80/20 Version

Welcome to the first “80/20 version” of a book ever written! Since most people are busy and do not want to take the time to read a full-length book, this is a condensed version of God’s Rainbow Connection: Fractal Code and Resurrection that contains about 20 printed pages of content and a list of approximately 500 references. It is based on the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule, which means that while it is less than 20% the length of a typical 300 page book (it actually is around 30 printed pages or 10%), it should have close to 80% of the value of the final version. This is especially true if someone is willing to follow all of the references, which link to external webpages or video clips—and often contain additional notes.

If you want to quickly get a sense of what the book is about, it is recommended that you first go to the book section of the About page and read the few paragraphs there. In addition, there is a summary of the book which is much shorter than this webpage.

Contents:

Introduction

The Bible and Fractals

Information Theory and Biology

Conscious Emergence and Philosophy

Fractal Information Trimonism: Another Trinity

New Observations and a Materialist’s Paradox

From a Turing Machine to Holographic Minds?

Helping to Resurrect the Watchmaker Analogy

DNA Repair and a Logical Loop of Feedback

A Biological Jacob’s Ladder and a TOE?

Control Engineering and the Bible

References (with comments)

Introduction

The story of the book I am writing began when I got tired of the commercialism surrounding Christmas over twenty years ago and wondered if there was more to Christianity then what I had learned growing up as a Baptist missionary kid in the Congo and the Philippines. When I started researching the various modern traditions connected with the holiday season, I came across information on atheist websites which also talked about the amount of wasted matter, energy, and space in the universe as well as how evolution can be explained completely by chance. I had seen some of their arguments before, but I realized I had not really thought about objections to Christianity very much.

I decided I needed to become neutral (or agnostic) and do more studying in order to figure out if it was reasonable to believe in God in the first place, even though it made me feel like I had lost my best friend. At the time I was not familiar with a quote frequently attributed to Werner Heisenberg, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. Heisenberg may (or may not) have said, “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”⁽¹⁾

Despite any uncertainty surrounding the precise source of the quote, as I kept gulping knowledge I found out more and more about the fine-tuning of the universe. The most amazing example I learned of was the cosmological constant,⁽²⁾ a force associated with dark energy and the increasing expansion of space which appears to be tuned to the astronomically small number of 10⁻¹²⁰. This is equivalent to the size of half a grain of sand compared to the rest of the universe.⁽³⁾ If this constant were a tiny bit stronger or weaker, all of the matter would have apparently rapidly expanded or collapsed shortly after the Big Bang, making life impossible. Several other finely-tuned constants,⁽⁴⁾⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾ plus signs that the formation of the Moon (which was important to the development of life on Earth) was an extremely rare event,⁽⁷⁾ made it even more difficult to believe everything in the universe was a waste or the result of random accidents. On the other hand, Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and most of the ideas offered by the Intelligent Design movement seemed to be an incomplete “God of the gaps” story, so I kept studying.

The Bible and Fractals

One website discussing evidence for God from science also talked about how Passover reveals Jesus,⁽⁸⁾ which surprised me because I thought it was a Jewish festival. So I learned how Jesus died at the exact time that the lamb was supposed to be killed each spring according to the Bible’s instructions written around a thousand years earlier. I also learned how Passover and the rest of the Holy Days⁽⁹⁾ foreshadow seven literal spiritual days of Yeshua (Jesus’ name in Hebrew which means “God’s salvation”).

The sequence of the biblical Holy Days made more sense to me than modern traditions, and as I continued to study the Hebrew roots of Christianity I noticed other patterns of creation, separation, and restoration in the Torah (or instruction) seemed similar. This included the seven universal “days” of creation described in the beginning of the book of Genesis that are most commonly understood as representing ages or long periods of time.⁽¹⁰⁾⁽¹¹⁾ So I lined up all of the patterns in a table along with seven colors of light from the rainbow, the sign (or code) of the covenant promised to Noah and all living creatures by God. When I started showing it to a few people, one minister said the complex version of the table (which is located in the Appendix webpage and is called “A Fractal Periodic Table of ‘Elements’ of the Bible’s Light”) was the best one-page summary of the Bible he had seen.

As I was putting the table together I realized it was fractal, where each part has the same character as the whole but repeats at different scales. I already knew a little bit about self-similar fractal patterns and how they are found in math and nature, like tree trunks continually splitting into smaller and smaller branches, twigs, stems, and then smaller and smaller veins in leaves. Or rivers growing bigger and bigger through a system of streams and tributaries.⁽¹²⁾⁽¹³⁾⁽¹⁴⁾ More research uncovered that a lot more things were fractal than I expected, such as electrons sometimes behaving in a way that looks like a fractal “butterfly.”⁽¹⁵⁾ I even realized that rainbows are really a fractal “rainbow of rainbows” (see a diagram on the Summary webpage for details about how interfering light waves create faint supernumerary bands).⁽¹⁶⁾⁽¹⁷⁾

Incidentally, the timing of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection may also fit into a self-similar, repeating pattern that is known as a fractal. Although biblical scholars do not completely agree on the exact date, there is evidence that:

He died in Hebrew year 3790 (30 AD), which is in the middle “day” of the “week” of millenniums or 7,000 year period in the Bible that starts with Adam⁽¹⁸⁾

He was cut off in the middle of the last “week” of seven years in the “70 weeks” prophecy by Daniel, which is interpreted as actually being 490 years long⁽¹⁹⁾

He was crucified in the middle of the week on a Wednesday⁽²⁰⁾

Fractals can also be found in technology such as cell phone antennas⁽²¹⁾ or image compression,⁽²²⁾ in paintings by artists like Jackson Pollock,⁽²³⁾⁽²⁴⁾ in aspects of logic,⁽²⁵⁾ and in cellular structures.⁽²⁶⁾ Fractal patterns are hidden everywhere in the biological language of life too, from how DNA physically folds into three-dimensional globs of globules,⁽²⁷⁾ to how parts of the genome are encoded,⁽²⁸⁾⁽²⁹⁾⁽³⁰⁾ and to how networks of cells signal and synchronize together.⁽³¹⁾⁽³²⁾⁽³³⁾⁽³⁴⁾⁽³⁵⁾

I also discovered a few Jewish⁽³⁶⁾⁽³⁷⁾ and Christian⁽³⁸⁾⁽³⁹⁾⁽⁴⁰⁾ people were seeing other examples of fractal text patterns in the Bible, which is actually a book of books⁽⁴¹⁾⁽⁴²⁾ that explains how to operate in a fifth dimension of good and evil.⁽⁴³⁾ So I was not alone, and their work additionally helped me to realize that the Hebraic code of law consisting of 613 mitzvot or commandments in the Torah is essentially a more detailed fractal version of the Ten Commandments—which are in turn a more detailed fractal version of the Great Commandment to love God in addition to loving your neighbor as yourself.⁽⁴⁴⁾⁽⁴⁵⁾

More importantly, I realized Yeshua was talking about God being fractal when He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches” almost two thousand years before the word was coined. It made sense a fractal God would be the best explanation for the emergence⁽⁴⁶⁾⁽⁴⁷⁾⁽⁴⁸⁾⁽⁴⁹⁾ of a universe full of fractal patterns, including the famous Mandelbrot set which is composed of smaller connected fractals called Julia sets⁽⁵⁰⁾ and is known as the “thumbprint of God.” Interestingly, although the Mandelbrot Set is an infinitely complex two-dimensional slice of even higher-dimensional mathematics, it can be described with a simple formula (or code).⁽⁵¹⁾⁽⁵²⁾

Information Theory and Biology

Once I was aware there were multiple kinds of fractal patterns in the Bible, I decided to write a book to share this knowledge with other people. However, as I did even more research, I came across information theory and its relationship with codes (which are systems of rules connecting symbols and meaning that allow something to represent something else)⁽⁵³⁾ and consciousness. The existence of encoded “symbolic meaning” turned out to be the last gulp of science for me before the bottom of the glass in the quote attributed to Heisenberg. It made me happy because it confirmed that a belief in God is rational, although it is still not possible to use it to conclusively demonstrate the existence of God or even other minds with science.⁽⁵⁴⁾

“Information is information, not matter or energy. No materialism which does not admit this can survive at the present day.”— Norbert Wiener, MIT Mathematician and father of cybernetics

For instance, according to an engineer, business consultant, and bestselling author named Perry Marshall—who is helping to popularize ideas from a German information theorist named Werner Gitt⁽⁵⁵⁾⁽⁵⁶⁾ and symbiotically integrating⁽⁵⁷⁾ them with the latest discoveries in systems biology—all codes humans know the origin of (i.e., almost all of them) have come from a mind. No one has ever found an example of a digital code that has been verified to come from a purely material source, although Perry Marshall has created a prize potentially worth 10 million dollars to search for an exception.⁽⁵⁸⁾⁽⁵⁹⁾ Until someone does, it is reasonable and logical to infer a 100 percent connection between consciousness and the emergence of the genetic code in DNA (where for example a sequence of three adenine or “A” nucleobases symbolically represents the amino acid lysine),⁽⁶⁰⁾⁽⁶¹⁾ which at this point is of unknown origin.

“The existence of a genome and the genetic code divides living organisms from non-living matter. There is nothing in the physico-chemical world that remotely resembles reactions being determined by a sequence and codes between sequences.”— Hubert Yockey, Physicist and information theorist

This type of logic is known as inductive reasoning⁽⁶²⁾⁽⁶³⁾ and is often used in philosophical statements like the premise “all humans are mortal” (even if it only ends up being one part of a larger deductive syllogism).⁽⁶⁴⁾ It is also used to derive scientific phenomena like Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation from experimental observations.⁽⁶⁵⁾ In short, the science of information theory and what linguists refer to as the “Einstein gulf”⁽⁶⁶⁾⁽⁶⁷⁾⁽⁶⁸⁾⁽⁶⁹⁾⁽⁷⁰⁾⁽⁷¹⁾ plus the encoding/decoding table of the genetic code shows God almost certainly exists unless proven otherwise.⁽⁷²⁾⁽⁷³⁾⁽⁷⁴⁾⁽⁷⁵⁾⁽⁷⁶⁾

“The Atheist’s Riddle: ‘Show me a language that does not come from a mind.’ It’s so simple any child can understand, but so complex no atheist can solve.”— Perry Marshall, an engineer, business consultant, and bestselling author

However, instead of God using Intelligent Design to directly create every plant and animal six thousand years ago or relying only on random accidents to improve living things, science has recently demonstrated the cells themselves are actively trying to adapt and are creating,⁽⁷⁷⁾⁽⁷⁸⁾ borrowing,⁽⁷⁹⁾ and merging⁽⁸⁰⁾ new biological information into their DNA. This conscious emergence of information by organisms seems to be much more interesting than the extreme positions many creationists and atheists take.⁽⁸¹⁾⁽⁸²⁾

Conscious Emergence and Philosophy

As a result, a new origin of life theory called “Conscious Emergence” is proposed in the book. It is a synthesis that resolves the tension between the thesis of Intelligent Design and the antithesis of random accidents, according to the three-stage Hegelian dialectic model in philosophy.⁽⁸³⁾⁽⁸⁴⁾ To see a quick summary of information about it, please go to the “A Comparison of Origin of Life Theories” table located earlier in this webpage. Conscious Emergence is based on evidence of cellular agency⁽⁸⁵⁾⁽⁸⁶⁾⁽⁸⁷⁾⁽⁸⁸⁾ and further develops ideas about the role of error correction in evolution by Alfred Russel Wallace, the often forgotten about co-discoverer of natural selection.⁽⁸⁹⁾ It also incorporates a version of natural theology proposed by Charles Babbage,⁽⁹⁰⁾ the “father of the computer.” This means it is a type of evolutionary creation⁽⁹¹⁾ similar to the ideas promoted by Francis Collins, who wrote a book called the The Language of God and started the BioLogos Foundation.⁽⁹²⁾

Conscious Emergence includes concepts like Natural Genetic Engineering (NGE)⁽⁹³⁾ by James Shapiro plus Denis Noble’s biological relativity⁽⁹⁴⁾ and harnessed stochasticity⁽⁹⁵⁾ (his name for adaptive mutation).⁽⁹⁶⁾⁽⁹⁷⁾ It also includes multilevel/group selection⁽⁹⁸⁾⁽⁹⁹⁾ and convergent evolution⁽¹⁰⁰⁾⁽¹⁰¹⁾ as championed by Simon Conway Morris, where contrary to the butterfly effect,⁽¹⁰²⁾⁽¹⁰³⁾ the same basic forms keep showing up again and again in what the author calls a repeatable “flies to the butter” attractor effect.⁽¹⁰⁴⁾⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ Most of this type of research has already been collectively described by others as “the third way of evolution,”⁽¹⁰⁶⁾⁽¹⁰⁷⁾⁽¹⁰⁸⁾ “Evolution 2.0,”⁽¹⁰⁹⁾⁽¹¹⁰⁾ or as part of an extended evolutionary synthesis.⁽¹¹¹⁾⁽¹¹²⁾⁽¹¹³⁾ It is additional evidence that we live in a participatory universe⁽¹¹⁴⁾ with an information-theoretic origin as proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler,⁽¹¹⁵⁾⁽¹¹⁶⁾ on top of the following scientific discoveries that Conscious Emergence is also based on:

quantum delayed-choice experiments⁽¹¹⁷⁾⁽¹¹⁸⁾⁽¹¹⁹⁾
cosmic microwave background anomalies⁽¹²⁰⁾⁽¹²¹⁾⁽¹²²⁾⁽¹²³⁾⁽¹²⁴⁾
problems with cosmic inflation⁽¹²⁵⁾
critical point scale symmetries (which are fractal)⁽¹²⁶⁾
quantum-critical biochemistry⁽¹²⁷⁾⁽¹²⁸⁾
quantum tunneling in DNA repair⁽¹²⁹⁾⁽¹³⁰⁾
patterns of punctuated equilibrium in the fossil record⁽¹³¹⁾ and their similarity with the history of innovations by humans in areas like timekeeping⁽¹³²⁾ and aviation⁽¹³³⁾ (i.e., occasional large jumps in capability followed by long periods of no or only gradual improvements), which infers the presence of consciousness

Note: Conscious Emergence is a metalinguistic (meaning “beyond language”) theory of life’s origin that takes existing ideas in evolution like randomness, self-replication, and natural selection and combines them with additional principles based on recent discoveries by scientists. Some of these are the seeming appearance of retrocausality in quantum mechanics⁽¹³⁴⁾⁽¹³⁵⁾ as well as unexpected connections between physics, information, and holography.⁽¹³⁶⁾⁽¹³⁷⁾⁽¹³⁸⁾⁽¹³⁹⁾⁽¹⁴⁰⁾

There are also indications of cellular agency due to Lamarkian soft inheritance via epigenetic code,⁽¹⁴¹⁾⁽¹⁴²⁾ the creation of brand new orphan/ORFan genes,⁽¹⁴³⁾⁽¹⁴⁴⁾ genetic redundancy where biological functions are buffered by multiple genes,⁽¹⁴⁵⁾⁽¹⁴⁶⁾⁽¹⁴⁷⁾⁽¹⁴⁸⁾ and error correction of DNA. In fact, it turns out that before the “survival of the fittest” can occur, what has been termed as the “arrival of the fittest”⁽¹⁴⁹⁾ relies on mutations or adaptations which are not random across the genome,⁽¹⁵⁰⁾⁽¹⁵¹⁾ often do not come from changes in gene sequences,⁽¹⁵²⁾ and also depend on the “arrival of better fixes”. Of course, these are the increasingly complex and effective DNA repair mechanisms⁽¹⁵³⁾ that are highly genetically conserved themselves and reduce replication errors to less than one in a billion in humans.⁽¹⁵⁴⁾

This continual improvement of the error-correcting systems encoded in DNA is an example of what the author calls the “principle of error minimization”—and it proves that there is more to evolution than just a bunch of random accidents followed by selection by the environment!⁽¹⁵⁵⁾ This principle is also found in several other areas of biology, such as the optimization of the genetic code against point mutations/mistranslation and how the brain minimizes prediction errors through a process known as predictive coding. These concepts are discussed in more detail later on in this webpage, near the end of the “DNA Repair and a Logical Loop of Feedback” section as well as the first part of the section that follows it.

However, rather than living organisms just acting as observers of Wheeler’s “it from bit,”⁽¹⁵⁶⁾⁽¹⁵⁷⁾ there appears to be a fractal Author composed of many authors drafting and then lovingly editing and correcting gaps in the story via “code from wit”. In other words, instead of a universe from nothing⁽¹⁵⁸⁾ or from an old man with a beard in the sky,⁽¹⁵⁹⁾ there is a Suprapersonal Consciousness⁽¹⁶⁰⁾⁽¹⁶¹⁾ entangled with each person as they choose to conscientiously help order, goodness, and life emerge or allow themselves to slide into chaos, evil, and death. These indications of “creatio ex informatio”⁽¹⁶²⁾ in a distributed “panexintheistic” (meaning both “all because of God” and “all then God”) type of process theology⁽¹⁶³⁾⁽¹⁶⁴⁾ led me to study a broad spectrum of scientific fields and philosophy from the perspective of information theory.

Especially key were significant insights about information by Robert Doyle, who describes himself as the “Information Philosopher.”⁽¹⁶⁵⁾ His insights include information’s value⁽¹⁶⁶⁾ in locally reducing entropy, which is commonly associated with disorder or uncertainty and is a measure of the number of ways something’s microscopic parts can be rearranged without changing its macroscopic condition.⁽¹⁶⁷⁾⁽¹⁶⁸⁾ Robert Doyle also sees information as having a role in the solution to philosopher David Hume’s moral is–ought problem⁽¹⁶⁹⁾ and has come up with a two-stage model of free will.⁽¹⁷⁰⁾⁽¹⁷¹⁾

Fractal Information Trimonism: Another Trinity

All of the research I did confirmed that while the universe has a material component, it also contains meaning symbolically encoded in information. This fact helped inspire me to develop a new holistic explanation of the mind–body problem that is fractal and contains a recursive type of “information about information” known as code. It appears to be a breakthrough that resolves the problem of interactionism (or what connects mind and body together),⁽¹⁷²⁾⁽¹⁷³⁾ which has existed in modern Western philosophy since René Descartes’s formulation of dualism nearly four hundred years ago!⁽¹⁷⁴⁾⁽¹⁷⁵⁾

Similar to how Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and the discovery of quantum mechanics extended classical physics, what I call “Fractal Information Trimonism” (FIT) extends the ideas of many philosophers—especially those catogorized as classical rationalists⁽¹⁷⁶⁾—as shown in the diagram above. In short, FIT is a triple-aspect monism which is self-similar. It is based on the observation that organizational codes with symbols containing meaning such as those found in DNA are always present along with physical atoms/body as well as mental consciousness/mind in living beings.

FIT links these three aspects of information with fractals (see a diagram on the Summary webpage and some of the text above it for more details), the semiotic triangle⁽¹⁷⁷⁾⁽¹⁷⁸⁾⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ of language,⁽¹⁸⁰⁾ and the theological doctrine of God as a Trinity⁽¹⁸¹⁾⁽¹⁸²⁾ composed of body, soul,⁽¹⁸³⁾ and spirit intertwined⁽¹⁸⁴⁾ in a way that can be considered aesthetically pleasing.⁽¹⁸⁵⁾ In addition, these aspects of physical extension, “organizational communication” via code, and mental thought echo the data, information, and knowledge hierarchy of information science plus the subjects of grammar, logic, and rhetoric in the liberal arts. Incidentally, the physical and mental aspects of information are the same as the two attributes of extension and thought⁽¹⁸⁶⁾ already identified and described by Baruch Spinoza.⁽¹⁸⁷⁾

Fractal Information Trimonism can also be thought of as a fractal twist of the linguistic turn in philosophy (which was originally developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein and others)⁽¹⁸⁸⁾ that is based on information theory⁽¹⁸⁹⁾⁽¹⁹⁰⁾⁽¹⁹¹⁾ with a third aspect of code acting as a container or language conduit.⁽¹⁹²⁾⁽¹⁹³⁾ Or FIT can alternatively be seen as a version of Karl Popper’s three worlds⁽¹⁹⁴⁾ (or mathematician Roger Penrose’s slightly different one)⁽¹⁹⁵⁾⁽¹⁹⁶⁾ involving self-similar semiotic patterns of syntax, semantics, and a type of pragmatics emphasizing the differing emotions generated by the context of a message.⁽¹⁹⁷⁾ This means that it describes the weaving together of a suprapersonal, personal, and intrapersonal holarchy⁽¹⁹⁸⁾ of objective reality, “collective” codes, and the subjective feelings which individuals create relative to their beliefs about the other two.

“The whole of philosophy in this way resembles a circle of circles. The Idea appears in each single circle, but, at the same time, the whole Idea is constituted by the system of these peculiar phases, and each is a necessary member of the organisation.”— G. W. F. Hegel in his Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817)⁽¹⁹⁹⁾
(Incidentally, a modern Fractal Information Trimonism-based interpretation of this quote would be: “Instead of turtles all the way down,⁽²⁰⁰⁾ it is information all the way around.”)⁽²⁰¹⁾

FIT also adds a middle “layer” of code or mental representation⁽²⁰²⁾ which actually consists of multiple fractally-distributed sets of code (somewhat comparable to a hidden layer of nodes in an artificial neural network)⁽²⁰³⁾ to the thesis of multiple realizability originally formulated by Hilary Putnam.⁽²⁰⁴⁾ This architecture allows the same mental state to theoretically have different physical implementations,⁽²⁰⁵⁾ as long as the code is adjusted to compensate. The fact that the code contains symbolic meaning also helps to explain why a theory of intentionality (the observation that mental states are about or of something else)⁽²⁰⁶⁾⁽²⁰⁷⁾⁽²⁰⁸⁾ is associated with the mind.

The fractal nature of FIT additionally supports one of Putnam’s arguments for semantic externalism,⁽²⁰⁹⁾ where he points out a linguistic community is necessary in order to help an individual person make meaning. Since multiple sets of code coordinate the interaction between mind and body, including the correction of errors, it also echoes aspects of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s theory of pre-established harmony⁽²¹⁰⁾ with programmed monads which are fractal.⁽²¹¹⁾ The distributed character of the code sets (and the fact that code symbolically refers to something else) also offers a way to help bridge the problem of “Leibniz’s gap”⁽²¹²⁾ that exists between mental perceptions and physical mechanisms. Plus it helps explain why so many different theories of consciousness have been proposed, with each one seeming to operate in a different area or at a different scale than the others.⁽²¹³⁾

The relationships between the aspects of Fractal Information Trimonism are interdependent:

body = code + mind (from quantum delayed-choice experiments)

code = mind + body (from knowledge of how humans formulate languages)

mind = body + code (from scientific observations of living creatures)

Speaking of which, since the length of fractal boundaries change depending on what scale is chosen to measure them,⁽²¹⁴⁾⁽²¹⁵⁾ FIT may provide another clue as to why qualia—or the feelings of conscious experience that we have—are subjective. Incidentally, the question of why cognition is accompanied by experience has recently been reformulated as the “hard problem of consciousness” by philosopher David Chalmers.⁽²¹⁶⁾⁽²¹⁷⁾ The nature of qualia has also been discussed in a “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” paper⁽²¹⁸⁾ by Thomas Nagel (who has additionally written about natural teleology)⁽²¹⁹⁾ as well as the “Mary’s room” thought experiment regarding color⁽²²⁰⁾ by Frank Jackson. Even if FIT is unable to offer any more insights into subjective experiences, its fractal nature could still be combined with ideas like:

the CIP Framework⁽²²¹⁾ by Federico Faggin
the Integrated Information Theory (IIT)⁽²²²⁾ of consciousness proposed by Giulio Tononi
Value Realism⁽²²³⁾ by David Rousseau
the Somatic Marker Hypothesis⁽²²⁴⁾ by Antonio Damasio (that suggests emotions guide behavior)

New Observations and a Materialist’s Paradox

Fractal Information Trimonism can also be the basis for brand new observations. One example of the three aspects of FIT that may be familiar to people involves a social construct known as money.⁽²²⁵⁾ In the case of a coin, at the physical level, it objectively has a third side. This is known as the edge and it is normally overlooked, but it connects the coin’s obverse (heads) and reverse (tails) sides—similar to how biological codes sit between mind and body. A coin also carries stamped codes containing information important to a collective group of people, and it actually has three separate conceptual values. These range from an encoded legal value, to a mentally subjective market value (which can vary greatly from the encoded legal value if the coin is rare or if high inflation is occuring), and to the intrinsic or melt value of the physical metal. As far as the mental aspect of money, based on their experiences, different people will have different subjective feelings and attitudes ranging from positive, to negative, and to indifferent about the value(s) of the coin.

This is similar to how someone starting with little or no money who is informed that they are now “worth a million dollars” will almost certainly react differently than a person who originally had a billion dollars—even though both of them currently have exactly the same amount of money. The same thing occurs when fans of opposing sports teams have very different subjective feelings after a scoring play (like a goal in soccer), although they both collectively agree about the meaning encoded by the sport’s rules into the objective event of a ball crossing a line. FIT can be applied to other far-ranging examples such as the model of events, beliefs, and emotions in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the science of music, and even the mathematical theory of all communication created in the 1940s by Claude Shannon.⁽²²⁶⁾

Taking my new philosophical FIT model and using what I had learned about information theory, I also realized any statement claiming only material things exist also carries symbolically encoded meaning. This results in a “materialist’s paradox” similar to the paradox in Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorem in mathematics.⁽²²⁷⁾⁽²²⁸⁾ It is also related to the symbol grounding problem⁽²²⁹⁾—and even if someone is eventually able to prove a digital code can originate naturally, it will still hold true.

In addition, the non-physical meaning of the statement causes different subjective feelings (pro or con) in other people’s minds about what is being claimed depending on their current worldview, showing pure materialism to be false on multiple levels. To put it another way, while a person is not entitled to create their own private version of what a statement means, they are completely free to have their own individual feelings about the collectively agreed upon meaning. So when it comes to information, code and emotions matter just as much as matter.

From a Turing Machine to Holographic Minds?

Like the philosophical theory of machine-state functionalism⁽²³⁰⁾ by Hilary Putnam, the three aspects of Fractal Information Trimonism can be superficially compared to the elements associated with a Turing machine. This idealized model of all computation consists of a physical read/write head with storage tape, an instruction table containing code, and a state register that tracks the current step of a calculation in a quasi-mindlike fashion. The comparison can then be recursively applied to just the code because variable assignment statements, function pointer dereferencing (which allows computer code to be dynamically linked), and self-modifying reflective metaprogramming in some modern programming languages outwardly follow the same three-fold pattern of increasing virtualization. This triple progression can also be seen in the instantiated objects, interfaces (which encode information about code), and abstract classes of object-oriented programming. It additionally applies to the physical, logical, and high-level conceptual models used when planning enterprise information systems architecture.

However, as the philosopher John Searle has argued when discussing whether artificial intelligence (AI) is conscious, a computer simulation of a fire does not burn things like an actual fire.⁽²³¹⁾ This is similar to how there is no symbol grounding or understanding of the meaning of the language being processed in his Chinese room thought experiment.⁽²³²⁾ (Although a case could be made that the Chinese symbols may be grounded with very different meaning in Searle’s mind by his understanding of their relationship to the program’s instructions.) So the overall comparison with computers breaks down at the conscious level, because only the external human circuit designers, coders, and application users currently appear to be mentally “a-ware” of the meaning of the results generated by the layers of hardware and software. As mentioned earlier, the existence of this consciousness or qualia in humans and other organisms is a fundamentally hard problem to explain and it seems to be based on more than just processing raw data with algorithms.⁽²³³⁾

Problems related to consciousness in philosophy:

Name Question Solution

Mind–body What is the connection? Code in fractal patterns

Symbol grounding How is meaning understood? Maybe it is holographic?

Hard problem (qualia) Why is there feeling? Maybe a fundamental aspect?

Name	Question	Solution
Mind–body	What is the connection?	Code in fractal patterns
Symbol grounding	How is meaning understood?	Maybe it is holographic?
Hard problem (qualia)	Why is there feeling?	Maybe a fundamental aspect?

Instead, the biological computation⁽²³⁴⁾⁽²³⁵⁾ and embodied cognition⁽²³⁶⁾ associated with consciousness might be something like a holographic⁽²³⁷⁾⁽²³⁸⁾ version of Plato’s Cave⁽²³⁹⁾⁽²⁴⁰⁾ which could involve a “code field” that is conceived as being analogous to a four-dimensional light field.⁽²⁴¹⁾ Incidentally, similar to experiencing objects which are three-dimensional and sunlit after only being familiar with two-dimensional shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave, holograms (which look like the volumetric image of Princess Leah in the movie Star Wars)⁽²⁴²⁾ contain higher-dimensional information encoded in a lower-dimensional substrate. In addition, each part of the underlying physical architecture that potentially gives rise to this hypothetical holographic code field could contain fractal and ergodic (which is a technical term for irregular regularity or statistically similar)⁽²⁴³⁾ patterns of information about the whole,⁽²⁴⁴⁾⁽²⁴⁵⁾⁽²⁴⁶⁾⁽²⁴⁷⁾ similar to the Buddhist idea of Indra’s net.⁽²⁴⁸⁾⁽²⁴⁹⁾

The “surface” of these patterns of “information in formation” would appear to be random like the speckle patterns in holographic film,⁽²⁵⁰⁾ the messages transmitted by certain error-correcting codes,⁽²⁵¹⁾ streams of bits in stochastic computing,⁽²⁵²⁾⁽²⁵³⁾ and even weights between layers of nodes in AI.⁽²⁵⁴⁾⁽²⁵⁵⁾ By the way, these four examples run counter to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’s claim about life being “complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” This is because they show there are things with random patterns that may (or may not) subjectively appear to be complicated—even though they are actually a result of purposeful design.

However, the “cross section” of this code field of information would appear to have interference fringes (similar to the supernumerary bands found in rainbows which were discussed earlier) that are arranged in nested hyperbolic lines of flux like the geometric model of holography.⁽²⁵⁶⁾ This could create the logical equivalent of a flat map with virtual symbols which seem to pop up into three-dimensional space.⁽²⁵⁷⁾ Somewhat similar to a newly discovered 2.5-dimensional mixing of surface and bulk states in graphite,⁽²⁵⁸⁾ the shape of these symbols and therefore their relative linguistic meaning could shift depending on the perspective or mental interpretation they are observed with,⁽²⁵⁹⁾⁽²⁶⁰⁾ while a deeper-rooted sense of self would still remain stable.⁽²⁶¹⁾

“~~Spacetime tells matter~~ [Mind tells information] how to move; ~~matter tells spacetime~~ [information tells mind] how to curve.”— A quote by theoretical physicist John Wheeler summarizing Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity that has been modified so it applies to consciousness

This might be due to a conjunction of quantum⁽²⁶²⁾⁽²⁶³⁾⁽²⁶⁴⁾⁽²⁶⁵⁾⁽²⁶⁶⁾ and classical error correction⁽²⁶⁷⁾—which has recently been discovered in quasiparticles⁽²⁶⁸⁾ and theoretically in supersymmetry theory⁽²⁶⁹⁾⁽²⁷⁰⁾—providing feedback similar to a thermostat, centrifugal governor,⁽²⁷¹⁾⁽²⁷²⁾ or windmill fantail.⁽²⁷³⁾ (Incidentally, although governors and fantails are not digital, they contain parts which mechanically symbolize/represent something else and generate an emergent non-physical control law described mathematically by a transfer function.)⁽²⁷⁴⁾ In addition, the code field would be arranged in a way that allows the complex holographic⁽²⁷⁵⁾⁽²⁷⁶⁾⁽²⁷⁷⁾⁽²⁷⁸⁾ or more specifically holonomic⁽²⁷⁹⁾⁽²⁸⁰⁾ logic in the brain emerging from this theoretical matrix of information to have some kind of cybernetic control over itself.⁽²⁸¹⁾ So it would have the ability to choose how to adapt⁽²⁸²⁾⁽²⁸³⁾ and modify its underlying physical structure by rewiring it,⁽²⁸⁴⁾⁽²⁸⁵⁾ creating a mind capable of self-organization⁽²⁸⁶⁾ or in other words, a case of “mind over matter.”⁽²⁸⁷⁾

Helping to Resurrect the Watchmaker Analogy

While developing the idea of Fractal Information Trimonism, I also realized that significantly improving a recent improvement of the watchmaker analogy by Perry Marshall would make it a valid teleological argument⁽²⁸⁸⁾ after all, at least until someone finds a natural digital code. This analogy is associated with William Paley⁽²⁸⁹⁾ but actually dates back more than two thousand years to the time of Cicero, a Roman statesman, orator, and writer.⁽²⁹⁰⁾ Regardless, Perry Marshall has contributed to an important breakthrough by being the first person I am aware of to identify that the element common to both watches and life is language⁽²⁹¹⁾—although he has not been the only one to do so since then.⁽²⁹²⁾

“When you see a sundial or a water-clock, you see that it tells the time by design and not by chance. How then can you imagine that the universe as a whole is devoid of purpose and intelligence, when it embraces everything, including these artifacts themselves and their artificers?”— Cicero, De Natura Deorum, II.34 (45 BC)

However, Perry Marshall’s claim about the language being present in a missing external blueprint or as an idea which exists in someone’s mind before a watch is even built can not be proven. In other words, he has not identified the correct location of the language at all. What needs to be taken into account instead is the objective encoding of information occurring inside of a watch (which winds up being displayed on its face) plus the presence of error-correcting mechanisms!

To be more specific, a watch measures physical movement via a controller⁽²⁹³⁾ and encodes the discrete pulses on an indicator⁽²⁹⁴⁾ such as a clock face or digital display for humans to read, in a much lesser version of how a cell uses language with symbols and meaning which has to be translated.⁽²⁹⁵⁾⁽²⁹⁶⁾ So the information (which symbolically represents something else) in watches has actually been staring us right in the face all along. To be fair, this fact has probably been missed because people have only been aware of the presence of information in biology since 1965 when Francis Crick confirmed the existence of protein-coding sequences in DNA⁽²⁹⁷⁾⁽²⁹⁸⁾ that can be detected through Fourier analysis.⁽²⁹⁹⁾ This ability to create and/or utilize information similar to living organisms shows that measuring instruments like timepieces are not just collections of mechanical parts arranged in patterns which can subjectively appear to some people like William Dembski to have specified complexity.⁽³⁰⁰⁾

In fact, the difference between information containing encoded symbolic meaning which causes⁽³⁰¹⁾ top-down⁽³⁰²⁾⁽³⁰³⁾ real effects⁽³⁰⁴⁾⁽³⁰⁵⁾ and objects that only have complicated physical features is analogous to the way an image and a randomly scrambled version of itself have completely different Fourier transforms (although the histograms measuring their pixel brightness will be exactly the same).⁽³⁰⁶⁾ This is because in general, the magnitude part (which does not have any phase information) of an image’s Fourier transform will have a central blur with lines radiating out from it and/or a circular halo surrounding it, while a transform obtained from scrambled pixels will look darker and grayer but still be random like the static “snow” on a television set.⁽³⁰⁷⁾ A typical magnitude part of a non-random image’s Fourier transform can be seen above in the “Holographic Encoding Between Mind and Body” diagram.

“There cannot be a language more universal and more simple, more free from errors and from obscurities, that is to say more worthy to express the invariable relations of natural things.”— Joseph Fourier on mathematics in his book The Analytical Theory of Heat (1878)

There is a reason why these patterns of rays and cloudy arcs emerge in the Fourier transform of most images. Since a two-dimensional picture of something like a railroad track receding into the distance is affected by the requirements of railway engineering as well as the rules of three-dimensional perspective, the spatial arrangement of certain pixels is not entirely random and this gets represented in its Fourier transform. Along the same lines, it is possible to use the Fourier transform to prove an electronic clock signal with regular square wave pulses is not random because it results in frequency components that appear to make a wave of waves.⁽³⁰⁸⁾ In contrast, the transform of a completely random white noise signal (which looks like an irregular zig-zag)⁽³⁰⁹⁾ will just create another irregular zig-zag.

The existence of these hidden, underlying relationships between the various parts of images and signals that have non-random Fourier transforms helps to explain why information can also cause powerful feelings. An example of this would be a person who looks at their watch and realizes that the relationship between the long and short hands and the numbers they are pointing to means they are running late to an event they want to be on time for, resulting in them becoming upset and to start rushing to get there. This is in contrast to someone seeing a device displaying a bunch of random shapes or dots that have no relationship to anything, which typically will not generate much of an emotional response because they have no meaning to humans—even if they seem to look more complex.

As mentioned earlier, in addition to encoding information, watches have a built-in feedback mechanism (which is a harmonic oscillator⁽³¹⁰⁾ vibrating at a resonant frequency that acts like a setpoint or reference signal)⁽³¹¹⁾ to correct errors so time can be represented with a code more accurately. Cells in living organisms also require some type of error correction since they constantly need to fix their genetic information because of damage from random events and diseases. The DNA repair systems found in cells allows them to stay alive and keep on performing important functions such as locally reducing entropy⁽³¹²⁾⁽³¹³⁾⁽³¹⁴⁾ and replicating their DNA.⁽³¹⁵⁾

“What’s not random is the cell’s response to the threat. Damage is random. Repair is not.”— Perry Marshall

Incidentally, Perry Marshall has pointed out the feedback in living organisms is not random but purposeful,⁽³¹⁶⁾⁽³¹⁷⁾ which counters criticisms by David Hume and others.⁽³¹⁸⁾ It also contrasts with a statement by Richard Dawkins about how “the universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”⁽³¹⁹⁾ Perhaps Dawkins, who has written a science book that tries to “unweave the rainbow” of meaning and purpose in life,⁽³²⁰⁾ is not aware of the existence of control engineering principles and the error-correcting systems that act like a corrective “spirit,” including those in biology. These systems use code and logic which can not be explained by materialism to detect mistakes and repair information that has become corrupted by noise.⁽³²¹⁾⁽³²²⁾⁽³²³⁾⁽³²⁴⁾

In fact, even artificial life simulations running genetic algorithms which attempt to show that evolution is random make use of error correction—which is ironic. It turns out that computer engineers have designed many different ways to fix errors which are hidden throughout the computers in stock parts like redundant logic gates,⁽³²⁵⁾ hard drive reliability software, and high-end error correction code (ECC) memory modules. These never seem to be accounted for by researchers for some reason.

DNA Repair and a Logical Loop of Feedback

The various DNA repair systems found in cells actually form a vital and interdependent relationship with the encoded instructions they not only rely on but also protect. This creates an emergent low-level “logical loop” of feedback which provides the stability necessary for the development of life. Other people have come to the same conclusion about the ability of biological systems to correct genetic errors as well,⁽³²⁶⁾⁽³²⁷⁾ based on research started in the 1970s due to the inherent instability of DNA molecules. The still ongoing research has revealed the existence of multiple repair mechanisms (including one which relies on quantum tunneling and demonstrates an indirect link between the laws of physics and the genetic code),⁽³²⁸⁾⁽³²⁹⁾ resulting in three scientists recently winning a Nobel Prize.⁽³³⁰⁾⁽³³¹⁾⁽³³²⁾ Since RNA is less stable than DNA,⁽³³³⁾ even if the RNA world hypothesis of life’s origin is possible—and it may not be⁽³³⁴⁾—some kind of error correction has always been necessary. In fact, if “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution,”⁽³³⁵⁾ then “nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of control engineering.”

Requirements of the logical loop of feedback:

Parts need code to carry and represent logic

Code needs logic to control and replicate parts

Logic needs parts to correct and repair code

This means that not only does evolution depend on the self-replication of cellular parts,⁽³³⁶⁾⁽³³⁷⁾⁽³³⁸⁾ which depends on code,⁽³³⁹⁾⁽³⁴⁰⁾⁽³⁴¹⁾⁽³⁴²⁾ but it also depends on non-random error correction⁽³⁴³⁾⁽³⁴⁴⁾⁽³⁴⁵⁾⁽³⁴⁶⁾⁽³⁴⁷⁾ and mathematical principles (e.g., logical comparisons like XOR—which suprisingly has a fractal aspect identical to a certain type of Fourier transform).⁽³⁴⁸⁾ These increasingly complex DNA repair systems⁽³⁴⁹⁾ operate at a much deeper level and are more significant than the mere presence of complicated physical features proposed by some people like Michael Behe to have irreducible complexity.⁽³⁵⁰⁾⁽³⁵¹⁾ If anything in biology is irreducibly complex, it is actually the threefold relationship between the mechanical parts, the code with symbolic meaning, and the logic embedded in the error-correcting enzymes that appear to have all worked together in a feedback loop from the very beginning to make life possible. These are known scientifically as the proteome, genome, and regulome.

A comparison of terms from Intelligent Design (ID) and Conscious Emergence (CE):

Old ID terms describing complicated physical features (subjective) New CE terms describing symbolically encoded information (objective)

Specified complexity “Symbolic meaning”

Irreducible complexity “Logical loop”

Old ID terms describing complicated physical features (subjective)	New CE terms describing symbolically encoded information (objective)
Specified complexity	“Symbolic meaning”
Irreducible complexity	“Logical loop”

This hypothesis is falsifiable (and therefore is scientific)⁽³⁵²⁾ if someone can find a living organism which does not have any coded information or DNA repair systems, or is still able to evolve after one or both of them have been completely removed in the laboratory.⁽³⁵³⁾⁽³⁵⁴⁾ Until then, DNA repair systems as well as the proofreading and editing of incorrectly charged transfer RNAs⁽³⁵⁵⁾⁽³⁵⁶⁾⁽³⁵⁷⁾ in the biological translation process are further evidence that life is not a series of random accidents and the purely materialistic just-so stories told by some scientists are not true.⁽³⁵⁸⁾⁽³⁵⁹⁾⁽³⁶⁰⁾⁽³⁶¹⁾ In fact, evolution happens faster than what would be expected from chance alone.⁽³⁶²⁾⁽³⁶³⁾⁽³⁶⁴⁾⁽³⁶⁵⁾ So continuing to tell these incorrect stories now is a form of what theoretical physicist Richard Feynman calls cargo cult science⁽³⁶⁶⁾⁽³⁶⁷⁾ and is comparable to attempting to peddle a perpetual motion machine after a hidden energy source (or error correction in this case) has been revealed.

“If it could be demonstrated that any ~~complex organ~~ [feedback loop with parts, code, and logic] existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely ~~break down~~ [be revealed to only be one part of a larger system].”— A quote by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species (1859) that has been modified to reflect the recent scientific discovery of DNA repair systems

Even worse, the stories have unfortunately acted like “blocks of the atheists.” This is because atheist’s claims about life basically being a bunch of blocks bumping around randomly actually go far beyond the views of Charles Darwin⁽³⁶⁸⁾⁽³⁶⁹⁾ and have blocked or at least slowed down a lot of scientific progress in evolutionary biology. (To be fair, this also tends to happen when people on the other side of the spectrum retreat to “God of the gaps” arguments.) This “obstructive scientism” is only recently starting to be chipped away, such as when studies like the still ongoing ENCODE project⁽³⁷⁰⁾ proved that most of the so-called “junk DNA”⁽³⁷¹⁾⁽³⁷²⁾⁽³⁷³⁾⁽³⁷⁴⁾ is actually functional and regulates the protein-coding genes.⁽³⁷⁵⁾

Incidentally, the ENCODE results help to explain why genome size is not correlated with the complexity of an organism, known as the C-value enigma.⁽³⁷⁶⁾ It also means that the genomes of different species are kind of like different versions of a Rubik’s Cube solution guide, where the vast majority of information is about when biological systems should make a move or correction rather than describing the move itself. In other words, junk DNA (now often called non-coding DNA) is similar to the bulk of the instructions written in regular English text along with images showing how the Rubik’s Cube should look at each stage, while the rare protein-coding genes are equivalent to an occasional sequence of moves compactly encoded in Singmaster notation.⁽³⁷⁷⁾

Not only do the biological systems regulated by this non-coding DNA handle many types of errors in cells, but they are unexpectedly flexible—sometimes literally. For example, DNA base pairs have the ability to dissipate electromagnetic radiation⁽³⁷⁸⁾ as well as flip and skew their orientation to absorb physical damage.⁽³⁷⁹⁾ As far as the genetic code, several studies indicate it is optimized or fine-tuned on the order of one in a million in terms of error minimization.⁽³⁸⁰⁾⁽³⁸¹⁾⁽³⁸²⁾⁽³⁸³⁾⁽³⁸⁴⁾ However, other studies suggest the genetic code is even rarer than that because its redundant nature is coupled with adaptability due to the fact it has a nearly optimal ability to carry parallel codes⁽³⁸⁵⁾⁽³⁸⁶⁾⁽³⁸⁷⁾

“Much more than even physics, control is a mathematically oriented science. Control principles are always expressed in mathematical form and are potentially applicable to any concrete situation.”— Rudolf E. Kálmán, inventor of a filter or algorithm used widely in control engineering

Networks of neurons in the brain also use a “principle of error minimization” in the form of feedback loops⁽³⁸⁸⁾ to make decisions in what is known as predictive coding⁽³⁸⁹⁾⁽³⁹⁰⁾⁽³⁹¹⁾⁽³⁹²⁾ or active inference,⁽³⁹³⁾ and which are based on the minimization of surprise (which is confusingly referred to as “free energy”).⁽³⁹⁴⁾⁽³⁹⁵⁾ This neuronal least-action principle—which describes their behavior mathematically with the simple formula “δA = 0”⁽³⁹⁶⁾⁽³⁹⁷⁾—is essentially an information theory version of the principle of least action in physics (where “δS = 0”).⁽³⁹⁸⁾⁽³⁹⁹⁾⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾ It was introduced by neuroscientist Karl Friston⁽⁴⁰¹⁾ and uses Bayesian inference to minimize prediction error. It also resembles Kalman filtering in engineering⁽⁴⁰²⁾ or backpropagation in artificial neural networks.⁽⁴⁰³⁾

However, intelligence additionally seems to involve what the author calls a “principle of choice maximization,” based on simulated systems that are programed to move toward configurations that maximize their ability to respond to further changes. For example, this can be done by leveraging causal entropic forces (described by a “F = T ∇S_Ƭ” formula)⁽⁴⁰⁴⁾⁽⁴⁰⁵⁾⁽⁴⁰⁶⁾⁽⁴⁰⁷⁾⁽⁴⁰⁸⁾ or other maximization techniques.⁽⁴⁰⁹⁾ This principle also appears to apply to the genetic code due to its ability to maximize the choice of parallel codes while at the same time minimizing errors. It may even be possible to use it to quantify the real effects or causal efficacy of biological information⁽⁴¹⁰⁾—and therefore its value—by determining its efficiency at locally reducing entropy and minimizing errors while simultaneously maximizing choices.

A Biological Jacob’s Ladder and a TOE?

In general, biological information relies on control nodes acting non-randomly in systems such as gene regulatory networks.⁽⁴¹¹⁾⁽⁴¹²⁾⁽⁴¹³⁾ So instead of only being subject to the laws of physics, life is also governed by layers of non-physical mathematical control laws such as the logical loop of feedback formed by DNA repair systems as discussed in the last section. In fact, the continual improvement of these DNA error-correcting mechanisms in increasingly complex life forms is proof that there is an additional principle of error minimization involved in evolution beyond natural selection by the environment!⁽⁴¹⁴⁾

Multiple aspects of this error correction can be described with theorems⁽⁴¹⁵⁾⁽⁴¹⁶⁾ by cyberneticians like W. Ross Ashby,⁽⁴¹⁷⁾ including the human desire to be ethical⁽⁴¹⁸⁾ and have the character to do the right thing morally⁽⁴¹⁹⁾—even at a personal cost (in other words, have love).⁽⁴²⁰⁾⁽⁴²¹⁾⁽⁴²²⁾ This is because minimizing certain errors in behavior such as selfishness seems to maximize other people’s ability to make choices, since groups made up of altruistic individuals outperform groups of selfish individuals.⁽⁴²³⁾⁽⁴²⁴⁾⁽⁴²⁵⁾ So these control principles appear to indirectly connect the physical, mental, and spiritual realms⁽⁴²⁶⁾⁽⁴²⁷⁾ of life (that are also mentioned in the “A Comparison of Systems With Error Correction” table located earlier in this webpage) like a “Biological Jacob’s Ladder” (BJL),⁽⁴²⁸⁾⁽⁴²⁹⁾ which is shown in the diagram below. This is similar to second-order cybernetics,⁽⁴³⁰⁾ the practopoietic theory⁽⁴³¹⁾⁽⁴³²⁾ of system organization by Danko Nikolić, the idea of a level-crossing strange loop⁽⁴³³⁾ by Douglas Hofstadter, and even the idea of possible second-order representations in mirror neurons which lead to self-awareness.⁽⁴³⁴⁾

The BJL demonstrates how disturbances to physical things in the body, which follow the principle of least action, can be overcome by code following a reference signal and a principle of error minimization that creates a logical loop of feedback. This can be aided by mind choosing to follow a principle of choice maximization and rejecting selfish, self-destructive behaviors like smoking or doing illegal drugs that more than likely will harm the body and reduce future options. In addition, similar to following the golden mean or middle way of virtues,⁽⁴³⁵⁾ if the mind also acts in a selfless and ethical way regarding the well-being of others, it should eventually have even more choices available in the future—since groups made up of altruistic people do the best overall. This echoes how German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who combined rationalism with empirical sensory evidence, based morality on the preservation and promotion of rationality and rational agents.⁽⁴³⁶⁾⁽⁴³⁷⁾⁽⁴³⁸⁾

“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. . . . I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence.”— Immanuel Kant, who believed that reason was the source of morality

Aspects of the Biological Jacob’s Ladder also show how Plato’s transcendental properties of beauty, truth, and goodness⁽⁴³⁹⁾⁽⁴⁴⁰⁾ exist in harmonious unity in a cybernetic system that is a key part of creating the great chain of being.⁽⁴⁴¹⁾ This is due to the algorithmically beautiful way the information encoded in DNA contains the logical instructions to physically repair itself,⁽⁴⁴²⁾ the fact that logic can also be used to prove the truth of the Golden Rule⁽⁴⁴³⁾⁽⁴⁴⁴⁾ (which actually is a type of altruism),⁽⁴⁴⁵⁾ and how people from different faiths desire to be good and repent⁽⁴⁴⁶⁾ if they receive feedback that they are not treating others well.⁽⁴⁴⁷⁾ As a result, the three traditional branches of philosophical inquiry (which the ancient Greeks divided into physics, logic, and ethics around the time of Plato)⁽⁴⁴⁸⁾ can be linked together in biology!

This breakthrough is somewhat like the unification of theories in modern physics,⁽⁴⁴⁹⁾ such as various Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) where the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces are theoretically merged into a single force.⁽⁴⁵⁰⁾ The BJL could even be an intermediate step (or perhaps just a “toe-hold”) toward a holistic version of a Theory of Everything (TOE)⁽⁴⁵¹⁾ in Systems Philosophy,⁽⁴⁵²⁾ which is known as a General Systems Theory (GST).⁽⁴⁵³⁾⁽⁴⁵⁴⁾ For instance, it could be used to further help develop Robert Doyle’s information-based solution⁽⁴⁵⁵⁾ to the is–ought problem and the related fact–value distinction,⁽⁴⁵⁶⁾ resulting in the concept that “choosing to maximize information structures which maximize choice (by minimizing errors⁽⁴⁵⁷⁾ and locally reducing entropy) is good.”

“The first rule of an information-based morality is that all choices should be made so as to minimize the destruction of abstract information and concrete information structures.”— Robert Doyle, who describes himself as the “Information Philosopher”

Also, the BJL is recursive and fractal since it applies to entire human societies in addition to each cell and individual. For example, scientists and engineers can use logic (which itself has fractal aspects)⁽⁴⁵⁸⁾ and machines governed by feedback to help develop cures for diseases,⁽⁴⁵⁹⁾ including those caused by physical damage to DNA like cancer. Then spiritual leaders can use universal moral truths like the Golden Rule to create a just community⁽⁴⁶⁰⁾ where as many people as possible are able to access these life-saving medical treatments. Perry Marshall calls this type of progress “Evolution Omega” instead of “Evolution Alpha” (which is simply another name he calls his cellular agency-based Evolution 2.0).⁽⁴⁶¹⁾ It is similar to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s biblically-inspired vision of all creation being pulled towards a state of divine unification called the Omega Point⁽⁴⁶²⁾⁽⁴⁶³⁾ or the concept of an evolutionary “Fractal Ladder” by Bruce Lipton.⁽⁴⁶⁴⁾ For depictions of different aspects of the Omega Point idea, please see “The Fractal ‘Big Bridges’ Theory” and “The Emergence of a Fractal Body of Christ” diagrams on the Summary webpage.

Incidentally, the BJL plus related concepts like Fractal Information Trimonism and the author’s improvement of the watchmaker analogy prove that despite the claim by physicist Stephen Hawking that “philosophy is dead” (because it has “not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics”)⁽⁴⁶⁵⁾—philosophy is actually still alive. Not only that, but these ideas show philosophy is also still functioning in its traditional role as the “handmaiden of theology.”⁽⁴⁶⁶⁾ Of course, all of the subjects in universities during Middle Ages served theology, which was considered to be the “queen of the sciences.”⁽⁴⁶⁷⁾

Control Engineering and the Bible

So it is not unexpected that the Biological Jacob’s Ladder discussed in the previous section also demonstrates the unreasonable effectiveness of control engineering principles in theology, which is similar to the observation of “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.”⁽⁴⁶⁸⁾⁽⁴⁶⁹⁾ To be more specific, “nothing in Christianity makes sense except in the light of control engineering,”⁽⁴⁷⁰⁾ which is similar to its importance in evolution as mentioned earlier in the “DNA Repair and a Logical Loop of Feedback” section. This is because rather than being divided into separate domains⁽⁴⁷¹⁾ or non-overlapping magisteria as paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has suggested,⁽⁴⁷²⁾ there are actually “deep parallels” between the science of abstract formal systems⁽⁴⁷³⁾ and revealed Christian theology.⁽⁴⁷⁴⁾ For example, the principle of error minimization shows that there is a link (even if it is indirect) between the intelligence found in the universe and the God of Christianity⁽⁴⁷⁵⁾—resulting in a paradigm shift similiar to what physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn says happens in scientific revolutions.⁽⁴⁷⁶⁾

Christianity is also not based on pseudoscientific arguments like scientists such as astronomer Carl Sagan claim.⁽⁴⁷⁷⁾ Instead, God is using what are essentially control engineering techniques to try and minimize the grave consequences of non-existence (or death) due to self-inflicted data corruption (or sin).⁽⁴⁷⁸⁾⁽⁴⁷⁹⁾ He does this by offering an invaluable moral error-correcting code⁽⁴⁸⁰⁾ in multiple formats based on his nature which operates at the highest level of consciousness and life.⁽⁴⁸¹⁾

So on top of intentionally repetitive fractal written instructions, God sent a living version of the holographic Message⁽⁴⁸²⁾⁽⁴⁸³⁾⁽⁴⁸⁴⁾ of salvation in the physical form of Jesus⁽⁴⁸⁵⁾ who said, “if you love Me, keep My commandments” (which symbolize if someone is a good person) as well as “love one another as I have loved you.” However, religious leaders did not understand and decided to destroy the Message instead of delivering it. After a timeout of three days, this error was corrected because God retransmitted the Message by raising Yeshua from the dead, demonstrating that His recovery system works and proving His Word is true.

“ ‘It means,’ said Aslan, ‘that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know.’ ”— From C.S. Lewis’s book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)⁽⁴⁸⁶⁾

Despite doubts about miracles by David Hume,⁽⁴⁸⁷⁾ this did not have to violate any of the laws of nature,⁽⁴⁸⁸⁾⁽⁴⁸⁹⁾⁽⁴⁹⁰⁾ just like the error-correcting systems found in biology and telecommunications which can physically restore information by using a reference signal or code. In fact, the way parts of the physical world can be purposefully corrected with logic is a window to a much deeper Truth.⁽⁴⁹¹⁾⁽⁴⁹²⁾ One way to visualize this is with a hologram of a statue of Jesus. If the top part of the hologram where the head appears to be is cut off and hidden (a metaphor for crucifying the real Jesus), it is still possible to tilt the remaining broken “body of Christ” piece and see the head,⁽⁴⁹³⁾ although it will be a bit fuzzier.⁽⁴⁹⁴⁾ It is also possible to re-create the top part of the hologram from what is left using mathematical algorithms.⁽⁴⁹⁵⁾⁽⁴⁹⁶⁾ The body can be observed in the top part too, similar to how Yeshua said, “anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”— C.S. Lewis in his essay “Is Theology Poetry?” from the book The Weight of Glory (1949)

In addition to acting as a sign,⁽⁴⁹⁷⁾ Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection also functioned as a controlled burn⁽⁴⁹⁸⁾ against sin and behaved like an antifuse,⁽⁴⁹⁹⁾⁽⁵⁰⁰⁾ creating a way for humans made in the image of God to have life more abundantly.⁽⁵⁰¹⁾ Later, God amplified the recovered Message at Pentecost after encoding it into a virtual format (sort of similar to a spiritual email)⁽⁵⁰²⁾ that could be downloaded and integrated into people’s lives more easily.

Sadly, other religious leaders interfered again with the transmission of the Message by adding noise to the signal in the form of inaccurate translations in the Bible such as “hell” instead of the original Hebrew word “sheol”⁽⁵⁰³⁾ as well as modern traditions like a now hyper-commercialized Christmas.⁽⁵⁰⁴⁾ Fortunately, because the written word of God is fractal and redundant, a lot of people including myself have still learned information about Yeshua during the holidays of Easter and Christmas. This is even though those holidays are only partially based on God’s appointed Holy Days, which more and more Christians are beginning to become aware of and observe.

In fact, it appears the ultimate error-correcting Message is in the process of being completely restored a second time in order to connect those who decide to love God and each other (see a diagram on the God’s Selfie webpage and the text above it for more about this).⁽⁵⁰⁵⁾⁽⁵⁰⁶⁾ In the meantime, I hope that the book I am writing helps to explain some of what God is doing so more people will choose to be part of it⁽⁵⁰⁷⁾—and how the real “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”⁽⁵⁰⁸⁾ is the Ark of the Covenant, which is a fractal symbol of dwelling together forever with God.⁽⁵⁰⁹⁾

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. . . . [S]o is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”— Isaiah 55:9–11

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