Dennett I 306
Self-organization/Kauffman/Dennett: Kauffman's laws are not those of form, but of design, the compulsions of meta technology.
>
Laws/Kauffman, >
Laws, >
Laws of nature.
Dennett I 308
Self-organization/Kauffman: the ability to evolve, i. e. the ability to search the area of opportunity, is optimal when populations are "melting out" of local regions.
>
Self-organisation.
Local/Global/Self-organization/Technology/Kauffman: Local rules create global order.
>
Local/global.
Dennett: mankind's technology is not governed by this principle. For example, pyramids are organized from top to bottom, but the building activity is of course from bottom to top.
>
Technology.
Until the evolution of rational human technology, the rules run from local to global, then the direction is reversed.
---
Kauffman I 9
Order/Human/Kauffman thesis: natural selection has not formed us alone, the original source of order is self-organization.
The complex whole can show "emergent" characteristics in a completely unmystic sense, which are legitimate for themselves.
>
Complexity, >
Emergence.
Kauffman I 21
The human then no longer appears as a product of random events, but as the result of an inevitable development.
>
Life, >
Humans.
Kauffman I 18
Definition Rational Morphologists/Kauffman: (Darwin's predecessor): Thesis: biological species are not the product of random mutation and selection, but of timeless laws of shape formation. (Kauffman goes in a similar direction).
Order/Physics/Kauffman: physics knows phenomena of profound spontaneous order, but does not need selection!
Cf. >
Selection.
Kauffman I 30
Self-organization/Kauffman: thesis: certain structures occur at all levels: from ecosystems to economic systems undergoing technological evolution.
>
Ecosystems, >
Economy.
Thesis: all complex adaptive systems in the biosphere, from single-celled organisms to economies, strive for a natural state between order and chaos. Great compromise between structure and chance.
>
Structures, >
Random.
Kauffman I 38
Order/physics/chemistry/biology: two basic forms:
1. occurs in so-called energy-poor equilibrium systems:
For example, a ball rolls into the middle of a bowl.
For example, in a suitable aqueous solution, the virus particle composes itself of its molecular DNA (RNA) and protein components, striving for the lowest energy state.
2. type of order: is present when the preservation of the structure requires a constant substance or energy supply. (Dissipative).
For example, a whirlpool in the bathtub.
For example, the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. It is at least 300 years old, which is longer than the mean residence time of a single gas molecule in the vortex. It is a stable structure of matter and energy through which a constant stream of matter and energy flows.
One could call it a living being: it supports itself and gives birth to "baby whirls".
>
Life/Kauffman.
Cells, for example, are not low-energy, but rather complex systems that constantly convert nutrient molecules to maintain their inner structure and multiply.
Kauffman I 115
Order/life/emergence/Kauffman: the autocatalytic formations must coordinate the behaviour of several thousand molecules. The potential chaos is beyond imagination. Therefore, another source of molecular order has to be discovered, of the fundamental internal homeostasis (balance). Surprisingly simple boundary conditions are sufficient for this.
>
Laws/Kauffman.
