Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapters

1. The Hierarchical Symphony of Self
2. The Emergence and Dissolution of Self
3. But What About Entropy?
4. This Too Is the Universe Unfolding
5. The Shape Beneath the Surface: On Emergence and Real Structure
6. Opposing Forces and Gradients: The Architects of Complexity
7. From Aggregation to Strategy
8. Building Mind Out of Matter
9. The Scaffold of Mind: Language, Writing, and the Rise of Symbolic Thought
10. The Emergence of Collective Intelligence
11. Is a Mapping Between Levels Ever Infinitely Complex?

Afterword

Additional Essays and Reflections

0. My Class With Edsger Dijkstra
1. The Mirage of Innate Modules
2. Life as a Neuron: The Ubiquitous Struggle for Relevance
3. The Architecture of Meaning: How Hierarchy Collapses into a Network
4. Morphology, Memory, and the Shifting Burden of Complexity
5. What Is a Number: How Minds Turn Patterns Into Mathematics
6. Why Are the Integers So Deep?
7. The Zombie View of AI
8. Coincidence, Connection and the Uncanny Unity of All Things

References