The Reality Algorithm

A thousand years ago people described their experience with reality using words that was available to them, words like angel or elves or unicorns. Today we use 2.0 or UI (user interface) to talk philosophically about the world we live in. At least if we are part of that weird group that see reality as a VR world.

In the last few weeks I have been trying to evolve this kind of thinking a bit further, and luckily (as is often the case) the universe kindly sent me several synchronicities my way.

It is pretty simple actually. We have to look at reality as an algorithm. I am aware that this could just be another word for code or computer program (VR), but it isn’t.

For example if we want to bake a cake we need to first get ingredients, combine them and then bake them. This would be an algorithm. The ingredients we need to combine are sugar, flour, eggs etc, so this is the program, and each part of this program are codes. So the sugar, in this allegory, is a piece of code.

Now the way I try to think of reality (and by reality I mean Nature/Universe, because that is the only current reality that was here pre-human… origin-Reality if you will) is that it is an algorithm… basically a set of rules that precisely define a sequence of operations.

So yes one could say that reality is made up of code, that reality is a program… but what makes it BE what it is… well that is The Algorithm.

So what does this mean?

Well, first I think the limited monkey brain we all posses need simplicity to understand complexity. I am not sure this line of thinking will help anyone else, but personally looking at reality/Nature as an algorithm make a big difference for me in how I should approach it.

Astronomically things shift according to some sort of algorithm. The precession of equinoxes in particular, which is a cycle of approximately 26,000 years and as far as I understand it the Earth shifts 1 degree every 72 years.

The breath of our whole galaxy, this beating drum of 26 000 years, is a significant event from our perspective in the cosmos... and there is a bump towards a "new age" every 72 years.

If we look at Nature as an algorithm perhaps such an algorithm might have something to do with the number 72? After all the life duration of the ovule is 72 hours, 72 is also the average number of cardiac pulsations per minute and the human body is composed of 72 % water.

Is this why they built 72 stupas [dome-shaped buildings], which comprise Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist temple?

Perhaps 72 is part of the algorithm of the Universe, and if science is trying to discover the algorithm of the universe - and of life... artificial or not - they unknowingly use the very same algorithms... for example the common limit for characters per line in computing is 72.

But as with any number you can claim apophenia, which is a tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data... so lets not dwell on 72 anymore.

Science has in recent years started working on a lot of algorithms based on Nature, some of these are artificial bee colony algorithms, firefly algorithms, the plant propagation algorithm and many others.

There was a study done that revealed that the behavior of harvester ants, as they forage for food, mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet. Ok, pretty weird if true… but it goes with my line of thinking.

All I am saying here is nothing new. This is basically what Darwin/Wallace said in regards to evolution. It is a sort of algorithm that in the end achieves an end result. Then there is a larger algorithm that picks up the end result of the first algorithm and continues forward. But one aspect of any algorithm is that it has an end. It is not eternal… even if they [the algorithms] can take up the relay baton of previous incarnations.

But an algorithm can fall into an infinite loop if the continuation condition of the loop never becomes false.

So basically this reality we find ourselves in will be infinite as long as we don’t start to see it for what it is: an algorithm.

Now is that false? Well that depends on your perspective, but if you view reality as true you are probably in an infinite loop.

Although there is still hope. Within the algorithm there is the freedom to manipulate it... bit by bit...

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