Partial Knowledge

Knowledge is the source of all intelligence. Human have the most efficient knowledge processing technology in the brain that can process vast amount of data acquired from sensory organs, extract useful information from it, reconcile new information with existing knowledge, and finally store it for efficient, almost instantaneous retrieval when needed. But, knowledge acquisition is a murky process like all the physical processes. There are lot of imperfections at all levels. Raw data is corrupted, noisy, biased, dependent on state of numerous variables. Information extraction from raw data is dependent on prior prejudices, current state of mind, and future expectations. There are always unpredictable human agents around us trying to influence how we acquire new knowledge, how we form our beliefs. In a way, mind is in a continuous struggle with past and surroundings, to make sense out of world around it.

In this scenario what helps brain is its ability to acquire partial knowledge based on partial conclusions. Partial knowledge is in a way a game of probabilities. Brain adjusts its beliefs as more and more imperfect knowledge is acquired, hoping that in the long run its beliefs are more or less in line with what is actually happening around it. Imperfect knowledge is also easy to acquire, and scalable with amount of data available. It is more difficult to form firm beliefs than to form loose beliefs that can be adjusted with time and experience. 

In contract, it is difficult for deterministic machines to form partial beliefs. It is more easy for them to believe 1+1 is 2 than to allow for other possibilities based on constantly changing variables. This is  an important reason why intelligent machines are still quite far away. They are very primitive as of now.

Speaking to the Future

Following was an excerpt of a proposed marking on a underground nuclear waste disposal facility. Not sure if it was adopted in this form, but it is interesting to see the form in which we decided to speak to our future successors.

These standing stones mark an area used to bury

radioactive wastes. The area is ... by ...

Kilometers (or ... miles or about ... times

the height of an average full grown male person)

and the buried waste is ... kilometers

down. This place was chosen to put this

dangerous material far away from people. The

rock and water in this area may not look, feel,

or smell, unusual but may be poisoned by

radioactive wastes. When radioactive matter

decays, it gives off invisible energy that can

destroy or damage people, animals, and

plants.

Do not drill here. Do not dig here. Do not do

anything that will change the rocks or water in

the area.

Do not destroy this marker. This marking

system has been designed to last 10,000 years.

If the marker is difficult to read, add new

markers in longer-lasting materials in

languages that you speak. For more information

go to the building further inside. The site

was known as the WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot

Plant) site when it was closed in ....

Languages that we know, in the form we know may disappear with time, and future people may be curious and enthusiastic like us to explore buried objects. So, the problem how should a set of symbols be designed that convey a message that the site, though it looks clean on the top and everywhere around it, inside it has the most dangerous invisible energy. United states government constituted about 6 different expert groups to study the problem and suggest solutions.
We may think that language independent symbols like the danger sign, stop sign, arrow that convey meaning irrespective of the language spoken, would convey the meaning better than a particular language which may go out of use. Many languages and their scripts, like Sumerian, akkadian, elamite, harappan that existed 5000 years ago went out of use and forgotten without any major cultural discontinuity. So, there is no guarantee that people 10000 years(the approximate age till which the waste would remain hazardous) from now would still speak or understand our language.

But, the expert committees in fact suggested language independent symbols give no more guarantee than a particular language, that they will convey intended meaning. It is even possible people in the future may interpret them to mean the opposite of of what we intended. It is also possible, sensing no danger around the waste containers themselves, they may tend to ignore our signs and may try to extract a different meaning than what we intended. So, it seems plain text is the more reliable way of communicating to our future than the language independent symbols like nuclear trefoil. They thought there will always be humans trying to decipher old texts, and curious human beings trying to understand the meaning of cryptic words like our archaeologists.

Mind

What makes me Me? If my brain gets damaged and no longer functions, but my organs continue to function, am I still considered to be Me. Every moment of my existence, I feel myself being inside my brain. If there is no brain, can I be Me? The organs may still be able to coordinate enough to continue the survival of the body as a whole, but does it mean I exist, if there is no brain?
Brain, with its 2% weight, often consumes > 20% of the body's energy. Brain indeed is the place when stuff we feel, happens. Before the legs start to run, before the mouth opens to eat, it is the brain that decides. If there is no brain, if I cannot feel myself inside my head, can I exist? If my hand still functions well, but no longer listens to my brain, can feel it to be mine?

Most of what we feel as ourselves is what happens inside the brain, designed and projected by brain at its will. If body is a state with organs as citizens, then its political organization is a monarchy with brain as the reigning god dictating to other subjects what is good, what to do, when to act, and projecting himself as the sole entity representing the whole State. My pain is the pain that my brain tissue feels. Other organs may be in a bad state, may get damaged, but as long as brain is intact, I can feel both sadness and happiness unhindered.

When I sleep, brain creates a play ground for itself, in dreams. Dream is a close cousin of Thought. Dreams have haunted us since time immemorial. Some say, they are the reason why people started imagining an omnipresent entity as god. If I can see the same world when I sleep, when my eyes are closed, if there are two worlds one when I am awake and one when I am asleep, what is real what is unreal? How can I continue to believe that one is real while the other is unreal? Am I awake or am I asleep?

If men were to have an invisible soul driving them, it must be inside the brain.

Entropy

Entropy is like energy, which we can feel, but is difficult to explain what exactly it is. Originally introduced as a limitation on the ability of a machine to convert one form of energy into another form, now it is at the heart of modern communications and information processing. In a crude way, Entropy is that quantity that denotes complexity in a system. There is no exact definition of what kind of complexity it refers to. But we can almost feel when we look at a system. A system with 3 objects is more complex than a system with 2 objects. A moving object has more complexity that a similar stationary object. A is more complex than L. 23 is more complex than 2. Entropy refers to this unexplainable complexity which our mind can perceive. It may be one of those apriori cognitions that the mind is born with.

If universe is a big computer as is believed by many, Entropy is the quantity that changes as the computer computes.

Strength

If we accept Darwin's theory of evolution whose main postulate is the survival of the fittest, what survives is Good and what doesn't survive is Bad. This is of course, based on a very simple interpretation of the meaning of the words "good" and "bad". That is, "Good" is something everyone wants and "Bad" is some thing nobody wants. If survival of the fittest is the law of the nature, then the only good is to survive, and the only prerequisite for survival is to be fit, that is to be strong. It is in this spirit, Nietzsche seems to say that Strength is the only Good and weakness is the only Bad. There are no morals, nor any principles. It is strength alone, that is Good and that one should strive to acquire. Weak people are condemned by nature to be at the mercy of the Strong. For it is the strong that nature has granted the right to survive, and maintain continuity.

Thus, our morals, are just a sham if we accept Darwin's theory of survival of fittest. There seems to be no basis for our morals, only that they have been there since a long time. Our morals seem to be  from a time when Darwin did not exist. And have no basis in this world of Darwinism and Capitalism.

Immortality

There have been speculations of a possible future in which people would continue to live by transferring their consciousness into another body, using technology that doesn't exist now. The discussion is centered on the assumption that the so called immortality wanted by everyone. But I think nobody will like it. I think it would be a curse to continue to live for generations, to watch the horrors of life pass by. The burden of worldly affairs heaped with hundreds of years of experiences will sap mind's ability to think. And one day, man will realize he is no different from the machine that just follows a pre programmed path. Life is eventful when it is like a river taking birth in the high altitude, showing its youth in the gorges that follow, its maturity in the plateaus that follow, and it's contemplation in the deltas that follow, culminating in its return to that vast ocean mixing and merging with other fellow travelers who have also completed their journey. In contrast, imagine a river, just keep flowing continuously round and round, around the earth. It will be very boring at the least.

Another year

Another year passed as I sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of time.
It was about 5 years ago, that I realized my body is rotting, when my eyes required lenses to continue to see. Last  year, I realized my mind is rotting too. Last year is the first year, in which I realized that I am aging, or sprinting towards that inevitable end to this purposeless life. It may be because of a heavy dose of philosophy in the last year. In any case I am addicted to philosophy now. Nothing else give me peace of mind, than the philosophical quest to understand the meaning of the meaning.

Recently my curiosity shifted to mathematics. I now see a connection between mathematics and such varied concepts as beauty, mind, music, consciousness and our own existence. I think mathematics is the only defining speciality of a human being when contrasted with other living organisms.