Summary of My Work
What is epistolution? Epistolution is a scientific problem I discovered in 2019 and 2020. Epistolution is the unknown biological mechanism responsible for purposive behavior that can’t be accounted for by genes. Understanding the problem of epistolution gives us the first complete general explanation for life including an epistemology of self-organization. Epistolution, when its mechanism is solved, for the first time will explain in detail why life exists, how it remains in existence, and why organisms and only organisms currently have agency, frame problems, and pursue goals.
What does epistolution explain? The Darwinist theory of evolution by natural selection explains why some phenotypes and DNA sequences persist and not others. It does not explain why life exists to begin with, or why it contains a bias toward continuing to exist. The theory of evolution by natural selection presupposes life. The existence of life depends on a process of self-organization that is still unknown. To explain life one must add a supplemental theory of self-organization to Darwinism. From the epistolution point of view, an organism is not only a machine for getting its DNA replicated but also a machine for building better and better causal diagrams of its niche through adaptive plasticity during active life. DNA is just life’s storage system for molecular templates. The purpose to which all life strives is to know the inside of a niche. This is done by adapting one’s body to better “incumulate” knowledge by means of damage, decay, and repair over many daily cycles of use and disuse during the sleep/wake cycle. This epistolution view is the reverse of how we have traditionally viewed our biological epistemology. We have considered intelligent knowledge-building as a latecoming emergent property of only a few life forms, while epistolution makes it a prerequisite for life’s beginnings. Being is for knowing; knowing is not in the service of being.
How does this theory relate to morality? This point of view also shows why all life expresses a form of morality. Morality is the holistic awareness of all the knowledge-building alliances contracted between us and our surroundings and what those alliances require of us. Since all beings must build knowledge in their bodies to remain alive, all beings express a moral dimension unique to their niches.
What is still unclear? Epistolution plus Darwinism together form an adequate general explanation for life, but we still lack a working prototype or model of how exactly organismic systems incumulate knowledge. This is the purpose of my oscillators conjecture and the guiding principle of my software experiments with “little stynkers.” Perfecting this model will begin in earnest when the rest of the world becomes aware of epistolution, which based on other conceptual advances I predict will happen within five years.
What can we do with this theory? Once this mechanism is coded in software, we will be able to model organismic life in a realistic way because we will then understand how self-organization actually works. This will mean that we will be able to control biology precisely instead of just guessing vaguely at the general effects of interventions. Living biological material is controlled by means of its goals. A working model of the epistolution mechanism will give us the power to shape the goals of cells, tissues, and organisms. It will also allow us to build artificial life, including morality-producing systems much more powerful than human minds. This will amplify the already self-accelerating process of positive creativity that is transforming the world right now.
Copyright April 9, 2023 by Charles S. Munford
