Dear Daniel, Marcus, Jere and all, I am thinking about next steps for our Econet action plan but also a proposal that we could make to funders. Perhaps we could do this through the Active Inference Institute. Daniel, I look forward to talking with you about this tomorrow. We are organizing three teams - for the Theory Translator, the Economics Study Group and the Econet. What do we need to do before we can start to reach out meaningfully, respectfully, effectively to others who might like to join us?

⁠
`Theory Translator`⁠

I am happy to start with Posina or others to get together online and collect examples for the Theory Translator

https://www.theorytranslator.com⁠

We could work independently and then regularly meet to talk about the examples, what we think of them and how I understand and curate them within the system. Before I reach out beyond our small group, I want to write a comprehensive expository essay about the three minds. I am working on that here:

https://www.theorytranslator.com/index.php?structure=three_minds#article⁠

That may take me until the middle of January. But then I will be able to show that to thinkers who may be interested to work on that further. The ability to distinguish and untangle the three minds - answering, questioning, investigating - is essential for addressing all of our personal and social problems. Plato argued that in the Republic, but similarly, in modern terms, consider Marsha Linehan (emotional mind, reasonable mind, wise mind).

https://www.theorytranslator.com/index.php?structure=three_minds#682⁠

Today I added an example relevant for Econet. German historian Wilhelm Dilthey distinguished: * Naturalism. Humans see themselves as determined by nature. Championed by Epicureans. * Subjective Idealism, the Idealism of Freedom. Humans are conscious of their separation from nature by their free will. Articulated by Schiller and Kant. * Objective Idealism. Humans are conscious of their harmony with nature. Represented by Hegel, Spinoza, and Bruno.

https://www.theorytranslator.com/index.php?structure=three_minds#847⁠

⁠

Community Economics

Marcus and I are meeting on Wednesday to work on our investigations of economics and community economics. Gorazd will join our meetings when he can. Marcus, you know how to reach out to people who might like to join us. We should think through an invitation and a plan for meaningfully including others.

Econet: TimberFish Table Top Unit

Jere, on Thursday, at our Econet meeting, I look forward to considering what you and I and others need to do so that we can reach out further. One step is to make sure that you feel your TimberFish Table Top Unit description is ready for us to promote widely.

https://www.e-c-o.net/wiki/Econet/TimberFishTableTopUnit⁠

Another step is for us to hear Daniel and Franz's thoughts about bioregions and how this table top unit may be relevant, for example, as a model miniature ecosystem that could make evident, through the muck from local ponds, what bioregions share and how they differ. I believe that the table top unit could be a key for delineating bioregions by appreciating the significance of the makeup of their muck, their soil, their microorganisms. I furthermore believe that a network of citizen scientists who investigate with these table top units could document how the units figure things out and thereby tease out the three minds in a way that would allow us to empathize with these systems, and by analogy, be able to recognize and empathize with larger ecosystems. We would learn to interact with ecosystems face-to-face rather than engaging with their knees or elbows in our ignorance. At the Econet wiki, I started a page on "Miniature Ecosystems" with what I could find upon searching "aquarium ecosystems".

https://www.e-c-o.net/wiki/Econet/MiniatureEcosystems⁠

Father Fish is a great personality. Tens of thousands have signed up for his Discord server. He talks about putting soil at the bottom of an aquarium, capping that with sand, and growing aquatic plants. I think he has also mentioned adding twigs and leaves. Another leader is Diana Walstad, who got her BS in Microbiology in 1967 from University of Kentucky (Lexington), and is the author of "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium". These are people we could reach out to. But in particular, I would like to reach out to Alexander Williamson in Seattle, an aquarist, historian, archaeologist and graphic designer. Here is what he says about his YouTube channel, Fishtory. "He is a life long lover of nature and believes in Curiosity & Creativity above all else. Teaching people how to responsibly recreate ecosystems, as well as how to care for plants & animals is the focus of this channel. Using Freshwater ecology & knowledge, in order to relax & remind one another of the crucial importance of the Natural World. " You can't preserve what you don't know exists!" " Just recently he published a video about the new directions he's contemplating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b96j-54oytY⁠

⁠

Active Inference, Bioregions, Biofirms, Funders

Daniel and I talk every Tuesday about Active Inference (which I am learning) and Wondrous Wisdom (which he is learning). Daniel is the President of the Active Inference Institute.

https://www.activeinference.institute⁠

I listened to about 10 hours of the Applied Active Inference Symposium. Very important for us was the "Roundtable on Implications of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Active Inference Agentic Architectures"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnwqqLE10K8⁠

organized by John Clippinger of First Principles First: Towards a Science of Mindful Agents, Societies and Observer Languages

https://www.fp1.ai⁠

"We aim to authoritatively inform and engage our members in the principled understanding and formation of The Sentient Age." In terms of the

Three Minds⁠

, we can distinguish:

sentience (living beings)

sentience of sentience (models of such beings, including agents)

sentience of that sentience of sentience (wise use of such models)

I was struck by what John C. Havens said. He had just been to a conference at the Vatican. "What Pope Francis talks about is an integrated ecology where it's a person feeling they have worth so they are able to connect with others and care and then understandting nature, biodiversity so there is a symbiosis of those systems. But the priority is in care giving, not competition." Our Econet action speaks directly to empathy as key to learning about and thus understanding ourselves (and our worth), our society (connecting with others) and our environment (nature and biodiversity). John C. Havens is Executive Director of The IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems and The Council on Extended Intelligence. He is the author of Heartificial Intelligence and Hacking Happiness

https://www.weforum.org/people/john-c-havens/⁠

Later, he spoke about narratives (as has Leland), about Kate Raworth's donut economics

https://www.kateraworth.com ⁠

;(as has Marcus). Capitalism is a story and care giving is a story. For example, there is an epidemic of loneliness and isolation - Americans are dying earlier. The consensus priority for AI Ethics is human and environmental rights. (Studying tabletop units, and their capacity for three minds, allows us to consider practically, as we investigate: What rights does an ecobox have and why? Which may simply involve mindfulness in how we dispose of it so that it could continue or contribute further to the environment.)

https://youtu.be/PnwqqLE10K8?t=3693⁠

Bill Melton spoke of punctuated equilibrium - picking up the pieces as society fails. Being ready with helpful memes. Looking to entrepreneurs for change, not government.

https://youtu.be/PnwqqLE10K8?t=4354⁠

Matthew Moroney asked what can we implement immediately? Nobody offered answers in the way that we can with our Econet action plan.

https://youtu.be/PnwqqLE10K8?t=3758⁠

He asked further, how do we force the debate?

https://youtu.be/PnwqqLE10K8?t=4284⁠

Concluding words by the organizer, John Clippinger, that the science is a form of caring. The work on the biofirm is based not on extraction but on homestasis, keeping the balance between multiple things, and is scalable. Bioregional financing. These can be simple models that are not computer intensive.

https://youtu.be/PnwqqLE10K8?t=5235⁠

A major theme was that artificial intelligence is energy intensive and thus nonenvironmental. The alternative (biofirms) that they are developing, based on Active Inference, is to provide bioregions and their inhabitants with representation in our digital world, making use of sensors, human observations, and collectives of software agents that operate on the principle of Active Inference, by which models are updated or reality is adjusted, whichever maximizes free energy. Compare this with Jere's contrast of artificial intelligence with ecological intelligence. Rather than bringing the concerns of nature into our digital world, we can take our problems to nature and respectfully let it solve them. In the spirit of Active Inference, we can have it both ways, improving our own models or allowing nature to adjust itself, whichever maximizes free energy. Our Econet action plan has us learn how to listen to nature on its own terms by understanding ourselves as creatures of nature - with three minds - and listening to nature accordingly, what it says to us, likewise by way of the balance or imbalance of three minds. The more I learn about Active Inference, the more the three minds seem relevant, meaningful and helpful. That is something for us to work on. We can do that ourselves, and once we start doing that together, then we are ready to ask for funding to do that, which will help include others.

Sketch of Proposal

The panel included well-connected people who could be interested in a proposal and could help us find funders. Astronomical sums of money are going into Artificial Intelligence in all its forms. Large sums are also available from those concerned about Artificial Intelligence as well as Climate Change. Matthew Moroney

https://www.linkedin.com/in/msmoroney/⁠

emphasized there is a pressing concern to fund projects now that would give immediate results. I sketch out a proposal based on our Econet Action Plan which also opens up business opportunities for all who fund or participate. For 500,000 euros, in twelve months, I propose to lead us in organizing 500 ongoing participants who would bring to life four symbiotic public resources.

One team would develop the Theory Translator and show the reality and centrality of the three minds within a language of human conceptuaL frameworks.

One team would deconstruct economics epistemologically, revealing it in terms of three minds as a dialogue between use and exchange, moderated by a monetary system, moving participants from arbitrary property rights to meaningful inclusion. As they develop their understanding, the team would make sense of community economics, and apply that to encourage thousands of people to help with our projects.

One team would organize citizen scientists in 100 bioregions around the world to maintain and investigate TimberFish table top units, sharing their data and findings in an online environment.

One team of knowledge engineers would design that online environment, using Active Inference to connect software agents, artificial intelligence, social software, our community economics, our Theory Translator, and other digital assets in symbiotic ways.

We would present our results at the next Applied Active Inference Symposium with presentations and demonstrations. I envisage us having four capable leaders. * I would lead the team for the Theory Translator. * Marcus would lead the team for Community Economics. * Daniel, I would be excited if you would lead our Knowledge Engineering team. * Crucially, we would need a person like aquarist Alexander Williamson who could lead, teach and organize our citizen scientists with the TimberFish table top units. I would be the overall leader. I would like the Active Inference Institute to manage the money. I would like Daniel to be in charge of the purse strings and all the financial decisions. We would fuel our team with money in a reverse pyramid. 100,000 euros = 4 x 25,000 euros for one-year part-time work by each of the four main leaders. 100,000 euros = 20 x 5,000 euros for each leader to have 5 assistants to help with training, organizing, coding, etc. 100,000 euros = 100 x 1,000 euros for 20 additional participants in each team in more specific leadership roles. 100,000 euros would fund our community economics to motivate 500 ongoing participants and 2,000 incidental participants 100,000 euros would go to the Active Inference Institute for oversight and for the Symposium The community economics fund could be used, for example, to: * Provide participants with aquariums, equipment, testing supplies, etc. * Contribute funding to a Kickstarter project to mass produce table top units. * Fund perks like swag, parties, rewards. * Cover expenses such as travel, computer, phone, software, books. * Pay for outreach expenses such as marketing or conference fees. Our community economics will presumably be designed and modified opportunistically to support all kinds of added value. What do we think of this proposal? What do we need to do before we proceed with outreach? Andrius Andrius Kulikauskas math4wisdom@xxxxxxxxx

https://www.math4wisdom.com⁠

Eiciunai, Lithuania

⁠

Theory Translator

Community Economics

Econet: TimberFish Table Top Unit

Active Inference, Bioregions, Biofirms, Funders

Sketch of Proposal

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