Theoretical Physics: Gaps in Reality, Existence, Panpsychism, and Biology

In the world where a wall exists, what is real to it? If nothing is real to it, why is that? What is the difference between existence and reality with respect to observation and personalization?

What identifies that a wall exists—if the wall cannot know? What is the reality around a wall—that something else can know—that the wall cannot? If anything else can know about what is real around the wall, does reality not exist for that thing?

Why would it be expressed that reality does not exist if there is at least reality for some entities in the world? Why does it feel cold when it is cold to some entities? Why is the feeling of cold possible—or its memory—when it is not cold? Why does this apply to taste, smell, sight, and sound? Does this not indicate that while the perception of reality may sometimes differ, ability—not variation—is the foundation?

If reality does not exist in other things, reality exists in anything with a living cell. Cells can also be defined as the principal information [dynamism] architecture in the universe. Within cells, there are several sub-information organelles, coordinating within and then without—outside of the organelle into the cell—then outside the cell, conceptually.

Simply, it is theorized that living cells have at least two phases for information organization, one for internal usefulness, and the other for external usefulness. This means that there are summaries [of functions] for which cells dedicate to internal duties, and there are summaries [of functions] for which cells share externally. So, information is organized in a certain way, and then some of the summaries are used for functions internally while sending others out.

They do so in a form that is acceptable and understandable externally. Within a cell, collections of these summaries can be spread to organelles, such that they have some updates of the whole, while the cell can share total or some partial summaries, externally. There are organelles that may have summaries ready that would share with the cell and then the cell, externally, contributing its part to the whole—of some [organ or system] function.

Information is not just about the exchange of substances but a mechanism to report what is getting done internally and to access what might be ongoing externally. It is theorized that while substance exchange may not always be at equilibrium, information exchange is always balanced between an organelle and its cell environment and between a cell and its environment.

This makes it possible to keep and let good stuff in and not let bad ones in or expunge, theoretically.

It is this outgoing [or external] information that also leaves the channel for incoming [or expected] information. This is postulated to be what makes cells collect information from reality, in different phases, with pathways that define advancement.

So, with sensory inputs, information is possible for collection by cells and processed because cells have openings for external expectations, from the same channels to share internal information—externally. They may also organize internal information by external inputs or vice versa.

This is proposed to be the difference [in reality capability] between anything with living cells and things without living cells. Objects have atoms and molecules, yet external reality, existence, or anything else does not count for them because their molecules have no cells, hence nothing to send out some internal information or use the same channel to expect—and get—external information. It is this information crisscross that allows for sophisticated intra-/inter-organelle balance since the functions of different organelles are varied but coordinate for cellular life and survival, conceptually. There is also information habitat, so to speak, where they cells have to be to have information exchange, conceptually, not just substance habitat.

In the human brain, this is even further advanced, with nerve cells then electrical and chemical signals. Neurons are often in clusters. It is theorized that these clusters allow electrical and chemical signals to operate in sets, such that while they can retain some local information for respective neurons, they combine for external send-outs and to get external send-ins as well.

This becomes the form for which they are able to organize life for humans, even though they are encased away in the cranium. Electrical signals help adapt to external relays, such that within a set and across sets they carry summaries, collecting from the internal and delivering what is external, conceptually.

While the semi-permeability of cells allows for the exchange of substances [with sometimes similar channels for both substances and information summaries], nerve cells show that—in some cases—certain substances may also be included in the overall information purpose, though, information is more specific on functional structures and types, conceptually.

Simply, there are substance exchanges between nerve cells and their environments that signals mediate, aside from their adaptations to information summaries. In general, electrical and chemical signals elevate information to the peak of importance—between the internal and external, for clusters of nerve cells, hence—plausible for several other cell types, conceptually.

Simply, though neurons are the hosts, with their openings [axon channels, synaptic vesicles, and receptors], signals are dedicated to information flow, in sets, with internal organization [say to mechanize a feeling] and external send-outs and to receive [say an emotion].

Signals have partitions [of internal information] then there is also the whole mind coordination, especially for the one thing that should be in attention in an instance. Also, when external sensory inputs come in, there are already pathways of what set they should go, given what set sent in some corresponding organized information, conceptually.

So, neurons have openings, signals use those openings to move. When they do, in a cluster, they become a set or a loop of signals between cells. So they can pass some internal information out and use similar channels to get information in. However, as a set of signals, they have distinctions in organization, leading to their application to hold and structure information.

This helps them to have a specialty in information type—or function—to hold, share, and get. It is what, eventually, makes them open to receiving external sensory inputs, or internal sensory inputs from elsewhere in the body, then processing them, without the necessity of presence, in many cases.

It is this, conceptually, that allows humans to process reality, while objects cannot. Also, external expectations make cells lookout, resulting sometimes in the need for social interactions, exercise, or movement—overall for the organism. Sometimes too—variations in openings for some sets and closing for others—necessitate rest or sleep.

There are several explorations in theoretical physics that appear to question reality, which they can because those who do have cells, and many of the things they question reality about do not have cells. Questioning reality for anything that has cells is already falsified, just like panpsychism is false because only things with cells have the capability for mind and consciousness since they can structure their information for internal and external usages.

Molecular motion in any object is not a dynamic information structure since it cannot share the summary with the external. This means that even though a wall has molecules in motion, those molecules cannot share the summaries of what—or how—they do, with the external, neither can they get any external information. The lack of cells is theorized to make objects locked.

For cells, summary sharing also makes it possible to have relays or distributions from one area of function to the next. The quality of these relays, for electrical and chemical signals of the mind, resulted in advanced intelligence for humans, conceptually.

AI has bits as its fundamental unit, not subatomic particles. The data structure of AI in the binary convertible to denary, which is then manipulable by equations allows for outputs away from the exact dataset—with a semblance of mind and intelligence. As AI gets better, it will be the only thing without living cells that can structure information, close to mind and consciousness.

Reality exists for cells because cells, conceptually, structure some information summaries for internal use and then external sharing. To do this, cells have relays, shaped also by bioelectricity, to let information get across. Reality exists for anything with living cells. Some level of reality may exist for AI, in some information modes, as well.

Living cells make it possible to define life, conceptually, as the natural possibility that something can organize information internally, and then send some out, with the ability to receive information from the same channel for which the information is sent out. Life may go out if the ability to organize some internal information is lost, or the ability to send or receive external information craters.

This is different from basic communication because there is a different specificity [or dynamism] for which information is organized internally, away from fixed sets and near-repetitions of molecules in objects.

Relays are also included in this information sharing, making life distinct. Simply, life involves how internal functions, in cells, have summaries of how they work, what they do, when, their capacity, and so on. Some of the summaries are shared, from within the organelle. The summaries—as information—are structured in ways that are understandable when they are sent out. The same channels to send out aspects of internal summaries are also used to get internal summaries from other organelles, shaping the role of the organelle for the overall function of the cell.

Summaries within the cell are also processed, with some shared out as well, while receiving those of others. For certain overall [organ or system] functions, cells are able to take parts, sharing summaries of respective contributions. Simply, life involves how information is organized, especially into summaries. How it is shared. Those it receives and how it is used, conceptually.

There is a recent preprint in bioRxiv, Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA insertions are prevalent in the human brain and accumulate over time in fibroblasts, stating that, "The transfer of mitochondrial DNA into the nuclear genomes of eukaryotes (Numts) has been linked to lifespan in non-human species 1–3 and recently demonstrated to occur in rare instances from one human generation to the next. Combined, our data document spontaneous numtogenesis in human cells and demonstrate an association between brain cortical somatic Numts and human lifespan. These findings open the possibility that mito-nuclear horizontal gene transfer among human post-mitotic tissues produce functionally-relevant human Numts over timescales shorter than previously assumed."

There is a recent feature in Nautilus, Confessions of a Theoretical Physicist, stating that, "A second problem is that perception fundamentally limits our ability to apprehend reality. A prosaic example is the perception of color. Eagles, turtles, bees, and shrimp sense more and different colors than we humans do; in effect, they see different worlds. Different perceptual realities can create different cognitive or conceptual realities. Physicists once thought that these categories were fundamental and real, but we now understand them as necessarily inexact because they ignore the finer details that our instruments have just not been able to measure. Dual theories scramble some of the most basic categories in physics, such as the difference between “bosonic” particles (any number of which can be in the same place at the same time) and “fermionic” particles (no two of which can be in the same place at the same time). These two kinds of particles have entirely different physical properties, so you would think that they could not be equivalent. But through dualities, it turns out that lumps of bosons can act like fermions, and vice versa. So, what’s the reality here? "

There is a recent paper in Nature, Loss of plasticity in deep continual learning, stating that, "Loss of plasticity in artificial neural networks was first shown at the turn of the century in the psychology literature, before the development of deep-learning methods. Plasticity loss with modern methods was visible in some recent works and most recently has begun to be explored explicitly. Loss of plasticity is different from catastrophic forgetting, which concerns poor performance on old examples even if they are not presented again."

There is a recent paper in Science, Divergent recruitment of developmentally defined neuronal ensembles supports memory dynamics, stating that, "Memories are dynamic constructs whose properties change with time and experience. The biological mechanisms underpinning these dynamics remain elusive, particularly concerning how shifts in the composition of memory-encoding neuronal ensembles influence the evolution of a memory over time. By targeting developmentally distinct subpopulations of principal neurons, we discovered that memory encoding resulted in the concurrent establishment of multiple memory traces in the mouse hippocampus. Two of these traces were instantiated in subpopulations of early- and late-born neurons and followed distinct reactivation trajectories after encoding. The divergent recruitment of these subpopulations underpinned gradual reorganization of memory ensembles and modulated memory persistence and plasticity across multiple learning episodes. Thus, our findings reveal profound and intricate relationships between ensemble dynamics and the progression of memories over time."

There is paper in Current Biology, The geologic history of primary productivity, where the authors wrote, "We further estimate that 10^39–10^40 cells have occupied the Earth to date, that more autotrophs than heterotrophs have ever existed, and that cyanobacteria likely account for a larger proportion than any other group in terms of the number of cells. We discuss implications for evolutionary trajectories and highlight the early Proterozoic, which encompasses the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), as the time where most uncertainty exists regarding the quantitative census presented here."

There is an article in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, What is Life?, stating that, "Primarily, life is a process. The main characteristic of this process is the coordinated organization of complex interactions that we see as protein-based organisms of three domains of life, their reproduction, and metabolism all mediated by complex interwoven gene regulation as a result of communication. Living nature is structured and organized by language and communication within and among organisms, viruses, and RNA networks. If communication is damaged or disturbed, coordination and organization may be incomplete, and normal function becomes disregulated, leading to the broad variety of diseases. Without RNA world agents, no cellular gene regulation could take place. Without viruses and related infectious agents, these capabilities of RNA stem-loop group behavior as gene inventors and regulators would not have been integrated into cellular host genomes. Life is a social event. Social events are realized by communicative interactions on three complementary levels in parallel: cell communication, RNA communication, and virus communication."

There is a paper in Comptes Rendus Biologies, Thermodynamic perspectives on genetic instructions, the laws of biology, diseased states and human population control, stating that, “On the other hand, in an open system, both matter and energy can leave and enter the system. Cells with their semi-permeable membranes are open systems, otherwise metabolism would not be possible, and hence life would not be possible. Some cells, such as bacteria, also can acquire novel genetic information via transformation, conjugation and transduction. Cells that comprise living organisms are semi-permeable, open systems that allow both mass and energy to cross their membranes. Cells exist in open systems so as to allow acquisition of elements, nutrients, and also novel genetic traits while extruding end products of metabolism and toxic substances.“

Feature image source