Thank you for this well-detailed and educational response. You've thrown a lot of good study prompts in my direction.
One last question – any book recommendations?
One last question – any book recommendations?
No book recommendations, really. That was crystalizing my own thoughts on the matter over the years. Possibly Alexander's latest opus "The Nature of Order" may be informative:
[Oddly enough, this was hugely influential for me as well: Godel Escher Bach.]