Human technology is a branch in the giant bifurcation (tree) of creation, bifurcation being a pattern of morphogenesis and let’s be fair, emerging from plant and animal evolutionary technology. Escher’s famous drawing illustrates how creation emanates from the hands, and the “strange loop” as Douglas Hofstadter put it in GEB, between creator and creation.
“Drawing Hands” is an elegant example of a loop that exists within a larger existence. The artist creates the art with a self made tool, and the very elements comprising the tool were wrought in the furnace of the stars. The strange loop is a “Yes, and…” as in yes, the human is the idea maker, the creator of concepts, technologies and tools — And the material is creator also.
And so is the raw material that we cannot readily detect without instrumentation. Then we choose in what manner we detect and perceive, with growing ‘degrees of freedom’ in doing so.
It’s interesting how as human intelligence grows through this drawing hands-style feedback effect, as we’re able to see and detect more of the universe.
COSMIC, for example — SETI’s new frequency detector, a combination of data and observation, makes possible deeper knowing of the universe, and increasing dimensional picture or vision. Our sensory ‘picture’ of the universe is multimodal, and has increased with complexity and types of technology, but also with greater perspective and intelligence.
In collapsing inward intellectually, and soulfully, humanity is now expanding outward into the cosmos. Both the blue shift and the red shift are necessary in these fascinating cycles of development. Yes, like a massive organism, that we are part of and yet separate from.
I observed with humor that the Banyan tree above, looks like it’s been generated by AI. That would be a strange loop indeed! That doesn’t have to be that confusing though. There are many patterns and shapes in nature that inevitably repeat and get recreated in different ways.
From an expansive viewpoint, AI is part of nature, because it is part of us. The elements of its creation are the raw materials of creation itself, like the carbon graphite in Escher’s pencil. And it’s interesting to think of computing as form of biomimicry.
“Recursion” is a programming and mathematical concept in which a function invokes itself to solve a problem or a address a complex task, such as making something unlike oneself! And recursion is embedded in the fabric of the universe, manifesting in both macroscopic and microscopic scales. An example in mathematics that also exhibits in nature is the Fibonacci Sequence.
Fractals are also an example of this “self similarity” visible from coastlines and clouds, to fluid dynamics, to the “golden ratio,” and the structure of galaxies. On a cosmological scale, the universe demonstrates recursive patterns on different levels of magnitude.
In a way, the propagation of self similarity could be viewed as a form of reproduction, certainly quite different from our own, and elemental. I realize there has been quite a bit of resistance in the scientific community towards the implications of cosmic aliveness.
Nevertheless, the universe and material continue to grow and develop in numerous ways, and we along with it. The time scales are quite different though, and then a layer to the fabric that’s theoretically timeless, such as the quantum realm.
This is also consistent with spirituality, purpose and wanting to be part of something greater than ourselves – because we are! This is my viewpoint of course and not unsubstantiated. Also, that the drawing hands can be Philosophy and Technology, inseparable doing and way of doing, or intention.
Part of the insightful beauty of Escher’s multidimensional drawing lies in the extra dimension, the interpretations from the observer beyond the page.