Incorporating Meaning into Fundamental Physics

Duration: 53 mins 48 secs

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Incorporating Meaning into Fundamental Physics's image

Description:	Lecture given at the Frontiers of Fundamental Physics 15 Conference held at Miguel Hernández University, Elche, Spain on 29 Nov. 2017, arguing that at the most fundamental level nature, characterised in biosemiotic terms, is essentially biological.

Created:

2018-01-30 18:40

Collection:

Brian Josephson's lecture collection
Mind–Matter Unification videos

Publisher:

University of Cambridge

Professor Brian Josephson

Language:

eng (English)

Credits:

Producer:	Lecturer: Brian Josephson, Cambridge University
Person:	Recorded by Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Editor:	Brian Josephson


Abstract:	Current science has no place for meaning at a fundamental level. In this lecture an alternative approach is developed, involving a consistent synthesis of a number of those advanced by various authors in the past where meaning plays a significant role, including biosemiotics (Peirce’s theory of signs applied to biology), along with Hoffmeyer’s derivative concept semiotic scaffolding; Barad’s agential realism, where reality is constructed by cooperating ‘agencies’; and Yardley’s Circular Theory, involving a dynamic, infinitely deep hierarchical structure of interrelating systems and processes. Hankey’s ‘locus of control’ supports a mathematical formulation of these ideas, but the resulting picture would involve a vast irregular collection of interlocking abstractions, rather than the tidy unity sought in regular physics. The existence of systems such as human language and critical fluctuations supports the idea that the organisation implicit in Yardley’s picture arises naturally, opening up the possibility of a new approach to understanding the natural world that overcomes Smolin’s ‘trouble with physics’ and can provide a new perspective on issues such as the role of the observer, the origin of life, and the process of evolution. The slides are available separately at http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/Documents/Spain-2017.pdf This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract:

Current science has no place for meaning at a fundamental level. In this lecture an alternative approach is developed, involving a consistent synthesis of a number of those advanced by various authors in the past where meaning plays a significant role, including biosemiotics (Peirce’s theory of signs applied to biology), along with Hoffmeyer’s derivative concept semiotic scaffolding; Barad’s agential realism, where reality is constructed by cooperating ‘agencies’; and Yardley’s Circular Theory, involving a dynamic, infinitely deep hierarchical structure of interrelating systems and processes. Hankey’s ‘locus of control’ supports a mathematical formulation of these ideas, but the resulting picture would involve a vast irregular collection of interlocking abstractions, rather than the tidy unity sought in regular physics.

The existence of systems such as human language and critical fluctuations supports the idea that the organisation implicit in Yardley’s picture arises naturally, opening up the possibility of a new approach to understanding the natural world that overcomes Smolin’s ‘trouble with physics’ and can provide a new perspective on issues such as the role of the observer, the origin of life, and the process of evolution.

The slides are available separately at http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/Documents/Spain-2017.pdf
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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