Data mining programs find patterns in purely random data, and what’s more:  different programs find different patterns!  The pattern-search algorithm determines what pattern is observed in a purely pattern-less body of data.  Taken in reverse:  every given pattern may be associated with a particularly programmed pattern-deducing algorithm operating over a purely random body of data.  Pattern, then, (beauty included) is in the eye of the beholder.  Applied to science in general, we may envision a pattern-less, chaotic, random reality that is seen as pattern-laced, orderly and predictable by its human observers who apply to reality their evolutionary developed particular observation and deduction algorithm.  No physicist has ever managed to by-pass his or her psychology.  Human psychology is a product of Darwinian evolution, incidental, particular, skewed.  As a species we share blindness and partiality towards the objective reality which is (per this conjecture) inherently pattern-less.  Quantum mechanics admitting a probability based microcosm is scratching that objective reality.

This conjecture points to a fundamentally new strategy for natural sciences:  to unlearn, unrestrict, de-evolutionize our mind to escape the narrowness of vision imposed on us by our common history as a species, and as living entities, and earlier — traced to the incidental way that amino acids were constructed.
 

We may approach this premise from entropy consideration.  A point was selected on a line. If all that we care about is that the selection identified a point on that line then our Shannon Entropy is zero.  If we care to know whether the point resides in the upper or lower half of the line then our  entropy is one. If we divide the line to n equal size intervals and care to know which interval houses the selected point then our entropy is log(n), and if we care to know exactly where the point is then our entropy is infinite – the definition of pattern-less chaos.  It appears  then that the more we care to know reality, the more we face the reality of chaos.

It’s hard to agree that the pillars of science: gravity, electromagnetism, relativity, quantum mechanics, are all illusionary patterns and “laws” that appear as real because they are fully consistent with our skewed mechanism of observation and deduction.  Alas, it is much more tenable to state that we could conceivably construct a mathematical model for a global data-mining algorithm such that a perfectly random world will be seen as having the patterns and the laws identified by our body of science.  In other words, we could  boldly aspire to model our skewness.  That model will help us de-program ourselves from the particular path that produced us and imposed on us its increasingly narrow outlook on reality.

Why increasingly narrow?  We as a species appear to be subject to knowledge acquisition momentum.  That is, if incidentally we happen to acquire a piece of knowledge, that acquisition will make certain new knowledge more likely to be acquired than other equally valid elements of new knowledge.  And the more knowledge we acquire (consciously or subconsciously — as a product of Darwinian evolution), the greater the knowledge acquisition momentum that carries us along, and the more blind we are to equally valid knowledge that lays on the sideway, off the trajectory of our knowledge acquisition momentum.  So as science moves ahead, we indeed celebrate every additional finding, but in fact our vista of reality is getting narrower and narrower.  It has been established that Darwinian evolution is not generous:  every attribute we posses has evolved in the race for survival.  “Nice to have” capabilities with no survival impact were not on the menu.  Say then that any part of reality that had no bearing on our survival (throughout the evolutionary ladder) was not matched with any sensors to read it, nor with data-massaging logic to process it.  It appears silly to assume that reality is comprised only of parts that were at some points important for our survival.  It also appears that compressing vast amount of data into ‘laws’ and patterns is an efficient way to exploit and use the conclusion potential in that data.  Say then that our celebrated ‘laws of nature’ are our tools for survival, not the divine blue print for setting up reality.

Negating our long established knowledge-acquisition trajectory, Unlearning, rolling back, may be impossible to do, but it appears as the thing to do regardless.

Since quantum mechanics is the most peculiar fundamental science, we may start there, and start small:  can we build a pattern-seeking algorithm that when it operates on a pattern-less data will deduce a pattern or “law” affirmed by QM?  If we can, then the question will be what is the likelihood that reality is pattern less, random and chaotic and that our inescapable evolutionary make-up is skewing it for us to observe in it patterns that reflect on us within, not without.

Caveats:  (i)I am an engineering professor, not a physicist.  My research area is intractability metrics, the universal theory of innovation, and the knowledge-realization process.  I have good background to talk about false patterns observed in random data, and about knowledge-acquisition momentum, but less so with respect to advanced physics, Darwinian evolution, and human cognition and psychology.  And therefore I simply put this thought “on the table” to elicit the response of complementary experts; any “etching on stones” is premature at this time.  (ii) Not being a regular resident in the community of scientists wrestling with the nature of reality as such, I may be re-inventing the wheel, or raise a point that was raised and debunked long ago.  If so – sorry for taking your time.

When cybersecurity, innovation, and education are abstracted to the core of their activity — they fuse into a trisymmetric configuration:  each of the three is a knowledge realization process, with education being configured as knowledge realization helped by the source of the knowledge, cybersecurity is configured as knowledge realization where the source of knowledge tries to obstruct the knowledge acquisition by the hackers, and innovation where nature is indifferent and neutral about being unveiled.  The recognition of this symmetry leads to three way enhancement of the three disciplines. http://trisymmetry.com 

On February 1st Gideon’s column in Digital Transactions Magazine has hit the newsstands, and the reaction was swift and furious, especially from privacy advocates.  In his column Gideon Samid points out the need to involve the payment industry in the present design of an extreme act to be ready to face the dark scenario of rampant domestic terrorism like it happened in Israel in the second intifada when buses and restaurants blew up daily.  Essentially the act forbids any cash transactions above an adaptable preset value.  The massive transactional data flow will be analyzed by powerful data mining algorithms for the purpose of spotting the movement and activity of terrorism cells.  Most detractors of the concept fear that once enacted government will never let go of it, and that terrorism will be unaffected while privacy will be decimated.

Gideon replies that he is a passionate advocate of the sanctity of individual privacy, but that it ranks behind safety and the sanctity of life, and when terrorists move about in our free society hitting us at will, a lot should be done, that otherwise would have never been proposed.  What is important, as Gideon puts it, is to design this onerous step very carefully, and in particular to involved the leading members of the digital payment industry. “I am terrified of the specter of no-cash transaction, as the law of the land.  But when terrorist hits once too often there will remain no liberal that would not sign off on a little loss of privacy — given that most of it is already mutilated by post-911 acts of Congress.

The cream de la cream of Israel’s technological talent is gravitated towards a couple of thousand start-up firms, funded by eager venture capitalists, and moved by a few dozen super-success stories.  The income fuels the economy, and regenerates itself;  quite a positive picture, but not without a shadow.  Venture capital is ‘exit’ driven, funds go to concepts that can be realized within 24 months or less, which in turn drives the entrepreneurs to quick impact internet gimmicks, and ritzy consumer gadgetry, a track that established a few young multi millionaires in Israel.  Alas, the survival of Israel depends on long range, heavy duty, deep research technological programs that are left with second tier personnel.  In the early years the talent of young Israelis went to build the renowned aviation industry, the world class military industry, phrama, nuclear, agriculture, and innovative production facilities.  These programs established the country as a powerhouse to reckon with, and kept it safe within its borders.  Israel needs today’s challenges to be equally committed to, and a few thousand internet-centered startups are not the answer.  A growing number of political scientists claim that peace would come to the Middle East as soon as oil loses its centrality in world affairs.  This will happen when a robust oil-replacement becomes a reality.  There you have it, an example of a national R&D program that will earn Israel its much deserved security.  A lot can be done with start-ups, nimble, and quick as they are, but Israel needs a serious organizational framework staffed with its best and brightest to continue its parade of technological miracles, and keep it safe and thriving.  If getting rich quick is the prevailing sentiment, then a danger is looming.  Patriotism should increase its weight in the motivational spectra.  And nothing would happen without a vigorous and visionary technological leadership aware that its success is the guarantee for the future of Israel.