Integrity is the ability of an extant, whether atom, animal, metabolic loop, or cosmic star to participate in a range of interactions and still maintain a continuity of form or function or development. Integrity, as we are capable of recognizing it, must be broad enough to embrace such examples as :
1) Primal universal construct: e.g., a stable proton existing for the entire life of the universe; stable molecular states and metabolisms,
2) Metamorphosis: a caterpillar which transfigures into a moth or butterfly;
being a singular organic life form which undergoes drastic alterations of its structure in order to deal with different environments, or bio-metabolism, or need-objectives pertinent to its survival as a holistic organism,3) Maturation: as an organism (such as ourselves) matures through several distinct states or forms of body structure (subtle nuances effecting profound changes) while remaining essentially "individual" and uniquely the same,
4) Evolution: that occurs as organisms and astronomically integral systems interact successfully to a wide variety of encounters on many levels...external environment, random fluctuations in bio-metabolism and genetic sequencing, internal plasma dynamics and quantum states, and so on, where a chain of regenerating creation can produce wholly different life forms or stellar constructs ... while relying on an unbroken lineage of reproduction-that- permits-alterations.
Integrity is kinetic stability. It is simultaneously content and process acting in relationship with extended environments and happens in a range of functional capacities, not a nodal locale (like homeostasis) or a boundary between chaos and disorder. It uses a blending of 2 mechanisms: insulation and opportunity.
Integrity is the quality of 'self-organization', impelled and acted out through the primary dynamic forces science has already identified, and even appears in the ones we are not quite sure how to explain - such as the "force" that motivates one person to work in concert with another. At the more complex levels we don't really talk about "forces" anymore (in the sense that physics describes them). Rather, we talk about: needs, concerns, social considerations, power, etc. In point of fact all these activities hover around the same singular ability of an organized form to maintain itself or not as it encounters the rest of existence. In 1998 I encountered a term now in use that refers to the same essential relations: "gaussian bubble" - and will use that term, along with 'lifespace' (Lewin, 1935), interchangably with 'integrity'.
Integrity Dynamics:
Systems are functionally soundest when not saturated in content or activity rates; function-space latitudes and degrees-of-freedom are absolutely crucial for current and for future performance. It is a tendency toward improved competence. There is no drive toward some maximized state (either disarray or absolute control).
For an entity to exist/persist it must remain competent
across a range of existential encounters with the rest of existence.All systems function with what might be termed "behavioral inertia". It is the tendency to "keep on functioning" - within some range of operations that are appropriate to each system's construction. That is, as long as energy cycles and integrated sub-systems remain open and unblocked to the flow of energy and information, a system remains viable and functionally whole where/when future option spaces "to" function and "to" behave remain open. It is an ongoing balancing act, poised between the extremes of energy and information - too little or too much. In other words, the indication is, that for any given assembly there are maximum and minimum entropy values, beyond which "functional viability" is lost.
Within these variable limits integral wholeness is maintainable.
1. Nested Local Entropies - Existence is an assemblage of independently directed
energy and information gradients. These exist 'within' levels of organization
and as nested sub- and supra- levels. When shared characteristics fall within
similar parameter values, sub- systems can lock in the next higher level of
assembly at the more negentropic range of that level's behavior/function
space. This is essentially a 'communication' between higher level members,
using the sub- systemic members/characteristics as the transferred energy or
information.Recursive and reiterated 'communiques' are the essential mechanism and
process of Complexity building.2. The Universe is an Embedded Topology of "Information"
~ Nested Cantorian Infinities kXn, where n = kXn continuously.
~ Pluralities of simultaneous "bit-sizes"
~ Information content is quantified non-commutatively
- information content increases factorially & exponentially
~ Dimensions are Relational-Sets ... Information is recodified, not destroyed
- are integral and fractal
- Exponent-zero is fully"dimensional",
can retain information "content" intact
- Non-commutative structure generates alternating entropies, because:
- Each integral dimension (n) breaks symmetry from the (n-1)
dimension; This is the source of (+/-) vs (-/+).
The above notion is the single most fundamental
change to our current ediface of mathematics. *
- Dimensionality (0 ... n) applies to Time as well as Space.
- Temporal (time) dimensions produce Gravity.
~ Key to the rationale for such topology is 6A5 - ratio of proton mass to
electron mass - which is generated by sequential integrations of base A0.
* ~ Added dimensional factors ... sometimes called "symmetry breaking" ...
also introduces non-abelian relationships to what may have been simple
abelian. This vastly changes the 'potential information' content of
systems. Non-commutative content is vastly larger than commutative
content3. No Formally-Closed (Gödel) Sets exist ~ there are only conditional ones.
~ In an existential universe nothing exists perfectly isolated or
impervious to other extants. Boundaries confirm a real relationship
between qualities on either side of the denotation. This binds and
connects, quite contrary to the perception that the main dynamic is
differentiation and separation.4. Stochastic Logic ~ being inclusive of Boole, Zadeh, Quantum, et al.
5. Available/Optional Eigenspaces Extended Possibles are the function range of
integral gaussian bubbles ... integrities~ Option values are not limited to inductively accessed 'adjacent' probabilities.
Subsequent and "distanced" eigenspaces must be included in any model or
algorithm. These secondary, tertiary and so on groupings of probabilities,
are best evaluated as "patterns" ... being the Integrity Dynamics model.
~ Probabilities are treated as many-bodied inputs, with immediate system-wide
adaptive adjustments.
~ Systems do not necessarily degenerate to "minima". Probabilites enact
plural choice-gates -- along event sequences -- some of which lead to
more-stable-states, than a prior path allowed . . . even if at a higher energy
configuration. This is because stability is improved by increased Shannon-
distribution (complication, diversity), not just by lowest energy states.6. "Inertial" changes are "conscious" events (self-referencing, instantaneous)
~ Time exists prior to statistical evaluations
~ Any system is self sensitive to all space/time variances7. Objectivity is not an "object"
~ All existence is subjective and objective simultaneously. There is no
avoiding personal 'subjective' existence, unique in the locus of
experience and understanding. There is no avoiding personal
'objective' existence, being companion to all co-existence that is
organized according to the same same same rules and relationships of
being - always and everywhere.~ 'Objectivity' resides in the intangible and transcendent ... it is the
relations and rules of behaviors and interactions.~ 'Subjectivity' resides in being energy/material examples of the
objective/transcendent.~ It is unavoidable to be both. To 'be' is to be completely . . .
. . . subjective samples of objective truths~ Supports and enables Alert Awareness
~ Is the proportional bulk of any "consciousness"
~ Ie, Inner-entropies are sensitively self-referencing before
contributing to the next larger assembly(ies)
~ Any breaks in energy/information conveyance either up or down through
the levels of assemblies constitute significant breaks in "consciousness"9. Information is Constant under alternative Transformations
~ Functions like the "equals sign" depict the objectivity that in some special
way the "information" on either side is identical even if the form of
the information is reconfigured or described in an alternaive way.
~ An example is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal. Cartesian information
on one side "equals in a basic identical way" the Radial (pi-based) form
of information on the other side.10. Objective/Relational Information is unaffected by Trandsductive Recodings
~ Internal assembly-experiential "information" (qualia) retains at least a
homeomorphism with information content from other (eg, external) forms.11. Conditional Special-Isomorphism of 1 (one) and 0 (zero)
~ kX1 = kX0
- this opens the notion that in some deep profound way, '1' and '0' are
"equal". Another way of saying this is that under the right conditions
or circumstances, information can be codified in such a way as to
"seem" to be nullified or otherwise go away, but in fact simply remains
resident in hypercodified form.12. Complexity stems from "Symmetry Breaking"
~ Complexity is a"heterotelic" phenomena [see Glossary]. Heterotelic
refers to that which arises not of it's own accord, but as a result of
other occurrences. For example, "between" comes into existential
presence when 2 or more entities exist with a spatial or temporal
separation. That region may exist even around a single entity, but
it becomes "between" when more relationally specific. And, even
when more specific, can become problematic to define. On a circle
perimeter, which of three random points is 'between' the other two?~ Complexity is enacted in the presence of information transactions;
non-zero binary-plus probabilities cause compensatory/responsive
behaviors and synchronize plurality into a new assembly of identity.
~ Inner assembly entropy changes induce and enact negentropy in the next
larger assembly of organization.13. Orthogonality and orthogonally symmetric functions are Homogenizing factors
~ They are the description conditions under which plural dimensions can
be said to have equal-scalings. It is the framework from which relativistic
relationships arise, when those scalings vary and become non-identical.
~ An example is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal14. Dynamic systems are "conscious" systems if sufficiently integrated enough
~ Maxwell's Demon scenario and the Turing Machine are identical;
They represent the primal model of integrated conditions in which
"consciousness" can be said to exist.
~ The following criteria question is offered as a replacement for the
Turing Test for consciousness :
"Can a system be constantly open to information input and adjust its
own behaviors and activities to conform with changing conditions ...
internal and external to itself?"
8 or so empirical questions evolve from it and are discussed in
"The Conscious Continuum"
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