Nature's Meta-system transition algorithm for intelligence

If we follow the evolution of life on Earth, we see an increase in complexity of living systems, which has allowed life to adapt to very different environments.

A quite limited number of atoms such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorous gave rise to simple organic molecules such as methane, ammonia, amino acids, phosphoric acid etc. These simple molecules formed the most basic building blocks to create more complex aggregates thereof in the form of macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins and lipids.

In turn the assembly of macromolecules in a complex architecture allowed for small prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria to evolve. With the advent of more complexity in the form of DNA and subcellular structures, the much bigger eukaryotic cells could form, which integrated prokaryotes as their engine to provide energy. Today we know these prokaryotes that still live inside our cells as the cell organelle which is called the mitochondrion.

Eukaryotic cells managed to cooperate and form yet more complex assemblies in the form of multicellular organisms. Whereas the first multicellular organisms were quite homogeneous as regards the types of cells they were built from, over time cells differentiated into different cell types and different cell types organised into organs.

Plants and animals arose in a versatile system of mutual exchange and mutual dependence. In the animal kingdom the limitations in size of the invertebrates, which were inherent to their heavy exoskeleton, were solved by inversing the support issue. The intelligent invention of an endoskeleton allowed for much bigger creatures to arise.

From fish to amphibians to reptiles to birds and mammals, we do not only see an increase in the abilities of the animals to adapt to their environment, we also see an increased tendency to be able to cooperate with the other members of the same species, giving rise to social structures, such as schools, flocks and herds.

In fact what we see as a pattern from these examples is that Nature evolved from simple singleton structures to more complex aggregated and integrated structures and that this is still an ongoing process.

Our human society is rapidly evolving to form a so-called "global brain". Not only do the transactions of goods and services establish a metaphorical global brain, with our invention of the Internet we are basically building a literal neural network which is sensing the whole planet via its Internet-of-Things sensor extensions.

We see that Nature has an inherent intelligence that appears to combine building blocks into bigger and more complex aggregates, which then in turn become new building blocks to build yet bigger and yet more complex aggregates.

This is in line with the definition which Ben Goertzel the Godfather of Artificial (General) Intelligence gives for Intelligence:

The ability to achieve complex goals

Presently, we are living in the dawn of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs: The very conceptualisation of the nature of intelligence, the self-organising pattern of the Universe.

In this chapter, I will discuss the way Nature appears to follow a kind of algorithmic pattern of what are called "meta-system transitions" when it is applying intelligence in order to evolve.

The aspects of human intelligence will be discussed in chapters 2-7, whereas chapters 8-10 are devoted to artificial intelligence. Chapter 11 discusses the elusive notion of "intuition" in Nature, humans and artificial systems.

In his book Creating Internet Intelligence Ben Goertzel brings "Complexity science" to a higher level. Combining notions of Turchin's "metasystems transitions", Buddhism, General Systems and Network theory and Peircean and Palmerian metaphysics, he tries to define the very essence of Intelligence. The insights presented in this book are of such a profound nature, that they may well one day be recognised as the ultimate intelligence algorithm that underlies every phenomenon in this universe.

What the algorithm of Nature is constantly trying to achieve is to assemble existing parts to build new wholes such that the "whole is more than the sum of its parts". Or put in one word, Nature strives to achieve "Synergy" or "Emergence".

Nature appears to achieve this goal in a few basic steps:

Nature starts by providing elements which constitute pure "Being", which prima facie exist independent of anything else (e.g. atoms or subatomic particles). This is the provision of a dialectic thesis. The provision of such elements can be considered the first step of Nature's intelligence process.

A reaction to a stimulus from the environment shows that the elements do not exist alone but are relative to something else. This can be considered as the second step of Nature's algorithm, which is a reaction to a stimulus resulting in a "Polarisation". In dialectics this is the antithesis.

Now the different elements metaphorically aware of each other can establish a "Relation", for instance, the atoms start to form bonds between them as the third step of the algorithm. This is the process towards the dialectic synthesis.

From the web of relationships now a pattern can emerge, which forms the new aggregated entities. The constituent elements of these entities support and sustain each other so that their whole is greater than the sum of their parts. In the example a molecule is formed from the atoms. Its geometrical representation is a tetrahedron. This is the actual dialectic synthesis and the fourth step of the algorithm.

Ben Goertzel has realised that this concept of "Emergence" is the key of evolution. This is how a mind's intelligence comes into existence: The combination of two or more parts can lead to a new phenomenon, a new entity in which the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

The new entity thus formed can be considered as a new "element" for building aggregates and can undergo this cycle again. This is how complexity arises in every system. It is the core of evolution and intelligence.

So the ontogenesis of holistic systems (i.e. systems where the whole is more than the sum of parts) is a four-step pattern or algorithm.

Now in my own words: 1) "Being" is followed by 2) "Polarisation or Reaction", the elements of which 3) engage in a plurality of "Relationships" from which 4) new entities "Emerge" by synergy.

Turchin's theories call the emergence of such a new meta-level a "Metasystem transition", which according to Goertzel amounts to the fourth step.

Figure 1: Metasystem transitions: In the first transition molecules form macromolecules such as RNA and lipids. These form prokaryotic...