What is the Upper Bound of Valence?

This is an excerpt from the upcoming podcast episode (titled "The Ontological Dinner Party") by Ryan Ferris for The Good Timeline featuring Daniel Ingram, Frank Yang, and Andrés Gómez Emilsson. The entire video will be released next week, and deals with the topic of "models of enlightenment".

In this excerpt Andrés discusses the possibility that the “peak valence state” is in fact the one that has zero information content. The total valence of an experience can be approximated in terms of the energy located in the pinch points, sheer surfaces, stresses, strains, etc. of the state, which add up to the negative valence channel, and the total amount of symmetry, smoothness, geometric regularity, etc., of the state, which add up to the positive valence channel. In a sense, all of the negative valence features of an experience are the result of "symmetry breaking" in one way or another. Therefore, the "perfect state" would be the one with zero symmetry breaking, and as a consequence, zero information. Phenomenal nothingness and bliss might ultimately unite at the asymptote.

Daniel comments: “Pretty much what the Buddha said.” And Andrés retorts: “According to Shinzen Young, relative to Nirvana… everything hurts.”


Relevant links:

The Qualia Research Institute - https://qri.org/

The Good Timeline (Ryan Ferris) - https://thegoodtimeline.com/about

FULL ENLIGHTENMENT HAPPENING LIVE (1st Time In Human History) 開悟之路 (Frank Yang) -    • FULL ENLIGHTENMENT HAPPENING LIVE (1st Tim...  

Daniel Ingram's website - https://www.integrateddaniel.info/

High-Valence Meditation (Rob Burbea) - https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/12/0...

The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism (Andrés’ conversation with Roger Thisdell) - https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/11/2...

On Dark Rooms, Jhanas, Ecstasy, and the Symmetry Theory of Valence (Andrés responds to Scott Alexander) - https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/10/3...

Principia Qualia (Michael Johnson) - https://opentheory.net/PrincipiaQuali...

The Zero Ontology - David Pearce on Why Anything Exists (Arthur Witherall) - https://www.hedweb.com/witherall/zero...

Why Does Anything Exist? Zero Ontology, Physical Information, and Pure Awareness (Andrés Gómez Emilsson) -    • Why Does Anything Exist? Zero Ontology, Ph...  

Quantifying Bliss: Talk Summary - Qualia Research Institute (Andrés Gómez Emilsson) - https://qri.org/pdf/Quantifying-Bliss...