My interest in research stems from the idea that human technological development should be formalizable. Something akin to a technology tree found in strategy games, popularized by Sid Meier’s Civilization. Such a human technology tree (HTT) would be a way to find out which technologies are possible and how they relate to already defined or developed technologies. It would also provide an estimate of energy and complexity scale required for the actual devices, a time scale for development, and an estimation of the investments to make. Technological development, as a human activity, is obviously constrained by ethical, societal, and moral concerns. Thus we should expect the theoretical framework underpinning a HTT to also model such concepts.
My research is currently organized in three main efforts to build a theoretical framework into which HTT can be written.
On conscious moving bodies, with applications to mind modeling, biology, physics and mathematics.
Here, we establish an abstract framework centered on the concept of subject (a form of monadology) where we can define from first principles the concepts of space, time, consciousness, object, human body, free will, computation and proof. The mathematics introduced here are implicitly constructive.
What is Life, if not connections persisting?
We extend the conceptual space introduced above by interpreting the randomness component as noise at the classical (as in Classical Physics) level. This way we introduce multiple concepts related to Life in general and connect this noise to properties of the quantum vacuum.
A general theory of realities beyond the physical.
In my effort to put the above models on a solid metaphysical ground, I setup a generalization of the models above into a meta-model that enables modeling other physical realities (and their biology, physical laws, mathematics,...), modeling the aspects of consciousness not directly related to physical reality (sleep, dream, abstract thinking, creativity, intuition, mental illness,...) and modeling more abstract topics like Ethics, Economy,... including Technology. This meta-model is also expected to shed light on the Fermi paradox and gives an ontology for String Theory.
There is one key metaphysical aspect of the above work. In the attempt to explain, understand and model more than what we currently know, we start from our shared reality as the base ontology, i.e. there is no “more fundamental reality” that should replace our current one. Moreover, there is no large conceptual leap to understand the approach. It’s more akin to understanding a mathematical proof: follow logical connections to convince oneself the approach is sound, and after some time working with the model eventually reach a point where it ticks. There is also a good analogy with learning how to walk or swim.
Is it expected that most of the ideas developed above are already visible in Nature when we know what to look for, so they should not look as foreign as they might seem.
Bibliography of prior similar perspectives (under construction):
Francesco Pugliaro TSC2022 “Outlining a Metaphysical Scheme of Consciousness for the Construction of a Plural Universe. The Case of Raymond Ruyer's Panpsychism”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQvyvK2wqvw
Elizabeth Grosz: Ruyer and Embryogenesis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNoSTqycWrQ