Jessica Flack
@c4computation.bsky.social
Lambent Society Founder | Professor | Hourglass Emergence + Computation | Flourishing | Kitchen Alchemist + Vegetarian | if ‘missing’, check Wilderness
Reposted by Jessica Flack
One way Dickinson conveyed abstract concepts was by linking objects or parts her poems with an em dash, a portal into fractured, nonlinear thought unlike any other. Poem via @poetryfoundation.bsky.social
March 28, 2025 at 10:05 PM
One way Dickinson conveyed abstract concepts was by linking objects or parts her poems with an em dash, a portal into fractured, nonlinear thought unlike any other. Poem via @poetryfoundation.bsky.social
Uninvited third party editor—for the 1 millionth time please cease scrolling and mid-sentence editing my @bsky.app account.Your behavior is tedious, disrespectful, and illegal.
November 21, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Uninvited third party editor—for the 1 millionth time please cease scrolling and mid-sentence editing my @bsky.app account.Your behavior is tedious, disrespectful, and illegal.
The fact that the nature of reality is more complex than was thought does not undermine the reality of how we spend our time.
Snowshoe slog-run on a Turrell Blue day, descending from ~12,000‘ on a peak in a Rocky Mountain subrange.
Proust’s edits and additions to proofs via @ddillingworth
Snowshoe slog-run on a Turrell Blue day, descending from ~12,000‘ on a peak in a Rocky Mountain subrange.
Proust’s edits and additions to proofs via @ddillingworth
November 21, 2025 at 3:16 AM
The fact that the nature of reality is more complex than was thought does not undermine the reality of how we spend our time.
Snowshoe slog-run on a Turrell Blue day, descending from ~12,000‘ on a peak in a Rocky Mountain subrange.
Proust’s edits and additions to proofs via @ddillingworth
Snowshoe slog-run on a Turrell Blue day, descending from ~12,000‘ on a peak in a Rocky Mountain subrange.
Proust’s edits and additions to proofs via @ddillingworth
What is information? What does it mean to say the universe or a biological system computes?
Wheeler in the late eighties wrote a remarkable paper. In it he developed the idea information came before matter—“it from bit“. . .More on Babel Blog.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
Wheeler in the late eighties wrote a remarkable paper. In it he developed the idea information came before matter—“it from bit“. . .More on Babel Blog.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
November 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
What is information? What does it mean to say the universe or a biological system computes?
Wheeler in the late eighties wrote a remarkable paper. In it he developed the idea information came before matter—“it from bit“. . .More on Babel Blog.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
Wheeler in the late eighties wrote a remarkable paper. In it he developed the idea information came before matter—“it from bit“. . .More on Babel Blog.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Interested in emergence + computation in nature? Please visit the Bio, Research, Pubs, and Babel Blog pages of my website.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com
My foci tend to be on collective phenomena at the intersection of bio, cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, CS, information theory, + physics.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com
My foci tend to be on collective phenomena at the intersection of bio, cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, CS, information theory, + physics.
Self-portrait in negative space—I don’t work in statistical mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, information theory, theoretical computer science, quantum mechanics, or really even in biology, ethology, evolutionary theory, or cognitive science. Rather, I work...more at jessicaflack.wordpress.com
July 12, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Interested in emergence + computation in nature? Please visit the Bio, Research, Pubs, and Babel Blog pages of my website.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com
My foci tend to be on collective phenomena at the intersection of bio, cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, CS, information theory, + physics.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com
My foci tend to be on collective phenomena at the intersection of bio, cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, CS, information theory, + physics.
What is the Lambent Society?
An umbrella organization I‘m founding that will house an emergence+computation institute ecosystem, entrepreneurial, as well as arts+culture initiatives for the public good, and privacy projects.
When I regain a secure machine I’ll finish building the Society Website.
An umbrella organization I‘m founding that will house an emergence+computation institute ecosystem, entrepreneurial, as well as arts+culture initiatives for the public good, and privacy projects.
When I regain a secure machine I’ll finish building the Society Website.
A potential renaissance is within our collective grasp. Several related but not yet widely known science advances are challenging old boundaries and revealing new sets of questions.
More in the thread below and on (censored) Babel Blog: jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
More in the thread below and on (censored) Babel Blog: jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
November 19, 2025 at 3:06 PM
What is the Lambent Society?
An umbrella organization I‘m founding that will house an emergence+computation institute ecosystem, entrepreneurial, as well as arts+culture initiatives for the public good, and privacy projects.
When I regain a secure machine I’ll finish building the Society Website.
An umbrella organization I‘m founding that will house an emergence+computation institute ecosystem, entrepreneurial, as well as arts+culture initiatives for the public good, and privacy projects.
When I regain a secure machine I’ll finish building the Society Website.
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Sectacular Southwest. Photographs from a 2018 day spent exploring Anasazi, Navajo & Hopi ruins in Canyon de Chelly & learning about the innovations & social complexity of people who've inhabited this gorgeous place from 2500 B.C. to the present—one of the longest continually inhabited places in N.A.
February 20, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Sectacular Southwest. Photographs from a 2018 day spent exploring Anasazi, Navajo & Hopi ruins in Canyon de Chelly & learning about the innovations & social complexity of people who've inhabited this gorgeous place from 2500 B.C. to the present—one of the longest continually inhabited places in N.A.
Reposted by Jessica Flack
"Now and again a poem comes like that, like a ball kicked in from nowhere: in this case, I was completely absorbed in writing one of the last of the Oxford lectures when I had this quick sidelong glimpse of something flying past; before I knew where I was, I went after it."
March 17, 2025 at 8:56 AM
"Now and again a poem comes like that, like a ball kicked in from nowhere: in this case, I was completely absorbed in writing one of the last of the Oxford lectures when I had this quick sidelong glimpse of something flying past; before I knew where I was, I went after it."
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Why has progress been slow in developing a theory of computation for biological systems?
My point (building on Ifrah + Dijkstra) that a good abstraction must be accompanied by a theory of implementation—
My point (building on Ifrah + Dijkstra) that a good abstraction must be accompanied by a theory of implementation—
March 17, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Why has progress been slow in developing a theory of computation for biological systems?
My point (building on Ifrah + Dijkstra) that a good abstraction must be accompanied by a theory of implementation—
My point (building on Ifrah + Dijkstra) that a good abstraction must be accompanied by a theory of implementation—
Reposted by Jessica Flack
one that is deeper than embodiment—means that also required are a comprehensive micro macro or input output map (to include the dynamics + importantly error due to subjectivity) AND its mesoscale reduction to dominant causal interactions.
More at Babel Blog
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
More at Babel Blog
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
Babel Blog
Working in the liminal spaces. In the shadow of the butterfly. And the reflection of the peak. If you would like to reprint or commission an essay, please get in touch using [email protected]…
jessicaflack.wordpress.com
March 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM
one that is deeper than embodiment—means that also required are a comprehensive micro macro or input output map (to include the dynamics + importantly error due to subjectivity) AND its mesoscale reduction to dominant causal interactions.
More at Babel Blog
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
More at Babel Blog
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Looking forward to to the day my sound system is no longer a surveillance surface.
April in Paris. Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong 💜
m.youtube.com/watch?v=3y6p...
April in Paris. Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong 💜
m.youtube.com/watch?v=3y6p...
April In Paris
YouTube video by Ella Fitzgerald - Topic
m.youtube.com
March 20, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Looking forward to to the day my sound system is no longer a surveillance surface.
April in Paris. Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong 💜
m.youtube.com/watch?v=3y6p...
April in Paris. Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong 💜
m.youtube.com/watch?v=3y6p...
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Below, a summary of hard to find subthreads on implications for causality, determinism, + emergence of spacetime following from the intersection of Wheeler's it from bit, Jim's common now + my work (on hourglass emergence, endogenous coarsegraining + collective computation).
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
March 20, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Below, a summary of hard to find subthreads on implications for causality, determinism, + emergence of spacetime following from the intersection of Wheeler's it from bit, Jim's common now + my work (on hourglass emergence, endogenous coarsegraining + collective computation).
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
Reposted by Jessica Flack
This morning of Two Pi Day I revisited part of a correspondance w Jim exchanged in the weeks before he left us on May 17, 2023. In addition to the usual topics—time, information processing, coarse-graining, IGUSes, collective computation—there were references to Wheeler. . .
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
March 20, 2025 at 5:44 AM
This morning of Two Pi Day I revisited part of a correspondance w Jim exchanged in the weeks before he left us on May 17, 2023. In addition to the usual topics—time, information processing, coarse-graining, IGUSes, collective computation—there were references to Wheeler. . .
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
x.com/C4COMPUTATIO...
Reposted by Jessica Flack
In this great @PlacesJournal essay, Daegan Miller suggests Thoreau's quirky map-making reveals a conflict—meticulous recording of the entropic world is set against a paradoxical coupling of suspicion of abstaction + desire to reveal the interconnectedness of things placesjournal.org/article/a-ma...
A Map of Radical Bewilderment
Forget his reputation as a nature writer. Henry David Thoreau was also a highly trained, well regarded, disciplined though eccentric land surveyor.
placesjournal.org
March 26, 2025 at 7:49 PM
In this great @PlacesJournal essay, Daegan Miller suggests Thoreau's quirky map-making reveals a conflict—meticulous recording of the entropic world is set against a paradoxical coupling of suspicion of abstaction + desire to reveal the interconnectedness of things placesjournal.org/article/a-ma...
Reposted by Jessica Flack
In a lovely essay @nybooks on a Baldwin exhibition Schomburg Center Pinckney discusses how Baldwin served as both revolutionary + rennovator of wearied institutional interiors, blurring the line at times bw these two countercultural strategies over his remarkable life.
nybooks.com/articles/2025/
nybooks.com/articles/2025/
March 26, 2025 at 7:59 PM
In a lovely essay @nybooks on a Baldwin exhibition Schomburg Center Pinckney discusses how Baldwin served as both revolutionary + rennovator of wearied institutional interiors, blurring the line at times bw these two countercultural strategies over his remarkable life.
nybooks.com/articles/2025/
nybooks.com/articles/2025/
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Downward causation & global estimates: How do organisms measure themselves--know how big they are or what their internal pressure is? Cool @PhysRevE study finds molecular motors generate chemical oscillations the frequencies of which provide info abt size arxiv.org/abs/1807.04799
March 28, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Downward causation & global estimates: How do organisms measure themselves--know how big they are or what their internal pressure is? Cool @PhysRevE study finds molecular motors generate chemical oscillations the frequencies of which provide info abt size arxiv.org/abs/1807.04799
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Paper motivating the work by Nobel Prize winner Laughlin @PNASNews on how D'Arcy Thompson's "length problem" could be solved w sound tinyurl.com/yxsw37ns
Critical waves and the length problem of biology | PNAS
It is pointed out that the mystery of how biological systems measure their lengths
vanishes away if one premises that they have discovered a way to...
tinyurl.com
March 28, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Paper motivating the work by Nobel Prize winner Laughlin @PNASNews on how D'Arcy Thompson's "length problem" could be solved w sound tinyurl.com/yxsw37ns
Reposted by Jessica Flack
The question of how biological systems from cells to organisms 'overcome' spatial or apparent information processing constraints to estimate global variables, compute macroscopic states, or just 'see' the big picture—the forrest + the trees—is one of biology's most dismissed yet important questions.
March 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
The question of how biological systems from cells to organisms 'overcome' spatial or apparent information processing constraints to estimate global variables, compute macroscopic states, or just 'see' the big picture—the forrest + the trees—is one of biology's most dismissed yet important questions.
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Self-portrait in negative space—I don’t work in statistical mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, information theory, theoretical computer science, quantum mechanics, or really even in biology, ethology, evolutionary theory, or cognitive science. Rather, I work...more at jessicaflack.wordpress.com
March 28, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Self-portrait in negative space—I don’t work in statistical mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, information theory, theoretical computer science, quantum mechanics, or really even in biology, ethology, evolutionary theory, or cognitive science. Rather, I work...more at jessicaflack.wordpress.com
Reposted by Jessica Flack
I created this composite image for a talk on coarse-graining in nature. Wheeler discussed his "it from bit" proposal in 1989 @sfiscience, a talk he later turned into the paper.
"Information, physics, quantum: The search for links." philpapers.org/archive/WHEIPQ….
"Information, physics, quantum: The search for links." philpapers.org/archive/WHEIPQ….
November 14, 2024 at 6:50 PM
I created this composite image for a talk on coarse-graining in nature. Wheeler discussed his "it from bit" proposal in 1989 @sfiscience, a talk he later turned into the paper.
"Information, physics, quantum: The search for links." philpapers.org/archive/WHEIPQ….
"Information, physics, quantum: The search for links." philpapers.org/archive/WHEIPQ….
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Wheeler, who cites Wiliam James, wanted to know how a vision of one world arises out of the information-gathering activities of many observer-participants. Essentially abt collective computation, it's remarkable to think this question could unite physics + biology + even AI. 1/n
November 14, 2024 at 6:52 PM
Wheeler, who cites Wiliam James, wanted to know how a vision of one world arises out of the information-gathering activities of many observer-participants. Essentially abt collective computation, it's remarkable to think this question could unite physics + biology + even AI. 1/n
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Jim argued that a sense of time flowing arises from computation—as an entity computes an action (output) from a perception (input), w each image of the environment that an entity captures constituting its 'present'.
November 14, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Jim argued that a sense of time flowing arises from computation—as an entity computes an action (output) from a perception (input), w each image of the environment that an entity captures constituting its 'present'.
Reposted by Jessica Flack
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
The power in Langston Hughes' poem, Let America Be America Again, conveys spectacularly in this reading by Willie Jennings. ht @BeineckeLibrary
youtube.com/watch?v=jMi8Jy
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
The power in Langston Hughes' poem, Let America Be America Again, conveys spectacularly in this reading by Willie Jennings. ht @BeineckeLibrary
youtube.com/watch?v=jMi8Jy
March 31, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
The power in Langston Hughes' poem, Let America Be America Again, conveys spectacularly in this reading by Willie Jennings. ht @BeineckeLibrary
youtube.com/watch?v=jMi8Jy
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
The power in Langston Hughes' poem, Let America Be America Again, conveys spectacularly in this reading by Willie Jennings. ht @BeineckeLibrary
youtube.com/watch?v=jMi8Jy
Reposted by Jessica Flack
The original cathedrals are found in nature.
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, 1872
Rocky Mountain Landscape, 1870
Both by Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstedt.
@metmuseum
mymodernmet.com/hudson-river-s
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, 1872
Rocky Mountain Landscape, 1870
Both by Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstedt.
@metmuseum
mymodernmet.com/hudson-river-s
March 31, 2025 at 10:14 AM
The original cathedrals are found in nature.
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, 1872
Rocky Mountain Landscape, 1870
Both by Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstedt.
@metmuseum
mymodernmet.com/hudson-river-s
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, 1872
Rocky Mountain Landscape, 1870
Both by Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstedt.
@metmuseum
mymodernmet.com/hudson-river-s
Reposted by Jessica Flack
What contexts facilitate idea integration, especially when that integration is occurring over a wide range of ideas that on the surface are unconnected?
April 2, 2025 at 3:12 PM
What contexts facilitate idea integration, especially when that integration is occurring over a wide range of ideas that on the surface are unconnected?