|
K=p(e)
Is knowledge a function of energy expenditure? The creation of, maintenance of, and access to knowledge all require energy expenditure. Perhaps conscious life forms are those entities which maintain and reproduce themselves via the probabilistic maintenance of energy-dependent knowledge systems. ----- Knowledge is a function of energy, and new knowledge has opened new sources of energy for exploitation by the human race, which have then led to even more new knowledge. Technologies lead to new discoveries, which lead to new technologies, inter-fertilizing each other ... Sure, the laws of thermodynamics tell us that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed, only transformed ... but knowledge changes the availability of these matter and energy transformations for conscious use, including the pursuit of additional knowledge. We are currently living inside of a positive feedback knowledge-energy bubble that seems to be expanding with exponential force, just like the universe itself. Such an exciting time to be alive :-) And right now I'm wondering exactly how consciousness — living — fits into all of this. We keep studying the physical universe (and even the biological sciences) as though consciousness doesn't exist, or as though consciousness is not a proper subject for study. To know so much about the creation of the universe — Big Bang — and so little about the creation of our subjective awareness of the universe ... as the fertilized egg develops into a sensual human being ...
[Previous entry: "No More than Bugs"] [TOC] [Next entry: "The courage of empathy"]
|