The Existence, Transcendence, and Evolution of the Subject—A Method Based on Subject Information ^†

Abstract

Based on the modern dilemma of the existence of the subject, information philosophy is transformed into ontological “subject information”, and the basic elements of the virtual dimension and the real dimension are abstracted from it. And then, with the help of the alternate transformation of the virtual dimension information and the real dimension information, the existence and evolution of subject information are explored.

1. Introduction: The Existential Dilemma of the Subject since Modernity

Since modern times, the transcendental principle guiding the existence and development of the subject in the classical period has been rejected by metaphysics, and the ontology turned from the subject’s absolute understanding of objective existence to the explanation of living experience. However, the narrow field of vision limited by experience can only provide survival instructions, but it is difficult to construct principles and methods other than the “life world” [1] to provide for the development and evolution of the subject. The postmodern movement has resulted in unprincipled emancipation and the loss of the direction of the subject’s development. The continuation of the dichotomy between subject and object separates the existence of the subject from the world. To explore the ultimate or original “philosophy-science” system of the external world, constructing a huge objective “information-material” system causes the development imbalance between the subject and the object, and the development of the object creates a counter-reality that restricts the existence and development of the subject. At the same time, the rational principle of “simplicity” regards people as some broken and one-sided principles, which then denies the desire of the subject, ignores the development of the subject, and suppresses the transcendence of the subject itself. These three aspects constitute the predicament of subject existence since modernity.

2. Existence of the Subject’s Virtual Reality Information

2.1. The Ontological Turn of Information

Wu Kun’s philosophy of information regards information as an “objective and non-real” element that generates the existence of the world, makes up for the destruction of subjectivity by the principle of simplicity, and provides a complex, systematic, holographic world evolution method. However, information philosophy still has the problem of the unbalanced development of subject information and object information and the search for the ultimate information of objectivity in today’s scientific community, which must concentrate on building network information, data information, and intelligent information systems; thus, there is still a lot of room for exploration in the attention, understanding, and development of subject information. Therefore, we must start from the information philosophy and transform the main information. We need subjective development of philosophies of information, even if the research methods conform to the principle of subjectivity. Starting from information epistemology, the analysis of information cognition, and the derivation of abstraction and prior existence, we can find the principles of virtuality and reality that constitute the development of the subject’s existence and then construct the evolution of the subject’s information in virtual reality.

Existentialism has the research height of ontology, surpassing the Cartesian–Kantian self-centered epistemology, to attribute perception, intention, representation, judgment, and concept to the existence of the subject. Although conceptually, some are not attributed to the process of consciousness, and it is inseparable from the epistemological unfolding of the subject’s consciousness, the unfolding process of this living experience is consistent with the unfolding process of consciousness in general epistemology. Husserl regards the body as the premise of intersubjectivity [2]; that is, he regards the body as the boundary between the subject and the world, while Merleau-Ponty [3] regards the body as the condition of perceiving the world (survival). In addition to cognition, there are conditions and constraints that together constitute the existence of the subject. Survival is not only a spiritual experience (ontological point of view) but also has the premise and constraints of reality (body).

The ontology of information philosophy turns to the discussion of determining existence starting from the existence of the subject, that is, subject information. It contains not only the cognition information developed from the subject’s consciousness but also the restriction information of the subject’s existence.

2.2. Virtual Dimension Information and Real Dimension Information

The subject of ontology goes through the process of intentionality, judgment, and conception and finally returns to the life world. However, the existence of the subject and modern life have far surpassed the simple, natural ecology of the “life world”. In order to seek the existence and evolution of the subject, the elements of virtual dimension information and real dimension information are abstracted from subject information.

Cognition is still an important component of existential theory and constitutes a virtual part of the subject’s experience of existence. Information epistemology forms the cognition process of information through three links. Starting from “identification by difference” [4] (p. 168), information can only be identified through the differences between things or phenomena. To “construct according to the intermediary” [4] (p. 174), enter the information structure of the subject; the information structure includes information field, physiological information (in-itself information), and psychological information (for-itself information). Then, to “virtual through construction” [4] (p. 178), information is created in the consciousness of the subject through the intermediary link. The process of creating information in consciousness is also the process of integrating and updating the subject’s conscious information structure and physiological information structure. The virtual information that has been formed through the process of information cognition becomes an integral part of the subject’s consciousness information structure and physiological information structure. Participate in the new virtual cognition process of information as an updated differential identification and intermediary construction. “Information cognition methods of human beings” [4] (p. 183) further explains that cognition information is the subject’s information, and it is the subject’s grasp of the object in a human way and human information. While emphasizing the subjectivity of this kind of cognition, it also shows that the cognition process of information is a virtual way of subject consciousness, and it is also the process of information development for the survival of the subject in the virtual dimension. The cognition formed in the information cognition process is uncertain for the subject. At the same time, this uncertain information will continue to construct the uncertainty of the subject’s information structure. The continuous expansion of existence in the virtual dimension is just the expression of a possible construction, i.e., the possible reconstruction.

In the unfolding process of virtual information, the subject of virtual information exists inevitably, a priori, and in reality. It is the realistic foundation of the subject’s existence, and it is also the reality dimension of the subject. The reality dimension of the subject is recognized through difference, thereby revealing the existence of “pre-recognized” real objects. The existence of the reality dimension is contained in the virtual information, which cannot be intuitive, but can only be identified through differences to determine the actual existence pointed to by the information; that is to say, the reality is included in the virtual information, and the reality information pointed to by the virtual can be called the reality dimension information.

2.3. Main Information of Virtual Reality

Information philosophy divides the information that constitutes the existence of the world into four forms: information in itself, information for itself, regenerative information, and social information [4] (p. 47). Intrinsic information includes the identification and storage of information [4] (p. 51), and regenerative information includes the creation of new information through the process of thinking [4] (p. 55). Social information includes the unification of three-state information (in-itself, for-itself, regeneration) between people and people and between people and nature [4] (p. 58). From the point of view of the subject’s virtual dimension information, self-forward information and regenerative information depend on information cognition; “cognition is a process of information activity mediated by information” [4] (p. 163). Information cognition, as the reconstruction of possibility, is unified in the possibility information of the virtual dimension. Self-information is the a priori information containing reality pointed to by the information of the virtual dimension. Social information has both possibility information and reality information. Therefore, the four forms of information can be classified into virtual dimension information and real dimension information in the end. At the same time, all the virtual information or real information about the world, which is the subject information starting from the existential theory, should be the subject’s virtual reality information.

3. Virtual Reality Evolution of Subject Information

3.1. The Virtual Reality Evolution Dynamics of Subject Information

The virtual reality evolution dynamics of subject information is the transcendent nature of the subject.

As a complex system, subject information always tends to multiply and evolve its own information—or the movement, development, and growth of the body; or the growth of desire for material, emotion, and knowledge; or the reasoning of rational thinking; and the spiral rise of contradictory movements. In fact, the subject has a kinetic energy beyond itself, which can be collectively referred to as the transcendence of the subject’s information system. The transcendence of subject information manifests itself in the continuous reconstruction of possible information in the virtual dimension, and the process of reconstruction is always the alienation, negation, and transcendence of past constructions, that is, the flow and change of subject consciousness. According to information holography [4] (p. 266), the process of reconstruction is not just a mechanical and one-sided reconstruction but an organic and complex cohesion, and the evolution of the subject information evolves towards a higher level and a more complex degree. The transcendence of subject information is manifested as the transcendence of reality in the dimension of reality. Through the transcendental existence of the subject, the reality of the subject is also in the process of continuous evolution and development, including the unfolding of functions, the development of abilities, and the improvement of limits.

It is possible for a complex information system to exist in multiple dimensions. However, the method of complexity is difficult for us to understand intuitively and practice. It abstracts and summarizes the subject information of complexity into the existence of the virtual dimension and reality dimension. Therefore, driven by the transcendent nature of subject information, there is also the possibility of evolution from the real dimension to the virtual dimension and then to a higher dimension.

3.2. Virtual Reality Evolution Mode of Subject Information

The way in which the virtual reality of subject information evolves is the practice of the subject.

There is always a connection between the virtual dimension and the real dimension of subject information. On the one hand, the emotions of the virtual dimension of subject information can be reflected in the body of the subject’s real dimension, including complexion, state, etc. On the contrary, a good mental state in the real dimension also reflects a good inner spirit in the virtual dimension. On the other hand, the thinking activities in the virtual dimension of the subject can change the state of the real dimension in a certain way; on the contrary, the state of reality also affects the thinking activities.

From real dimension information to virtual dimension information, in virtual dimensional information, there is a possibility of reconstruction from the lower level of perception to the higher level of emotion and thinking activities. It is the practice of the subject that links the reconstruction of possibility and the transcendence of reality. The subject constructs the possibility of the existence of the virtual dimension through practice, that is, the transformation from the information of the real dimension to the information of the virtual dimension. Then, through practice, the reconstruction of possibility is transformed into the transcendence of reality and the transformation from virtual dimensional information to real dimensional information.

Practice does not just refer to the practice of labor, as the practice of labor is contained in the initiative of the subject. This initiative can be used not only as external labor but also as internal subject adjustment, such as emotional sorting, emotional resolution, breathing rhythm, and body feeling control, all of which constitute the practice of the subject. In the relationship between subject and object, practice often refers to the effect on the external world based on subject information that is regarded as practice. And realize that in addition to external practice, there is also internal practice, which is subject practice. The practice process builds the ability of mutual transformation between the existence of the virtual dimension and the existence of the real dimension of the subject.

3.3. Virtual Reality Evolution Form of Subject Information

The mentality of the virtual reality evolution of subject information is the alternate transformation and evolution of virtual reality information.

There are “errors” in the transcendence of subject information. Although the main information does not do meaningless things, it always grows in the direction of surpassing itself. The process of perception, judgment, concept, and practice of subject information puts the transcendence of the subject between virtual dimension information and real dimension information. Changes in the flow of the virtual reality state of the main information, such as the repetitiveness of the development of science and technology and the trend of aesthetic culture, are all manifestations of this transcendence in the flow and change of virtual reality information. Not only is transcendence itself fluid, the cognition process from real dimension information to virtual dimension information, and the opposite practice process, but it is also impossible to achieve 100% understanding or practice, which is the innate characteristic of the uncertainty (possibility) of information in the virtual dimension. There is always an “error” between possibility and reality, which requires that reality continuously supports the reconstruction of possibility, and the reconstruction of possibility continuously practices the transcendence of reality.

As the abstract features of the existence of subject information, virtual and reality, must be in motion in a complex information system so that they will not exist in parallel, opposite and separated, the transcendence of subject information may be characterized as the transcendence of reality and the reconstruction of possibility. The reconstruction of a single possibility will only fall into endless possibilities and thinking, and the single reality transcends the agglomeration process like an inanimate system. As well as plants and trees, these life forms have a lower degree of possible reconstruction (the evolution of DNA) and a higher degree of reality transcendence; they encounter the problem of survival and achieve transcendence through the realistic growth of life. Under certain circumstances, the realistic growth will also condense into their own new DNA fragments (possible reconstruction of virtual dimension information). As a dual-dimensional existence, if one-sided practice transcendence in a single dimension, it will lead to the division of subject information so that the continuous and effective development and evolution of the subject cannot be realized. It is necessary to realize the transcendent development of subject information in two dimensions.

Based on this, the existence of the virtual dimension and the existence of the real dimension cannot be parallel, opposite, and separated but can only be a unified and transformable whole of the two dimensions. That is, the possible reconstruction of the virtual dimension is transformed into the actual transcendence of the real dimension; the possibility of reconstruction can regulate, control, and evaluate the actual transcendence of the subject, such as sports and practice. The change (transcendence) of the state of reality, in turn, promotes the continuous reconstruction of the possibility, and the reality is transformed into the reconstruction of the possibility again so that the cycle rises. That is to say, the continuous, alternate, transformational evolution of the subject’s virtual dimension information and real dimension information.