1. Russ Abbott Dept. of Computer Science California State University, Los Angeles and The Aerospace Corporation Unused Slides from the UCLA HCS Conference at Lake Arrowhead May 2005 Thermodynamic Computing Emergence: the rest of the observable, exploitable order in the universe http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/holland-on-emergence/

2. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com2 Game of Life gliders exemplify emergence.  Gliders are not generated explicitly.  There is no glider algorithm.  Gliders are not visible in the rules.  Gliders are generated stigmergically. Epiphenomenal gliders/software All software is stigmergically epiphenomenal over the instruction execution cycle, which is stigmergically epiphenomenal over electron flows.

3. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com3 Software executions as emergence The execution of any piece of software results in an emergent phenomenon.  A software execution is a sequence of instruction executions, none of which individually achieve the effect of the entire sequence.  A computer’s instruction execution cycle is itself an emergent phenomenon of the laws of physics acting on electrons.  Both are similar to the emergence of a glider in the Game of Life.  All are the result of a process shaped by its environment. As programmers we are so used to creating emergent effects that they seem commonplace Same for any creative human activity.

4. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com4 Process(es)Environment Ants in ant colony Environment (pheromones) Game of Life rulesGame of Life grid TM head (an FSA)TM tape CPUMemory/software(!) Forces of nature—as outside the objects, e.g., virtual particles Initial (or current) conditions Stigmergy: controlling, i.e., programming, a process by changing the environment in which it operates. Computing/Nature as stigmergy

5. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com5 Nihil ex nihilo : nothing from nothing In Computer Science we assume that one can specify a TM, an FSA, or a piece of software, and it will do its thing— for free. In the real world one needs energy to drive processes.  To run software one needs a real computer. Also, the virtual interactions in a Game-of-Life pattern library must be implemented at the level of Game-of-Life rules.  The patterns must approach each other very precisely.  In Computer Science we hide those low level interactions from ourselves and pretend the world can be stratified into disjoint layers.  But the universe is not a layered hierarchy.  Source of most security problems.

6. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com6 An area of persistent locally reduced entropy.  Real; not epiphenomenal. Intrinsically maintained:  At-equilibrium: particles, atoms, and molecules.  Far-from-equilibrium: entities whose reduced entropy is maintained by ongoing processes that extract energy and materials from the environment and use them to maintain an internal structure. Extrinsically maintained:  Man-made artifacts: the processes that maintain them (i.e., maintenance) are externally applied. (Theseus’s ship; Lock’s socks.)  Attractor-based entities: can step into the same river twice. Entity trace, another low-entropy phenomenon  A vestige left behind by an entity.  E.g., unmaintained artifacts, physical (sound, water) waves  Tend to deteriorate; entropy increases. Entity

7. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com7 Two kinds of self-perpetuating entities Entities at an energy equilibrium  fundamental particles, atoms, and molecules  the whole (mass) is less than the sum of its parts Entities that are “far from equilibrium”  e.g., biological, economic, political, and social entities  The entity isn’t the components at any one time. E.g., the longest established, permanent floating crap game in NY.  Far-from-equilibrium entities are process-based.  Not necessarily the same as Prigogine’s dissipative structures, which tend to be passive—energy is pumped in. They are active—acquire energy (fuel) from the environment.

8. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com8 A hurricane as a far-from- equilibrium entity Generates heat internally—by condensation rather than combustion  “Consumes fuel”—different from Prigogine’s dissipative structures  Energy produced powers its self-perpetuating processes. Design: a hurricane has a design; one can talk about how it works. Fitness: persists (self-perpetuating) as long as the environment within which it finds itself provides adequate resources given its design.  moist warm surface air  cool dryer condensation area in upper atmosphere http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Hurricanes/

9. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com9 What does fitness mean for far-from-equilibrium entities? Not  a bank account balance  conformance to an ideal, e.g., a fitness function  reproductive success Fitness for an environment: an entity’s ability to acquire from its environment the energy and material resources needed to sustain and perpetuate its life processes.

10. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com10 No good models of biological arms races  Combatants exploit and/or disrupt or otherwise foil each other’s internal processes.  insects vs. plants (biochemistry)  echolocation vs. defensive measures (biophysics)  red-light spray vs. the state (range from basic physics to bribery)  Tierra and successors didn’t get far enough.  Genetic programming went in a different direction. No base modeling level Geckos climb walls by exploiting the Van der Waals effect.  To build a model in which geckos evolve the ability to climb walls, one needs a model of a world that includes enough quantum physics for the Van der Walls effect to appear. How would you respond to a challenge from an intelligent design proponent to model the evolution of any sense?

11. Russ.Abbott@GMail.com11 Whence complexity? Regularities (features of the universe having relatively reduced entropy) form and then serve as the basis for the formation of additional regularities, thereby building ever increasing complexity.  W hy is the universe not as simple as possible? The process whereby these regularities form and whether or not they survive is contingent, historical, constructive, and creative and cannot be explicated through a reductionist analysis. Anderson: the ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws … [does not imply] the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe. “More is Different,” Science, 1972.