Weinbaum (also known as Weaver) argues that the adaptive sophistication of open-ended intelligent processes — their ability to navigate novel problem spaces without centralized control — can be understood through the concept of abstraction layers: emergent levels of organization that allow a system to evade low-dimensional attractor basins and continue exploring higher-dimensional phase space. This extends his earlier work on open-ended intelligence (with Veitas) into a more mechanistic account of how distributed intelligence achieves its apparent competency.
In OM’s research, this paper is cited as one answer to the question of what guides apparently blind processes like the protocol underground toward sophisticated outcomes. Alongside Levin’s ingressing patterns and McKenna’s transcendental object at the end of time, Weinbaum’s abstraction layers constitute a framework for understanding the “surprising competency” of distributed, leaderless cognitive systems — a question central to the Diverse Intelligence and Coordination Infrastructure research programs.