Message from Bob Ulanowicz ________________________________________ De: Robert E. Ulanowicz [u...@umces.edu] Enviado el: viernes, 09 de enero de 2015 19:30 Para: fis@listas.unizar.es Asunto: Re: [Fis] Response to Pedro's first comments:
Terry Deacon wrote: > 3. The self-regulating self-repairing end-directed dynamic of autogenesis > provides a disposition to preserve a reference target state (even when its > current state is far from it). This serves as the necessary baseline for > comparative assessment, without which reference and significance cannot be > defined because these are intrinsically relativistic informational > properties (there is a loose analogy here to the 3rd law of thermodynamics > and the relativistic nature of thermodynamic entropy). I think Terry does us a service by invoking the Third Law. We often forget that information and entropy (complementarities) are both necessarily relative to a reference distribution. What Terry's Autogen does is establish an *extrinsic* reference point, which is helpful in maintaining homeostasis. I'll just remark that internal reference is possible as well. For example, when Rutledge et al. (J. Theor. Biol. 57:355-371) applied IT to weighted digraphs, they accomplished a stroke of genius by comparing the distribution of outputs from each node to the corresponding distribution of inputs into the *same* set of nodes. Thereby the self-referential "mutual information" that results quantifies the organization intrinsic to the network. None of the formalities of communication theory need be invoked. Unlike with Autogen, there is no halting to this process. When applied to an autocatalytic set of processes, internal self-selection of nodes and properties ensues that tends to increase the mutual information of the system. Bertrand Russell saw in this tendency towards "self-organization" (and the concomitant centripetality it induces) the primary drive for evolution. Even though self-reference is not extrinsic, it nonetheless can function as an asymmetric form of homeostasis. If any disturbance occurs which decreases mutual information (organization), the natural tendency is to push the system back in the direction from which it was disturbed. If it returns near to its undisturbed state, one can call this "healing". If it goes towards to different but survivable (or even more propitious) state, then evolution has occurred. Best to all, Bob ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert E. Ulanowicz | Tel: +1-352-378-7355 Arthur R. Marshall Laboratory | FAX: +1-352-392-3704 Department of Biology | Emeritus, Chesapeake Biological Lab Bartram Hall 110 | University of Maryland University of Florida | Email <u...@umces.edu> Gainesville, FL 32611-8525 USA | Web <http://www.cbl.umces.edu/~ulan> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Fis mailing list Fis@listas.unizar.es http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
