There is an idea.

The idea, which has proven somewhat memetically sticky and is at the core of the so-called "effective accelerationist" (in short, e/acc) movement, is that there is a simple and powerful principle of non-equilibrium thermodynamics which favors the proliferation of ever more complex, intelligent and productive life (and life-like super-organisms, like countries or markets) over the alternative. It is phrased as follows in Beff Jezos "Notes on e/acc principles and tenets":

e/acc is about having faith in the dynamical adaptation process and aiming to accelerate the advent of its asymptotic limit; often reffered to as the technocapital singularity

Effective accelerationism aims to follow the “will of the universe”: leaning into the thermodynamic bias towards futures with greater and smarter civilizations that are more effective at finding/extracting free energy from the universe and converting it to utility at grander and grander scale

This idea originates in the work of physicist Jeremy England, and in particular in a paper which is explicitly cited in Jezos' post, "Statistical Physics of Adaptation". It's an open access paper so anyone with the necessary knowledge (the basics of statistical mechanics will do) and good will can easily go check it by themselves. I suggest using the linked final PRX version rather than the arXiv preprint, as the latter seems to have some significant difference that have been edited in the review process, and I found the final version much clearer (which suggests the editors and referees did their job well, so props to them).

Now, there are obvious philosophical criticisms one can move to this view, mainly that it seems to derive an ought from an is; even if Nature somehow preferred life that grows unchecked over every alternative, it does not mean we should stick to that preference any more than we did to its penchant for infant death; and if there's a choice to begin with for us to make, obviously it can't be that strong a preference. If you're thrown off an airplane in flight, you don't usually get to pick whether to obey or not the law of gravity. However, here I want to focus on the strength of the physical claim itself. I've read England's paper as well as some other related works and I want to go over its claims in detail, what they imply, to what kind of contexts they apply, and what they can't instead be used ...

appromoximate

appromoximate

Meaning Machines

appromoximate

appromoximate

Meaning Machines

Introduction