The Singularity of Nature

Prof. (Dr.) John S. Torday, M.D., a Developmental Physiologist from UCLA based in the United States with a keen interest in how and why physiology has evolved, participates in Risk Roundup to discuss the Singularity of Nature and evaluate whether category theory can be used as a universal modeling tool to comprehend the singularity of nature.

The Singularity of Nature

Proving the Singularity of Nature scientifically was complicated so far. The reason behind this was the limited knowledge and understanding we had about evolutionary biology that made it difficult to connect and merge biology with physics. However, with the realization that biology can be traced to its very origin by simply reducing evolutionary biology to cell-cell signaling, the barriers to understanding science evolution have been slowly crumbling.

As a result, the ongoing reduction of biology to cellular networks and cell-cell signaling brings much promise, as it gives us an understanding of the role of quantum mechanics and allows us to empirically formulate the basis for the singularity of nature for the very first time.

Moreover, with category theory now being widely used as a universal modeling tool to resolve complex problems not only in physics, engineering, and design but also in life sciences and the human ecosystem in cyberspace, aquaspace, geospace, and space, we are getting closer to understanding complex evolutionary processes and being able to comprehend the singularity of nature.

This is especially important because both the physical and the biological domains in the universe are seemingly mini-singularities created by the Big Bang. Applying category theory to the process will perhaps give us an understanding of a valid pathway for quantum evolutionary development through cell-cell interactions.

That brings us to some essential questions:

• Is there a fundamental difference between the biologic traits underpinning evolution and the process of development itself?
• Are the processes of evolution the same for all living things? Also, if they are, what do they depend on?
• When were biological evolutionary changes directly attributed to documented sequential geophysical changes in the environment?
• Since the quantum effects of gravity on cell biology is now well recognized, what evolutionary effect will be seen due to the increased exposure to the electromagnetic spectrum on evolutionary biology?
• Since epigenetic interactions between biology and the environment can be considered as self-referential ‘echoes’ of the origins of life, can it be used to understand the evolutionary or existence patterns of the impact of emerging technologies?
• Is there any direct analogy between a physical system guided by physical laws and quantum rules within our actual living circumstances?
• Will identifying the interface between quantum mechanics and biology offer the opportunity to understand evolution as one continuous process?
• Since everything is connected in the universe, what does this seamless interconnectivity between man, machines, matter, mother nature, and the universe imply?
• How can we use category theory to understand the singularity of nature? Is it possible to apply category theory as a formal model theory to understand cell-cell signaling applications and to understand patterns of evolution or extinction?
• Moreover, how can we use category theory to understand the whole system behavior of organisms and to understand what defines the development of traits, etc.?

The time is now to discuss The Singularity of Nature using Category Theory.

For more, please watch the Risk Roundup Webcast or hear the Risk Roundup Podcast

About the Guest

Prof. Torday is a Developmental Physiologist from UCLA with a keen interest in how and why physiology has evolved. His career in lung development was launched four decades ago by the serendipitous finding that a simple molecule like cortisol could effectively accelerate fetal lung development; this phenomenon changed reproductive medicine overnight, reducing the preterm infant mortality rate from as high as 70% to nearly zero for preterm births. As a working scientist, this made no sense, but was impossible to ignore- why should hormones have anything to do with the respiratory system?

On the other hand, such chance findings are primarily the history of biomedical research. He thinks that such paradoxes prevail because we are using the wrong logic. He believes that the way to make biology and medicine rational and predictive is by reducing evolution to cell biology, as shown in his book Evolutionary Biology, Cell-Cell Communication and Complex Disease. 

Simply put, by reducing the processes of biology and evolution to the cellular level and determining how development, homeostasis, and regeneration function both within and across species phylogenetically is a level playing field for understanding the mechanisms involved in both- the trick is to reduce phenotypes of interest to the cell-molecular level, providing the insights to homology that will reveal the evolutionary strategies. Moreover, for the sake of medical education and the generation of novel evolutionary medicine research initiatives, a cell-molecular approach allows us to interface evolutionary biology and evidence-based medicine.

About the Host of Risk Roundup

Jayshree Pandya (née Bhatt), the founder and chief executive officer of Risk Group LLC (www.riskgroupllc.com) is working passionately to define a new security-centric operating system for humanity. Her efforts towards building a strategic security risk analytics platform are to equip the global strategic security community with the tools and culture to collectively imagine the strategic security risks to our future and to define and design a new security-centric operating system for the future of humanity. 

About Risk Roundup

Risk Roundup, a global initiative launched by Risk Group, is a security risk reporting for risks emerging from existing and emerging technologies, technology convergence, and transformation happening across cyberspace, aquaspace, geospace, and space. Risk Roundup is released in both audio (Podcast) and video (Webcast) format and is available for subscription at (Risk Group Website, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher Radio, Android, and Risk Group Professional Social Media).

About Risk Group

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