<
marc.t...@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:03701536-87c6-403e...@g6g2000vbk.googlegroups.com...
The idea as I understand it, is that the attractor forms out of
internal processes, and selection chooses between already
formed attractors.
As Dickinson....accurately...characterized the current thinking
"Growth of man, like growth of nature
Gravitates within
Atmosphere and sun endorse it
But it stir alone"
It's important to know that self organizing systems
are very robust to initial conditions, not sensitive to them.
A ball spun inside a bowl will always end up at rest
at the bottom no matter the starting conditions.
> For example, instead of the notion of self-organizing systems, the
> notion of self-assembly can be preferred. But "there are two main
> kinds of self-assembly: static and dynamic":
> - "Static self-assembly involves systems that are at global or local
> equilibrium and do not dissipate energy".
> - Dynamic self-assembly where "the interactions responsible for the
> formation of structures or patterns between components only occur if
> the system is dissipating energy" (Whitesides et al. 2002). The latter
> are the ones which are relevant for our purpose.
It's crucial to understand the relationship between the
static, dynamic and chaotic attractor forms. The dynamic
attractor...emerges...from the critical interaction
between the static and chaotic.
static > dynamic < chaotic
Static attractor is ...behavior...which is simple or
little changing, where the variables are few and
easily defined, where Newtonian mechanics work
best.
Chaotic attractor is...behavior...which has too many
variables for a deterministic approach, and statistical
methods work best. So for Darwinian evolution the
attractor paradigm above would become
static > dynamic < chaotic
genetics > selection < mutation
When one can't tell which attractor, static or chaotic
dominates the system output, then spontaneous order
and hill-climbing emerge.
static > dynamic < chaotic
rule of law > democracy < freedom
facts > ideas < imagination
And so on, for any system under the sun, they
all evolve following a universal process.
> Besides, if we keep the notion of self-organizing systems, I think
> these that are relevant are still dynamic ones as for self-assemblies.
> Thus, according to BR Johnson and SK Lam, "in contrast to conservative
> systems, in which energy is conserved, self-organization occurs in
> dissipative systems through which energy is flowing (Nicolis and
> Prigogine1977, Kauffmann 1993, Camazine et al. 2001). Such systems
> produce what are called dissipative structures" (Johnson et al.
> 2010).
Entropy vs self organization, which one wins?
Complexity Science is an entirely different way of
viewing reality. Instead of looking at the equilibrium
condition of complex system, when it has settled down
and it displays more predictable behavior, Complexity
Science looks at the far from equilibrium conditions.
When energy is flowing.
So the behavior being studied begins at the point
some system near equilibrium has been disturbed, or
pushed far from equilibrium, and ends when one
can no longer tell the system was disturbed. The one offs
or transients become the source of the idea.
And it turns out the universal behavior they found
is in how complex systems ...respond to
disturbances or change.
All systems are unique, but all system are born, evolve
and die in a similar way.
The are born and evolve when the static and chaotic
attractors are critically interacting, so that one can't
determine which dominates. They die when you
....can determine...which opposite extreme in possibility
is dominating.
So, that which can be determined or 'proven' in the
objective sense must be that which is unimportant
or mostly irrelevant to understanding reality.
Call it a catch-22 of reality maybe? Or is it our fault?
For reducing to parts, and precision and proof for
deriving fundamental law? When we should base them
on the opposite, the emergent system properties.
Such as those ethereal market forces, just to name one.
And the ultimate example of the emergent world is
life and intelligence, so, the fundamental laws of the
universe should be based on ...Darwinian evolution.
Life or Darwin teaches us how the physical universe
evolves, not the other way around. That's the inevitable
conclusion from a complexity perspective.
> Within both approaches (via either dynamic 'self-assemblies' or 'self-
> organizing systems' ) the important physical process is the notion of
> "dissipative structures".
>Such systems are clearly not independent of
> external pressures as they must be fed by a continuous flow of energy
> and matter.
But that doesn't really characterize the relationship
between energy and self organization. For instance
it may take a lot of energy to initiate a stable orbit
but once in orbit, the system begins to perpetuate
itself. Self organizing system are highly cyclic processes.
The analogy could be a spring, if disturbed in just
the right way, may continue vibrating almost indefinitely.
The initial disturbance or energy input from outside
can be quite small in relation.
For instance the grain of sand which creates
a landslide. That critical behavior is inevitable
in any random 'pile'.
>This is crucial when looking for fossils of such systems:
> you need to have definite proofs of the existence of sources of energy
> and matter at the locations where you want to look for (at least at
> the time when such dynamic systems were supposed to have emerged).
There's plenty of potential energy sources on Mars.
Most of the northern half of Mars is as much as 60% water ice
just a couple of meters below the surface, it melts out today.
And the reason they went to Meridiani is the large iron signature.
The kind of iron, hematite, which forms in hot water.
When they got to Meridiani the found there was no iron
in the soil or rocks, the iron is only in the spheres.
The soil is full of sulfates, sulfur and silicon in vast
warm underground hydrothermal springs. Just the kind
of energy sources and minerals thought to have given rise
to the first microbes on Earth.
Here's some more. Gaze into this one for awhile. It's patch
of soil maybe a meter across.
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/012/tn/1P129250922EFF0224P2374L5M1_L4L5L5L5L6.jpg.html
Various wide angle images of spheres
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/1861/1P293402499ESFA000P2562L5M1_L4L5L5L5L6.jpg
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/180/tn/1P144166325EFF3342P2537L5M1_L4L5L5L5L6.jpg.html
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/505/tn/1P173013913EFF55VWP2559L5M1_L2L5L5L6L6.jpg.html
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/123/1P139098299EFF2809P2267L5M1_L2L5L5L6L6.jpg
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/183/tn/1P144428432EFF3370P2540L5M1_L2L5L5L7L7.jpg.html
http://areo.info/mer/opportunity/533/tn/1P175500101EFF57BTP2568L5M1_L4L5L5L5L6.jpg.html
Various micro imager pictures of spheres (field of view postage stamp size)
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m014.html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m182.html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/105/1M137503553EFF2208P2956M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/106/1M137593860EFF2208P2956M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/028/1M130673077EFF0454P2933M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/029/1M130761497EFF0454P2953M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/019/1M129869769EFF0338P2953M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/177/1M143896735EFF3336P2957M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/053/1M132896352EFF06ASP2956M2M1.HTML
> Are these sufficient as a proof of
> the existence of what you call 'living' systems'? Presently we can't
> know as you didn't specify what you mean by 'living' systems.
> For me the existence of fossils of dynamic self-organizing systems is
> not sufficient to demonstrate that Darwinian evolution has ever
> emerged on Mars.
But Complexity Science proposes a common evolutionary
process for physical and living systems.
"Critically interacting components self organize, to form
potentially evolving structures exhibiting a heirarchy of
emergent system properties."
A self organized system would be characterized by the
inability to fully define it in terms of it's components.
The spheres are still a mystery after 8 years. If they
truly are an example of a 'missing link' between
geology and biology, that uncertainty should always
remain, if not increase the more they're studied.
s