Life as a Collection of Modes
I am interested in deepening my understanding of the phenomenon of life by looking at it from a systems engineering perspective.
Generally, when delving into the essence of living organisms, there’s a tendency to focus on their aspect as a collection of chemical substances. Beyond that, I have considered the feedback loops observable within the biological systems and their interactions with their environment. I have also been interested in the physical structures utilized by cells, the fundamental units of life.
The combinations of chemical substances, the chains of their chemical reactions, bundles of feedback loops, and physical structures, all of which can also exist in inanimate entities, shape life. From this perspective, I am formulating hypotheses about the origins of life.
In this article, we’ll explore the phenomena of life from a new perspective: the modes and conditional branching.
Conditional Branching and Modes
Living organisms possess various modes.
Being awake and asleep, calm and angry, joyous and fearful.
While the boundaries between these modes may be somewhat fluid, they can be clearly distinguished from one another rather than transitioning in a linear step-by-step manner.
This isn’t a continuous transition that can be described with smooth mathematical formulas. Instead, it requires discrete branching, similar to conditional branching in programming.
Using a river as an analogy, a continuous transition would be like the flow of a large river, moving between the center and the banks. Discrete branching would be when the river itself branches into multiple rivers, each with a distinctly different flow.
Implementation and Effects of Modes in the Origins of Life
Through discrete branching as modes, the behavior of living activities changes. If it can transition to the mode that matches the situation, life can become more efficient and rationalized.
This requires the ability to sense the environment, switch modes according to the situation, and behave according to the mode.
It’s believed that before the birth of life, chemical substances reacted, evolved, and eventually gave rise to the first single-celled organisms. At the early stages of evolution, these inanimate chemicals likely didn’t have the capability to sense their surroundings or switch modes.
However, external changes influencing chemical reactions could have led to phenomena similar to mode switching. For instance, the transition between day and night, and the associated temperature drop in the absence of sunlight, would influence chemical reactions. Some reactions might activate during the day and deactivate at night, or vice versa, resembling the mode switching in living organisms.
Through such mode switching, chemicals with complementary effects might interact in ways that make the whole system more robust.
Originally, changes in day and night, seasons, and weather might have directly influenced the mode of chemical reactions. Over time, mechanisms evolved to sense these changes and switch modes accordingly, enhancing the system’s ability to robustly respond to various conditions.
Additionally, not only external changes but also internal states like hunger and health began to influence mode switching.
In this context, the internalization of mode-switching mechanisms and the bundling of various chemical reactions could have played significant roles in the chemical evolution leading to life.
Structures with Discrete Modes
From this perspective, even before the advent of fully-formed life, systems of chemicals and their reactions might have possessed modes that switched discretely. Such systems would have had numerous modes, each associated with many branches and conditional switches.
This resembles the multiple conditional branches in neural networks used in artificial intelligence, introduced by activation functions. In this sense, neural networks can be considered systems with numerous discrete modes.
This is an intriguing similarity between life and intelligence.
Without activation functions acting as conditional branches, a neural network would merely be a conglomerate of countless arithmetic operations. If the presence of activation functions allows a neural network to acquire intelligence, then the collection of discrete mode switches might also be a source of intelligence.
The same can be said for life. Without mode switching, living organisms would be just a collection of chemical substances and their reactions. Adding discrete mode switching might be a prerequisite for life. If so, the collection of discrete mode switches could be one of the sources of life.
Individual Modes in Society
Humans are biological entities, possessing intelligence through neural networks similar to neural network models. From this perspective, they can be said to have discrete modes.
However, in a dimension separate from that, individuals switch between these discrete modes while engaging in social activities.
For example, we distinguish between various modes such as the mode when we are with our family, the mode when we work at the company, the mode when we are with friends, and the mode when we meet our parents from our hometown.
The way we speak, our attitudes, behaviors, and even our personalities and memories, are all tied to and switched according to these modes. When you meet a friend from elementary school after a long time, you might suddenly recall memories you don’t usually think about, or use dialect words you don’t normally use.
This illustrates that living organisms — which are collections of chemical substances and reactions, intelligences — which are collections of neurons, and societies — which are collections of individuals, all have an aspect of being collections of discrete mode switches.
And perhaps this collection of discrete mode switching is not only integral to life and intelligence but might also be a source of sociability.
Observing Society
If discrete modes in sociability hold significant meaning and inherently share commonality with life and intelligence, that is fortuitous.
While the inner workings of life and intelligence are challenging to observe and require specialized knowledge, observing society is relatively easy, and can be understood without any special expertise.
Furthermore, insights gained from observing society might also be applicable to our understanding of life and intelligence.
Interestingly, children don’t switch modes as much. They use the same language and exhibit the same personality with everyone. As they mature into adults, they become adept at distinguishing these modes. Once accustomed, they seamlessly switch between these modes unconsciously.
From this observation, it can be inferred that as maturity progresses, the number of modes and branching increases, becoming more sophisticated.
Additionally, applying the concept of “affordance,” modes could be seen as being elicited by situations. We switch modes unconsciously, similar to how seeing a doorknob prompts us to turn it without conscious thought.
In this way, considering the effect of an individual’s discrete mode switching in society and how it impacts groups might shed light on the significance of modes and condition branching in society, life, and intelligence.
Macro Modes and Micro Modes
Whether it’s society, life, or intelligence, if you consider discrete modes as condition branching, you’ll notice both macro and micro mode branching throughout.
Macro modes involve a complete shift in the overall mode. In society, this might be peace time versus disaster, or economic booms versus recessions. There’s also a mode like when dissatisfaction erupts into a riot.
In cases like disasters, the shift is entirely due to external changes, which then have widespread effects, prompting a societal mode shift. If there’s an advanced information network or control mechanism in place, even if only part of the society is affected, a swift overall mode switch can occur to provide support.
In situations like recessions, changes within society lead to partial mode switches. This can create a self-reinforcing feedback loop that then spreads throughout the society.
In the case of riots, the switching of an emotional mode spreads from person to person in a contagious manner.
Thus, macro mode switches are based on the ripple effects of micro mode switches throughout the whole.
Macro Mode Switching in Living Organisms
In my understanding, macro mode switching in living organisms manifests as phenomena like emotions and physiological responses. Changes in the hormones flowing within the body cause a shift in the mode of the entire organism, which includes the brain.
Emotions such as anger or fear might arise from the brain’s perception of external information, triggering a whole-body mode switch. Additionally, physiological phenomena like hunger, injuries, or internal organ discomforts can induce such a mode switch.
Whether initiated by emotions in the brain due to external perceptions or by physical disruptions and physiological phenomena, the mode switch impacts both emotional states in the brain and physiological responses in the body. Stomachaches can make you feel down or irritated, and sadness or stress can lead to physical ailments like ulcers.
Macro Mode Switching in Intelligence
Besides emotions, as previously mentioned, our brains switch modes based on the groups we’re communicating with, altering our choice of words, personality, and even memory. We can toggle between multiple “characters” or personas, but we can’t use two characters simultaneously. This can be seen as a macro mode shift.
While emotions were categorized as macro mode switches in living organisms, these character shifts are categorized as macro mode switches in intelligence. Here, intelligence refers specifically to the kind that allows for societal adaptation.
The World of Micro Modes
I’ve discussed how macro mode switches arise from the spread of micro mode switches. However, not all micro mode shifts ripple throughout the whole system; some remain localized.
Localized mode switches, when they don’t propagate throughout, allow for combinations of various localized modes. If there are two elements that can bifurcate into two states, the system can adopt four different state patterns. If there are three, it becomes eight patterns.
Generalizing this, if there are M elements that can branch into N modes, the system can have N raised to the power of M state patterns. Given that the human brain is estimated to contain around 200 billion neurons, if each neuron hypothetically has two modes, it could possess 2 raised to the power of 200 billion states.
External information influences the combination of neuron states in the brain, driving our thoughts and decision-making processes. When considering the roots of intelligence, we should focus not on macro mode switches but on the combinations of localized micro modes. The same principle applies to life and social structures.
To put it metaphorically, when society faces a crisis, it’s essential for everyone to recognize and switch to “crisis mode.” But just being in the same mode won’t effectively address the crisis. The society forms an organization, and individuals within this organization need to tackle specific issues tied to the crisis and focus on their designated roles.
In addressing situations and problems at a macro level, it’s essential to decompose them into micro elements and address each with an appropriate mode. If there are many such localized micro modes that can coordinate, it enables a comprehensive response to large, complex issues. I believe this capability of macro and micro mode switching underpins life, intelligence, and social structures.
In Conclusion
I believe that life is shaped by multiple aspects, including chemical substances, their chain reactions, combinations of physical structures, bundles of feedback loops, and sets of modes. In the ancient Earth, these elements evolved to support and integrate with each other, leading to the birth of cells.
The aspects of modes discussed in this article, and the broader architecture of life’s origins, can abstractly be applied to intelligence and society as well. Observing life, intelligence, and society based on this shared architecture and deriving insights about the characteristics and laws emerging from it might pave the way for new discoveries by applying these insights reciprocally.
