Humans are a knowledge-pursuing species: whether consciously or unconsciously, we are constantly striving to understand the complexity we find in the world that surrounds us.
ONE OF THE most distinctive characteristics of the human experience is our collective pursuit of addressing the unknown by means of conceptual and technical tools.
Historically, different tools have been introduced to explain the unknown. Conviction is a prerequisite for many of these tools; either an all-knowing entity or an all-solving system is taken for granted. Extremely powerful tools are able to merge these two concepts. Take religions, for example: in general they provide a framework for understanding the world through the concept of all-solving systems governed by all-knowing entities. Take a closer look at religions and there is revealed a fabric of stories and memes that help people to navigate the unknown. This fabric is woven by evolutionary means, reducing the consumption of time and energy that would otherwise be imposed in the form of cognitive loads on its devotees. From this perspective, religions are stories that are formed through the evolution of memes.
Problem Solving Tools as Evolutionary Set
Although on first sight it might seem an uncharitable comparison, problem solving tools in general might be best compared to viruses in order to illuminate their workings: dancing on the border of life and the abyss, they are not quite suitable to call "alive" on their own, but once they infect their host, their impact can be more far-reaching than that of any individual organism’s.
Thinking in terms of objective functions, that is, a set of steps towards a solution to a problem, can help to further illuminate this concept.
f(M) = A + O^2
Take the evolutionary objective function of a meme (M) that can be defined as the summed absolute occupied attention (A) and squared perceived obedience (O) by its hosts.
f(S) = M(e+t)/t
Furthermore, the survival function (S) of the host should be taken into account as well: the more energy (e) and time (t) is saved for the host, the fitter the host becomes in its own evolutionary game.
Survival imperative: f(S)≥1
Thus the objective function of memes X that address complexity is two-fold; 1) survive in the first place, and 2) optimize its hosts' biological evolutionary objective function.
In other words, the memes and tools that survive and have the capacity to survive on biological hosts are by definition memes and tools that provide cognitive shortcuts, improved odds for adaptation, survival, propagation, or a combination of these.
Ultimately, the effect of these tools is mediated through physiological and hormonal processes in their hosts. The really effective ones will provide for just the right mix of the chemicals that regulate feeling in biological beings: adrenaline, oxytocin, epinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine.
ENTER COMPUTABILITY, which at its core is the ability to think abstractly about complexity. It is the process of solving complex problems modelled in a simplified framework with a well defined set of rules and relations. Take language as an example of a simplification framework that is used for complex problem solving: it is a prime example of a very successful meme that fares well in the evolutionary race of memes. Language has a well defined set of rules and its abstraction allows the modeling of complex problems independent of their original environment.
A few other successful examples of evolutionarily “fit” conceptual and technical frameworks are writing, culture, and the concept of kinship. Computability, as complementary to these tools, is studied in the fields of linguistics, game theory and computational biology, respectively.
IN MODERN HISTORY, frameworks with a rigid and coherent set of rules proved to provide fertile ground for computability. Three developments from the past century have given rise to computability as a meta-tool to analyse conceptual and technical problem solving tools:
the developments in Set Theory in the early 20th century, which firmly attached most branches of mathematics to a solid, reason- and logic-based framework;
the Turing machine and the Turing-Church conjecture, that together give us the insight that every function (here defined as a set of steps towards a solution to a problem) is computable on systems that can in principle be applied on pen and paper; and
the silicon chip, which has made computation efficient and ubiquitous, shrinking the medium of computation exponentially. From the 50 square meters and 8 tonnes that the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) required for simple programs in the 1950s, in 2020 a hand-held device is capable on average of about 3 billion instructions per second. Those instructions merge into algorithmic steps that are en march towards solutions of problems, forming functions and functional properties that are then analyzed and juxtaposed with those of other algorithms.
This process is called computational thinking, and to our best current knowledge, there are no theoretic limits to the possibilities it can achieve. The only limiting factors are computational resources in terms of time, memory and in terms of modeling accuracy—that is, the ability to effectively project complex problems into the simplifying subspace of functions.
Arguably, we have reached a point where we cannot even imagine what computation might look like without these limiting factors.
FROM THIS THEORETICAL infinitude, the techno-materialist story rings out, merging the concept of the all-knowing and all-knowable entity of matter with the concept of the all-solving system of technology and computation. We are living in an age when the story of infinite minds and limited resources has claimed first place in the arena of evolutionary memes. The idea of the universe being limited by our capacity for reason and imagination has been replaced by the idea of unlimited possibilities.
This is a story that will shape our lives and minds in such a way that we must at some point, arrive at the the one and only complexity left unsolved for us: our selves. The pursuit of addressing the unknown will persist as one of the most distinctive characteristics of human nature. We all strive to understand complexity, and our understanding can reach from the complexity in the world around us to the complexity in the world within us. The answers we find will be both defined by and depend on the stories that lead us there, but our exploration continues.
About Utnapishtim
Turn your attention within, and glance into the infinity of time and space! The song of the stars, the speech of numbers, and the harmony of the spheres all have their origins there. Every sun is a thought of God, and every planet the thought’s expression. Ascend and descend, oh souls, the path of the seven planets, and in the seven skies of these seven planets shall ye recognize the divine thoughts. What do the stars sing? What do numbers talk about? What do the spheres reveal? Oh, ye lost or redeemed souls; these stars, numbers and spheres are revealing your fate.