Origin Gaps and the Eternal Sunshine of the Second-Order Pendulum
@article{Dedeo2017OriginGA,
title={Origin Gaps and the Eternal Sunshine of the Second-Order Pendulum},
author={Simon Dedeo},
journal={arXiv: History and Philosophy of Physics},
year={2017},
pages={41-61}
}The rich experiences of an intentional, goal-oriented life emerge, in an unpredictable fashion, from the basic laws of physics. Here I argue that this unpredictability is no mirage: there are true gaps between life and non-life, mind and mindlessness, and even between functional societies and groups of Hobbesian individuals. These gaps, I suggest, emerge from the mathematics of self-reference, and the logical barriers to prediction that self-referring systems present. Still, a mathematical…
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