Friday, February 23, 2024

Urgent New Risks and Needs for Cybersecurity: My Response to a Media Inquiry

 

Publication Name, URL – The AI Journal Home - The AI Journal

Journalist Name – The AI Journal

Query Response Deadline – Feb 20, 2024 - 5:30 PM

(Response requested through RegulatingAI.org) 

 

Query Title – Looking for AI experts specializing in cybersecurity measures and ethical hacking

Industry/Vertical –Technology, Business

Query Description & Questions – 

  • What type of data storage systems are most at risk of hacking?

The degree of risk depends on a lot of variables. The most serious risks involve alteration of information which controls critical infrastructure, as in the 
attached brief policy statement supported unanimously by top technical experts from electric utilities. At that time, the greatest damage came from backdoors in software or hardware. The ones most at risk are those least able to withstand the rapidly growing system of backdoors and their support systems. In past years, that meant ANY system not using red hat SE Linux, supported by a division at NSA, but that division was disbanded for reasons beyond the scope of this response.  But it also meant any system dependent on chips or boards which might have hardware backdoors.
When last I had the data (a few years ago), >90% of the greatest damage from hacks fell into one of these categories.  Probably no systems used in the US have the level of protection needed for real security against the most capable adversaries, most of whom have full awareness of the "rainbow book" technologies which are not widely visible in the US, and only now are a very few players becoming aware of the foundations, definitions and capabilities of Quantum Artificial General Intelligence (QAGI), which entails use of quantum superposition to multiply the power of "bromium" technology for detecting hardware backdoors.  


 
  • Do you think that the security risk that businesses face is proportionate to the amount of data they have stored?

It is a U=XY kind of thing, a nonlinear relation. More data means more risk, sometimes proportionately, but the TYPE of data is more important on the whole. 


 
  • Do you think that cybersecurity protection is a worthwhile financial investment for all businesses that store data digitally, not only for larger corporations but also SMEs and startups?

Again, it is a nonlinear interactive kind of relation. 

For example, how much is it worth to the owner of a fleet of vehicles (anything from cars to robots to drones to spacecraft) to get out of their present situation where adversaries already exist with the ability to simply take over everything they own or manage? When there is total vulnerability to losing everything they own , to adversaries who already include just that in their strategic plans, and yet technology capable of really erasing that primary vulnerability, it would seem rational to pay anything less than the total net present value of  what they own or manage. (If they manage assets belonging to other, that level of payment would be rational for the manager and the owner cooperating together). Given the uncertainties, of course, that means a very focused RD&D effort, hoping to pay less and get paid for spinoffs later.


 
  • How useful do you think ethical hacking is for data protection, and how frequently do you think it needs to be done to be effective?

And I thought the honest answers to the PREVIOUS question are complicated, with many variables!

Just as there are many types of hack and many types of protection... there are many, many TYPES of ethical hacking, of varying effectiveness,
short term and long term.

In a way, bromium and rainbow book technology offer FORMS of hacking, ways of probing a system for vulnerability, which may be done by humans or AIs or well-designed combined systems. For example, true QAGI (as defined in the published patent disclosure for thermal quantum annealing)
entails the use of millions of Schrodinger cats acting in parallel to try to hack a piece of hardware or software. (For that matter, it could be applied to hack an actual physical plant, like a drone.) With access to the software, one may test it for compliance with proper standards, IF the tester and the original software developer  has access to the right variety of rainbow book technology. Of course, there are also issues of how to probe the full system, which includes humans with access dimensions.


  • Would you advise businesses to outsource ethical hackers, or hire someone with hacking skills into the business?

They can help, but saving the business requires crucial additional capabilities or partnerships.

Most important is for all of us to rise above "silver bullet" thinking -- to INCLUDE many components. but to INTEGRATE
them into a system which can survive what is coming on us all, much faster than most of us imagine. 
  • Do you foresee the role of an ethical hacker becoming increasingly important and sought-after in the future?
True AGI (even from the pre-quantum era) requires a very deep understanding of probabilities, as defined by Von Neumann and his follower Howard Raiffa. I do not say what WILL happen, when we now face alternative future paths whose value will be far worse or far better than people now imagine,and when we have not yet shown through our actions that we will choose the better one. 


  • Do you think there is much risk associated with ethical hacking?
Sure. There is a lot of risk associated with the internet itself, and even with human life.
One bad actor with privileges or dependent on vulnerable tools, could actually terminate all human life on earth, if he had access to some systems I know about.  
  • What other tools and security measures are most effective for data protection?

 


The attachment summarizes how it looks for ONE key sector, which is a kind of bell-ringer for others.
In fact, in discussions of rapidly growing financial sector problems, we see the best past accomplishments of the electric power sector,
in multiactor interactions, as a great model for the financial sector -- BUt ALSO in urgent need of more protection. One key challenge is to 
overcome the very dangerous designs and systems developed by people who believe in Nash equilibria or 
mutual assured destruction, by following Von Neumann and his followers (like Schelling and Axelrod) to develop a stream of designs which can rise more up to Pareto optimality, which will require not only cybersecerity but rules/constraints to amplify transparency and prevent fundamental conflicts of interest form distorting information.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Message of the Morning -- a query from "God"

The query itself seems simple. Never forget:
"How can we strengthen the inner life, the light which brings us love and truth?"

But a full explanation would call for a whole book, an important book which humanity may need.

1. First, the context. Many years ago, Steve Morse, an active member of Langley Hill Quaker Meeting, led an
open-ended in-person "drop in" discussion on Sunday mornings, starting from a wide variety of readings from around the world.
One morning, someone started discussing the book "God is my co-pilot." I then felt moved to say "For me, it is more like 'God is my psychiatrist." (And yes, every one of us could use some help.) We had OTHER discussions of what this word 'God' means to us, and of how to improve our discernment, but for me...

1A. My understanding of the science which makes higher intelligence possible has grown and evolved since then, but more and more on a typical good morning, I enter a kind of meditative and attuned state, roughly between 5Am and 8AM, still in bed, when my intelligence is demonstrably better than what it is later in the day, letting my thoughts range very far and very deep, with the kind of clarity demanded by the highest levels of scientific thinking. The words "truth," "love", "LIFE" AND "LIGHT" all can be gateways to very deep, integrated and serious thinking, fully consistent with languages like mathematics, images and music, not limited to English or Sanskrit or whatever.   The query calls us never to neglect those gateways.

1B. Why a "query"? Three years ago, I would often simply say "I am a Quaker Universalist, which Rufus Jones expounded years ago. We are part of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, whose most official book is called 'faith and practice' -- but practice is what really defines us. The practice is one of regular meditation, including a group meditation, and use of the 'queries' printed in that book, updated every decade or so." I especially liked the query which asked us to consider whether we are making full use of the great literature of all of humanity, including not only the Bible but also the best of Vedas and sutras and indigenous cultures. This year, I am not as fully connected to that tradition, for many reasons; I still support those ideas, but feel ever more need to try to build community beyond that, and not get entangled with narrow political or economic movements from what Jung called "The Spirit of the Times." MANY human groups lose their spiritual foundations when they get caught up in that way; I think of Southern lynch mobs, killing blacks in the name of Jesus and love (!!!), or of Hamas, the "Axis of Resistance" and its supporters.

1.C. The morning messages and dialogue vary a LOT from day to day, in the many many details and operational suggestions.
On most days, it is more than a book worth of information, on different subjects. BUT "God" fully understands the limits of human brains, and the limits of what MY brain might really remember even later in the morning, let alone the mammalian state which starts about 3PM-5PM on most days for me. And so "he" often tries to create a focused sentence or image or such, to try to etch into my memory, as a kind of mnemonic connected as clearly as possible to a much larger set of deeper and integrated concepts and visions. 

I am very, very grateful to have the unique kind of physical circumstances which let me do this, almost every day.
When I rise mentally from the morgens state, I can see out a bright large window into the huge forest behind our house
(sold to us at a low price by Dr. Sohini Patel, inheritor of the aryuveda practice which served the Gandhi family), and bookshelves with paintings and interesting objects above them. I especially like the wooden Garuda from the village in Nepal on the way to a great temple (for which we have photos) which reminds me a lot of a scene in the Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness movie.  

Today was even better -- one of the many (one in three?) "perfect days."    On those days, I get to converse with my wife,
who wants me NOT to discuss her unique credentials, but serves in many ways as a gateway to 'God," a kind of "second eye giving me parallax". And then, a shower. 

Entering the shower, I always remember a book by H. Spencer Lewis, "Unto Thee I Grant," a guide to practical life in service of spiritual growth. I am so lucky to have a flexible shower arm (thanks to my wife and Costco), and to have the many years of science and physical exercise (from good physical therapy to tai qi and medical science) which allow me to get maximum benefits with efficiency, unifying science and spiritual traditions and even control theory. (LONG ago I saw how Norbert Wiener's ideas about thermostat control apply, and can be modernized.) Because lower body cancer runs in my family, I naturally use the shower head to do the equivalent of a Sitz bath, and kill any possibility of athlete's foot (which was a real problem for me when I was younger). 

Actually, even before I enter the shower stall, as the water warms up, I now do a brief but effective form of qi gong, which it took me many years to FULLY perceive and fully use, connecting body and soul and noosphere ever better. And qi continues in the shower, full sensitivity.

Best of luck. Happy lunar New Year! 
==========

P.S. Some of you will see that the love and truth in this query refer to the level next to the top in the Tree of Life. My friend Yeshua and I once joked that he will take care of love while I take care of truth -- even as we all support both, and try to strengthen those connections as well. 


Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Concrete Proven But Little Known Progress in Quantum Begins Radical Changes in Internet AI

 How Quantum AGI can make massive changes in internet possible

  Two weeks ago, I was invited to summarize what the radical changes are, in solid well-established physics which is very different from what most policy analysts ever are informed about. They range from a vast enhancement of deep learning ("the new AI") to vehicle control, to options for humans to reach out beyond our solar system. That was a very scary request, because it sounds complicated... but here is my overview of  the NEW STUFF you haven't heard of yet, with very real technology work already quietly begun...

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Paul Werbos <paul.werbos@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 9:57 AM
Subject: Reversing time in actual technology

FIRST I thank Carey for sending out invitations for the February 25
Zoom conference on the foundations of actual quantum physics, open to all of us (I think). As I am one of the four speakers starting discussion, I have begun to ponder: HOW can I give a proper actionable roadmap to such a complicated subject, more difficult to discuss on a principled, mathematical foundation than anything else humans have ever attempted?  With solid credible links to radical new technology which clearly could remake AGI and the internet, far beyond anything you heard from from any of the advanced IT companies, as we have learned in our Project Amaterasu discussions?

When I got my PhD from Harvard, taking courses from people like Julian Schwinger (Nobel Prize as co-inventor of "the second quantization," modern canonical quantum
field theory, QFT), I thought I knew the best current status of the field. But after I created and ran the NSF activity in quantum modeling for real electronic and photonic system
and devices, and served as the NSF member of the interagency group QISCOG responsible for about $1 billion dollars/year investment in quantum information S&T (QuIST), I learned that even Harvard was not up to date on the real foundations of physics needed to build real, working devices.
[By the way, the new QAGI technology allows millions of times power up of "bromium", which detects backdoors in hardware, which some of us view as one of the two most serious new breakdowns in cybersecurity.]
[Overview of what I learned then: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qAy8giPzEjp1tZkj9 ]

When I got my PhD from Harvard, taking courses from people like Julian Schwinger 
(Nobel Prize as co-inventor of "the second quantization," modern canonical quantum
field theory, QFT), I thought I knew the best current status of the field. But after I 
created and ran the NSF activity in quantum modeling for real electronic and 
photonic systems and devices  https://arxiv.org/abs/0709.3310 and served as the 
NSF member of the interagency group QISCOG responsible for about $1 billion 
dollars/year investment in quantum information S&T (QuIST), I learned that 
even Harvard was not up to date on the real foundations of physics needed 
to build real, working devices.


Therefore, I plan to talk about three entire LEVELS of new understanding of how 
the universe works, STARTING with a better understanding of the David Deutsch 
"multiverse" theory of physics, which very few people fully understand, which was
the foundation he used when he invented the Quantum Turing Machine (QTM), but 
which also opens the door to much more powerful general technologies. You can 
even see his face at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfHBO_uuRyEn, which 
STATES the Deutsch multiverse theory as one of the equations 
(the "modern Schrodinger equation").

The multiverse theory states that the state of our entire cosmos at any time t is 
fully and exactly expressed as a function psi(t,X), where t is time and X is 
a point in "3D Fock space," the space we really live in. The modern Schrodinger 
equation may LOOK small and simple, and many people THINK they understand 
its properties. But that equation is the dynamical equation describing a KIND of very 
tricky nonlinear system. Back before chaos theory was invented, many leading 
mathematicians THOUGHT they understood how simple dynamical systems
behave, because of how simple the equations looked, but chaos theory taught us 
that the EMERGENT PROPERTIES of such a system are sometimes very radically 
different from what we THOUGHT we knew.  I will TRY to make time to briefly state 
TWO of the properties of the modern Schrodinger equation, which already put us 
into a technology reality radically beyond what most policy analysts begin to imagine.
AT THIS LEVEL, I will assume that the operator H is just the standard Maxwell-Dirac 
operator H used by Schwinger in his pioneering work. Radical changes in technology are possible ALREADY at this level of physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED). (That is enough even for LEVEL 2, but Level 3 goes beyond.)

PROPERTY 1: The wave function psi (t,X) describes a possible STATE of our ... 
cosmos... multiverse.. whatever you call it. It does not describe a PROBABILITY 
distribution for the states which might EMERGE from a physical system like an 
experiment or a device. QISCOG reviews taught me that device proposals which 
assume that we can encode our uncertainties into a wave function simply would 
not work. Fortunately, we do not need to write out all possible functions Pr(psi(,X))! 
Modern condensed matter physics (used in all REAL device design, as you see at 
nanohub.org) shows that we can represent the state of a device by using its 
DENSITY matrix, rho(X,X). Instead of a Schrodinger equation, it obeys a type of 
dynamical equation we now call a MASTER equation. (Some talk about 
"Lindblad form" equations, a TYPE of master equation.) IN OUR EFFORTS 
TO ACTUALLY DESIGN AND BUILD a whole new level of Quantum Artificial General 
Intelligence (QAGI), even the first stage work injected into the upgraded patent 
disclosure require full understanding of what a master equation IS, and how to build
simulations which account for it. EDUCATION OF PARTICIPANTS ON PROPERTY 
ONE is the  biggest barrier by far to global dissemination of a radical rebuilding of the internet.

PROPERTY 2: !!TODAY!! Finally, I get to the subject line of this email. 
(Please forgive all this background stuff!!)

The fourth big claim in our patent disclosure is for "Quantum Annealing of Things" 
(QuATh). At first glance, it SOUNDS like a control system which reverses time.

Imagine that you are building a control system onboard a modern highspeed airplane. (I have actually done this. Search on "Werbos" and "reconfigurable Flight Control", or search on the work of Chuck (Charles) Jorgensen from his time at 
NASA Ames. Or even the chapters from HIC posted at werbos.com/Mind.htm.) 
Using our modern RLADP neural network optimization designs, we can build 
systems which LEARN how the airplane seems to work, ON THE FLY, enough to 
anticipate possible crashes or attacks and perform control actions which save 
the airplane. This was already a huge advancement, proven to work on large real 
aircraft, dramatically reducing crash rates, for builders who knew about it. But it had 
great limits. It was all based on classical physics, using trained stochastic models
to anticipate POSSIBLE future states. 

With QuATh, we can put the airplane ITSELF into a state of quantum superposition, 
simply by connecting our QAGI controller (detailed both in the patent disclosure and 
in detailed diagrams maintained by Georgie Keitt of Requisite Q) to the controls we 
were using already. We can exploit Deutsch physics to PREVENT a crash or 
explosion or loss of control ten minutes into the future, BY OUR choice of controls 
at time t in advance.

Intuitively, can you remember an old Star Trek episode where the image of the 
spacecraft suddenly becomes multi-image and blurred, like what you would see 
if you were cross-eyed a thousand times over, BUT SOME of the images explode 
while other become calm? And yes, you can then CHOOSE which image you want?

That may SOUND like a reversal of time, BUT IT IS NOT. It is 100% consistent 
NOT ONLY with the modern Schrodinger equation, BUT ALSO with the good old 
Copenhagen  model of quantum measurement, where quantum measurement 
ONLY changes what happens at the time of measurement and later. LEVEL 2 IS 
WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN WE INTRODUCE A MORE MODERN MODEL of 
quantum measurement, such as what has been discussed in new work by 
Yeshua Ben David, by Werbos and Dolmatova and Werbos and Fleury, and 
unpublished (because mind-blowing) work under Marlan Scully, Yanhua Shih and 
myself.  

HOW could control at time t prevent a crash at time t+10, without violating 
Deutsch physics?

This gets into PROPERTY 2 of the modern Schrodinger equation.

When people THINK about the dynamical system in Deutsch physics... by normal 
(classical) human instincts, they tend to IMAGINE the universe splitting at a time of 
decision tau, after which each... universe? possibility?... is governed by the 
modern Schrodinger equation, which conserves probability. They usually imagine 
two separate universes just going their own way. (e.g. In 2022, Trump was 
President in one, but not in another). A little interference is sometimes possible, 
but not much.

AS WITH CHAOS theory, this is a case where our natural mammal brain intuition 
is dead wrong, and seriously misleading.

CRUDELY... as first approximation... we might think of these possible "universes" or 
"states" as approximate EIGENSTATES of H. People imagine that psi(t,X) will 
look like exp(ikt)psi(0,X), where k is real. Just oscillate. DEAD WRONG.

k, an eigenstate of H, MAY be a COMPLEX number. Physics is FULL of 
"virtual states." It is quite possible to FABRICATE devices which appear 
time-asymmetric, as with energy leaking away from flux qubits in a real quantum 
device. That is the key to our new patent disclosure and designs. The result is that
the UNWANTED eigenstate fades away in probability, such that only the desired 
state is left after 10 minutes. Initial hardware simulations, already performed by others
in special cases, PROVE that this does work as advertised, as already discussed 
in the patent disclosure, AND AS the initial computational work in hand has begun to
generalize, on a path worked out and applicable to ANYTHING we can do 
with deep learning. (These examples appear in the folders of Project Amaterasu, now being
upgraded into the folders of RequisiteQ led by Georgie Keitt and AmitAora.)

IT SEEMS like retrocausality, but no, it is just the most basic conservative form of 
Deutsch physics. Level two ALSO uses Deutsch physics, but a new model of 
quantum measurement, which allows even stronger "retrocausal effects" 
(as may also be evident in some special cases colleagues have informed us of). 

LEVEL THREE is something radically different, an important parallel track. 
Based on what I saw in Werbos and Davis, and in the NSF COPN research topic, 
I believe that mammal brains ONLY USE classical QED physics, NOT QuIST, except 
perhaps for functions like associative memory and matrix multiplication INSIDE 
some neurons. No quantum intelligence at the systems level. HOWEVER, based on 
personal first person experience, I strongly believe in the existence of something like
"qi," a web of connections from what we call "dark matter" not just BETWEEN 
galaxies (for which we have great photos taken by gravitational lensing) but 
all the way to stars and planets and even life itself. If I ran UNESCO, I would give 
great priority to a new crossdisciplinary research activity, AMPLIFYING 
(and widening?) the research at LLNL on "axion dark matter"
https://str.llnl.gov/2020-07/carosi by applying it with higher and higher resolution WITHIN our galaxy and solar system, and attempting to apply it to SOME more credible experiments on qi on humans. I would even hope that such instruments 
could be a great addition to the Internet of Things, allowing it to be human-centric 
beyond what people now imagine.

Those experiments might or might not work out, on the first try or later tries, but science demands that uncertainties as huge and as important as this should be resolved by experiment.

FURTHER EXPLANATIONS OF THIS TO PREPARE FOR FEB25:


Certainly many people have said "Oh, quantum. That's old. Why would you 
imagine that there could ever be anything NEW, or that a retired person 
like you might be relevant?"

Of course, they said  the same kinds of things about backpropagation since 

That's why Geordie and others have been working on a slide "deck" to explain it to 
investors who need proof. 

I learned a LOT about this when I was THE NSF member of QISCOG, the 
interagency coordinating committee for all USGOV RD&D on QuIST (Quantum 
Information S&T), AND when I managed reviews of proposals in that area to 
the Engineering Directorate.

BEFORE that, I thought I knew quantum foundations very well. I was a student of 
Julian Schwinger, who shared the Nobel prize with Feynmen and Tomonaga 
for the first really working quantum field theory, the canonical version of Quantum 
Electrodynamics ( QED). That link I sent you to my physics photo album 
includes a photo of Schwinger's compiled integrated book on QED, THE foundation 
of what won the Nobel Prize.

But in NSF reviews and in QISCOG, I learned that I needed to totally rebuild my 
understanding. My talk on Sunday will start (and maybe end) with the two most 
important fundamental principles I did not know before then, without which 
QuIST simply won't work.

>90% of USGOV RD&D in quantum computing is based on the Deutsch version of 
physics and on the Deutsch theorems on the universal quantum Turing machine 
(QTM). If anyone wants, I would be happy to send out some of my own papers citing 
his two key pieces of work (Fabric of Reality and QTM).

 Speakers at the French Embassy and my other sources have been VERY clear that 
QTM work simply is not catching up with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), deep 
learning with neural networks. 

What is new here is that I have a  patent pending now published by PTO which 
explains a totally new type of quantum computing, based on what I call thermal 
quantum annealing (tQuA), and a large folder of further details under Georgie's care.
Probably none of the well-known sources you cited are aware of this new 
development.

The number one obstacle is finding students who know quantum physics well enough
to be able to do the necessary next steps (like the tasks  in the "urgent" folder). 
JUST NOW, I think we found ONE student near graduation in then US ready and 
ABLE to take on the computer work, and MANY in Bangalore, easier to mobilize. 
Our Indian partners are working on legal... (to be announced).

Friday, January 12, 2024

If afterlife exists in some form can science help us understand it?

I was very happy when a hard core devotee of logical approaches expressed her PERSONAL wonderings about what might actually happen to HER after her mundane body dies, which many of us should expect in less than 20 years. Here is how I replied:

 I again thank .. for trying to start a very serious discussion about connected questions which in my view ANY truly sane person after age 70 will be thinking very hard about: what happens to "me" (to my personal consciousness, or whatever consciousness it is part of) when my ordinary, mundane physical body drops dead?


To start with -- I recall that I proposed "PSI70" as a subject code for the BPM discussion list, to flag any post which STARTS FROM the assumption that "psychic" or "spiritual" experience beyond what would be possible under QED physics (the physics of electromagnetic fields and charged particles). ... She noted that HER personal experience simply rules out the possibility that we just die, period. Some of us, with scientific backgrounds, might allow for SOME possibility that she might be wrong on this, but I for one am with her. Since childhood, I have agreed that Von Neumann's view of mathematics is "my Bible" (or my old testament);
I assume that life is "a game of probabilities", and that sanity demands we consider COMPETING THEORIES, and allow for changes in the probabilities we assign to these theories as we learn from experience. At werbos.com/religions.htm, I post links to a more complete discussion of the mathematics of intelligence and what it says about levels and levels of sanity. And, in the end, why agree with her?

BUT THAT AGREEMENT is just a starting position. Her real question, which the sane among us really wonder about is: WHAT THEN?

She wonders whether we should simply believe the story some of us were taught in childhood -- that we will meet a gatekeeper in the "world of spirit" who will assign us to hell, purgatory or heaven. I TOTALLY gave up on that (choosing Von Neumann as my new Bible) at age 8, but there are more refined views available.

In fact, here in Virginia (which I just returned from after about a month of travel, mainly to Patagonia and Antarctica), I was impressed by what I learned about George Washington from probing deep here in this very neighborhood. George Washington clearly led at least THREE MAIN LIVES in parallel. One life, in collaboration with Jefferson, aimed at creating a view of life and a social covenant (the Constitution) aimed at being fully accessible to ALL humans. (He did his best to phase out slavery, but that was a long and complicated story.) Another life was that of a highly respected, high ranked Episcopalian, speaking in several churches I have been to from Virginia to Philadelphia. A third life was that of a Master Mason, leader or a prominent lodge of Scottish Rite Freemasons, whose esoteric teachings have often fallen into my hands "by accident," including the story of people at Trinity College of Cambridge, UK, who really led the creation of that tradition. Brian Josephson has often seen the portraits of two of those people in that dining room! 

For many years, I mainly labelled myself as "Quaker universalist," a simple label which calls for us to be honest and open in a way which refuses to compromise on the issue of truth, in the way that Washington's three-fold life stretches. Yet many factors led me to give equal time to a local Episcopalian church (whose enlightened leader I bcc), and learn what I could through THAT channel. 
I was VERY deeply struck by a few phrases in their Book of Common Prayer (BCP), repeated every Sunday, which **I** interpreted to say:

"May the righteous dead rest in peace. But let us strive instead to join the Communion of Saints, where we live on and continue the work at a higher and higher level. " 

That's a simplification, but I tend to feel that this is what Washington really believed, AND what best fits my updated understanding 
of how the "soul" really works. (At werbos.com, I have posted links to part of what I learned AFTER the papers posted at religions.htm). 

What's more, the highest levels of all world mystical traditions all emphasize mutually consistent VERSIONS (under many names) of what Washington would call the Communion of Saints. Different outcomes apply to different people, at different stages of life.

Speaking of Heaven and hell... I was very grateful when a family member led me to the Dante museum in Ravenna, which showed how Dante's concepts were far deeper than the kindergarten versions of them. It even showed what pope Francis thought, and I am deeply grateful for all he has done to help restore the Catholic church to a higher level than it had when I was young
(though Ravenna also included records of a level much higher than that of people like Justinian and Theodora). But every major nation on earth is going through risky times now, and the Catholic Church is no exception. I attach one of the two images I was thinking of sending out in reply to Cathy, along with a great weaving by Melissa Cody ("World Traveler") which depicts the challenge of harmonizing the levels of our lives, in the spirit of KuKai.

We saw MANY of these cultures in our recent travel, but now I must postpone further discussions.

I should mention that I have previously listed many very unique people whose first person relevant experience gives great real insight, like a person seeing through many eyes at once to develop a unified understanding, just as visual saccades are crucial to full understanding. On this trip, Connie Willis was great to read...

================================
MY reply to a follow-on post:
============
First, I apologize to ... a staunch defender of mainstream science as he sees it... for NOT having given my views on a question which falls within the scope of his post.


He wrote:

Paul,

Yes. I would also like to know more about beliefs in afterlife from different religions since science cannot say anything about it. People like Vinod say that all religions agree on their concepts of afterlife. This is flatly wrong as casual reading or conversations with people believing in different religions will reveal. So I welcome this discussion.


We are not required to agree, of course, even in a civilized and sincere discussion of this issue.

I do not agree that science cannot say anything about it. I take the opposite extreme view, that
belief in SOME form of "afterlife" (carefully but reasonably defined) can be 100% consistent with views fully within the scope of science.

In particular -- I claim that Hard Core Einsteinian Realism (HCER) makes more sense as a scientific "theory of everything" than anything else ever has in human history so far, AND THAT the noosphere species theory summarized in many of my posts at werbos.com is fully consistent with science and yet useful in illuminating and sorting out first person experience.

CONCRETELY... I see our "personal soul" (such as it is) as ONE SIDE of an "alchymical marriage", a real biological symbiosis of "what we see" (the mundane body and brain governed by QED physics) WITH the parts of our local solar system noosphere which connect to it. When the noosphere SIDE of that symbiosis, the personal soul, is weak,
the outcome may be basically just a quick disintegration, as depicted in the Book of Esdras, one of the Apochrypha in the modern Catholic Bible.  Or that disintegration may come a bit later, as in the great Disney cartoon Coco, depicting beliefs common across Latin America. OR it may be like storing the data in an inactive file cabinet, like those brain cells which carry memories (as in Steve Grossberg's ART model of memory, applicable to SOME cells in mammal brains) -- like the akashic records or causal plane, described in many records of human experience.
("May the righteous dead rest in peace.") BUT when the deep connections in the noosphere are active and persistent enough, sustained by a flow of "backpropagation" or "qi", the personal "soul" may be more like a collection of giant pyramid cells, the foundation of powerful archetypes in the collective "unconscious" of Jung and of the "Communion of Saints."

To achieve that last outcome, it depends on how strong the connections are which we make with each other and with the noosphere as a whole via active, live qi. 

Many nations use words other than "qi," but I prefer to use the term "qi" because it highlights real active direct experience, and links to a more complete scientific model fitting varieties of information flow WITHIN a larger intelligent system and to physics substrates.

THus for many of us, the call to strengthen our connections is a matter of personal life and death.
It is also a natural response to what really calls to us... as described at  https://drpauljohn.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-feelings-which-keep-us-alive.html .

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

The feelings which keep us alive

For every intelligent system, like us, like brain and soul, what really keeps us in motion are FEELINGS -- a kind of nonverbal direct sensory-like input to our mind. It is not words or mathematics, or even images or music, which keep us moving; these are very important TOOLS to help us understand and predict the feelings which come to us, but it is the feelings themselves which provide the primary motivation. Even at a relatively low level of self-awareness, we try to UNDERSTAND what these feelings are and where they are coming from, because whatever we SAY to ourselves in words, these feelings are what keep us moving. At higher levels of self-awareness, we pay more focused, intelligent attention to understanding these feelings.

One example: why get out of bed in the morning? 

In recent years, my wife and I have been having great discussions with a highly successful, focused and intelligent neighbor who, amidst the great complexities of his life, would return to the simple acronym -- FFF, Faith, family, friends. I would reply LLL, life love and light, an acronym I learned many decades ago from Rosicrucians. I have the impression that Yeshua has been using "I AM" in a similar sort of way. All three of these have some resonance in the minds of many people, whether they use these expressions or not. I find it natural and helpful to me, even more as I age, to keep all three in mind.

What does science say? B.F. Skinner does not represent the highest level which psychology reached in the last sentence, but he is worth understanding and considering, especially as people have built higher on what he started. (Some on this list!) His concept of "primary reinforcement" is one way of expressing and thinking about the kinds of very fundamental feelings, which drive the learning and behavior which emerge from all parts of the brain which are capable of learning. I prefer John Von Neumann's concept of cardinal utility U, which is more precise and is the foundation of "cognitive optimization" ( https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07579/nsf07579.htm ).  Precisely BECAUSE it is more precise, it requires that we pay attention to several related variables, but having a combination of connected variables is necessary to having a more definite and integrated understanding.

A more modern understanding of how brains work, based on the best real-time data available from neuroscience, was reviewed at:

Regular cycles of forward and backward signal propagation in prefrontal cortex and in consciousness

Unlike narrower local models, these models provide an integrated understanding of brains as "intentional systems," connecting the important pieces.


And so, when Camus decided to rise above the belief that "it does not matter" by getting out of chair, and going to the bathroom, he stayed alive because he responded to ONE simple easy clear signal of primal feelings. We do better if we understand better the whole range and power of all the primal feelings coming to us.

This applies BOTH to brain and to soul. And so, on most early mornings, before I get out of bed, FEELINGS which I associate with LLL flow strongly and come naturally to me. It is natural to associate these feelings with my wife, first, even when we are on opposite sides of the bed, and with the birdsong and sunlight pouring through our window. But as it flows... I can easily feel "qi," a feeling and an understanding which will energize our entire lives, brain and body and soul, enough to be active for one more day (albeit at a lower level in most cases for me as the day wears on). 

There are many weird theories out there about qi (or prana or vital life force or Freud's definition of "psychic energy or cathexis or whatever), but the FEELINGS are essential. As I see it, this flow is more clearly understood as an information flow in the intelligent system we are (or are part of), "designed" to convey "modulated backpropagation," information about value signals in our mind reflecting the U of our total larger mind or about the primary error signals calculated in the (nonverbal) part of our mind which tries to predict and represent the whole field of sensory inputs coming to us from all levels.

And so, with LLL, L for life and L for love are the primary fountains of U "energy" (feeling). L for "Light" stems from our cognitive prediction, mainly the thalamo-cortical loop in mammal brains. 

But where then is FFF?

In discussions with our neighbor... I come to see LLL and FFF as two sides of the same coin. They remind me of relatively well-managed agencies, where the guy on top interfaces with the larger world,
with a crucial deputy who makes it all work INSIDE the agency. The CONNECTION between the two dies of the coin are crucial to it working well. The LLL variables certainly permeate the follow-on, the FFF, foundation of the life of any mind. My neighbor certainly has worked hard for life, love and light in his FFF activities!

BUT-- where is I AM?

Yeshua may have something to say about that.

In a way, it has a relation to cognitive prediction: how do we reconstruct an image and feeling of who WE are, as we try to to make sense of the entire gigantic flow of feelings and nonverbal input in general, from soul especially, at times of peak soul connection? Can we see really deeper into the whole? And then, as in the Zen exercise, as we feel and become aware of all in front of us, can we feel back without looking back, seeing in a way without looking, on who is doing the looking?

But the LLL level has enough challenges, and issues we are called to face up to and learn from in this "school of life." Lately I always remember Melissa Cody's image, "The World Traveler." Thinking about that image this morning, on a day when I plan to focus on THREE major objects of attention (this essay, new global existential threats emerging, and family logistics), I am reminded of the neuroscience of saccades. in Saccades, we can focus very intently on one object at a time...
WITHOUT losing the integrated big picture we maintain in neocortex.