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Table of Contents
Intro; Preface; Contents; 1 Introduction; 2 A Tale of Two Animats: What Does It Take to Have Goals?; 2.1 Prequel; 2.2 Introduction; 2.3 Perfect Fitness-Goal Achieved?; 2.4 Intrinsic Information; 2.5 To Be or Not to Be Integrated; 2.6 Advantages of Being Integrated; 2.7 Conclusion; References; 3 Meaning and Intentionality = Information + Evolution; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Relative Information; 3.3 Survival Advantage and Purpose; 3.4 Kolchinsky-Wolpert's Model and Meaningful Information; 3.5 Signals, Reduction and Modality; References
4 Von Neumann Minds: A Toy Model of Meaning in a Natural World4.1 Introduction; 4.2 The Homunculus in Locke's `Camera Obscura'; 4.3 Von Neumann Replicators; 4.4 Evolving Meaning; 4.5 Conclusion; References; 5 Origin Gaps and the Eternal Sunshine of the Second-Order Pendulum; 5.1 The Mathematics of the Gap; 5.2 The Physics of the Gap; 5.3 Learning from the Gaps; 5.4 Afterword: The Economics of Physical Law; 5.5 A Conversation with John Bova, Dresden Craig, and Paul Livingston; References; 6 Agent Above, Atom Below: How Agents Causally Emerge from Their Underlying Microphysics
6.1 Agents Excluded6.2 Causal Emergence; 6.3 Agents and the Scale of Identity; 6.4 Teleology as Breaks in the Internal Causal Chain; 6.5 Agents Retained; Appendix A. Technical Endnotes; References; 7 Bio from Bit; 7.1 Knowledge as Information with Causal Power; 7.2 Macrostates Matter to Matter; 7.3 More Is Not Just Different, It Is Causal; 7.4 Life as 'Non-trivial' Trajectories; References; 8 I Think, Therefore I Think You Think I Am; 8.1 The Big, Bad Question; 8.2 The Goal; 8.3 Clues from Evolution; 8.3.1 Terminology; 8.4 Four Levels of Awareness; 8.5 Learning from that; 8.6 Self-check
8.7 Goals, Purpose, and Free WillAppendix; 9 World Without World: Observer-Dependent Physics; References; 10 The Role of the Observer in Goal-Directed Behavior; References; 11 Wandering Towards Physics: Participatory Realism and the Co-Emergence of Lawfulness; 12 God's Dice and Einstein's Solids; 12.1 Process and Chance; 12.2 God's Dice; 12.3 Einstein's Solids; 12.4 Process and Free Will; 12.5 Boundary Conditions; 12.6 Conclusion; References; 13 Finding Structure in Science and Mathematics; 13.1 The Laws of Nature that We Find; 13.2 A Hierarchy of Number Systems
13.3 The Laws of Mathematics that We Find13.4 Working in Tandem and Moving Forward; References; 14 From Athena to AI: The Past and Future of Intention in Nature; 14.1 Prologue: Gods, Water, Fire; 14.2 How Aims and Intention Arise from Mindless Matter; 14.3 Conclusion: Hyperobjects and the Retreat of Logos; 15 No Ghost in the Machine; 15.1 Introduction; 15.2 Physics, Mathematical Determinism, and the Illusion of Control; 15.3 Biology, Evolution, and the Illusion of Design; 15.4 Psychology, Cognition, and the Illusion of Agency; 15.5 Computation, Neural Nets, and the Illusion of Intelligence
4 Von Neumann Minds: A Toy Model of Meaning in a Natural World4.1 Introduction; 4.2 The Homunculus in Locke's `Camera Obscura'; 4.3 Von Neumann Replicators; 4.4 Evolving Meaning; 4.5 Conclusion; References; 5 Origin Gaps and the Eternal Sunshine of the Second-Order Pendulum; 5.1 The Mathematics of the Gap; 5.2 The Physics of the Gap; 5.3 Learning from the Gaps; 5.4 Afterword: The Economics of Physical Law; 5.5 A Conversation with John Bova, Dresden Craig, and Paul Livingston; References; 6 Agent Above, Atom Below: How Agents Causally Emerge from Their Underlying Microphysics
6.1 Agents Excluded6.2 Causal Emergence; 6.3 Agents and the Scale of Identity; 6.4 Teleology as Breaks in the Internal Causal Chain; 6.5 Agents Retained; Appendix A. Technical Endnotes; References; 7 Bio from Bit; 7.1 Knowledge as Information with Causal Power; 7.2 Macrostates Matter to Matter; 7.3 More Is Not Just Different, It Is Causal; 7.4 Life as 'Non-trivial' Trajectories; References; 8 I Think, Therefore I Think You Think I Am; 8.1 The Big, Bad Question; 8.2 The Goal; 8.3 Clues from Evolution; 8.3.1 Terminology; 8.4 Four Levels of Awareness; 8.5 Learning from that; 8.6 Self-check
8.7 Goals, Purpose, and Free WillAppendix; 9 World Without World: Observer-Dependent Physics; References; 10 The Role of the Observer in Goal-Directed Behavior; References; 11 Wandering Towards Physics: Participatory Realism and the Co-Emergence of Lawfulness; 12 God's Dice and Einstein's Solids; 12.1 Process and Chance; 12.2 God's Dice; 12.3 Einstein's Solids; 12.4 Process and Free Will; 12.5 Boundary Conditions; 12.6 Conclusion; References; 13 Finding Structure in Science and Mathematics; 13.1 The Laws of Nature that We Find; 13.2 A Hierarchy of Number Systems
13.3 The Laws of Mathematics that We Find13.4 Working in Tandem and Moving Forward; References; 14 From Athena to AI: The Past and Future of Intention in Nature; 14.1 Prologue: Gods, Water, Fire; 14.2 How Aims and Intention Arise from Mindless Matter; 14.3 Conclusion: Hyperobjects and the Retreat of Logos; 15 No Ghost in the Machine; 15.1 Introduction; 15.2 Physics, Mathematical Determinism, and the Illusion of Control; 15.3 Biology, Evolution, and the Illusion of Design; 15.4 Psychology, Cognition, and the Illusion of Agency; 15.5 Computation, Neural Nets, and the Illusion of Intelligence