Hi all,

Have been considering the ToK through the complexification lens and
wondering what the specific quantitative metrics might be in each domain of
complexification. Each new information system would complexify along its
own trajectory, meaning the specific metric used to measure it would be
different than the one before. Moreover, each metric would be dependent
upon and relate to the ones on which it rests. Here's what I was playing
with:

*MATTER*: Cosmic evolution – energy (metric: free energy rate density, Øm)
*LIFE*: Biological evolution – genetic information (metric: “physical
[genomic] complexity”, C)
*MIND*: Consciousness evolution – nervous system integration (metric:
integrated information, Ø)
*CULTURE*: Cultural evolution – linguistic justification systems (metric:
hierarchical task complexity, MHC)

At the level of *matter*, I think the work of Eric Chaisson on cosmic
evolution is helpful, and he uses the free energy rate density (Øm) as his
metric.
At the level of *life*, some preliminary searches yielded genomic
complexity (C) as a potential metric, as according to the work of Adami,
Ofria, and Collier (2003), but I suspect there is better/more recent work
on measuring biological complexity.
At the level of *mind*, I was wondering whether IIT would be the best fit,
which uses the metric of Ø of increasing sentience.
Finally, at the level of *culture*, I'm intrigued by the potential for the
Model of Hierarchical Complexity to measure justification systems and other
cultural phenomena.

Again, each new metric would map onto the other, such that Øm would
increase as C increased as Ø increased as MHC increased. That's a
hypothesis, anyway.

Perhaps I'm re-inventing the wheel here, so let me know if there's already
work that's done this. But I wanted to hear people's perspectives on the
prospect of identifying different complexity metrics for each unique level
of the stack.

Cheers,
Brendan

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