Re: The Einstein issue of Discover Magazine, syntropy

[Judith Rosen <***>]

Luigi Fantappie's "syntropy" definitely does sound like a way to descibe
what happens in Anticipatory systems. One of the most encouraging aspects of
his work, and Antonella Vannini's discussion of it, is a subtle one: She
makes the description of what Syntropy means come across in an almost
casual, off-hand manner, which means that it's not the same outrage it used
to be. That's enormous progress. What I think she is trying to develop is a
way to study anticipation, itself.

Antonella Vannini wrote:
"At the same time, Fantappiè observed the difficulties encountered by the
experimental method in the study of syntropic relations. The experimental
method, on which science has always based its studies, can investigate
cause-effect relations, in which the cause is placed in the past, but it is
not capable of studying syntropic relations, in which the cause is placed in
the future. Researchers find it impossible to manipulate syntropic causes,
because these causes are placed in the future, and as a consequence they
find that it is impossible to study syntropic relations with the
experimental method. Fantappiè demonstrated, mathematically, the existence
of syntropy, but he did not succeed in the formulation of a new methodology
which could overcome the limits of the experimental method and allow
scientific studies of syntropic relations and qualities. "

I suspect that the reason my father did not jump on this was due to the fact
that Fantappie based it on contemporary physics. In addition, the initial
premise he used was not logical.

>From Antonella's site, again:
"At the beginning of 1940 Luigi Fantappiè was working on the equations of
relativistic and quantic physics when he noted that the equation of
D'Alembert, which governs the propagation of waves, had two solutions:


1.      The solution of the "retarded potentials" which describes waves
diverging from a source, from causes located in the past which have produced
them;

2.      The solution of the "anticipated potentials" which describes waves c
onverging towards a source, a cause located in the future.


            Diverging waves (for example heat, sound and radio waves)
describe phenomena which are caused by the past, while the waves which
converge describe all those phenomena attracted towards causes located in
the future. What Fantappiè discovered can be considered a natural evolution
of quantic mechanics"

My father would say that wave patterns are not anticipatory systems and that
there is no causal link between the present and the future that violates the
old notions of how time works. However, what Fantappie goes on to do is very
much in line with my father's interests, particularly his explicit mention
of "finality" (i.e. Final Cause, unless I'm reading it wrong):
Fantappiè discovered that:

§         life is governed by the principle of syntropy: finality,
differentiation, order and organization.

These discoveries were presented on the 30th of October 1942 at the
Accademia d'Italia in the form of volume titled "The Unified theory of the
physical and biological world".


The site is really interesting. I'm curious what the general reaction to
Fantappie's work was at the time, and how much work was done debunking the
math? I like his conclusions, but how he got there doesn't follow. The
comparison of fossil fuels to anticipatory systems is way out there. It
doesn't describe what my father was describing. If Antonella is looking for
a sound scientific basis on which to build, I worry about Fantappie's
foundations. She needs to read "Anticipatory Systems".

Judith

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Fiscus" <***>
To: <***>
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: [ROSEN] The Einstein issue of Discover Magazine, syntropy


> Judith,
>
> Thanks for that post - interesting and hopeful.
>
> Here's something you may like, from some folks
> working on "syntropy", the complement of entropy.
>
> An excerpt from this site is below:
> http://www.sintropia.it/english/antonella.htm
>
> "The description of the qualities of the entropic and syntropic
> phenomena can be found in the works of Luigi Fantappiè, one of the major
> Italian mathematicians, who, working on quantic mechanics and special
> relativity discovered that all physical and chemical phenomena, which
> are determined by causes placed in the past, are governed by the
> principle of entropy, while all those phenomena which are attracted
> towards causes which are placed in the future (attractors), are governed
> by a principle which is symmetrical to entropy and which Fantappiè named
> syntropy."
>
> The folks working on this website are also working
> to get Fantappie's work published in English
> somewhere.  I am trying to help out...
>
> The "cause in the future" part above sounds a lot
> like Rosen's anticipatory systems.
>
> Dan
>