Cosmology

Most of what we each ‘know’ is accumulated by associating new information with information that we have remembered previously. Probably most of our knowledge is about the world around us; about how to deal with our environment. What are the dangers, what are the necessities? If we then become aware, as Carl Sagan would say, of the ‘billions and billions’ of things that are beyond our understanding, we are forced to recognize the existence of ‘something’ that is infinitely more knowledgeable and powerful than we. Since early times, mankind has created religions which seek to explain the unexplainable. As our knowledge base increased, the religions became more refined. Usually these religions offered some explanation of how the world was created and attribute this creation to some Supreme Being who, probably, should be worshipped. Beyond this, most then described how we each should act in our everyday lives to most please our Creator. In my mind, Cosmology is the newest religion, and it conjectures that everything was created by a ‘Big Bang’ when an infinitesimal point (of infinite energy?) explodes(?), eventually creating all this mass. The mathematics describe events from a few nanoseconds out to billions of years, thus eliminating the Seven Days story.  The Apostles of this religion have not yet specified how mankind can get along with mankind. All religions require that their adherents have Faith, so questions as to whence cometh the initial energy, etc., are left to that.

Curiosity

^{Curiosity may be the attribute upon which (conscious) Learning depends the most. So, can an algorithm be devised that can exhibit Curiosity? There is no Why function in Programming Languages. Curiosity seems to imply a Desire to determine Why something is or is not.  How can software cause a machine to ‘want’ to do something? To ‘care’ about something? Wanting and Caring are adjectives that describe some attributes of Consciousness and Self-Consciousness.}

^{What might be a simple aspect of a Why algorithm? Why is?  Why do? Why not? Why can? Why must? Why will?, etc.  Each of these are complex. What is the fundamental action involved in Why?}