Fundamentals for the Anthropocene by Jack Pearce

Author:Jack Pearce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter Open
Published: 2017-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

28 The preceding discussion makes clear that Smolin is using “non-equilibrium” to refer to a product of “non-equilibrium thermodynamics”. As I have elsewhere noted, dynamic processes can themselves have equilibria, and life units demand such.

29 I doubt the program element is a necessity as to all forms of life in the Universe, but on Earth it has been a great convenience.

30 “A distinguishable collection of matter, with recognizable boundaries, which has a flow of energy, and possibly matter, passing through it, while maintaining, for time scales long compared with the dynamical time scales of its internal processes, a state-configuration far from thermodynamic equilibrium. This configuration is maintained by the action of cycles involving the transport of matter and energy within the system and between the system and its exterior. Further, the system is stabilized against small perturbations by the existence of feedback loops which regulate the rates of flow of the cycles.” Smolin (1999) p. 135.

31 By “autocatalytic” Kaufman (and Bob Ulanowicz, who also developed this concept) means a sequence of chemical interactions which loops back on itself. E.g. A->B->C->A.

32 I generalize Kaufman’s “work cycle” requirement into the requirement that the system be topologically circular -- a condition necessary to stability of the system (as Kaufman in effect recognized in his discussion of his “work cycles”) and fulfilled throughout life systems. That is, a cell, and any living system, has to have cycling systems which maintain it in its basic organizational format. One can also see the topological circularity in the reproduction system, where we all start off as embryos and go through a (sometimes bizarrely complex) development and conception cycle coming back to an embryo.

33 Viruses pose a challenge to this definition. Biological viruses do the one central act of reproduction. They harness energy and patterned processes --- available in their surroundings -- in the act of reproduction. But we do not observe, in the form or frozen pattern which we call a virus, energy flows in patterned arrangement. With viruses, all three elements of the definition are present, but only when compressed into the reproductive act itself. One way of thinking about viruses is to suggest that they piggyback on what we can see as living entities, using the definition I have offered, by merging into the life definition when they are in a host living system. In other words, they merge into the energy driven patterned process system – that of their host -- in the act of reproduction, and depart from it in frozen form until they can merge again. Life, though rare, marvelous, and some would say sacred, is also a tricky bastard.

34 Schneider and Sagan (2005) also maintain an active website dealing with topics relevant to the central messages of the book. www.intothecool.com. (Schneider’s views will be cited more than once herein, as he gets more than a few things right, in my opinion.).

35 “Sex is said to be ubiquitous because sex acts as a mechanism for DNA repair…Sex is ubiquitous, according to the arguments … presented, because it allowed the evolution of cellular differentiation.

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