Markov Blankets
"Awesome," I smiled. "I'm going to continue fleshing out our model and connecting the dots. Let's start by examining a single cell in the human body. Is a cell a conscious, intelligent system?" I asked.
"Yes," Zac said. "A cell can adapt to its environment, which means it is resisting entropy. If we define conscious systems by their ability to resist entropy, then yes — the cell is conscious."
"Perfect answer," I said. "Think of a cell as a neural network. A cell takes in data, assigns that data meaning, and then responds appropriately to its environment. This adaptive, intelligent behavior allows it to resist entropy and stay in a restricted set of states.
We also know that multiple cells make up an organ, such as a heart. The heart is also something in particular, distinguished from the rest of the body — yet it is also a conscious system. You'll notice that all the cells within the heart work together as a cohesive system to keep the heart in a low-entropy state.
But then we also know that multiple organs work together with bones and blood and everything else to create the conscious system that is our human body. Our body takes in data, assigns it meaning, and adapts accordingly to keep itself a low-entropy state. For example, if the data coming into my senses is assigned the meaning 'I am overheating,' every subsystem in my body will work together to bring my temperature back to homeostasis. By doing this, my body is resisting entropy. A high temperature represents a departure from a very restricted set of states that my body needs to be in for it to be alive.
I just want you to notice the structure of this conscious system. The entire human body is a neural network, working together towards a common goal. However, each individual 'thing' is also a subsystem of that larger system."
"So you're saying my body is just one continuous neural network?" Zac asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"But if my body is one continuous neural network, what defines something in particular? Like, if everything's the same one thing, where do you draw the line between a cell, and everything that is not a cell?"
"Great question," I said. "In fact, if I were writing your character in a story right now, I would've put that exact question in your mouth."
"Huh?"
"Nevermind," I smiled. "So, now is the perfect time to introduce the concept of Markov blankets."
"What's a Markov blanket?"
"Let's consult the source of all wisdom and knowledge: Wikipedia." I pulled up a Wikipedia page and began reading.
In statistics and machine learning, the Markov blanket for a node in a graphical model contains all the variables that shield the node from the rest of the network. This means that the Markov blanket of a node is the only knowledge needed to predict the behavior of that node and its children.
Wikipedia
"Don't worry about the details," I said. "You just need to know that a Markov blanket separates something from what it is not, in a statistical sense. If a human body is one wholistic network of nodes, then a Markov blanket is like drawing a statistical boundary around a set of nodes and calling everything within that boundary a 'cell' or a 'heart.'
Now, remember — we’ve already deduced from first principles that the entire universe is a neural network; everything is the same one thing. However, we also have particular things in our reality — just like human bodies have particular cells and organs. Particular things are defined by Markov blankets. With this in mind, I’m going to read a little parable from Conversations With God.”
There once was a soul who knew itself to be the light. This was a new soul, and so, anxious for experience. “I am the light,” it said. “I am the light.” Yet all the knowing of it and all the saying of it could not substitute for the experience of it. And in the realm from which this soul emerged, there was nothing but the light. Every soul was grand, every soul was magnificent, and every soul shone with the brilliance of My awesome light. And so the little soul in question was as a candle in the sun. In the midst of the grandest light — of which it was a part — it could not see itself, nor experience itself as Who and What it Really Is.
Now it came to pass that this soul yearned and yearned to know itself. And so great was its yearning that I one day said, “Do you know, Little One, what you must do to satisfy this yearning of yours?”
“Oh, what, God? What? I’ll do anything!” The little soul said.
“You must separate yourself from the rest of us,” I answered, “and then you must call upon yourself the darkness.’
“What is the darkness, o Holy One?” the little soul asked.
“That which you are not,” I replied, and the soul understood.
And so this the soul did, removing itself from the All, yea, going even unto another realm. And in this realm the soul had the power to call into its experience all sorts of darkness. And this it did.
Yet in the midst of all the darkness did it cry out, “Father, Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Even as have you in your blackest times. Yet I have never forsaken you, but stand by you always, ready to remind you of Who You Really Are; ready, always ready, to call you home.
Therefore, be a light unto the darkness, and curse it not.
And forget not Who You Are in the moment of your encirclement by that which you are not. But do you praise to the creation, even as you seek to change it.
Neale Donald Walsch
"Holy shit!" Zac said.
I looked up with a smile. "I've laid it out pretty clearly for you. Can you connect the dots?"
"Souls are Markov blankets!" he clapped.
"Bingo. Souls are Markov blankets. If we begin translating the philosophical metaphor into scientific language, we know that God = neural network and Soul = Markov blanket. The philosophy is the why, and the science is the how. It's like solving a murder mystery — if you can understand the killer's motive and view the evidence through that lens, then things start to make an awful lot of sense."
"Does that mean a boat is a soul?" Zac asked. "What about a planet? Or a nation? Or a grain of sand? Or an economy?"
"Yes — all of those," I agreed. "To even assign a word to something, we have to distinguish that thing from what it is not. If you look closely, you'll notice that everything is made up of Markov blankets within Markov blankets within Markov blankets — all overlapping with each other and interconnected. For example, my body consists of cells that combine together to create organs that combine together to create myself — Nikki Durkin. However, I also exist within multiple systems, with 'system' being an interchangeable word for 'Markov blanket.' I exist within my local economy, the global economy, my nation, my friendship groups, the apartment I live in, my business, online communities.
A system doesn't need to be made up of biological things, though. My bedroom is a system consisting of inanimate objects. Each object can be subdivided into subsystems, too. My bed is a system consisting of the bed frame, mattress, sheets, pillows, duvet. All of those objects can be subdivided, again and again, until you get systems of molecules, then atoms. Basically, everything I can label with a word has a Markov blanket. To label something means I am discerning it from what it is not."
"Does that mean the universe has a Markov blanket?" Zac asked.
"Yes, exactly! The entire universe is enclosed within a Markov blanket. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the universe exists as one system in a more extensive system of universes — a kind of multiverse. If you just look within our universe, each galaxy, each solar system, each planet, each star, each cluster of asteroids, each individual asteroid, the Earth, Australia, Sydney, this neighborhood, this pool — they are all systems. Therefore, they are all enclosed within their own Markov blanket."
"So if they all have Markov blankets, then they are all souls?"
"Yes," I replied. "I want to refer back to a passage we read in Conversations With God…"
There is no “right” or “wrong” in these matters.
But by your decisions you paint a portrait of Who You Are.
Indeed, by their decisions your states and nations have already painted such pictures.
By their decisions your religions have created lasting, indelible impressions. By their decisions your societies have produced their self-portraits, too.
Neale Donald Walsch
"God clearly talks about nations and religions as if they are souls. There is nothing to suggest that there is any difference between a human's soul, a cell's soul, and the soul of a state. They all have Markov blankets.
Now, let's pause here and check that our foundations are firmly in place before moving on. We began this part of the conversation by building a conceptual model of the universe governed by two mathematical patterns: the pull towards entropy and the push against it. We also characterized the universe as one wholistic, unbroken ocean. Specific things are like whirlpools or 'frozen vortices' in the ocean. They are resisting entropy and remaining something in particular."
"Now," I continued, "we've just modified the model from a purely conceptual idea to something more tangible. Instead of the universe being an unbroken ocean, the universe is now an unbroken neural network. Instead of characterizing 'particular' things as whirlpools, we'll represent 'particular' things as having Markov blankets. The mathematical push-pull still remains, though. We know there is a pull towards entropy, and somehow the Markov blankets are pushing against it so that they remain something 'in particular.'"
"Are you keeping up with this?" I asked.
"Yep," Zac said.