The Arrow Of Time
"The arrow of time," I replied.
"I thought we already covered that."
"We never finished, though. I promised this algorithm would generate the emergent pattern known as 'the second law of thermodynamics,' and I'm about to demonstrate how. To do this, let's return to our stencil analogy.
God's Markov blanket encloses the entire system because there is nothing that God is not. Now I'll add a universe into the system. Let's assume it got there via a Big Bang. Based on everything we've talked about so far, what is the universe going to do? Remember — the black area represents surprise in the system."
"Oh, shit!" Zac gasped. "The universe is going to spread out!"
"Yep," I smiled. "God is everything and, therefore, nothing in particular. The universe exists within God's Markov blanket in a limited, particular state. This creates excess surprise in the system, and the system is designed to minimize surprise. God can't become less than he is because he is infinite. Therefore, the system only has one way to minimize surprise: everything inside God's Markov blanket must move toward a state of being everything and, therefore, nothing in particular — thus giving God a physical experience of his own infinite consciousness.
Because all the galaxies and stars and planets, and even you and me, exist within God's Markov blanket, we're all complicit in this mathematical masterplan. We're all returning to God in the long run. Remember the parable of the little candle soul in the sun?"
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.
Neale Donald Walsch
"Ready, always ready, to call you home," I sighed. "One day, there'll be nothing in particular in this universe. One day, the pull towards entropy will win the cosmic tug-of-war. When that day comes, and the universe returns home to nothingness and everythingness, there will be no space or time anymore. For space and time to exist, we must have particular things."
"Okay," Zac paused. "Just so I understand correctly — God's Markov blanket is creating the pull towards entropy. And every other Markov blanket is creating the push against it?"
"Yes," I replied. "Listen to this…"
Of course, there is no way for you to not be who and what you are — you simply are that (pure, creative spirit), have been always, and always will be. So, you did the next best thing. You caused yourself to forget Who You Really Are.
Upon entering the physical universe, you relinquished your remembrance of yourself. This allows you to choose to be Who You Are, rather than simply wake up in the castle, so to speak.
It is in the act of choosing to be, rather than simply being told that you are, a part of God that you experience yourself as being at total choice, which is what, by definition, God is. Yet how can you have a choice about something over which there is no choice? You cannot not be My offspring no matter how hard you try — but you can forget.
Neale Donald Walsch
I turned to Zac. "Do you see the connection?"
Zac tilted his head to the side in thought. "You caused yourself to forget Who You Really Are. Forget. How does something infinite, forget? What does that even mean?"
"Think about it in the context of artificial intelligence, which is just an algorithm. If you have two AI bots that have exactly the same algorithm, does that mean they have exactly the same beliefs?"
"Err… yes?" Zac guessed. "I don't know. I'm not a nerd."
I returned to the video on Youtube.
"Do all of these AI bots have exactly the same beliefs?" I asked.
"No," Zac replied.
"Right. The answer is no. They could all be the same algorithm — just as we are the same algorithm as God. However, each AI bot has had different data fed into its neural network, which has caused it to form different beliefs. One bot believes it is a blue hider, standing in the corner. Another believes it is a red seeker, pushing a ramp. The same algorithm has produced different beliefs. So tell me... are you infinite? Are you everything?"
"Errr… no. I'm Zac."
"Exactly! You're Zac. You're something in particular. Your neural network might be the same algorithm as God's, but it's been trained by a different dataset. Your algorithm has been fed information such that you believe yourself to be Zachary Borrowdale, sitting on a wooden pier, overlooking Sydney harbor, with me. You have modeled a reality whereby you look a certain way, and act a certain way, and believe the world works in a certain way, and people treat you a certain way, and you have a certain amount of self-worth, and you have certain interests and hobbies and possessions and idiosyncrasies. Your neural network believes yourself to be Zachary Borrowdale, not God."
"Oh, I see," Zac said. "God could cause himself to forget by simply dividing himself into all these different fragments of his own algorithm. Then he'd place each of those separate 'souls' in the world of the relative where they begin their training, from scratch. They've completely forgotten who they are, but over time they remember individually and collectively."
"Exactly," I said. "And if each Markov-blanketed 'thing' is optimized to get a physical experience of its own consciousness, then the limiting beliefs of each Markov blanket will resist God's pull towards entropy. I personally need to exist in a limited, particular, low-entropy form right now to experience myself as Nikki Durkin. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, I think so," Zac replied. "And this is happening for every Markov blanket, right? Like, the stars and planets and galaxies are something in particular, so their Markov blankets are resisting the pull towards entropy?"
"Yes. They are getting a physical experience of being something in particular."
"Okay, so where do all the laws of physics come into this? Like, where do all the chemical bonds and standard elements and all that stuff come from?"
"It's interesting, actually," I replied. "This algorithm seems to account for the first and second laws of thermodynamics, which, according to Einstein, are the most fundamental features of our universe. Here's a quote from him…"
[A law] is more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises, the more different are the kinds of things it relates, and the more extended its range of applicability. Therefore, the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made on me. It is the only physical theory of universal content, which I am convinced, that within the framework of applicability of its basic concepts will never be overthrown.
"Thermodynamics appears to be fundamental," I said. "It's not just noise — it's a very deep pattern in the universe. Here's another quote from Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington from The Nature of the Physical World."
The law that entropy always increases — the second law of thermodynamics — holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations — then so much worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of Thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.
"Anyway," I continued, "not only does this algorithm agree with the second law of thermodynamics — it actually deduces it. God says, 'Each [soul] creates the situation and the circumstance for its own highest purpose and its own quickest remembering — in each moment called now.' That's why the arrow of time points in the direction of increased entropy. The arrow of time is pointing towards God, who is the ultimate state of infinite entropy. God is everything and, therefore, nothing in particular. Every Markov-blanketed system is returning to God."