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The Cybernetic Theory of Mind: The Five Foundational Axioms

8/20/2020

by Alex M. Vikoulov

“I believe that new mathematical schemata, new systems of axioms, certainly new systems of mathematical structures will be suggested by the study of the living world.” –Stan Ulam

“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.” –John Locke

This introductory article summarizes the tenets of the Cybernetic Theory of Mind (CTM) with the five foundational axioms. All of these starting assumptions for the new ontological framework are discussed in my recent book The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind's Evolution. Here I try to keep this summary short and simple for the reader, maximally leaning towards a more literary, “bookish” style rather than the overly scholarly one. Also, The Cybernetic Theory of Mind is a working title for my upcoming book to be published sometime within the next couple of years for the general audience. It may be followed by academic papers to clarify some thorny issues that I intend to publish on my own or in collaboration.

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Experiential Realism: Evolution of the Conscious Mind

6/10/2020

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by Alex Vikoulov

"Improving the quality of consciousness, advancing the quality and depth of awareness, understanding your nature and purpose, manifesting universal unconditional love, letting go of fear and eliminating ego, desires, wants, needs or preconceived notions – these are the attributes and results of a successfully evolving consciousness.” –Tom Campbell

Our physical space-time reality isn’t really "physical" at all, its apparent solidity of objects, as well as any other associated property such as time, is an illusion. As a renowned physicist Niels Bohr once said: "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” But what's not an illusion is your subjective experience, i.e., your consciousness; that's the only "real" thing, according to proponents of Experiential Realism, also referred to as Conscious Realism.

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Evolution of the Mind: The Transcendent Planetary Superorganism

4/12/2020

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by Alex Vikoulov

"The concept of Singularity envisages a technology-driven explosion in intelligence... the resulting superhuman intelligence will not be centralized in a single AI system but distributed across all people and artifacts, as connected via the Internet. This Global Brain will function to tackle all challenges confronting the 'global superorganism.' Its capabilities will extend so far beyond our present abilities that they can perhaps best be conveyed as a pragmatic version of the 'divine' attributes..." -Francis Heylighen, The Global Brain Institute

When Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth on April 12th, 1961, he carried generations of hopes and dreams into space with him. A growing number of thinkers now believe the "Overview Effect" heralds nothing less than the next “giant leap” of human evolution. As breathtaking space-down views of our world seep into our collective consciousness, people are waking up to the “Spaceship Earth” analogy that depicts our planet as a natural vessel that must be steered responsibly by its crew.

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Nearing the Cybernetic Singularity: What is the Syntellect Emergence?

3/8/2020

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by Alex Vikoulov

"Evolution is a process of creating patterns of increasing order... I believe that it's the evolution of patterns that constitutes the ultimate story of our world. Each stage or epoch uses the information-processing methods of the previous epoch to create the next." -Ray Kurzweil

"To understand is to perceive patterns." -Isaiah Berlin

About 542 million years ago, something weird and profoundly significant happened on Earth. Quite suddenly, life went insanely inventive, proliferating from simple, rudimentary single-celled organisms into myriad multi-cellular forms. Evolution discovered the idea of more sophisticated and specialized cells, and most of the basic body plans we know today. Biologists call it the Cambrian explosion.

Today, we are on the verge of yet another event of astronomical significance, akin to some kind of Intelligence Supernova, which I refer to as the Cybernetic Singularity, or the Syntellect Emergence. In the scientific community, this upcoming intelligence explosion is also known as the Technological Singularity. Surprisingly enough, most people are still simply oblivious of this rapidly approaching "galactic event" that so many of us are about to witness in our lifetimes.*

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The Ouroboros Code: Bridging Advanced Science and Transcendental Metaphysics

1/12/2020

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by Alex Vikoulov

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings immersed in the human experience." -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Everything is Code. The Ouroboros Code. Immersive self-simulacra. If you've read The Ouroboros Code: Reality's Digital Alchemy Self-Simulation Bridging Science and Spirituality by Dr. Antonin Tuynman, then you would surely find it a truly illuminating, awe-inspiring, and enthralling piece of writing and deep thought, just as I did.

Reminiscent of such recent classics as Erik Davis’ TechGnosis (1998) and Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), The Ouroboros Code should eventually find its way to the shelves of libraries owned by the fans of cybernetics, metaphysics and esoteric philosophies. What you might at first construe as a clear but flamboyant writing style, you should love by the end of the book. Let Antonin's poetic genius deliver to you some furiously complex concepts and abstract ideas so that you could enjoy this conceptual journey into the heart of digital alchemy, this coveted bridge between science and spirituality! At times over-technical in alternative style of narration – especially when discussing natural intelligence and A.I. – the philosopher will make you feel like you just downloaded some latest cognitive update onto your mindware. Neologisms such as Conscienergy and Pansentience, Webmind and Cosmosemiosis, Digital Akasha and Proto-Time, add a definite charm to this chef-d’oeuvre of digital theosophy.

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Theology of Digital Physics: The Universe of Conscious Minds

1/12/2020

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by Antonin Tuynman, PhD

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
-Max Planck

With clear intentions, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. A couple of years ago Matt Swayne, author and lecturer at Penn State University, introduced me to the essays posted on the website of Ecstadelic Media, run by futurist Alex M. Vikoulov. He pointed me to a great number of similarities between Alex' and my endeavors to build a bridge between science and spirituality. We both were mapping the philosophical, scientific and theological implications of the upcoming Technological Singularity, the hypothetical moment in time after which our technological advances could become unpredictable as a consequence of a self-reinforcing intelligence supernova of artificial intelligences, artilects.

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The Ouroboros Code: Solving the Digital Enigma of Sentience in a Self-Simulating Universe

9/23/2019

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by Antonin Tuynman, PhD

"The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This ‘feed-back’ process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which… unquestionably stems from man’s unconscious.” -Carl Jung

Will the abyss between mind and matter ever be bridged? How can configurations of matter ever give rise to consciousness? This is the greatest enigma that puzzles the scientific world, also known as "the hard problem." How do the objective and subjective dimensions relate to each other? It is here that scientists and spiritual seekers appear irreconcilable. Yet the number of scientists calling into question the hegemony of reductive materialism is steadily on the rise.

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