How Nature’s Patterns Shape Our Lives

" We all have an internal generative model of the world that parametrizes what we believe about the external world. There has been quite the assault on truth, with a capital “T.” People are now free to come up with their truths. – Tomer Solomon "

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What is the secret to a meaningful life?

It is a question that humans have asked throughout the ages, yet the answer remains ever elusive. Or does it? Perhaps the true meaning of life has stood before us all along, woven so intricately into the very fabric of nature that it has remained hidden in plain sight for eons.

Perhaps that sounds crazy.

However, “crazy” began to feel downright logical when I sat down with Tomer Solomon, a brilliant thinker who may have cracked the natural code of meaning and purpose. During our conversation, he took me on a journey through meaning, focused on how human actions align with the natural order as connected via ancient thought, philosophy, and even modern techniques, such as computational neuroscience. 

Through Solomon, we learn that meaning and purpose are not simply human constructs, but frameworks inherent in the cosmos. Here, I present the key talking points and lessons from that conversation, though it is prudent to first inform you of who Solomon is if you have yet to be initiated into his world.

Who is Tomer Solomon?

Tomer Solomon, like myself and many reading this essay, was deeply involved in the business world long before he started actively working within the confines of meaning and purpose. Still, also like so many of us, not actively thinking about meaning did not mean that the concept never passed through his mind. It was always there, laying low in the subconscious until Solomon decided to bring it into focus.

So, he said to himself, “I may as well formalize some of what had been floating through my mind for so many years.”

Let’s backtrack for a moment.

Solomon is a graduate of Columbia University, where he first developed an interest in the computational neuroscience work that would later form the backbone of much of his thinking about meaning. However, living in New York while being a recent graduate of such a prestigious university inevitably led to Solomon hearing the siren’s call of finance. As with so many mythical Greek sailors who wound up with their ships dashed on the rocks, the siren’s call was too strong to resist. Consequently, Solomon began working in investment banking.

It was during this period that he began to feel that something was missing. Disillusionment reigned, and, though he believed his work was important within the financial sector, he began to seek something more fulfilling. A move away from New York resulted, only for Solomon to be swept up in Silicon Valley. He joined a tech company, where he was sold the joint myths of techno-optimism and constant progress, only to find that authenticity and real meaning did not lie beneath those myths.

" This cultural malaise that I felt at a personal level with my relationship with work also manifested at broader scales. Where often times I think we associate progress with an increase in technology, but it’s the relationship we have with technology – and with our environment – that can go missing in the modern world. "

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Looking beyond the techno-myths, Solomon began to dig deeper into the relational aspect. Threads began to be pulled, with Solomon focusing both on Markov blankets and the Bayesian brain model to start his journey.

The Free Energy Principle: A Language for Complexity 

Solomon began with computational neuroscience for which he had developed a passion in college, using it to understand how the human brain worked. He came upon the work of Karl Friston – a British neuroscientist and leading authority on brain imaging – who developed a concept called the “free energy principle” to explain how brains work. This free energy principle proposes that self-organizing systems are driven to minimize surprise. But how does one define this “self” in self-organization? Here is where Markov blankets come in.

These blankets are essentially ways to formalize the foundational concept of “Identity” through mathematics. Or, as Solomon explains it:

" Markov blankets are a way to mathematically formalize the difference between conditional independent internal and external states that are mediated through sensory and active states. "

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An idea was planted. Could Markov blankets serve as the connective tissue linking the seemingly disparate worlds of philosophy and mathematics? A Markov blanket captures an internal pocket of order, introducing a formalism to Identity that is seen in the world of Bayesian statistics, where maintenance of your Markov blankets – of which all living beings are in the business of –   equates to “self-evidencing” and serves to confirm that you are who you are. Or in other words, say say that you exist. 

Thus, a mathematically-rooted concept of age-old philosophical concepts such as identity, existence, and being, began to take shape.

" The concept of being can be defined mathematically with what’s called a non-equilibrium steady-state density that you get as part of the free energy principle. "

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The connective tissues were in place. Markov blankets could be interpreted in a more open-minded way, introducing a solid foundational formalism to explore greater concepts in philosophy .

A Quick Crash Course in Bayesian Statistics 

By that point, I decided to take a quick step back, for my mind was already thoroughly blown by the elegance of Solomon’s concepts and solutions. An explanation was needed for the non-statisticians among us – of which I count myself – so I asked the question:

What do the concepts of Bayesian statistics and Markov blankets mean on a simplified level?

Solomon enlightened me.

The world of Bayesian statistics refers to the updating of beliefs. This way of thinking was brought forth by an English statistician Thomas Bayes who lent the concept its name. In short, Bayesian statistics posits a formalism for updating beliefs about the world. You have pre-beliefs which form an abstract hypothesis about the world and then evidence the world presents to you.  As you gain more concrete evidence – either for or against your hypothesis – your beliefs are updated. In the simplest terms, the evidence you see informs and updates the beliefs that you hold.

So where do Markov blankets come in? By specifying the independence of internal and external states, Markov blankets allow us to talk about the interactions an agent – such as one of us – has with its environment. This interaction is conditionally independent, says Solomon, which means there’s no direct connection between internal and external states. Enter the Markov blanket – the intermediary between these disconnected states. Through this intermediation, Markov blankets allow us to formalize both our identity and our interactions with the environment. And remember, this occurds across all nested scales. From cells to plants to pontifs. 

Applying Bayesian Thinking to Our Daily Lives 

A further exploration of the Bayesian brain was necessary for me. How can we apply this thinking to our daily lives? After all, updating beliefs seems like an ever-lasting concept – we are constantly taking in new information (perhaps, more accurately, new evidence) and thus are always updating our beliefs.

Solomon agrees and offers a simplified way to think about how the Bayesian brain works:

" Every agent – me and you included – has this internal generative model of the world that contains our beliefs about the world. As we interact with our environment, and with others, these beliefs get updated over time. "

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That internal generative model – I can feel my AI-obsessed readers’ ears perking up – is internal, but it parameterizes what we believe about the external world, allowing us to “sentience” in the world of artificial intelligence as well as more applicably, interactions in our daily lives. Let’s bring back the concept of Markov blankets. How can we apply these ideas? 

Our families are Markov blankets. So are our businesses and, on a wider scale, our societies and civilizations. Perhaps these are all filters through which we form our beliefs. Solomon explains what this means in the field of mergers and acquisitions. The considerations for which we account and the research we conduct when buying a business are similar to the mediations that occur between internal and external states. Your company is a Markov blanket, as is the company you are considering buying. Should the purchase go through, the company you buy becomes part of your organization’s Markov blanket, ostensibly making it part of your updated belief system as well.

Of course, I had another question…

On Meaning: When the Patterns of Nature and Man Match 

Now that we had our foundations set, we transitioned to the elusive concept of meaning. 

" Meaning is when the pattern of man and the pattern of nature match. "

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This was the answer Solomon provided when I asked for more information about his focus on patterns. Elaborating, Solomon said that the focus on patterns was an intuitive choice, starting with identifying natural patterns, which we could also call natural laws. These patterns are irrefutable – they exist within the natural world and can be seen in our everyday lives. But in the quest for meaning, Solomon believes that when these natural patterns align with moral laws and patterns, there is resonance.

Of course, natural and moral patterns are not the same.

The difference between the two lies in free will – you can choose to follow a moral law, but have no choice but to follow a natural law. This difference led Solomon to explore the tangible things that remain invariant throughout time.

The moral law is contingent on the nature of free will. Having a choice between whether or not to do a thing is key to morality as lack of choice makes the entire concept moot. Or, as C.S. Lewis put it far more poetically:

" Free will is the only thing that makes any evil possible but it is also the only thing that makes any love worth having. "

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On the Distinction Between Natural and Moral Law in the Manifestation of Meaning 

Eventually/ultimately/in time, We start to see a complex web of laws entangling. Natural and moral laws are joined with physical ones. I asked if there is any way to distill all of this into a model – something simpler and tangible that is easier for others to grasp – that could help us see the roles that all of these laws play in relation to finding meaning.

Solomon referred back to the Bayesian brain to define his model.

Think of the model as akin to an hourglass. At one end, you find your top-down priors – the beliefs we already hold about the world. On the other end sits the bottoms-up sensory data that we absorb each day. The pivot point in the middle – the pinch of the hourglass – is what Solomon calls the “Feature Vector.” Here we see the impingement between concrete and abstract beliefs versus the evidence we gather. This generative model-feature future vector-recognition model is nested hierarchically. 

But It goes deeper. What if we nature itself emulates a similar process of learning, complexity, and transformation? 

Solomon discovered this while reading the work of Arthur Young, who developed the concept of a Reflexive Universe. Young aims to recategorize all of the science we have accumulated over the centuries into a model inspired by Neoplatonic emanation-emergence. An exit and return, if you will. 

" Young talks about this involution, which is this light condensing through matter – through subatomic particles and atoms – then through molecules. There’s this turn where negative entropy kicks in, or where life kicks in, and this starts an evolutionary process. "

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Through this process, the freedom that was lost on the way down – an existential involution – is recaptured on the way up – a conscious evolution – as life evolves from molecules, into plants, animals, and ultimately, humans. It’s an evolutionary process that starts and ends with wholeness – with purpose – with everything in between being learning, transformation, and change. Potentiality and actuality. And it’s the pursuit of this actuality – the regaining of the ultimate freedom found at the beginning of both of these models – that takes us a step closer to defining human purpose.

" the freedom that was lost on the way down – an existential involution – is recaptured on the way up – a conscious evolution – as life evolves "

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Solomon saw an overlap between this model and the Bayesian brain as the switch between involution and evolution required a turn – a turn much like the “Feature Vector” in Solomon’s hourglass model.  These Involution-Evolution themes – all focused around an all-important “Turn” – were very similar to the structure of our own brains based on the latest cutting edge research, with the Generative Model-Recognition Model structure focused around a central “Feature Vector”. Furthemore, both nature and the brain had the atomic unit of “action” – which could be formalized via the free energy principle. 

Re-Categorizing Nature to Include Purpose: Aristotle’s Four Causes 

Ask a scientist how life came about and they will seek to provide a mathematical – or, at least, a technical – answer. Ask a child the same question and the answer is simply that mommy and daddy made me. Here, we see echoes of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and his four layers of cause. Can Aristotle help us provide a categorization for science?

At layer one, you find final cause or purpose – why was this thing created? what is the end goal of the object? Using the example of a chair, it was created because the carpenter needed a place to sit, for instance. Next comes the material cause in that this chair exists because trees grow in the forest which provides the materials – wood – that are needed to create the chair. At the third level lies formal cause – the source of the object’s principle of stability or change, which hones in on the blueprint, or pattern, of how you put the chair together. The layers wrap up with the efficient cause – the actual construction process ? You will see that these four causes can fully categorize all aspects of a an object, providing a complete solution for parents looking to appease a child’s curiosity. 

 

Solomon believes that people, particularly in the tech sector, are too focused on efficient causes and how to change things, without giving much consideration to the final cause. The search for the meaning of the existence of something as simple as even a chair is being lost.

Let’s relate this to a child.

If a child asks you how they were born, you may spend some time discussing the material and efficient causes, depending on their age. But you will place far more focus on the first and final cause – the purpose behind birth. Behind life, so many of your interactions with your children will revolve around these concepts of meaning and purpose; the evolution you wish for them to achieve, rather than the mechanics of what brought them into being.

The Difference Between Nature and Man: The Importance of Free Will &  Conscious Action 

So, what should we be looking for in the patterns of nature in terms of how those patterns connect to human purpose?

Solomon returns to the hourglass model mentioned earlier:

" The first part is like learning the law, with the second aspect relating to applying the law – cause and effect. Then, we use the effect to drive the cause. That, to me, is the crux that is at the center of the turn in nature, or of the Feature Vector. "

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In other words, the instilling of conscious action in which you use what you have learned to inform volitional choice and your behavior is where we see the alignment of natural law and moral law. We have free will. But we must learn cause and effect about that free will before we can use effect to generate cause or meaning.

Solomon provides an example.

Let’s say that your child touches a stove. They get burned and now know that touching the stove leads to pain. They’ve just discovered a cause and effect that gets inputted into their general model of the world. Now, they know not to touch the stove anymore. It’s this leveraging of the learning of natural law – putting your hand on hot things burns – that is then applied to conscious future action that is ideally aligned to what we see in nature that shows us the importance of consciousness in finding meaning.

Again, free will is the crux.

Due to free will, the child could always touch the stove again, even after learning that the stove burns. To do so would see them fall out of alignment with natural law as their choices do not reflect the evidence they’ve gathered. A simplistic example, perhaps, but think about how this applies to other areas of your life. How many times have we all sought meaning by simply repeating what we should have learned would will not lead us to meaning in the past? Evidence thrown aside. Alignment between natural and moral law upended.

The search for meaning is fruitless.

The Role of Free Will: Alignment to Truth 

We return to the quote with which I opened this essay to round it out. Solomon talks of the idea of aligning yourself with truth with a capital “T” as being essential, yet so difficult to achieve in the modern world. After all, that form of truth is under constant assault. We live in an age where people are more than happy to define their truth, regardless of how objectively untrue that truth may be. Think of this in the context of a world in which freedom is the ultimate value, and you start to see that humanity’s relationship with the truth has always been… interesting.

Throughout history, we have seen philosophers come back to this concept of resonating with truth. Plato said that the good and beautiful things in this world resonate with truth and, by that resonance, become meaningful. You could even argue that truth is the pattern of nature. It is the one thing that is invariant to space and time. Truth never changes. It cannot do so because truth is absolute and unquestionable.

At least, truth with a capital “T” is. We see this in the Biblical sense, too. John 4:16 – Jesus answers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The indisputable offering, suggesting to align yourself with Jesus is to align yourself with truth, and thus find meaning in your life. This pattern of aligning to truth is seen in many of the great texts, be they religious, moral, or philosophical. Where this becomes complex is how our relationship with truth changes over time. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, by exploring the latest developments in computational neuroscience via the free energy principles, evolutionary themes in nature, and the difference between natural law and moral law, we can leverage these insights to lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives. We can be conscious about the role that final cause plays and the importance of our conscious actions, leveraging our free will to align to the true, good, and beautiful. 

Edited by Emerson Walker & Tomer Solomon (https://www.tomersolomon.com/)