Emergence and Potential Space

[Loisenman]

Thermodynamics tells us that the universe is running downhill and becoming increasingly random. In a state of randomness, a change in one direction is balanced by change in the opposite; everything cancels everything else out. How then is life possible, to say nothing of the purposefulness on which we humans so pride ourselves? After all, we are---including our minds---part of nature.

The answer is that the way things fit together---relational properties---instead of a canceling each other out, may, depending on a confluence of events, build on each other. These relational or configural properties are responsible for the spontaneous production of order, such as the formation of whirlpools, and also the origins of life. They explain why our organism can turn over most of the physical material it is made up, and nonetheless persist. Terrence Deacon’s three levels of emergence represent three critical transitions in the organization of matter.

‘snip’

At the first level, separate elements become an organized aggregate, which leads to the emergence of higher-order properties. (These phenomena can be explained reductively, but including it provides a complete sweep of the terrain.) For example, when H2O molecules aggregate, the properties of liquidity emerge. Becoming a liquid gives rise to characteristics such as surface tension and different kinds of flow that depend on the molecules’ relationship to each other. Not only H2O but many different kinds of molecules can become liquids. The characteristic behavior associated with liquidity, its “laws,” then become a higher level description of these systems.

‘snip’

The second level transition describes the emergence or self-organization of form. Here the first level of emergence becomes unstable. One example is a Benard cell. When a shallow pan of water or other liquid is heated evenly from the bottom, hexagonal conviction cells emerge. All different kinds of convection patterns form initially but they cancel each other out. Only the hexagonal cells survive because of their close packing is most efficient at bringing the heat to the surface. Rest of Article

[DCKit]

1. "Hexagonal packing". Cool. I didn't know that.

Thanks, and welcome to DU.

[phantom power]

2. Life is possible because our biosphere isn't in thermodynamic equilibrium.

I'm afraid the author has wandered off into woo.

[Loisenman]

3. Life happens far from equilibrium---

The all-over disorder of the universe must increase, but we can have pockets where there is increasing order and thus life and perhaps your biosphere.

But I do not exactly know what you mean by the "biosphere." If you see it as a huge ecosystem then hopefully it is in a complex balance (steady state, or equilibrium) with its life forms. If you see the biosphere as the whole universe, then its order is decreasing.

[phantom power]

4. It sounds like we agree on that score.

By biosphere, I mean our local biosphere here on earth. Which is, as you say, far from equilibrium, since we get a nice continuous stream of energy from our sun (which is itself far from equilibrium)

I think the author has stumbled over the old mistake of confusing a universal trend toward higher entropy with the state that our universe is currently in, which still provides lots of non-equilibrium energy flows, all over the place. Heat death is still a very very long time off.

[Loisenman]

5. The question is the mechanisms that allow us to capture this downhill energy flow

The question is how do we use this energy that flows downhill from the sun etc to the earth, where life may have begun. We need a mechanism to explain how order can appear spontaneously--- or how things get far from equilibrium IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. The downhill movement represents the usual order of time. The uphill movement represents what is essentially a reversal of time.

Yes there is lots of useful energy, but we still have to understand the mechanisms that make its uphill movement possible. This is not at all WOO as you say. In fact to say as you do that the downhill movement of energy causes life is incomplete at very best and to my thinking verging on WOO. The article explains three levels of emergence that help account for this apparent reversal of time.

[Loisenman]

6. minor correction in prior comment

What reads "what is essentially a reversal of time" in second paragraph above should read "what looks like reveral of time." Essentially was added for emphasis but probably evokes a conotation I do not mean.

[phantom power]

7. Oh that topic, I'm a fan of Stuart Kauffman's work.

[Realityhack]

8. Wooo Wooo n/t