This is a set of two posts, starting with my studies on the emergence of AGI, and looking for parallels of emergent phenomena in physics. Condensed matter is the topic why I started thinking about non reductionist explanations in 2019. Now, 4 years later, it turns out condensed matter might also inform the AGI debate. This is the first Part I.

In physics undergrad at the University of Lisbon we had two solid semestres of condensed matter—following the famous Kittel (Wiley). Never did I imagine that, some twenty years later, and as a trained cosmologist, I would be picking it up again to seek answers on the emergence of artificial general intelligence, the fundamental nature of information storage, and the emergence of life itself.

Coming full circle, I guess. The uniqueness in human learning (and all of living systems) is the establishment of non-local, wide range connections through whatever means our subconscious learning deems fit. My colleagues in the neurosciences call this the “default mode network” (DMN).

Evolutionary biologist Katherine Kauffman later suggested this excellent study on this operating mode of our brains (DMN):
“Narrative Imagery: emotion regulation in the default mode network”
Nicola Sambuco, Margaret M. Bradley, Peter J. Lang
Neuropsychologia, Volume 164, 7 January 2022, 108087