Re: Aspirin Consequence1 (C1) — introduce the chemical complex we label 'aspirin' into a defined biochemical "stew" = some biochemical reactions among components of that stew.
Consequence2 (C2) — the specific biochemical reactions of C1 cause a state change, i.e. the state of the stew is X instead of Y, or a set of biochemical reactions are taking place because of C1 that would not have taken place absent C1. InterpretationA (IA) — an EGO (that pesky self-awareness / self-consciousness) detects C2 (is able to differentiate between the stew being in state X instead of state Y) and interprets C2 as the absence of pain. This interpretation infers a causal link between the taking of aspirin and the absence of pain. NOTE: the original inference was that chewing the bark of a certain tree alleviated pain. InterpretationB (IB) — EGO is unable to differentiate thin from thick blood, the system being in State P instead of state Q. Hence IB is null. InterpretationC (IC) — PHYSICIAN, via measurement, is able to differentiate between thick and thin blood AND, along with a host of other "known things," interprets the state of the system, G, to be "better" than states H, I, J, and K. (There are multiple permutations / states, because so many discrete factors play a role in making the differentiation. The PHYSICIAN makes an inference that taking aspirin leads to a system in a "better" state. No epiphenomena here, unless you want to assert that the 'causal inferences of EGO' are epiphenomena of an ability to differentiate between two (or more) states of a system "observed" by EGO. This will not work with the dove, because you will not allow the dove an EGO, nor will you allow "Nature" to be a PHYSICIAN. davew On Thu, Aug 13, 2020, at 10:09 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Dear Friammers, > > This diagram is pursuant to last week’s discussion of the device I called he > Sober Epiphenomenator. You will recall that, in it’s simplest form, the > epiphenomenator is a device that sorts spheres into colors, but only because > each of the different colors of sphere is of a different size, and the device > sorts for sphere size. The idea is that the color of the balls, while > salient to the human eye, is an epiphenomenon of the machine’s sorting > system. My suggestion is that this model can be used to clarify many > concepts that are kicking around in our discussions. > > I think of an epiphenomenon as a side effect. It is a consequence of an > action that is not part of the causal chain that brings that action into > being. Allow, for instance, that aspirin was initially developed because of > it’s effects on pain. Later it was found that aspirin is a blood thinner. > Thinned blood was, at that point, a side effect of aspirin, whose main effect > was the easing of pain. Thinned blood was an epiphenomenon in that it was > not part of the causal chain that led to the development of aspirin. > > Already we can see that there is something screwy here. Painkilling and > blood-thinning are both consequences of taking aspirin. How consequence can > play a part in their own causal history is not immediately evident, unless > there is some iterative process that involves a feedback loop from > consequences of a decision of some sort to the decision process itself. So > any time we are talking about epiphenomena, we are, of necessity, talking > about feedback loops. An epiphenomenon is a consequence of some sort of > decision-process that has not feed back on the development of the process > itself. > But even in the aspirin case, simple as it is, we can begin to see a > complication. Many of us take aspirin for its bloodthinning properties. So > while these properties might have been epiphenomenal for the purpose of the > development of the product, it is not epiphenomenal for my taking of it. And > to the extent that the tablet I take has been modified for its blood-thinning > purpose – it is smaller – the blood thinning properties are no longer > epiphenomenal with respect to the tablet I take. > > > I am running out of time so I better get to the explication of the attached > diagram. My working intuition is that the notion of epiphenomenon lurks in > many of the domains we regularly discuss. The first I want to explore is the > one most familiar to me, *The Law of Short Sighted Striving*. The law states > that in animal behavior generally, that which the animal strives to attain is > not that which the behavior has been selected for. Rather the animals strive > to attain some other end which when attained, because of the nature of the > animal’s environment, provides the consequence for which nature selects. In > the diagram attached, the particulars filled in may be fanciful at best. > They arise from a paper I read decades ago by the Rutgers behavioral > endocrinologist Danial Lehrman, about the origins of incubation behavior in > ring doves. Given the length of time that has passed, it would be > extraordinary if any of the facts asserted are still regarded as true. > > Nevertheless, the facts asserted are that hormonal changes in the dove raise > a painful patch on the underside of the dove which is soothed by placing the > patch on the egg. Through a process of learning , the dove comes therefore > to incubate the eggs. Note that such a dove would not care a whit for any of > the things that biologists care for in this situation, including the fact > that incubating the eggs leads to their hatching, which has, presumably, led > to the evolution of the brooding patch. So, from the point of view of the > dove, the hatching of the eggs is an epiphenomenon. > > But shifting our attention to the origins of the relation between cool eggs > and dove incubation, we find that the warming of eggs is not epiphenomenal to > that causal loop. > > Thus, what is, or is not, an epiphenomenal is a matter of point of view, a > conclusion that suggests that any further consideration of the matter is > likely to both fraught and interesting. > > If I had had more time, I could have written a shorter exposition. > > Nick > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > > > *Attachments:* > * EpidiagramPDF.pdf
- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
