The big metaphor for life, mind, the universe, god, keeps changing. It was animals/spirits, then it was clockwork/machines, then it was information/data, and th

The big metaphor for life, mind, the universe, god, keeps changing. It was animals/spirits, then it was clockwork/machines, then it was information/data, and this article is a reflection of that. We keep thinking we are on the cusp of ultimate understanding, until our metaphor maxes out and we realize we're not. I believe the next metaphor will be ecology. The notion that an information processing agent can be understood in isolation from the ecology in which it operates (both in terms of energy/mechanics and information) is getting harder and harder to sustain. And the ecologies we humans rely on are dying quickly. We'll need to turn that around sooner or later, by insight or by force.