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There is a Feuerbachian quality to the ideas in the category "What if the universe works like an X?" X gets substituted with the misunderstood but prized tech d

There is a Feuerbachian quality to the ideas in the category "What if the universe works like an X?" X gets substituted with the misunderstood but prized tech du jour. We've gone from the clockwork universe[1] of mechanical philosophy[2] to the computational universe[3] and now taking a tangent to the neural network universe. If history is a guide, you can bet that what ever sufficiently exalted and misunderstood technology appears there will be an associated theory of the universe attached to it. It says more about us than it does about the universe. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_universe [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_philosophy [3] https://academic.oup.com/pq/article-abstract/53/211/243/1610975?redirectedFrom=fulltext https://academic.oup.com/pq/article-abstract/53/211/243/1610...

JacksonGariety 6y ago
It is possible to accept everything you say except for the last sentence. Technology is the result of the evolutionary process of the universe. If the process resembles its own result, that shouldn't come as a surprise.
- usize 6y ago
  Thank you for phrasing this so succinctly. Self-similarity pops up again and again in nature. Mostly we think of this in terms of geometry (fractals, etc...) but why couldn't self-similarity also apply to time oriented processes like cosmological evolution?
  - JacksonGariety 6y ago
    Bingo. Self-organization, in a strong sense, is the process of cosmological evolution.
- aaron-santos 6y ago
  Not sure if we're in agreement then. Calling out the analogy as Feuerbachian is essentially saying that the analogies between technology and the universe are anthropological framed around our own ideals and not some universal truths.
  - JacksonGariety 6y ago
    Right. And in the second half of my comment I explained why your reasoning is faulty. You must think the natural and artificial worlds as being self-similar. Think them as one continuous, self-organizing process.

JacksonGariety 6y ago

It is possible to accept everything you say except for the last sentence. Technology is the result of the evolutionary process of the universe. If the process resembles its own result, that shouldn't come as a surprise.

usize 6y ago
Thank you for phrasing this so succinctly. Self-similarity pops up again and again in nature. Mostly we think of this in terms of geometry (fractals, etc...) but why couldn't self-similarity also apply to time oriented processes like cosmological evolution?
- JacksonGariety 6y ago
  Bingo. Self-organization, in a strong sense, is the process of cosmological evolution.
aaron-santos 6y ago
Not sure if we're in agreement then. Calling out the analogy as Feuerbachian is essentially saying that the analogies between technology and the universe are anthropological framed around our own ideals and not some universal truths.
- JacksonGariety 6y ago
  Right. And in the second half of my comment I explained why your reasoning is faulty. You must think the natural and artificial worlds as being self-similar. Think them as one continuous, self-organizing process.