Hi Hal Ruhl What you provide, which is useful, are the objective predicates of life, such as the a and b of
life is a life is b They are descriptors of life. But life itself is subjective, being the subject "life" of those propositions. Life is what it is, just the same as you or me. But it is not those descriptors. There are two types of knowledge: knowledge by description (you know who I am in words, by my descriptors). knowledge by acquaintance (you have actually met me). Roger Clough, rclo...@verizon.net 11/3/2012 "Forever is a long time, especially near the end." -Woody Allen ----- Receiving the following content ----- From: Hal Ruhl Receiver: everything-list Time: 2012-11-02, 16:27:15 Subject: RE: Life: origin, purpose, and qualia spectrum Hi Stephen: -----Original Message----- From: everything-list@googlegroups.com [mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen P. King Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 11:50 PM To: everything-list@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Life: origin, purpose, and qualia spectrum On 10/31/2012 9:48 PM, Hal Ruhl wrote: > Hi Everyone: > > I would like to restart my participation on the list by having a > discussion regarding the aspects of what we call "life" in our > universe starting in a simple manner as follows: [terms not defined > herein have the usual "Laws of Physics" definition] > > 1) Definition (1): Energy (E) is the ability to subject a mass to a force. > > 2) There are several types of energy currently known: > > a) Mass itself via the conversion: [M <=> E/(c*c)] > b) Gravitational > c) Electromagnetic > d) Nuclear [Strong and Weak forces] > e) Dark Energy Hi Hal, Nice post! Thank you. Any way that the energy/force/work relation can be considered as a broken symmetry restoration concept? I had not thought of the "unfolding" of the scene I propose in terms of symmetry. But now that you mention it is seems that our universe may have started with full rotational symmetry [a point] and may end up with the same symmetry based on an infinite uniform and quite cold gas. > > 3) Definition (2) Work (W) Work is the flow of energy amongst the various types by means of a change in the spatial configuration, dynamics and/or amount of mass in a system brought about by an actual application of a force to a mass. > > 4) The exact original distribution of energy amongst the various types > can't be reestablished and the new configuration can't do as much work > as the prior configuration was capable of doing. [Second Law of > Thermodynamics] Isn't the maximum entropy of a system a type of symmetry, where all equiprobable states "look the same"? See above response. > > 5) Time is not a factor: Once a flow of energy is possible it will take place immediately. > > 6) Conclusion (1): Since life is an energy flow conduit, wherever the possibility of life exists life will appear as rapidly as possible. The "origin" of life herein. Let me refer you to a very old paper of mine: http://webpages.charter.net/stephenk1/Outlaw/life.html I took a quick look. I may need some help understanding it fully. I occasionally play with the idea that Dark Energy is a spatially uniform leak of information from "outside" combined with a maximum information packing density in our universe. > > 7) Some energy flows are prevented by what are known [in my memory] as "Energy Flow Hang-up Barriers" such as nuclear bonding coefficient issues, spatial configuration, spin, other spatial dynamics, ignition temperature requirements, electromagnetic repulsion, etc. ["Energy Flow Hang-up Barriers" is not my terminology - I think there was a twenty year or so old article in Scientific American I am looking for and a quick Internet search found a discussion of the repulsion hang-up in "Cosmology The Science of the Universe" by Edward Robert Harrison. > > 8) Once life is present it will immediately punch as many holes in as many Energy Hang-up Barriers as the details of the particular life entity involved allows - this is how it realizes its energy flow conduit character. The "purpose" of life herein. In other words life's purpose is to hasten the heat death of its host universe. > > 9) Now add in evolution which is a random walk with a lower but no upper bound. Do you see mutation as a one-to-many map and selection as a many -to-one map? Well the DNA strings we know of are finite [n characters] so a particular example is a "one" in some sense and this string's finite number of mutations 4 ^ n+ is a "many". However, I do not see that selection will always produce just "one" successor. My intent with #9 was to open the door a crack on what I would like to post next. Slightly larger crack: I too have been chewing on these concepts for many years. I have several unpublished works expressing versions of these ideas such as "A Path to Socioeconomic Sustainability", 1992, Library of Congress deposit # TXu 554 900 among others and a very few published tiny pieces. My goal here is to make sure the underling engine of what I will now try to publish is sound. As potential returns to the list some of the engine's consequences seem of interest here such as consciousness distribution in an ecosystem and the engine's impact on the concept of freewill. > > A discussion of the possible consequences [such as qualia levels of particular life entities - like degrees of consciousness] should await a critique and possibly a revision of the above. > > Comments are eagerly sought. > > Thank you > Nice! Thanks again -- Onward! Indeed! Stephen Hal Ruhl -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
