A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to the ancient worldviews of Materialism and Idealism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's also a Theory – of – Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.
Post 159.November 10, 2026
Governed Causation : Mind Power
Fundamental Intelligence
On the Philosophy Forum a poster argued the case that Intelligence (Human Reason) evolved from a fundamental “mental” principle, instead of something “non-mental” (matter). I agreed with that vague assessment, but added some scientific terminology that I thought was relevant. What I proposed was that ordinary physical Energy, the potency of Nature, might be that primordial essence of Mind. Energy is clearly fundamental to the Cosmos, which began with a burst of Creative Causation, the eve of Evolution. Yet the raw Causal Power of the Bang was limited and guided by Initial Conditions and Natural Laws. That combination of power and control can be classified in the physical & psychological category of Governed Causation¹.
Consequently, the expanding bubble of the Bang did not just dissipate into nothingness, like fireworks on the fourth. {image left above} Instead, it has evolved into everythingness : the manifold Material of the universe, including brains and their mysterious mental functions. So, everything we know anything about was determined by that First Cause. Which consisted, not just of “non-mental” brute force, but also of something like a “mental” computer program to direct that power along constructive (non-random) lines : logically iterated Evolution². And Darwin’s program for positive & progressive development was based on several controlling factors : [Variation, Inheritance, Overproduction, Natural Selection]. Which computer programmers, in the 21st century have mimicked, in the “fitness functions” of their Evolutionary Programming⁵.
The philosophical question raised by such an unprecedented burst of guided Energy, is where did that combination of Cosmic Power and Restraint come from? Of course, we have no empirical answers to such hypothetical enigmas. So we fantasize of a time before Time. And there are two reasonable options : A> Eternal Logical Creative Potential (e.g. Platonic FORM, an impersonal principle), or B> Repeated trial & error Bang events without Beginning or End or Logic or Purpose (multiverse, many worlds).
Causal Energy is not a material substance⁴, but an essential property of the cosmic system. It’s an influence or tendency which dissipates (entropy) over time. But in the meantime, it causes creative transformations, such as converting immaterial Energy into measurable Mass, which we experience as Matter (E=MC^2). But what is the anti-entropy influence that creates something from no-thing? Ironically, Schrodinger labeled that progressive evolu-tionary force as “negentropy”, but I prefer to I call it Enformy (evolutionary formation). So, you can interpret the incremental program of evolution, by analogy, as the encoded Mind of the Cosmic Programmer : instructions and actions.
Therefore, it seems that “basic nature” combines compelling power with controlling information. That’s what I call EnForm-Action⁶ (energy + form + causation). Which implies some kind of Fundamental Intelligence, that I call the Cosmic Programmer. Conjecture : It may be a monistic Mind, but like the ancient Hindu creator, Brahman⁷, it may have no properties except creativity. This is not a reference to a biblical God, but to something more like Spinoza’s Deus Sive Natura : which equates our temporal natural world with an all-encompassing eternal Cosmos. So, us moderns will have to interpret his Pandeus in terms compatible with the scientific evidence of a space-time beginning of physical Evolution. And the case stated above implies that the “Creator” of space-time is more like Brahman than Jehovah, more like Mind than Matter.
1.“Governed causation”generally refers to the philosophical, physical, or legal frameworks where cause-and-effect relationships are directed or constrained by overarching rules, laws, or guidelines. Rather than happening at random or in a vacuum, events occur because they are strictly “governed” by a foundational structure. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Governed+Causation
2. Cosmic evolution shares striking resem-blances with a computer program, functioning through deterministic rules, information processing, and massive simulations that mirror algorithmic execution. https://www.google.com/search?cosmic+evolution+simailr+to+computer+program 4. Energyis not a physical substance, material object, or fluid; instead, it is an abstract, calculated property or a numerical accounting tool that describes the state, motion, or configuration of a physical system. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1
5. Evolutionary Coding : Evolutionary or Genetic Programming uses bio-logical evolution principles—such as mutation, cros-sover, and natural select-ion—to automatically generate, test, and improve computer code. Each piece of code runs against a fitness function or benchmark. Recently, evolutionary coding has merged with Large Language Models (LLMs) to write and refine code much faster than random trial-and-error. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Evolutionary+Programming
7. Brahman : Brahman is the highest universal principle and ultimate reality in Hinduism, and described as having no properties : no physical form, gender, name, or specific characteristics that human language and thought can define. https://www.google.com/search?-d&q=brahman+no+properties
Flash & Fizzle of a Big Bang without inherent control
Post 159 continued . . . . . click Next
Information is Energy
Objective Definition of Information: The book builds upon Claude Shannon’s concept of entropy to propose an objective, dynamic, and physically grounded definition of information rather than a purely abstract or subjective one.
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