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Not enough value is given to the Platonic/Aristotelian notion of "forms". I think forms are actually more relevant than ever in our digital, software-driven age.

As a software engineer, I see my job as the following process:

1. Someone comes up with an idea.

2. I wrap my mind around the idea and work out how it is best represented.

3. I program computers, to embody this idea into the physical world through a machine.

The idea, here, is the "form", and programming imprints that form onto the base matter of a computer circuit. The result is some real thing we see on a computer screen, or some real activity an electronic device performs.

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Discussion

MichaelJ 2y ago

All of this is inspired by nostr:npub1wtuh24gpuxjyvnmjwlvxzg8k0elhasagfmmgz0x8vp4ltcy8ples54e7js's observation that software engineers live and work in the realm of ideas.

Finrod Felagund 2y ago

We do work in the realm of ideas. But our works moves energy and information from one place to another. Therefore abstract as it may look, it is real.

Information and energy are interchangeable. They travel at the same speed.

The more energy is required to produce an information, assuming an efficient production, the “heavier” the information is. This is the way with Bitcoin.

MichaelJ 2y ago

An interesting consequence of that thought would that, because electronic energy is almost always in motion digital information is closer to pure act than many material things.

The next step that I can see, then, is to ponder where information itself fits in the order of being. Information is what is needed to turn potency into act, to shape matter into substantial forms. Information also lives primarily in the mind, as far as I can tell.

Finrod Felagund 2y ago

That is indeed the next question. Think of the difference between patterns and codes.

“101010101010101010101…..”

Can you continue this sequence? I’m sure you can.

Can you tell me what it means? I’m sure you think it doesn’t mean anything.

Symbols have meaning because we give them meaning I believe.

To ask where information fits itself in the order of being is equivalent to asking where mankind fits in the order of being.

I always ask myself how did the ancient men think? In what language?

MichaelJ 2y ago

Information is related to meaning. The mind takes in and stores information, and discerns or assigns its meaning. Thus, without a subject, there is no meaning, and probably no information in any real way.

Bonaventure said that things exist in three places: in the physical world, in the mind of man, and in the mind of God. This would suggest that things do exist "out there," independent of human minds to perceive them, but that they are also given being in some way when they are grasped by the human mind. And of course, all of this depends on God as the self-existent ground of being.

God exists, and He is the Subject in which all things exist. Things exist, but they are not subjects, and so nothing else exists in them. Human beings are both things that exist and subjects in which other things can exist.

If we take God as primary, and man as secondary, then perhaps digital system are tertiary; things can exist within a computer, but the only meaningful way in which digital things exist is insofar as they exist in human minds. Does this make the digital world a sort of sub-creation?

Finrod Felagund 2y ago

I agree that God is the primary source of meaning, and having created us in His image, He gave us this godlike ability to give meaning to things. And this cannot exist outside of Him as well, yes.

But so far, digital things are to be seen in my opinion as a store of information. The digital realm is a landscape that we can shape to our liking, but it doesn’t have meaning if we don’t give it a meaning. That is until we create a sentient intelligence in this digital realm that can imbue things with meaning on its own, but I remain skeptical of our ability to do that.

There’s are my thoughts on the matter.