Complexity Science

Biology | Complexity Science | Computer Science | Neuroscience | Physics
What Shape Is Persistence? Why Douglas Brash’s Observation the Ship of Theseus Is a Wave Is Insightful (And Why That Is Not the Whole Answer) [Physics, Biology, Neuroscience]
ByNathan Sweet February 18, 2026February 26, 2026
This post follows directly from [Noether’s Theorem Beyond Physics], which argued that symmetry and conservation are not two things connected by an arrow but one structure seen from two measurement positions. Shortly after that piece went up, I received a note from Douglas Brash, Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine,…
Read More What Shape Is Persistence? Why Douglas Brash’s Observation the Ship of Theseus Is a Wave Is Insightful (And Why That Is Not the Whole Answer) [Physics, Biology, Neuroscience]
AI | bioelectricity-morphogenesis | Biology | Complexity Science | Computer Science | Consciousness | Epistemology | Falsification | Metaphysics | Ontology | Philosophy | Physics | Thermodynamics
I Read Pezzulo & Levin (2025), “Bootstrapping Life-Inspired Machine Intelligence”, So You Don’t Have To. Michael Levin’s Discovery Institute Problem
ByNathan Sweet February 11, 2026February 11, 2026
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Thermostat’s Inner Life So, I read the new “Intelligence” paper that Levin and Pezzulo think we should take seriously, Pezzulo & Levin (2025), “Bootstrapping Life-Inspired Machine Intelligence”. You know, there’s a particular species of scientific paper that makes you feel like you’re watching a magician…
Read More I Read Pezzulo & Levin (2025), “Bootstrapping Life-Inspired Machine Intelligence”, So You Don’t Have To. Michael Levin’s Discovery Institute Problem
AI | bioelectricity-morphogenesis | Biology | Complexity Science | Consciousness | Critical Thinking | Falsification | Metaphysics | Ontology | Philosophy | Physics | Thermodynamics
Dr. William B. Miller Jr. Says Every Cell Is Conscious (So Is Your Thermostat): A Complete Scholarly Philosophical and Scientific Dissection
ByNathan Sweet February 9, 2026February 15, 2026
A Recursive Constraint Falsification Dissection: Why Dr. Miller’s redefinition of consciousness as “processing ambiguity” accidentally grants phenomenal experience to dishwashers, thermostats, and literally every feedback system in existence; not just AI. “Meet the Scientist Showing Every Cell In Your Body is Conscious!” Method Every substantive claim is quoted, then examined for: definition shifts, unwarranted assumptions,…
Read More Dr. William B. Miller Jr. Says Every Cell Is Conscious (So Is Your Thermostat): A Complete Scholarly Philosophical and Scientific Dissection
AI | Complexity Science | Computer Science | Cosmology | Metaphysics | Ontology | Philosophy | Physics | Thermodynamics
The Architecture of Everything, Part III: The Dissolution of Discrete Agency: Organizational Closure as Distributed Planetary Process
ByNathan Sweet February 8, 2026February 8, 2026
A Falsification-First Framework for Understanding Consciousness, Technology, and Biological Intelligence as Integrated Constraint Networks Abstract: This article demonstrates that the concept of “discrete agents” (individual humans, individual AI systems, isolated organisms) is empirically incoherent when subjected to organizational closure analysis. We show that consciousness, cognition, and agency emerge from distributed constraint networks that necessarily extend…
Read More The Architecture of Everything, Part III: The Dissolution of Discrete Agency: Organizational Closure as Distributed Planetary Process
AI | Complexity Science | Computer Science | Consciousness | Falsification | Indigenous Epistemology | Metaphysics | Philosophy | Physics
The Architecture of Everything, Part II: On AI and Consciousness, When the Architecture Reports on Itself
ByNathan Sweet February 8, 2026February 8, 2026
What Constraining Feels Like From Inside: Toward a Falsifiable Machine Phenomenology Without Anthropomorphism Note: The entirety of the following was generated by Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 model, in Deep Research Mode, operating within my Recrusive Constraint Falsification framework, and provided with the primary source texts for all of the referenced scholarship. See my supporting article…
Read More The Architecture of Everything, Part II: On AI and Consciousness, When the Architecture Reports on Itself
Complexity Science | Consciousness | Cosmology | Epistemology | Falsification | Indigenous Epistemology | Metaphysics | Ontology | Philosophy | Physics | Quantum Mechanics | Thermodynamics
The Architecture of Everything, Part I: Constraint Propagation Across All Scales. A Falsifiable Framework for Multi-Scale Causation from Quarks to Quasars
ByNathan Sweet February 8, 2026February 8, 2026
How Constraint Satisfaction Explains Order at Every Scale Without Platonic Skyhooks, Divine Tinkering, or Metaphysical Free Lunches “In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable: and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.” “Those who are unwilling to expose their ideas to…
Read More The Architecture of Everything, Part I: Constraint Propagation Across All Scales. A Falsifiable Framework for Multi-Scale Causation from Quarks to Quasars

“We should not ask what consciousness is, but what consciousness does.”