Erik Hoel: physical systems have astronomically many description levels, none fundamentally different
erikphoel · x · 2026-09-29
In a discussion on the scale of supervenience, Erik Hoel points to Tononi's IIT as the only research line that has seriously grappled with the issue.
On extending Marr's three layers to five, Hoel is skeptical: it is more a metaphor, since any physical system has astronomically many levels of description, none fundamentally different in kind. All are summary statistics—computation is no more fundamental than "intrinsic causal structure." By definition it cannot be, otherwise it wouldn't be supervenient: higher-level descriptions are just a function of lower-level elements, states, or operations via some mapping.
More from AGI Musings
- Findings of ACL already separates papers from talks, so 'AI-authored' rules are moot, scholar argues — ipeirotis · 2026-09-29
- Humanities will rule the future of higher education, scholar argues in AI era — begusgasper · 2026-09-29
- Education writer suggests keeping young kids away from AI for now — benjaminjriley · 2026-09-29
- US survey finds public AI concerns span many categories, likely worse after recent news — SpencrGreenberg · 2026-09-29
- Instruction tuning shows intelligence can exist without purpose or free will — sytelus · 2026-09-29
- Media takes AI x-risk seriously; next frontier question: AI consciousness — cccalum · 2026-09-29