What “dual” means here
The Paradigm of the Great Life reads every phenomenon through two complementary lenses:
- Objective (Metaphysical Realism): the physically conserved substrate of change — Energy.
- Subjective (Metaphysical Anti‑Realism): agent‑dependent meaning formed by Context — Information.
Both sides are necessary. One‑sided models miss either how the world constrains us or how agents make sense and act.
Objective side: Energy
- Energy is the conserved substrate of physical change.
- It underwrites what sensors can register (signals, fields, work, heat).
- Objective models specify dynamics, symmetries, conservation, and statistics.
Subjective side: Information
- Information is agent‑dependent meaning relative to a model (Context).
- It underwrites why a signal “matters,” how it is interpreted, and what action follows.
- Subjective models encode priors, goals, hypotheses, uncertainties, and costs.
Why one‑sided models fail
- Purely objective: ignores how agents compress, interpret, and decide under constraints; misses control, goals, and failure modes tied to modeling.
- Purely subjective: ignores physical constraints, conservation, and reproducible statistics; drifts into unconstrained stories.
How to apply the dual stance (checklist)
- Declare the objective constraints (dynamics, conservation, data‑generating process).
- Declare the agent layer (who owns the model Q, sensors, actuators, goals, and budgets).
- Separate source statistics from agent beliefs ; measure mismatch (e.g., ).
- Design counterfactuals: interventions that would change future Texts if the model were wrong.
- Log performance: predictive log‑loss, mutual information, work, costs, robustness.
Further reading: Text–Context–Interpretation, Information: Objective vs Subjective, Agency & Delegation, Open‑System Thermodynamics, Quantum Foundations.