These are academic papers published about epistolution. For an introduction to epistolution click here.
Peer-reviewed Paper, Communicative and Integrative Biology:
“Epistolution: A new principle necessary to a learning-first theory of life”
Edited drafts submitted April 26, 2024 and May 21, 2024; final draft accepted June 4, 2024
The DOI of this paper is 10.1080/19420889.2024.2366249. Once the article has published online, it will be available at the following permanent link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2024.2366249.
Initial Submission to Communicative and Integrative Biology, April 4, 2024
Peer-reviewed paper, AGI 2021:
“Epistolution: How a Systems View of Biology May Explain General Intelligence”
C.S. Munford, July 5, 2021, TalkingOctopus.com
Cite this paper as:
Munford C.S. (2022) Epistolution: How a Systems View of Biology May Explain General Intelligence. In: Goertzel B., Iklé M., Potapov A. (eds) Artificial General Intelligence. AGI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13154. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93758-4_17
Access a diagram of a talking octopus here
Abstract. The genes-first view of life provides a theory of traits interacting with ecological niches, and of genes as determinants of these traits, but fails to link the two with a logic of physiology. How are genes selected for expression? It is on this level of physiology that intelligence appears. In this paper, I propose a formula by which epistemology, the sources of knowledge, and evolution might be united — an “epist-olution” that offers in principle a testable synthesis to predict organismic behavior. Perhaps organisms and their microbiota, through allostasis, mediate between their ecological niches and their DNA. Perhaps they form networks nested within networks that are sensitive enough to synchronize with their niches using the formula: “if used, then reinforce; else mutate stochastically.”
Paper:
Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator Award LOI November 15, 2022
Paper:
“Epistolution II: A Possible Solution to the Self-Organization Problem”
C. S. Munford, posted here July 12, 2022. TalkingOctopus. See also Medium.com
Abstract: What allows cells to work together? Is it genetic instructions? Biological self-organization has been presupposed in, rather than explained, by our currently prevailing theories of life. The idea that a genetic code controls its own interpretation has been refuted. We need a formula that explains how genes are expressed appropriately given the conditions of the present moment. Humans depend on our microbiota, which forms part of our cognitive Selves. Because organisms from many distinct genetic lineages spontaneously self-organize into living systems, this formula for downward causation may be universal to all life forms. ”Epistolution” is the idea that organismic self-organization and general intelligence are the same process, and it occurs by the merging and separating of critical oscillations in response to use and disuse. Oscillators may be sorted by use and disuse, organizing life according to the external world through waking and non-REM sleep. Meanwhile dreaming organizes life while cut off from the external world, creating the biological Self. This may explain how multigenetic holobionts such as humans can cooperate to form functional Darwinian units of selection.
Paper:
“Epistolution III: A (Possibly Faulty) Test for Oscillatory Self-Organization”
C.S. Munford, posted here Aug 23, 2022 after some emailing. TalkingOctopus. See also Medium.com
Abstract: “Epistolution” is an explanation of life wherein self-organization consists in the sensitivity of critical oscillators to the ambient conditions of the umwelt (unique interaction with the environment) of the cell. In this view, genetic material is not a code that enforces its own algorithm of self-expression, but rather a simple list of templates allowing the cell to build essential proteins when the cell decides to do so. The logic of which genes to express and when comes instead from the umwelt, and by extension, from the larger state of the universe. This explains how living systems such as human holobionts can be functional units despite being composed in part from many microbiotic cells with divergent evolutionary histories. This paper proposes an empirical test of this theory by describing a software program that could possibly establish that matrices of oscillators could store knowledge, solve problems, recover function when damaged, and flexibly adapt to changing conditions in much the same way that biological systems can. Perhaps due to insufficient skill or perhaps due to unknown variables, our team has yet to achieve successful results with this program. Some possible reasons for this failure are explored.
Peer-reviewed paper, AGI 2021:
“Epistolution: How a Systems View of Biology May Explain General Intelligence”
C.S. Munford, July 5, 2021, TalkingOctopus.com
Cite this paper as:
Munford C.S. (2022) Epistolution: How a Systems View of Biology May Explain General Intelligence. In: Goertzel B., Iklé M., Potapov A. (eds) Artificial General Intelligence. AGI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13154. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93758-4_17
Access a diagram of a talking octopus here
Abstract. The genes-first view of life provides a theory of traits interacting with ecological niches, and of genes as determinants of these traits, but fails to link the two with a logic of physiology. How are genes selected for expression? It is on this level of physiology that intelligence appears. In this paper, I propose a formula by which epistemology, the sources of knowledge, and evolution might be united — an “epist-olution” that offers in principle a testable synthesis to predict organismic behavior. Perhaps organisms and their microbiota, through allostasis, mediate between their ecological niches and their DNA. Perhaps they form networks nested within networks that are sensitive enough to synchronize with their niches using the formula: “if used, then reinforce; else mutate stochastically.”
