The World Modelling Computer

Shannon Entropy - Uncertainty - is perpetually permeating the universe, i.e., the Ether, and the resolution of uncertainty is information. This is the input to the decentralized world computing network, Ethereum.

The world computer is modelling the world by converting noise into signal, uncertainty into information, disorder into order – in a bottom-up manner, rooted in fundamental principles of math, physics, and philosophy.

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

-Carl Gustav Jung

A computer has inputs that are computed into outputs.

Signals (Tactile, Visual, Audio)…

…are transmitted as electrons along circuits…

…and are converted into digital 0s and 1s, which are ultimately computed into outputs.

While the algorithms within these devices are relatively straightforward, computational models employing Bayesian Statistics are more sophisticated.

Recall the premise here: We model the world, and the world models us.

So, to shed more insight on the inner workings of the world computer, there is hardly a better place to start than the one inside each of us:

The brain; a marvel of evolutionary engineering.

“It is a 3-pound mass of jelly. It can contemplate the universe, the meaning of infinity, and contemplate itself contemplating the meaning of infinity.”

-VS Ramachandran

Free Energy Principle and the Brain

In math and code we trust, so let’s simplify this figure.

External states are in the environment, so they represent The World. We (and all self-organizing systems) will do our best to accurately generate Models of the World, and these are represented by Internal States.

The Free Energy Principle is a formal statement that explains the above. As we’ve explored, generating Models of the World entails minimization of variational free energy such that:

The World ≈ Model of the World

The boundary between internal and external states is at our nervous system. This is the portal through which information enters, conveyed by sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch (Sensations; above). Technically, this is a boundary of separation called the Markov blanket.

The human brain and nervous system process inputs through the 5 senses. Information is entering the system continuously with limited filtering. In many ways the system is open and permission-less, just like the Ethereum network.

From this information, Models of the World are generated. Our Models of the World naturally go on to influence our Actions.

Actions help us:

• Change the environment we are in, E.g. Over 300 something years ago, people didn’t like the way of life in the Eastern Hemisphere. This led them to leave their homes and change their environment, resulting in the Western world.

OR

• Influence the boundary between us and the world – Sensations – by modulating the kind of information that enters our system, E.g. If uncorrected vision is blurring the Model of the World, then glasses or contacts can alter the visual information.

Conversely, Sensations can also directly impact our Actions, E.g. Reflexes.

What might be the primary motive behind our Actions?

In this context we act on the world such that, to the extent possible, the World ≈ our Model of the World.

If this is beginning to seem redundant, that is the point.

We expect the World to be consistent with our Model of the World, and in this sense we harbor self-fulfilling prophecies. This process of acting on the world to sample it in a way that would minimize our prediction errors about it is called Active Inference. The word “Inference” is used because we can never generate a 100% accurate model of the world and instead must infer it, given the nature of uncertainty and unknowable unknowns (these are called hidden states in the Free Energy Principle).

Is it really so surprising (pun intended) that we operate based on self-fulfilling prophecies? After all, our perceptions of reality are contingent upon our expectations of reality. Hence the old adages:

• the mind sees what it wants to see.

• if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

• if you’re in the profession of diagnosing disorders, then you’re likely to see disorders.

So the brain appears to be modelling the world to fulfill its own prophecies.

This starts with neurons.