Re: System boundaries and science

["James N Rose" <***>]

Judith,

I am beginning to appreciate what a disciplined thinker
your father was.

If I too-anxiously bundled Rosennean Complexity with
Gaian notions, forgive me.  Your explanation was very
clear, and I see why he made the distinction, re his
'qualifying' definition of 'life' that the gaia
proposition would not satisfy.

I was writing on the side of -no- demarcation or separation,
as juxtaposed to your warning: "Obviously, there is a lot
of room for error and if one makes that separation too far
wrong, all further study of the individual system is
going to be affected."

In the light of my meaning as I was writing in my
prior post, RC & G do show a homeotopy if not an
isotopy, under your stricter comparison.

As far as a 'theory of everything', how did RR
categorize the differences between non-life and
life?;  do they share behaviors? ; do bio-behaviors
arise from non-bio behaviors in any way?

In just what way did the universe move toward and
accomplish "life"?

Jamie
11/23/03