On Thu, 22 May 2008, Pedro Clemente Marijuan Fernandez wrote: > It is a long time that we do not have discussions in the list. I have > not been able to arrange any other "planned session" after Bob Logan's > one, due to work reasons (changing to a new job months ago). It is not > sure at all that in a few weeks there will be a new session arranged. > However, several weeks ago, Stan suggested starting an open, informal > discussion around a simple question: > > Is Nature Orderly?
Those of you old enough may remember the Monty Python skit that gave an answer to the question, "What is the meaning of life?" The answer was, "46". :) Only half-facetiously I would like to tender an answer to Pedro's question, "Is nature orderly?" with the assertion that it is 39% orderly and 61% disorderly. Cryptic as that response may sound, there are good (I think) reasons and some data to back it up. (Clue: 39% is an approximation for the exact figure, which is 1/e. Recall that e is the idempotent element for differentiation. That is, the operation of differentiation on e^x yields e^x. Action on stasis yields stasis. So e helps to define the point at which action and stasis come into balance.) The full development of this result will appear in a few months in the journal "Ecological Complexity". Copyright restrictions prevent me from sharing the manuscript on this public forum, but anyone interested in seeing an electronic copy is invited to drop me an email. Best wishes to all, Bob ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert E. Ulanowicz | Tel: (410) 326-7266 Chesapeake Biological Laboratory | FAX: (410) 326-7378 P.O. Box 38 | Email <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 1 Williams Street | Web <http://www.cbl.umces.edu/~ulan> Solomons, MD 20688-0038 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ fis mailing list [email protected] http://webmail.unizar.es/mailman/listinfo/fis
