UPTM #5 | 22nd Century Theology: Organic-Computational Christianity
Can we interpret the foundational narrative of Western civilization through the modern lens of process philosophy & predictive coding?
|| UPTM Table of Contents || Prelude | Part 1: 21st Century Paradigm | Part 2: Nature | Part 3: Man | Part 4: Bible | Part 5: Organic-Computational Theology | Part 6: Transcendental Ideals | Part 7: Re-Imagining Modernity | Full Research PDF
To bring this all together, let’s ask ourselves a fun question. Having established the parallels between predictive processing in the brain and the principles of process philosophy in the Biblical story, can we interpret the foundational narrative of Western civilization, the Bible, through the lens of predictive processing?
If the predictive processing framework maps onto process philosophy, and the Biblical narrative in turn reflects this underlying process philosophy, then it follows that Christianity itself can potentially be understood through a Bayesian predicting processing perspective.
Similar to how Aquinas bridged Aristotelianism and Christianity, our modern 21st century exercise looks to bridge process philosophy & predictive coding with Christianity.
This is the initial preliminary sketch for that bridge. I’d imagine this is completely novel so this is very much an initial attempt subject to iteration but hopefully this provides a unique initial interpretation to paint a picture of the possibilities.
As an important caveat, this is by no means meant to distill the richness of this perennial story into a rigid computational account as the visual & symbolic interpretation can be richer. The aim is to simply to provide a heuristic interpretation in a modern light to aid in understanding.
‘When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers…The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly. In the official formulation of the religion it has assumed the trivial form of the mere attribution to the Jews that they cherished a misconception about their Messiah. But the deeper idolatry, of fashioning God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.’ - A.N. Whitehead, Process & Reality
5.1 The Biblical Narrative as Shepherding Order Out of Chaos
Let’s recall the Biblical narrative but now reframe it in complexity terms. The biblical narrative can be seen as a powerful mythic portrayal of the fundamental processes by which order emerges from chaos in complex self-organizing systems. The arc of the biblical story mirrors the evolutionary trajectory of nature itself - a journey from initial unity to fragmentation and multiplicity, and then to a higher-order reintegrated wholeness.
In the beginning, the Garden of Eden represents a state of perfect unity, wholeness and intimate communion between God, humans and nature. The Fall then introduces a fundamental fragmentation - a rupture in the original unity that gives rise to polarities, conflicts, and an existential sense of separation from the divine source.
From here, the rest of the biblical narrative can be seen as a series of self-organizing, self-transcendent transformations aimed at reconciling these polarities and returning to wholeness at a higher level. The journeys of key figures like Abraham, Moses, David etc. involve wrestling with existential challenges, integrating fragmented aspects of the self, and evolving to higher levels of consciousness and covenant with God.
The culmination is in the story of Christ, which represents the critical “Turn” - the pivotal inflection point that fully incarnates the divine-human unity and paves the way for a collective transformation. In complexity terms, Christ is the “true feature vector” of the heavenly generative model and earthly recognition model - the Word made flesh - that subsumes and incorporates all the prior levels of development into a higher-order wholeness. His life, death and resurrection crystallize the core pattern of self-transcendence - a movement through suffering and death to a higher octave of life and consciousness.
Seen through this lens, Christ’s story is a fractal-like recapitulation of the overall arc, a condensed microcosm that encodes the entire macrocosm. It is the cosmic blueprint for the teleological evolution of complexity & consciousness (i.e. integrated information) both for individuals and humanity as a whole. Just as nature evolves from the Big Bang to stars, planets, biochemistry, life, mind and culture, Christ’s journey is a compressed manifestation of the overall trajectory, guiding humanity to higher levels of unity, complexity and realization of divine potential.
In this way, the biblical narrative can be seen as a mythic map of the universal processes by which order emerges from chaos and unity from multiplicity in all self-organizing systems - from atoms to ecosystems to minds. It is a poetic encoding of the deep patterns of transformation and transcendence that guide the evolutionary unfolding of the cosmos. Given these isomorphisms between scale-invariant Perception-Action Loops and Forming-Filling Chiasms - we can say the literary architecture of the Bible potentially reflects the underlying neural architecture of the mind itself.
“It does not emphasize the ruling Caesar, or the ruthless moralist, or the unmoved mover. It dwells upon the tender elements in the world, which slowly and in quietness operates by love; and it finds purpose in the present immediacy of a kingdom not of this world. Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious as to morals. It does not look to the future; for it finds its own reward in the immediate present” - Alfred North Whitehead, Process & Reality
5.2 Scaling “Divine” Identity Through Markov Blankets
In our last section, we demonstrated the deep prevalence of the forming-filling chiasms throughout the entirety of the Biblical symbolism and overarching narrative. We’ve then showed how this forming-filling chiasm is isomorphic to our naturalist involution-evolution arcs as well as perception-action loops in Markov blankets. With this foundation set, let’s now use the full mathematical might of Markov blankets to help illuminate some of the core themes we’ve discerned in Biblical narrative.
Our first question: Can we formalize the scaling of “divine” identity - arguably “theosis” and the manifestation of Love which we’ll define as the yoking force towards ever higher levels of self-transcending wholes - that we see throughout the Biblical story?
Just as the human mind emerges from the hierarchical nesting of Markov blankets in the brain, we can conceptualize the “divine” identity as emerging from the recursive self-similarity of Markov blankets across all scales of creation. Each level of the cosmic hierarchy, from the subatomic to the galactic, can be understood as a Markov blanket that both separates and connects the interior and exterior, creating a self-referential loop of information exchange. The story can thus be seen as scaling “divine” identity throughout time and space at subsequently larger scales.
Let’s go through the mapping again to bring our ancient story into the modern light, where we can reframe the interplay between Heaven & Earth, God & Man as the information flows between internal and external states through a perception & action cycle, which are then represented in a literary fashion through the the levels of the chiastic structure.
As we alluded to this in our natural philosophy, the four levels in our Markovian monism ontology become the following when seen through an Aristotelian lens:
External States (Level I) - Final Cause: External states are the hidden causes that generate the sensory states and are not directly influenced by the internal states of the system. Final Cause (arguably “Heaven”) represents the external states of the system - the mind of God, so to speak. This is the domain of God’s thoughts, intentions, and generative models of nature. Just as the brain’s internal states are separated from the external environment by the Markov blanket, heaven is portrayed as a distinct realm - conditionally independent - separate from but coupled to the earthly realm.
Sensory States (Level II) - Material Cause: Sensory states are the inputs that the system receives from the environment, which are influenced by the external states and inform the internal states. This can loosely be related to Material Cause - the matter or substance which constitutes a “thing”.
Internal States (Level III) - Formal Cause: Internal states are the system's beliefs, representations, or expectations about the environment, which are updated based on the sensory states and influence the generation of active states. This can be thought of as the “Blueprint”. The earth is not just a passive receptor, however. It has its own dynamics and feedback and plays a unique participatory role through action. This is seen in the Biblical narrative when humans, as earthly agents, make choices that deviate from God’s intentions (e.g., the Fall), introducing novelty and prediction errors into the system.
Active States (Level IV) - Efficient Cause: Active states are the outputs or actions that the system generates based on its internal states, which in turn influence the environment and the sensory states the system will receive in the future. These can be equated to efficient cause.
Remember that each of these also correspond to the four levels we saw in our natural philosophy as well as the consistent symbolic and narrative themes in our Biblical meta-narrative. As such, we get a potential reconciliation of Aristotle’s causes, Neoplatonic themes (i.e. involution-evolution) and the modern language of information physics!
5.3 On Illuminating the Intuition of Whitehead’s Poetry & Heraclitus’ Riddles
With this mathematical metaphysics set, we can ask a second question: can we illuminate the intuition behind Whitehead’s poetry from his process-based metaphysics on the relationship between God & the World? We’ll look to do so by reframing the dynamics in the context of interactions between Internal States and External States as mediated through the Sensory and Active States of a Markov blanket. Let’s go through a few of these:
Symmetry: “It is true to say that God creates the World, as that the World creates God” and “What is done in the world is transformed into a reality in heaven, and the reality in heaven passes back into the world” and “It is true to say that God transcends the World, as that the World Transcends God” (P&R pg 348). All beautiful quotes. This structure pertains to the symmetry between conditionally independent - but still coupled together - Internal States (World) and External States (God). We can flip both Internal & External States and the math still holds, hence the lyrical symmetry.
Physical-Conceptual Priority: “In each actuality, there are two concrescent poles of realization - ‘enjoyment’ and ‘appetition,’ that is, the ‘physical’ and the ‘conceptual’. For God the conceptual is prior to the physical, for the World the physical poles are prior to the conceptual pole.” (P&R pg 348). Here, “Physical” becomes Active States and “Conceptual” Becomes Sensory States. Markov blanket schematic re-provided below. “For God the conceptual is prior to the physical” refers to the sensory-external loops where sensory is primary (i.e. no direct action loop) in the Left-and-Top and then “For the World the physical poles are prior to the conceptual pole” refers to the internal-active states loops in the Bottom-And-Right where action is primary (i.e. no direct sensory loops).
Reference snippet of Markov Blanket again. Resonance in Heraclitus’ Riddles: Note both the symmetry and physical-conceptual priority also sheds light on some of the intuition behind Hercalitus’ riddles, such as “Men are mortal gods and gods are immortal men, the one dying the others' life and the other living the others' death. Brilliant!
This is just the tip of the iceberg - more work will be done to bridge the gap between Whitehead’s metaphysics and Markov blankets more explicitly.
“By reason of this reciprocal relation, the love in this world passes into the love in heaven, and floods back again into the world. In this sense, God is the great companion - the fellow sufferer who understands.” - Alfred Whitehead, P&R (pg 360)
5.4 "Divine” Cybernetics and Creaturely Free Response Through Perception-Action Loops
5.4.1 Perception-Action Loops & Forming-Filling Isomorphism in Greater Detail
Let’s revisit the mapping between our perception-action loops that update an agent’s generative model and the forming-filling chiasms in greater detail.
So here we have “Forming / Priestly” - the first half of our Chiasm or “Perception” - as the left side of our Arc, Stage 4 as the Turn or “Conscious Action / Update of Generative Model” , and then “Filling / Kingly” - the second half of our Chiasm or “Action” - as the right side of our Arc. The first four steps of the left-side of the arc reflects the initial perception-action loop, which then becomes “consciously” instantiated as the “perception” for the full arc. To go through at the macro-level:
Involution / Forming [Perception]: The “Forming / Priestly” function involves setting up the top-down constraints and boundaries that define the sacred space of creation. This is analogous to how the brain’s internal model generates top-down predictions about sensory inputs.
Turn [Update of Internal State’s Generative Model]: Then, in the second half of the cycle after the center of the chiasm - we flip to “using the law” - deploying our updated model to guide our actions and shape our environment. This is a shift from modeling the world to actively intervening in it - “Conscious Action”, where the “Cause and Effect” we learned becomes used to “Effect Cause”. This occurs through a key pivot point which is represented by Day 4 or the Center of the Chiasm. It is the pivot between between Abstract & Concrete, Theory & Fact, Predicted Data & Sensed Data.
Evolution / Kingly [Action]: The “Filling / Kingly” function involves filling the sacred space with agents who will explore and steward it, generating bottom-up novelty and variety. This is analogous to how the brain acts on the environment to test its predictions and gather new information.
5.4.2 Biblical Cybernetics
The involutions & evolutions chiasms we see throughout the narrative at various literary levels can now be seen as fractal-like and co-creative dynamic learning processes to learn how to appropriately mediate between “Heaven” and “Earth” across all scales through the sensory-active loops - with human action and free will at the center.
A cybernetic back- and-forth of “divine intention” and creaturely free response learning to align with the underlying telos of the cosmos. Alignment to the telos leading to rewards and subsequent “Creation” and misalignment leading to punishment and subsequent “De-Creation” to use some modern reinforcement learning jargon. This telos can be reframed in complexity terms as the below, which we will expand further in our transcendental ideals section:
Goodness: Identification with integrative tendency toward wholeness and the pull to self-organize into coherent, more integrated states
Beauty: The process of complexification & increase in diversity-in-unity. Relates to balancing between the two poles of order and chaos at the “edge of chaos” which allows for a rich interplay between structure & spontaneity, pattern & novelty
Creativity: Relates to the concept of emergence - the generative, open-ended process of birthing newly integrated wholes, producing novelty
In this model, both “divine” and human agency - through action - play a crucial role in which the ultimate goal is the harmonious integration & flourishing of all things as nature complexifies over time. This synthesis invites us to see the story of God and creation not as a predetermined script, but as an open-ended dynamic and interactive process of learning, growth, and transformation. The eschaton, in this scheme, represents the final convergence of the heavenly model and earthly nature - a state of perfect predictive harmony.
“Thus the universe is to be conceived as attaining the active self-expression of it’s own variety of opposites - of its own freedom and its own necessity, of it’s own multiplicity and its own unity, of its own imperfection and perfection. All the ‘opposites’ are elements in the nature of things, and are incorrigibly there. The concept of ‘God’ is the way in which we understand this incredible fact - that what cannot be, yet is.” - Alfred Whitehead, Process & Reality
5.4.3 Consciousness: Exploring Scale-Invariance & Self-Referentiality Through Perception-Action Loops
Recall the “part reflects the entirety of the whole” pattern we saw in the literary chiastic structure, where the first seven words reflect the structure of the first seven days of Genesis which then reflect the first seven books of the Old Testament all the way to the entire seven-fold structure of the Biblical story.
Another difficult question we can ask ourselves: is there a way to express this self-similarity at various scales in terms of Markov blankets dynamics?
As we alluded to in a prior section, the hypothesis we’ll put forward is that the micro perception-action loop becomes instantiated as the “perception” for the next larger perception-action loop in a recursive & self-referential fashion at successively ascending scales. We thus have a potentially deeply profound connection between the Biblical narrative and the mind: this “self-referential” aspect becomes the very basis of “consciousness” itself.1
This self-referencing is something which has obsessed cognitive philosophers and all aficionados of consciousness, such as Douglas Hofstadter in Godel, Escher, and Bach. This also sheds light on few items:
Revelation to Moses by God: Most notably, the self-referential Self-Identity of “I Am That I Am” which can also be seen as “Self-Evidencing” to use Markovian terminology
Carl Sagan’s Intuition: The poetic “We are a way for for the Cosmos to know itself” (i.e. Self-Evidence)
John Wheeler’s Work: His “Participatory Universe” hypothesis, where Participation can be framed as the role that “Action” plays in active inference. This is symbolized by the Eye (above), depicting the universe as a self-excited circuit (i.e. Self-Evidencing)
More provocatively for our modern secular world, this would also reflect the existence of God in the “Beginning & End” of the self-referential loop at Level I (Creation - God Speaks) Level VII (Glorification - God Rests) of the Arcs, and of course throughout the entirety of the chiasm / transformation process. This similarity between Beginning & End of the transformation arc is also beautifully captured by T.S. Eliot in his poem East Coker from Four Quartets:
We can argue that this self-instantiation is the process that drives forth novelty - the generative process of creative unfolding - and self-transcendence itself.
Admittedly more of a subjective opinion, but we can most likely make a case that our modern techno-optimists efforts to make AGI “Conscious” and “God-Like” are futile, existentially constrained, and tragic given the transcendent nature of the External State which serves as the origin source of all potentiality. We are on Team Humanity vs. Team Technology. Of course, we can have still have a healthy relationship with technology as an “ex-bodied” extension, but within the appropriate hierarchical structure with Final Cause (Purpose) primary and Efficient Cause (Technology) secondary. Let us save throwing our hat in this heated ring for another time.
5.5 Predictive Processing Account of the Biblical Narrative
Having explored the biblical story through the lens of process philosophy and complexity theory, we can now attempt to extend our analysis by applying the specific mechanisms of predictive processing and Bayesian inference. This will allow us to track how humanity’s collective generative / recognition model evolves over time, and how key events in the biblical narrative function as “prediction errors” that drive transformative learning and updating of priors.
As a recap, in the predictive processing framework, the brain is constantly generating predictions about the world based on its internal model, and then updating that model based on the discrepancies (prediction errors) between predicted and actual sensory inputs. This process of Bayesian inference allows the brain to refine its model over time, improving its ability to anticipate and respond adaptively to its environment.
We can apply this same framework to the evolution of humanity’s collective worldview or “generative model” as encoded in the biblical narrative. In this context, the Markov blanket is the boundary that separates humanity’s internal model from the external reality of God. Key events in the biblical story can be seen as “sensory inputs” that either confirm or contradict the prevailing model, driving a process of updating priors and refining the model over time.
For example, the initial state of unity in Eden can be seen as a kind of “naive prior” - a simple, undifferentiated model of reality in which there is no distinction between self and other, divine and human. The Fall then represents a massive prediction error and acknowledgement of a separate Markov blanket - a shocking mismatch between the predicted harmony and the actual experience of rupture and alienation. This drives a fundamental update to the model, introducing new priors around duality, suffering, and the need for redemption.
As the story unfolds, further prediction errors (the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the captivity in Egypt) challenge and refine the model, driving a progressive differentiation of humanity’s understanding. The covenant with Abraham introduces a new prior around divine calling and purpose; Exodus adds priors around liberation and collective identity; the kingship of David encodes priors about sovereignty and righteous rule.
Ultimately, the incarnation of Christ represents the definitive prediction error and reestablishment of unity in heavenly generative model and earthly recognition model - a total inversion of all previous models that posits a radical unity of divine and human, spirit and flesh, heaven and earth. Christ’s life, death and resurrection recapitulation of the entire arc of biblical history in a fractal-like way, subsuming all the previous hypotheses about God and nature into a radically new synthesis. This drives a fundamental re-organization of humanity’s collective generative model around new priors such as self-giving love.
In this way, the biblical narrative encodes a progressive process of Bayesian learning and model refinement as humanity’s collective understanding evolves through successive predictions, errors and updates. The culmination in Christ represents a kind of top-level prior that reconciles all the previous partial models into a coherent whole, while also opening up new avenues for further exploration.
By applying the predictive processing framework to the biblical story, we can thus gain a deeper understanding of how this narrative functions as a “revelatory process” that progressively unveils the nature of God through a dynamic interplay of prediction and surprise, confirmation and transformation. This in turn allows us to situate the biblical worldview within a wider understanding of how all intelligent systems - from brains to cultures - evolve and grow through an ongoing process of adaptive learning and responsive action.
Let’s go through a few specific mappings in more detail:
5.5.1 Involution <> Evolution as Genealogical & Historical Chronicles
The overarching Biblical narrative traces the unfolding of diversifying multiplicity across its genealogical and historical chronicles, from the stories of Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Solomon, Joseph etc. In short, it dramatizes the core processes of complexifying order struggling against the pull of disorder and chaos. The trajectory depicts existence’s self-manifestations reconstituting higher integrated unities through dialectical sublations, only to undergo renewed cycles of scattering and dissolution with this process occurring in an iterative fashion at successively greater scales.
5.5.2 Top Down Expectations as Word of God (Gestalt) <> Bottoms- Up Prediction Errors as Human Striving (Sense Data)
In this interpretation, the recurrent interplay of downward-flowing “divine” Words of God (top-down expectations) and upward-flowing human strivings and failings (bottom-up prediction errors) in the Biblical narrative directly instantiates the dialectic of a tops down generative prediction model and a bottoms-up recognition model that sends up prediction errors. This occurs at all scales and manifests itself in the literary text through the chiastic structure - with the emanative first half of the chiasm - “Forming / Priestly” - representing top-down signals from gestalts to sense data and then “Filling / Kingly” representing bottoms-up signals from sense data back to gestalt.
5.5.3 Top Feature Vector <> Covenant Holders
In predictive processing terms the main characters such as Moses, Abraham, Noah, and Joseph - serve as the “Top Feature Vectors” as part of humanity’s ever evolving & self-organizing generative model with varying degrees of “Logos” - or the “True Feature Vector”. Or in theology terms, they become covenant holders - mediators between Heaven & Earth as Heads of Creation. In predictive processing terms, they become the feature vectors where top-down expectations (the generative model, or “Heaven”) and the bottom-up sensory inputs (the recognition model, or “Earth”) meet.
5.5.4 Prior vs. Evidence vs. Posterior <> Son vs. Holy Spirit vs. Father <> Stage I vs. Stage IV vs. Stage VII
To extend our Bayesian analogy - the Father (Creator), Holy Spirit (Creative Process), and Son (Created) can be understood as Prior Beliefs, Evidence, and Posterior Beliefs. Or Prior Generative Model, Recognition Model, Posterior Generative Model. Death & resurrection becoming the update process of post-evidence posteriors becoming the new prior. Death of old beliefs and rebirth of new beliefs. Death of Old Generative Model & Update of New Generative Model post Recognition Model. The Son becoming the Father upon birth of his own son. Created becomes Creator. This process seems scale-invariant and occurs across temporal-spatial scales.
To tie this in with Whitehead, he refers to this as Primordial (Left Side / Involution) vs. Consequent (Right Side / Evolution) nature which we can think of as “Son” and “Father" respectively. To quote:
Summary: “Thus, analogously to all actual entities, the nature of God is dipolar. He has a primordial nature and a consequent nature. The consequent nature of God is conscious; and is the the realization of the actual world in the unity of his nature, and through the transformation of his wisdom [Right Side / Conscious Evolution]. The primordial nature is conceptual, the consequent nature of the weaving of God’s physical feelings upon his primordial concepts.” [Left Side / Existential Involution]” (P&R, 345).
Primordial [Son / Involution]: Let’s visit the Primordial definition further. “One side of God’s nature is constituted by his conceptual experience. This experience is the primordial fact in the world, limited by no actuality which it presupposes. It is therefore infinite, devoid of all negative prehensions. This side of his nature is free, complete, primordial, eternal, actually deficient, and unconscious.” (P&R pg 345) This makes sense via common sense for interactions with children.
Consequent [Father / Evolution]: “The other side originates with physical experience derived from the temporal world, and then acquires integration with the primordial side. It is determined, incomplete, consequent, ‘everlasting’, fully actual, and conscious. His necessary goodness expresses the determination of his consequent nature.” (P&R pg 345)
The “Turn” is the process of self-instantiation & self-transcendence, where the Son at Stage I “grows up” (via help of his own Father) and then becomes a “Father” himself by birthing a Son, re-capitulating the process. This of course is the life story of a relationship between a Father & Son - and the Gospel Story through Christ. This also explains Whitehead’s “the many become one and are increased by one” - an aphorism for self-transcendence - and his emphasis on novelty & creativity - which we can define as birth of a newly integrated whole. Perhaps this is also pertain to the allusion of Son of Man becoming Son of God.
In a temporal sense, we can also think of Left Side as Past, Right Side as Future, as Turn as Present.
Note the epistemic certainty here is on the lower side since these are tricky subjects, but the payoff on the speculation is high since this would be an absolutely fascinating convergence between process and Trinity.
5.5.5 The Holy Spirit as Process Itself: Movement Through Arc or Down & Up Hierarchal Model
In the context of the above, the difficult follow-up question becomes: what is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit can be reconceived as a process and the transformation / evolution arc. Or alternatively data flowing down & up the hierarchal model. It represents the updating and loops between Internal States & External States, Recognition Model & Generative Model. Or Heaven & Earth to use theology terms. It is the evolutionary process from Stage I (Garden) to Stage IV (World) to Stage VII (City of Jerusalem).
To quote Whitehead on this interplay at an abstract level:
“An actual entity in the temporal world is to be conceived as originated by physical experience with its process of completion motivated by consequent conceptual experience initially derived from God. God is to be conceived as originated by conceptual experience with his process of completion motivated by consequent, physical experience, initially derived from the World. - Whitehead, P&R, pg 345
A little Yin Yang situation. We can potentially frame this as the interplay between Filling (or Internal States & Recognition Model) [World] and Forming (or External States & Generative Model) [God].
Filling / Kingly: Actual entities “originated by physical experience with it’s process of completion motivated by consequent conceptual experience” potentially refers to “Raising Matter / Evolution”. It is concrete sensory data (physical experience) self-organizing & going up the hierarchal model to more Abstract gestalts (conceptual experiences); the Recognition Model. It is Internal states updated by External states through sensory-action loops with a focus on active states (i.e. originated by physical experience).
Forming / Priestly: “God is to be conceived as originating from conceptual experience with process of completion motivated by consequent, physical experience, initially derived from the world” potentially refers to the “Lowering Meaning / Involution”. It is abstract gestalts (conceptual experience) going down hierarchal model to more concrete sensory data (physical experience); the Generative Model. It is external states updated by internal states with a focus on sensory states (i.e. originated by conceptual experience).
5.5.6 Updating Humanity’s Generative Model <> Pivot Point’s in Chiastic Literary Structure <> Feature Vector
Each storyline depicts the process of minimizing free energy, the gap between the predictive model and sensory data, which can be interpreted as reducing “sin”. Crucially, the generative model is “updated” at the pivotal turning point at the center of the chiastic structure that we find at all literary scales, where the generative model - “Heaven” and the recognition model - “Earth” meet - or the “Feature Vector”. This process parallels the ever complexifying generative model that minimizes uncertainty and maximizes adaptive fit through cumulative learning cycles between bottom-up sensory data and top-down predictions, all around the pivot point of a feature vector.
5.5.7 Recognition Model & Generative Model Match <> Aligned to Logos and Subsequent Wisdom
When “sensory evidence” matches the “True Feature Vector” - the Logos - it leads to the appropriately aligned revision of the predictive model and a higher integrated level of understanding - or wisdom and the ability to discern good from evil. Conversely, “sin” - being out of phase with the “True Feature Vector” - leads to continued descent into a fallen world, where the model fails to accurately predict the sensory data. As information - our characters - traverse through history, or down the hierarchical model, they differentiate into disparate parts, only to iteratively re-integrate into higher orders - nations & civilizations and ultimately the Church - through corrective feedback. We also get a free energy perspective on “Prophets” - individuals who are in deep alignment with the underlying generative model of nature with accurate “prediction” capabilities.
5.5.8 Nested Hierarchical Models <> Garden (Top), Land (Middle), and World (Bottom) Spatial Scales
The flow of data in the hierarchical model occurs in both directions – from the top (garden) to the middle (land) and bottom (world) and vice versa. On the ascent back-up, the Garden then becomes the high-complexity City of Jerusalem. This bidirectional flow represents the incorporation of novelty and the self-organizing tendencies of the generative model, similar to how the brain spontaneously organizes raw sensory data into multi-layered hierarchies of coherent patterns. The Biblical narrative and the structure of the Church exemplify this hierarchical organization, with smaller narratives and organizational units nested within larger ones, reflecting the principles of hierarchical information processing.
The image - and it is but an image - the image under which the operative growth of God’s nature is best conceived is that of a tender care that nothing be lost. It is also the judgement of a wisdom which uses what in the temporal world is mere wreckage. ” - Whitehead, P&R 346
5.6 The Gospel Story In Process-Theoretic Terms
At the heart of the entire overarching narrative stands the figure of Christ, our metaphysical crescendo. Let’s go through a potential interpretation using the language of process philosophy & predictive processing. Again, I am a neophyte to Biblical interpretation so consider this an exploratory mapping exercise.
Let’s first recall the high-level structure of the Gospels (Source):
Gospel of Matthew<> Greater Moses (Priestly): In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is depicted as a new Moses, a lawgiver and leader of His people. Consequently, Peter is cast in the role of a new high priest, akin to Aaron, who was appointed by Moses to administer the religious affairs of Israel. Peter's sin immediately after his appointment (Matthew 16:22-23) parallels Aaron's sin with the golden calf shortly after his own appointment (Exodus 32). Furthermore, the article draws a comparison between Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain with Peter, James, and John (Matthew 17) and Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu (Exodus 24). The betrayal of Jesus by Peter and Caiaphas is also highlighted, emphasizing the parallel between the two.
Gospel of Mark <> Greater David (Kingly): In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is portrayed as a new David, a man of action and warfare. In this context, Peter, James, and John are seen as "David's three mighty men," his most trusted companions and warriors. Despite this emphasis, Mark still draws a parallel between Peter's betrayal and Caiaphas's betrayal of the nation, similar to Matthew's account.
Gospel of Luke <> Greater Elijah (Prophet): Luke's Gospel presents Jesus as a prophet in the likeness of Elijah, with Peter taking on the role of Elisha, Elijah's successor. There are similarities between Elijah's calling of Elisha (1 Kings 19:19-21) and Jesus' calling of Peter (Luke 5), particularly in the context of leaving their respective professions to follow their master. There are also parallels between Elisha receiving the Spirit after witnessing Elijah's ascension (2 Kings 2) and the disciples receiving the Spirit after witnessing Jesus' ascension (Acts 1-2), with Peter as their leader.
Gospel of John <> Human Tabernacle / Son of God (The Turn): In the Gospel of John, Jesus is depicted as the Son of God, the Great High Priest, the Menorah, The Human Tabernacle. Peter is presented as His assistant, moving through the Liturgy with Christ as the sacrificial lamb. John highlights Peter's role as high priest, particularly in the context of his betrayal and restoration. The comparison between Peter and Caiaphas is most evident in John's account, where Peter's denials are interwoven with Jesus' interrogation by Annas and Caiaphas. To provide the historical context, recall the prior instantiations of “Heaven and Earth” meeting - symbolized by the Tabernacle - which become increasingly more ornate and grand over time: Tabernacle of Moses, Solomon’s Temple, the vision of Ezekiel’s Temple, and finally the crescendo with Christ as the blood-and-bone Tabernacle.
The story of Christ in the Gospels has an implicit structure that loosely seems to follow our process theory framework. More work admittedly needs to be done on confirming and refining this congruence.
5.7 Proof of Concept Predictive Processing Account of the Christological Drama
Now let’s attempt to map predictive processing to the Christological Drama at a slightly more granular level. Note again this is just a proof of concept.
5.7.1 Christ as “King” <> Top “True” Feature Vector Atop Humanity’s Hierarchical Recognition Model
In this interpretation, the Christ story - the human Tabernacle after iterations of prior non-flesh-and-bone tabernacles such as the Moses Tabernacle & Solomon’s Temple - becomes the Level IV “turn” within our process philosophy framework. At the level of literary architecture, he is the pivot point from Old to New Testaments, from Hebrew to Greek, from the age of law to the age of grace. In predictive processing terms, he is the “True Feature Vector” - the incarnated Logos - that sits at the top of humanity’s hierarchical model with zero uncertainty. Mind and body perfectly in sync. The perfect temporal-spatial invariant bridge between sensory and active states. Generative model of nature and recognition model of humanity perfectly in tune. The compressed N-gram of Covenant Holders. The Greater Adam, The Greater Moses, the Greater Solomon. The epitome of the integrated self. The invisible center of the Pythagorean Monad made manifest. Playfully, Nature has E = m*c^2, Man has E = flesh∗ logos^2.2
5.7.2 Christ as The Negentropic Principle Personified & The Epitome of Life Itself
Recall that Christ represents the “Turn” in our natural philosophy model that instantiates the drive toward’s integrated wholeness via self-organizing complexity. This is equivalent to the “Spark of Life” we find in the nadir of the turn when molecules begin to self-organize. Poetically, Christ represents the next phase transition of life - “Super Life”.
In predictive processing, this pivot point is equivalent to a feature vector: the point when Abstract and Concrete, Theory and Fact, Imaginary & Real, Predicted Data Vector and Sensory Data Vector meet. And in theology, when Heaven & Earth, God & Man meet. For Christ specifically, he is the Top Feature Vector that sits at the pinnacle of the hierarchal model - the Feature Vectors of Feature Vectors. The concrescence of concrescences.
Philo-poetically, Christ as the metaphysical singularity of first principles dons incorporeality, with the primordial infinite potential condensing itself into a finite determinate atomic particular - a material human embodiment subject to the harsh constraints of temporal becoming bound by the laws of entropy in a fallen world.
Yet this finite instantiation undergoes an experiential recapitulation of the universal process dynamics, gradually reintegrating and reunifying the fragmented polarities and extension tensions catalogued in the Hebrew textual corpus - as well as spirit & matter, being & becoming, infinite & finite - through a phase-transitioning journey of cosmic-upbuilding and compassionate praxis.
Across the narrative arc, this paradoxical entity progressively resolves the primordial scattering of existence into differentiated multiplicities by self-referentially re-integrating and subsuming all prior fragmented instantiations back into an elevated singularity of a coherent self-transcendent identity. The harsh constraints of finitude are not merely philosophically transcended but radically transfigured - with physical embodiment itself becoming alchemically assumpted into a higher, permanent order of being. The Created becomes the new Creator.
5.7.3 Death & Resurrection <> Post-Evidence Posteriors becoming the New Priors or Recognition Model Becoming the New Generative Model
The Christological dramatizes the dynamics of involution - the descent, death and de-creation - and subsequent higher-order evolution - the ascent, birth and creation. This encapsulates the supreme existential ideal - the embodied reconciliation of all polarized vectors and self-estranged modalities back into a self-transcendent harmonic unity & wholeness.
5.7.4 Center of History <> Turn Within the Turn
Christ’s death and resurrection at the center of the Biblical narrative represents the ultimate “Turn within the Turn“ found at the nadir of our natural philosophy - with death being the utmost depths of multiplicity and chaos which leads to a subsequent phase-transition in the cosmic source code. This act incorporates a higher next-order integrated wholeness subsuming all prior levels - the natural next step in humanity’s creative unfolding.
5.8 Revisiting The Center of the Chiasm: The Pivotal Turn and Conscious Action
Let’s summarize the center point of the chiastic structure at the heart of each fractal manifestation of the biblical meta-structure. Whether in Day 4 of the Genesis creation week to micro literary structures and narrative crescendos, this central pivot represents a profound turning point in the story, mirroring the “crucial turn” we explored in the process philosophy and “feature vector” in predictive coding. It is the hinge leading to complexification and continued evolution - Creation - or a continue descent into a fallen world - De-Creation.
In process thought, the “turn” marks the transition from the arc of involution, characterized by increasing constraint and determinism, to the arc of evolution, characterized by expanding freedom and creativity emerging from those constraints. It is the nexus where the progressive embodiment of potential into limiting forms shifts towards the progressive transcendence of those limitations into new, higher-order expressions of freedom and meaning - the moment of self-transcendence.
We then drew a parallel to the concept of the “feature vector” in predictive coding theory. The feature vector is the brain’s compressed, high-level representation of the essential features of a perceived phenomenon, optimized to guide adaptive action. It is the pivot point between the brain’s top-down predictive models and bottom-up sensory input, the integrated synthesis that mediates between expectation and experience. The feature vector is where the brain’s implicit “beliefs” about the world are brought into the light of conscious awareness to inform volitional choice and behavior.
In the biblical context, the center of the chiasm represents the moment of maximal constraint, where the divine potential appears most deeply embedded in the limitations of material reality, followed by the pivotal act that initiates the arc of redemption and re-integration. It is the point of conscious action, where the latent freedom and telos implicit in creation are made explicit and actualized through a decisive movement of will and choice.
Just as the feature vector integrates top-down and bottom-up processes to guide intelligent behavior, the chiastic center integrates the descending arc of creation with the ascending arc of redemption, revealing their ultimate unity and purposiveness. It is the moment of conscious action where agency breaks through the bonds of necessity to initiate a new upward arc towards increasing freedom, culminating in true expansion.
By understanding the center of the chiasm as the nexus of conscious action that integrates constraint and freedom, involution and evolution, expectation and experience, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the elegant coherence between biblical narrative structure, process philosophy, and cognitive science. This realization invites us to locate our own lives within this meaningful cosmic drama, to consciously align our own feature vectors and choices with the cosmic telos, and to participate in the eternal turn from fragmentation to wholeness.
“God’s role is not the combat of productive force with productive force, of destructive force with destructive force; it lies in the patient operation of the overpowering rationality of his conceptual harmonization. He does not create the world, he saves it: or more accurately, he is the poet of the world, with tender patience leading it by his vision of truth, beauty, and goodness.” - Whitehead, P&R pg 346
5.9 Organic-Computational Theology: Concluding Thoughts
Interpreting the Bible through the lens of process and the Bayesian brain reveals a profound and elegant coherence. The dynamics of emanation, turn & pivotal updating, and emergence map onto the Biblical arc, with Christ as the supreme “True Feature Vector” - the feature vector of feature vectors of all historical covenant holders - atop humanity’s hierarchical generative model reconciling Heaven and Earth, God and Man.
Christ serves as the crescendo of the metaphysical symphony, the embodied individual fulfilling the teleological attractor guiding evolution towards wholeness, order, beauty, and goodness in as condensed and “maxed out” way as possible.
He embodies the supreme aesthetic principle of beauty, the diversity-in-unity arising from shepherding order out of chaos. As the manifestation of love - the dynamic flow integrating all things into self-transcending wholes - Christ is the ultimate expression of the attractive force binding the universe together. He personifies meaning itself - the perfect alignment between the pattern of nature and the pattern of man.
Of course, this is a highly abstract and analogical mapping, and there are surely limits and potential objections to pressing it too far. The Biblical understanding of heaven and earth is far richer and more nuanced than can be captured by any single conceptual framework. There is also significantly more work that can be done in mapping this out at a more detailed level throughout the Biblical drama as well as further unpacking the Christological drama in particular.
But as a heuristic model for understanding the deep dynamics of the Biblical story, it has the potential to offer considerable explanatory power. It provides a fresh way of understanding the Biblical theme of heaven and earth in terms of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems and predictive processing, while also enriching those scientific concepts with the depth and drama of the Biblical narrative.
Next Section: UPTM #6 | Revisiting the Transcendental Ideals
Appendix #1: Brief Reconciliation with Whitehead’s Terminology
An initial proposal for a reconciliation between Whitehead’s terminology and Markov Blanket & Biblical symbolism. We will go through this with a finer comb in follow-up research.
Actual Occasions: In process philosophy, reality is composed of "actual occasions" or "actual entities," which are the fundamental units of existence. These can be seen as analogous to the internal states (Earth) of the Markov blanket, representing the concrete, momentary experiences that constitute the system's reality.
Prehensions: Actual occasions are connected by "prehensions" which are the ways in which they feel, incorporate, and respond to one another. This relates to the sensory states (Time) and it’s relation to External States (Heaven) as prehensions involve the system's perception of and interaction with its environment.
Concrescence: The process by which an actual occasion becomes fully realized is called "concrescence." This can be understood as the system's internal states (Earth) updating and stabilizing based on the sensory states (Time) it receives, leading to the generation of active states (Space) that influence the environment.
Creativity: Whitehead sees the universe as fundamentally creative, with each actual occasion introducing novelty into the world. This creativity can be seen as the Active States - where Action is the fundamental “Creative Act”.
Eternal Objects: These are the pure potentials or abstract possibilities that can be realized in actual occasions. They relate to the external states (Heaven) of the Markov blanket, representing the underlying patterns, forms, or ideas that shape the system's experiences and interactions.
Nexus: Actual occasions can form "societies" or "nexus" which are groups of occasions that share a common character or pattern. This relates to the idea of nested hierarchal Markov blankets, where subsystems can emerge within the larger system, each with its own internal states, sensory states, active states, and external states.
Appendix #2: Interpreting Whitehead’s Poetry
Let’s go through another quote by Whitehead and see if we can provide further elucidation. Quoting:
“Another image which is also required to understand his consequent nature is that of his infinite patience. The universe includes a threefold creative act composed of (1) the one infinite conceptual realization [Stage I] (2) the multiple solidarity of free physical realizations in the temporal world [Stage IV] and (3) the ultimate unity of the multiplicity of actual fact with the primordial conceptual fact [Stage VII]. If we conceive the first term and the last term in their unity over against the intermediate multiple freedom of physical realizations in the temporal world, we conceive of the patience of God, tenderly saving the turmoil of the intermediate world by the completion of his own process.”
The three stages of this creative act we can again map to Stage I, Stage IV, and Stage VII. For loose analogies: One Cell (One Infinite Conceptual Realization), Fasten to Ocean Floor (Multiple Solidarity of Free Physical Realizations in the Temporal World), Fertilization (Ultimate Unity of the Multiplicity of Actual Fact with the Primordial Conceptual Fact).
Another quote:
“God and the World stand to each other in this opposed requirement. God is the infinite ground of all mentality, the unity of vision seeking physical multiplicity. The World is the multiplicity of finites, actualities seeking a perfected unity. Neither God, nor the World, reaches static completion. Both are in the grip of the ultimate metaphysical ground, the creative advance into novelty. Either of them, God and the World, is the instrument of novelty for the other” -P&R pg 348, 349
Here again we have alignment: God as “the unity of vision seeking physical multiplicity” is Left Side of Arc / Generative Model / Forming / Lowering Meaning / Involution and The World as “multiplicity of finites, actualities seeking a perfected unity” as Right Side of Arc / Recognition Model / Filling / Raising Matter / Evolution. The create advance into novelty is “the Turn,” the “Feature Vector,” and “Conscious Action”.
This research is preliminary and we're publishing this in the spirit of building in public. Feedback, open dialogue, and collaboration is very much encouraged! I will most certainly be wrong in places as I have developed these ideas rather independently. If you are exploring similar ideas, please reach out or expect at a DM as I plan to connect with scholars and folks more knowledgeable & experienced then myself to continue to refine & better articulate the thesis. Please also feel free to follow along or get in touch at @tomer_solomon or by subscribing to my Substack!
Follow-Ups: Can we map the symbolize more completely and what the micro-transformational arcs are in the Gospel story?
Could this self-instantiation also relate to the fractal self-similarity in the Biblical structure?
Another hyper stretch speculative analogy just for creative purposes (and at the risk of any semblance of credibility) could equate Christ to the 8th column on the periodic table of elements - The Noble Gases. In Christian numerology, Chris represents the number 888. Noble gases have a complete outer shell and hence the lowest uncertainty. In this light, Christ similarly could represent completeness. Noble Gases under extreme conditions (e.g. high temperature, high pressure - dying on a Cross?) can also go through chemical reactions / phase transitions.