Micro/macro.
In my first post in this series, I wrote about the idea that reality is comprised of various “layers,” and I raised the question of how, in an evolutionary sense, do we “get” from one layer of reality to another. How did the molecular layer emerge from a universe that (at an early stage) included only atomic elements? How does the biological layer arise from the molecular/chemical layer?
We know many of the specifics of each “layer jump.” For example, we know that a type of chemical bond, the covalent bond (electron sharing) allows different elements to bind to each other and create molecules. In terms of how biological life started on Earth, we have some idea that it had to do with the evolution of self-replicating chains of nucleotides.
Is there a way to model these “layer jumps” in a general sense? If we could, we could make some incredibly interesting computer simulations. Perhaps we could model the emergence of biological life, of somatic forms, of social interaction networks, and eventually perhaps even intelligent entities. With sufficient processing power (maybe driven by quantum computing), we might be able to model an entire universe, including everything from the creation of galaxies and solar systems to the evolution of biological life to the development of culture.
