Symbols of a cosmic order

TL;DR

This paper explores an intrinsic cosmic order rooted in unpredictability and symbol exchange across natural and engineered systems, proposing a new conception of agency and objectivity in physics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of symbol-handling agents and links unpredictability in quantum theory to natural and artificial communication networks, offering a novel philosophical framework.

Findings

Quantum proof of inherent unpredictability influences explanation choices.

Clocks as self-adjusting agents regulate synchronized motion.

Unpredictable symbol exchange observed in biological and physical systems.

Abstract

The world runs on communicated sequences of symbols, e.g. numerals. Examining both engineered and natural communications networks reveals an unsuspected order that depends on contact with an unpredictable entity. This order has three roots. The first is a proof within quantum theory that no evidence can ever determine its explanation, so that an agent choosing an explanation must do so unpredictably. The second root is the showing that clocks that step computers do not "tell time" but serve as self-adjusting symbol-handling agents that regulate "logically synchronized" motion in response to unpredictable disturbances. Such a clock-agent has a certain independence as well as the capacity to communicate via unpredictable symbols with other clock-agents and to adjust its own tick rate in response to that communication. The third root is the noticing of unpredictable symbol exchange in natural systems, including the transmission of symbols found in molecular biology. We introduce a symbol-handling agent as a role played in some cases by a person, for example a physicist who chooses an explanation of given experimental outcomes, and in other cases by some other biological entity, and in still other cases by an inanimate device, such as a computer-based detector used in physical measurements. While we forbear to try to explain the propensity of agents at all levels from cells to civilizations to form and operate networks of logically synchronized symbol-handling agents, we point to this propensity as an overlooked cosmic order, an order structured by the unpredictability ensuing from the proof. Appreciating the cosmic order leads to a conception of agency that replaces volition by unpredictability and re-conceives the notion of objectivity in a way that makes a place for agency in the world as described by physics. Some specific implications for physics are outlined.