produces more entropy in the universe [00:15:30].

Emergence and the Laws of Thermodynamics

The traditional understanding of the second law of thermodynamics suggested that the universe is running down towards a lukewarm equilibrium [00:14:31]. However, living processes locally do the reverse, maintaining order by constantly doing work, which in turn generates more entropy in the broader universe [00:14:56]. This led to the idea that life explained something that reversed the second law, often through self-organizing processes [00:16:18].

However, Deacon argues that self-organizing processes like whirlpools or convection cells, while appearing to create order, actually accelerate the dissipation of the very gradients that make them possible [00:17:50]. Life must go beyond merely generating order; it must also prevent that order from disappearing [00:19:01]. This means using the self-organizing tendency against itself to both generate and maintain order [00:20:16].

Understanding Emergence

Historically, the concept of emergence arose in the late 19th century to address seemingly discontinuous changes that evolution, with its continuous change model, could not fully explain [00:22:57]. Examples include the origin of life (which precedes evolution itself) and chemical transitions where new properties appear (e.g., sodium and chlorine forming salt) [00:23:13]. While such phenomena appear qualitative, Deacon notes a “mysterianism” where emergence is seen as something previously hidden that simply shows up [00:24:50].

Deacon proposes a different perspective: emergence is less about adding something and more about removing something, where new possibilities arise from absences [00:28:40]. This ties into the role of constraints.

Constraints

Constraints are central to Deacon’s view of emergence. A form or symmetry is understood not as an ideal positive entity but as what isn’t there—certain variations or features that are not expressed [00:31:35]. This “negative” way of thinking allows for an almost infinite hierarchy of regularization, where anything less than full chaos is considered “formed” [00:32:33]. This concept echoes Harold Morowitz’s idea of pruning rules in emergence [00:29:06].

Orthograde and Contra-grade Processes

To describe changes in systems, Deacon introduces two terms:

• Orthograde: Processes that happen spontaneously, requiring no work or effort, like the increase of entropy or constant velocity [00:34:51]. This is akin to “going with the flow” [00:35:09].
• Contra-grade: Processes that go against the spontaneous flow, requiring work or effort [00:35:17]. An example is a refrigerator working to maintain coldness against the natural tendency to warm [00:15:51]. When two orthograde tendencies are not aligned and act against each other, they become contra-grade, doing work on each other [00:36:26]. This applies across physical, thermodynamic, and even cognitive processes (e.g., focused thought vs. daydreaming) [00:37:38].

Three Layers of Emergence

Deacon defines three types of dynamics, representing escalating levels of complexity and emergence:

1. Homeodynamics

• Definition: Processes that are orthograde, tending to happen spontaneously, and lead towards homogenization or equilibrium [00:39:32]. While particles within a system at equilibrium are in constant change, the overall gradients and patterns remain the same, reaching a stable state [00:40:35].
• Prevalence: These are the vast majority of dynamics in the universe [00:46:26].

2. Morphodynamics

• Definition: Order-generating processes where contra-grade interactions between homeodynamic processes produce regularity and form [00:42:11]. Examples include whirlpools, convection cells, and snow crystals [00:41:33].
• Nature: These processes require energy flow through a system and produce order, but they are self-undermining, rapidly using up their raw materials and dissipating unless frozen in time [00:51:48], [00:47:01].
• Prevalence: Rarer than homeodynamic processes [00:46:26].

3. Teleodynamics

• Definition: The highest order of dynamics, characterized by purpose and direction towards an absent end [00:43:56]. These processes arise from the careful juxtaposition of two or more morphodynamic processes that balance and support each other, preventing self-destruction and allowing self-maintenance, repair, and reproduction [00:45:00].
• Key Feature: Teleodynamic systems are oriented towards their own existence, actively working against their tendency to go out of existence [00:45:19]. This future-orientedness and self-other distinction lead to normative characteristics (good/bad, right/wrong) [01:14:50].
• Prevalence: Incredibly rare in the cosmos, but once they occur, they can amplify and spread, like life on Earth [00:47:53].

The Autogen Model: A Concrete Example of Teleodynamics

To illustrate teleodynamics, Deacon proposes the “autogen” as a thought experiment for pre-life [00:48:23]. An autogen combines two morphodynamic processes:

1. Reciprocal catalysis: Two catalysts (A and B) mutually generate each other, leading to a rapid, accelerating, but self-undermining production of more molecules, quickly exhausting raw materials [00:50:53].
2. Capsid formation (crystallization): The formation of a crystal-like shell (capsid) from molecules, which also stops growing once raw materials are depleted [00:53:35].

In the autogen model, the catalytic process generates molecules that form the capsid, while the capsid contains the catalysts, preventing their diffusion and maintaining their interaction [00:55:01]. This creates a self-reinforcing, co-dependent system where if the autogen breaks open, the spilled catalysts immediately start making more catalysts and capsids, allowing self-repair and reproduction [00:57:12]. What is passed on in this process is not merely physical stuff but the system of constraints—information about how to maintain the ability to generate this information yet again [00:59:10].

This concept suggests that new absences (constraints) can be generated from relationships among previous absences [01:01:51], moving beyond the atomist idea that “nothing can come from nothing” (ex nihilo nihil fit) [01:01:43].

Information: Shannon, Boltzmann, and Bateson

Deacon clarifies the hierarchical relationship of different concepts of information:

• Shannon Information: Focuses on the engineering problem of transmitting a message over a medium, measuring the reduction in variety or uncertainty due to constraints on signals. It does not inherently refer to meaning or usefulness [01:03:59].
• Boltzmann Entropy: Relates to physical entropy and the degradation of physical mediums over time, which introduces noise and interferes with Shannon information transmission [01:08:49].
• Bateson’s “Difference that Makes a Difference”: Gregory Bateson posited information as a “difference that makes a difference” [01:13:48]. Deacon extends this to mean “a difference that matters”, implying a normative character (good/bad, useful/unuseful) [01:14:01]. This “mattering” only occurs in teleodynamic systems that are organized around the future possibility of maintaining themselves, discerning between what is supportive and what is dangerous [01:14:10].

Sentience and Consciousness

Deacon defines sentience broadly as the differential reactivity of a system in terms of its environment in a way that maintains self and avoids damage [01:19:53].

• Sensitive Autogen: A simple autogen whose capsid surface tends to weaken when useful molecules stick to it, causing it to break apart in supportive environments but remain stable in non-supportive ones. This rudimentary sensitivity is a form of sentience [01:18:41].
• Vegetative Sentience: Like plants, which react differently to their world (e.g., roots growing towards water, leaves towards light) without complex representations [01:21:26]. This marks a transition to “normative chemistry”—chemistry that is good or bad, right or wrong [01:22:57].
• Subjective Sentience (Consciousness): The kind of sentience that involves a full representation or model of potential alternatives in the world, characteristic of animals with complex brains [01:26:10].

The Emergence of Consciousness

Deacon argues that understanding consciousness requires first understanding sentience in its simplest forms [01:24:04]. Brains develop at the head ends of motile animals because movement requires prediction of what is not immediately present [01:29:19].

Deacon’s key insight regarding consciousness is that nervous systems are nested teleodynamic processes [01:31:25].

• Every neuron and cell in the body is teleodynamic, striving to maintain itself [01:33:29].
• The brain’s teleodynamics is about the teleodynamics of the body, and the body’s teleodynamics is about keeping the brain going [01:37:51].
• This creates a higher-order teleodynamics where teleodynamic processes are pitted against and reinforce each other [01:38:00].

Thinking and feeling are dynamic processes, not static states [01:43:04]. Representation in the nervous system is a dynamical form or “morphodynamics,” akin to music rather than computing [01:45:05]. Attention, for instance, is a work-intensive process where two morphodynamic processes (maintaining a stable self and responding to external input) are balanced against each other [01:45:50].

The Purpose of Consciousness

Paradoxically, the job of consciousness is often to make things unconscious [01:47:13]. When something is working well (e.g., bodily functions, ingrained skills like playing tennis), we become unconscious of it because the brain is no longer detecting a “difference that makes a difference” [01:48:09]. Consciousness engages when there is a disruption or a need to resolve an issue, pushing the system towards a new unity and adapting to the moment [01:47:00].

The Hard Problem of Consciousness

Deacon addresses David Chalmers’ “hard problem of consciousness,” which argues that no amount of physical description of the brain seems to explain subjective experience [01:51:21]. This is likened to Zeno’s paradox, where getting halfway to the target again and again never quite reaches it [01:52:22]. Chalmers’ argument suggests consciousness might be fundamentally different, beyond the scope of science, reminiscent of Descartes’ dualism [01:53:03].

Deacon’s work offers a resolution by rethinking absence [01:54:16]. The “hard problem” arises from looking at the “wrong side of the story”—focusing solely on physical stuff and positive attributes [01:55:02]. Instead, Deacon posits that “absences matter” and are the only thing that makes a difference in this context [01:55:37].

Human experience and identity are not defined by the ever-changing physical matter that constitutes us but by the “dynamical system of constraints that keeps itself in existence” [01:56:39]. This “being” is a continuous “doing,” which is work [01:56:58]. Work involves constraining the dissipation of energy, which in turn can generate new kinds of constraints, leading to new kinds of work, and thus new kinds of emergence [01:57:22]. This constant production of new absences (constraints) is the essence of emergence and what defines human cognition and morality [01:57:42].