Re: Senescence

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

Have you ever seen the pictures of Rave's (the kids'
dance club scene) and concerts where someone is held
aloft and floated along above outstretched hands and
arms holding them up?

Life (an organism) is supported in its 'being' in
much the same way by all the biochemistry and activity
of its riotous makeup.  A minimum bustle of correct
activity must be maintained to keep the person 'up-there',
or a living body functional.

If too many support activities are removed, 'life
support' cannot be maintained, cannot be brought
back.  The rest of the support organization
moves to other states and other connections.

An intersing similarity exists in the brain.
Sally Tarrant Cobb did a marvelous analysis
in the 1970's from microtome cross sections.

She discerned that dendritic synapses aren't
fixed once they are in place in the brain.

The synapses are more like local-amoebae,
constantly dissolving and reforming in a
dance of conncetion.  I described this at
an Emergence conference in Holland in Feb 2000
as being like the mind being held in place,
by those arms and extended hands at a concert,
constantly aboil in flurrying activity to hold
up the mind as an active reality; here, the
dendtritic lengths and amoeboid ends writhing
in contact with one another.


Dynamic systems (complex systems) 'maintain'
as long as the undersupport of activities exist.
That simple, that basic (even if the vast networks
of those supports is not easy to specify).

Jamie