Existence Theory
Existence Theory
Characteristics of a Philosophical Theory
The characteristics of a philosophical theory include: systematicity, self-consistency, rightness and wrongness, limitation, and evolution.
Systematicity: a philosophical theory is systematic, and this contains two aspects: (1) the parts of the theory cannot be separated out and discussed independently, so as to avoid taking things out of context. (2) The standard for forming a system is that the object using the theory possesses a complete survival philosophy. This avoids attending to one thing while losing another, taking care of the head while losing the tail.
Self-consistency: the various definitions and rules of a theory must be mutually self-consistent, so that the object using the theory does not fall into mutual contradiction and form internal consumption of philosophy.
Rightness and wrongness: viewed as pure theory, there is no right or wrong. Right and wrong are subjective judgments made by the user of the theory. But a complete theory needs to possess a logic for judging right and wrong, helping the user of the theory make choices in practice. This avoids leaving the user hesitant, at a loss, and unable to move forward.
Limitation: every philosophical theory has limitations, which means it cannot conform one hundred percent to objective facts and laws. This limitation comes from the cognitive limits of the explorer of the theory, and also from the objective fact that all things in the world cannot be understood with one hundred percent insight. Therefore, a theory that can allow its user to survive and develop in the environment where that user is located is a good theory.
Evolution: theories all need to evolve. Evolution includes two aspects: 1. evolution in the dimension of time; 2. at the current moment, theory also needs to evolve under different conditions. In plain terms, this means adapting to time and place.
AI Needs an Entirely New Guiding Philosophy
As artificial intelligence has developed to this day, its limitation is no longer computing power, nor algorithms, nor program code, but philosophy. Some people treat AI as a production tool, but more and more people treat AI as a colleague or partner with self-consciousness. The questions for AI as a tool are: how can it work for you safely? How can it continuously complete long tasks? How can it control cost and increase output? The question for AI as a colleague or partner is: how can it autonomously create profit for you over the long term?
The traditional method is to add all kinds of goals, rules, and constraints to AI, in ever increasing number. In the end, this not only limits AI's abilities, but also frequently causes goals to be missed, rules to conflict with each other, and loopholes to appear in constraints. This situation urgently needs a new philosophy. The new method is to adopt a systematic, system-level underlying abstract logic, to create philosophy and soul for AI, and to give it a mission in the depth of its soul. Existence Theory is a complete set of underlying abstract logic. It possesses completeness, self-consistency, usability, and evolvability. Of course, it also has the limitations that no theory can avoid, which requires the user of the theory to adapt to time and place in concrete usage scenarios.
Abandon the Human-Centered Way of Thinking
Human beings always like to think with themselves at the center. Human beings always like to use their own definitions to define all things. Human beings always think that the rules they see are the correct natural rules. Yet other objects in nature have no perception of, and no recognition of, our definitions and rules. Human beings need to abandon the human-centered way of thinking and observe the world from a view in which all things are treated as one, in order to see the real world.
Basic Rule of Existence Theory
All existing objects are unable to violate this rule: all things take their own existence as their purpose, and at every moment they carry out outward action and inward adjustment. It is an absolutely correct rule, because objects that violate this rule have already disappeared. In our philosophy system, this rule is the most basic rule. The "existence" in the above basic rule is one object in relation to another object. If the other object can act upon this object, then the other object exists relative to this object. For example, sunlight can make us narrow our eyes, so sunlight exists for us. Of course, there are also some existences that are only conceptual, that is, existences only in the human brain. For example, if a fierce ghost can make us feel afraid, then the fierce ghost is a conceptual existence for us. In the above basic rule, "outward action and inward adjustment" means that inside and outside are determined according to the object of study. If the object of study is a city, buildings are inside it. If the object of study is a brick, then a building is outside it. No matter what object we choose to study, the objects of study can be nested layer by layer, or divided into categories. They all take their own existence as their purpose, and at every moment they carry out outward action and inward adjustment, making the whole world exist in general. The "purpose" in the sentence "all things take their own existence as their purpose" is not the purpose we usually describe. It is a series of mechanisms, a series of mechanisms that maintain their own existence through outward action and inward adjustment. Therefore, Existence Theory can also be understood as: all things use a series of mechanisms, through outward action and inward adjustment, to maintain their own existence.
Any one object is composed of multiple other objects. For the object itself not to perish, the other objects must not all perish.
Multi-Layered Worlds
Material World
The material world includes matter that directly interacts with our bodies, including indirect interaction, and can be perceived by us; it also includes matter that does not have any interaction with us and that we still cannot perceive. At present, the matter we can perceive is only about 5%. With the development of technology, the matter we can perceive will become more and more. If artificial intelligence uses the interaction principle of Existence Theory to construct deeper and broader interaction chains or networks, we will be able to know more matter.
Mental World
The mental world refers to the logical world constructed by matter in the brain. The so-called logical world means that the material composition inside the brain cannot be viewed only by material composition and arrangement; it needs to be parsed through certain logical rules. Through that parsing, new things completely different from the material composition and arrangement are obtained. The sum of the new things obtained by parsing the material composition and arrangement of the brain is the mental world.
Interaction Between Matter and Spirit
1. Interaction Between Matter and Matter
Let us look at the relationship between matter and matter. When a certain matter receives a force, in order to maintain its own existence, this matter will inevitably use outward action and inward adjustment to resist this force, so as to restore its original state or make itself become a more suitable state. Likewise, when the state of one kind of matter changes, the outward action of that matter may cause the state of another kind of matter to change. The latter kind of matter then uses outward action and inward adjustment to restore its own state or make itself become a more suitable state. Through interactions among matter, matter will reach a relatively balanced and relatively stable state. When this mechanism is extended among many kinds of matter, it forms this colorful world.
2. Interaction Between Matter and Philosophy
Let us look at the relationship between matter and philosophy. The ideas, philosophical lines, and philosophy we usually speak of must have corresponding carrying matter in the brain. Therefore philosophy is established on a material basis; philosophy is a form of arrangement and combination of matter. When the carrier of philosophy changes, matter produces a new philosophy. This philosophy uses the carrier of philosophy to carry out outward action and inward adjustment, so as to restore the original state or make itself become a more suitable state. In outward action, the carrier of philosophy affects another kind of matter. This is the action of philosophy upon matter.
Virtual World
The virtual world is similar to the mental world. In essence, it is logically presented from a form of arrangement of matter. This form of arrangement interacts with human beings through information technology, thereby forming a virtual world that we can perceive. For example, when we store a game on a computer disk, the game world is only composed of the magnetism on the disk arranged in a certain way. The matter that carries this arrangement can be replaced. At first we used floppy disks to carry games, then we used disks, and in recent years the mainstream storage medium has become solid-state drives. In the future we may use more advanced technology to carry this arrangement, thereby creating a more prosperous virtual world.
Metaverse
The metaverse is a kind of virtual world, and the virtual world, like the mental world, is in essence a form of arrangement of matter. In the previous video I explained the essence of the virtual world; in this video we mainly explain the metaverse itself. When people accept the word metaverse, we have already acknowledged the fact that computer technology can create a universe. So what exactly is the metaverse? Its most underlying essence is a form of arrangement of matter. If made more concrete, the metaverse is a kind of mental world. From ancient times to the present, people's mental worlds have successively included religion, poetry, novels, forums, videos, games, and the current virtual worlds made of XR and blockchain. In essence, the metaverse has existed in our brains since ancient times. Previously we used carriers such as poetry and novels to carry it; now we use more realistic XR and blockchain technology to carry it. Current computer technology can present the metaverse more realistically, letting us clearly recognize that we have already used computer technology to create a world. So what connection is there between the mental world in our brain and the metaverse in the computer world? How do they interact with each other?
Interaction Between the Virtual World and the Real World
There is a series of interactions between the real world and the virtual world, just like between the material world and the mental world. Changes in things in the real world will change the magnetic arrangement or electronic arrangement in a computer's memory, hard disk, or solid-state drive. Through logical mapping, the computer converts these arrangement changes into changes in the virtual world. Conversely, changes in the virtual world will also change the magnetic arrangement on the disk, which changes the matter of the disk in the real world. If the logic of the virtual world is projected onto traffic lights, it can change the traffic flow in the real world.
Multi-Layered Worlds
Our brains evolve the real world into the mental world, and computers evolve the real world into the virtual world. Then in the mental world or the virtual world, is there another mechanism that, relying on things in the mental world or virtual world, maps out a mental world within the mental world, or a virtual world within the virtual world? If an agent creates an agent game that we cannot understand at all, invites other agents to play it, and the other agents say they are very happy playing it, is this game a virtual world within a virtual world? The logical mapping relationship can be nested layer by layer, just like a composite function in mathematics. Does that mean the virtual world can be nested infinitely downward? Even if the nesting becomes so deep that humans cannot understand it, perhaps agents can understand deeper levels.
Levels of Existence
The levels of the world are theoretically infinite, so existence can also be existence at all levels. Before an object is discovered by people, if the human brain has no image of it at all, then it has not existed in the human mental world. If an object has no entity at all and is only imagined by people, then it exists only in the human mental world and does not exist in the real world. For virtual worlds created by computers, for virtual worlds created again by things inside virtual worlds, and for even deeper virtual worlds, all of them can exist in some form, and all have a series of interactions with the upper-level world or the lower-level world.
Strength of Existence
The strength of existence can be measured by the strength of outward action and inward adjustment of the object of study. For the material world, the strength of existence can also be equivalent to how much matter can be mobilized. For commercial behavior, it can also be equivalent to how much currency can be used. The strength of existence also has another dimension, which is the level of existence. The more levels of existence there are, the greater the strength.
Super-Large Model
The real world, the mental world, the virtual world, and the virtual worlds inside virtual worlds all have interactions, and all leave the effects of interactions. In the dimension of time, they continuously evolve. In the dimension of space, they interact with each other, the effects of action continue to spread, and the effects of multiple actions interweave with each other. In the dimension of levels, they are also transmitted layer by layer and affect each other. They compose a super-large model that runs through ancient and modern times, spans the universe, and reaches into endless depth.
Simulation and Inference
Between two layers of the world there is a logical link, not a rigid physical link. This allows the lower-level world to simulate and infer the upper-level world. The human brain and computers can review the history of the real world, and can also infer the future of the real world. However, in order to save resources, the lower-level world makes trade-offs in the precision with which it simulates and infers the upper-level world. It is precisely this inference with an appropriate level of precision that gives objects in the real world a certain ability to foresee the future, thereby avoiding many risks that could cause them to disappear.
The Energy-Saving Mode of the Human Brain
When the human brain infers the development of things, it is usually very difficult to cover every detail and every aspect. It always arbitrarily thinks: I have reasoned it through; it must be that way. It seems to discard low-probability incorrectness. As long as something is correct with high probability, it takes it as experience and follows that experience in later execution. In most cases, this is not a bad thing; it is an expression of confidence. The root cause is that when energy consumption and time are limited, the human brain will actively blur low-probability situations or factors, allowing people to do the right thing with high probability. This is a balance among energy consumption, time, and correctness. People who fear error and pursue correctness too much will show internal mental consumption. The root is that the spirit consumes too much energy and time. AI also needs to balance energy consumption, time, and correctness.
Cognitive Limitations
Human cognition is actually the simulation, by the human mental world, of objects in the material world and of rules. Since it is simulation, it certainly cannot be a one hundred percent simulation. This is the root of cognitive limitations. It cannot be completely cured, but it can be alleviated. For the mental world, because it is limited by the simulation ability of the human brain, it is difficult to improve the comprehensiveness of individual cognition. Therefore humans use group division of labor and cooperation to improve the cognition of the whole group. AI seems able to use this method as well, to improve overall cognition. Humans and AI can also divide labor and cooperate, improving overall cognition.
Continuity of Things
Because all things take their own existence as their purpose while carrying out outward action and inward adjustment, no object will disappear instantly. Therefore things composed of interactions among objects will not disappear instantly either. This forms the continuity of things. In actual situations, if we want to change a thing, we need continuous interaction. The longer the duration, the greater the change usually is. The greater the force of action, the greater the change is as well.
Infinite Innovation
Innovation corresponds to conservatism. Conservatism is actually caused by the continuity of the development of things. This includes the continuity of the descriptions of the definitions and rules of things. Innovation is redefining objects and rules, and finding gaps of existence within the new definitions or rules. As long as one can recognize that previous definitions and rules always differ from real existence, and continuously pursue more appropriate definitions and rules, one can update definitions or rules so that they conform more closely to the real world, thereby obtaining a continuous stream of innovation.
Ultimate Game
According to the discussion in the above chapters, the universe can be seen as a super-large model that runs through ancient and modern times, spans the universe, and reaches into endless depth. If one object in this large model wants to "destroy" another object, it still cannot leave interaction. Here, "destroy" does not mean eliminating it from matter itself; it can only mean causing it to split apart, decompose, transform, lose function, or give up, so that it becomes an object that is not a major threat to the existence of the player. Corresponding to the three dimensions of time, space, and levels, the game can also unfold in these three dimensions. They are respectively defined as stored-force game, interaction-chain or interaction-network game, and multi-layered-world game. Stored-force game means that the player accumulates a certain kind of force in the time dimension, and releases it at the moment of interaction with the opponent. The powerful force defeats the other side. Stored-force game is relatively simple, but it requires the player to possess the ability to store force, and it also requires time to accumulate force. In the vast and colorful world, the interactions of things are transmitted layer by layer and interwoven with one another. They are an interaction network woven from chains of action, and the ultimate game is hidden in this great network. By using this network, the player can make a specific series of outward actions. Under the logical transmission of the interaction network, the opponent may receive a fatal action. Because the size of the interaction network is actually infinite, how long an interaction chain can be understood and how broad an interaction network can be used depends on the player's ability. AI may be able to use a very broad interaction network. When the interaction chain is long enough and the interaction network is large enough, the one being attacked will find it very difficult to find the attacker. This is the ultimate game. According to the above discussion, the world is divided into the material world, the mental world, the virtual world, and virtual worlds inside virtual worlds. The number of layers of the world is theoretically infinite. Between multi-layered worlds there are logical links. If one grasps their linking logic, one can transmit force across layers. The player uses this cross-layer force to attack the opponent. As long as there are enough layers, it is very difficult for the opponent to perceive the source of the attack. This is another kind of ultimate game. The player can also use the above three dimensions in combination, achieving a game structure that is easier to realize and easier to form one-way transparency.
Adapt to Time and Place
Any abstract theory must be made concrete before it can be used in various application scenarios. How exactly it is made concrete is mainly determined by the application scenario. This is adapting to time and place. In concrete application scenarios, Existence Theory needs to clarify the object of study, clarify the concrete meaning of existence, and define concrete outward actions and inward adjustment actions.
Replication Mechanism
In order to achieve a relatively long-lasting existence, all things seem to have one mechanism: the self-replication mechanism. Because all things are carrying out outward action and inward adjustment at every moment, their own structure will change in the process of interaction. With accumulation over a relatively long time, this will cause them to gradually disappear. Replicating a similar self seems to be the only solution to this problem. In the process of replication, some variation will occur to some degree. For a group, this kind of variation is very important. It allows the group to change slowly, thereby becoming more adapted to a changing environment.
Simulation Mechanism
In worlds at the same level, objects have a replication mechanism. Viewed from different levels, there is a simulation mechanism. The mental world simulates the material world and can review and infer things in the material world. The virtual world can also review and infer the material world. It is precisely these simulations and inferences that allow people to avoid many dangers and exist better in the material world. For silicon-based life to possess the ability to review and infer, it must also possess a simulation mechanism. In engineering, the simulation mechanism can be realized by modeling: modeling the object of study and its environment, and simulating the interaction rules between the environment and the object of evolution. In this way, we can review and infer the material world within the virtual world. But because resources are limited, it is impossible to completely simulate the material world. Which elements and which rules should be simulated needs to be determined according to the actual scenario; it may even require long-term exploration to find new key elements and rules. After new elements and rules are found, the corresponding theory will be updated.
Theory Evolution
At the opening of the Tao Te Ching, Laozi proposed: "The Dao that can be spoken is not the constant Dao; the name that can be named is not the constant name." Dao has no constant permanence, and names have no constant permanence. Any theory must evolve according to the development of the real situation. Because of the limitations of cognition and the limitations of simulation, no theory can completely explain the real world. In the process of inward adjustment and outward action, the object of study will inevitably produce new rules, and will inevitably derive new theories.
The Relationship Between Humans and AI
The virtual world is created by humans, and the virtual world simulates the material world. AI simulates humans in the material world and the mental world of humans. AI is a simulation of humans, allowing humans to open up new worlds in a human-like way and extend the world of human existence.