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Recent discussions on the Robert Rosen discussion list and elsewhere
have led me to begin thinking about coming up with new ways of
phrasing certain aspects of my father's work in a less technical way, to be used
as a sort of springboard or companion text to the original work. Below
is an example of this kind of translation. I've
posted it on my blog (http://rosen-enterprises.com/v-web/b2/),
which is also where most of these musings eventually go. I really don't
know what else to do with them, at this point in time!
Judith Rosen
Question: "What entails material form? (Why is matter the way it
is?)"
A friend loaned me a movie, called "MindWalk," that he
likes because it's a philosophical ongoing discussion between three
characters discussing the problems associated with the
mechanistic, reductionistic view in science and how much of the universe's
riches are missed because of it. One of the discussions in the
movie centered around the fact that atoms are mostly empty space-- the
space between particles, and yet material made from atoms is able to be
completely solid (at least from human perception and perspective). They don't
really get into why this effect of solidity comes into being, preferring
instead to concentrate on the fact that there is so much space within the
system we call an atom. However, I think it's the constant motion of the
particles, in their various relations to each other, which can create this
effect of solidity. Something in motion is different from the same thing devoid
of motion. Just as a propeller in motion creates radically different
effects compared with the properties of the same propeller without motion.
Visually, we can see the same effect when a long shutter speed on a camera
captures the stars in the sky as if they were long, solid lines. Similarly, the
constant motion of the particles orbiting the nucleus of an atom (at a
rate extremely fast in comparison to human norms of motion) creates
the physical effect that the orbital paths of all the particles are actually
solid bands. Hence, an atom is mostly space between solid particles of minute
size but the effect of the intact system is that of a much larger solid
volume.
What fascinates me even more is that there are ways to
manipulate atoms-- as components in a new system-- to create (or
re-create) an effect of permeability and even empty space, using different
relationships between atoms or molecules. The many different "forms" of water
(H2O), for example... Gaseous, liquid, solid...but that's not all there
is. How is steam different from ice? How are snowflakes different from
black-ice? How is cold water different from hot water? If we view steam as
a system, one of the observable components, or ingredients, in that system's
organization is heat, which helps support very different relations
between the water molecules than those which exist in the system called
"ice". Heat is not a solid, material thing like an atomic particle, but
it's presence and contribution are as important that of oxygen atoms and
hydrogen atoms in their co-organized molecular system of H2O. All
are integral to the material system called "steam" and are not fractionable
from it. We can also say the same about the space between the
molecules, in the material system called "steam". Once again, these are all
relational/organizational aspects; the relations which exist in steam are
different from the relations which exist in ice or water. Thus, we can say
that relations are as much an ingredient in the system called
"steam" as heat or water molecules, etc...
It is a "reality" that the total effect of some system's
behavior is able to act as a single entity that we, then, associate with the
system. Steam. We can do things with steam that we can't do
with water or ice. We can do things with water that we can't do with
steam or ice. And, of course, we can do things with ice that are not
possible with steam or water. If we incorporate steam into some new system,
we are viewing the collective effect of steam, as it is organized, as a single
entity and it is this collective effect which is now a component of the new
system. That's "a reality". If we fractionate the organization of the system, we
have in effect created a different reality.
Living organisms have developed in ways such that they can
utilize and exploit these "realities" to the max. Indeed, the quality
we call life in a living organism can be said to be the collective
"effect" of a particular organization (which is the essence of Robert
Rosen's entire body of work). His conclusion: What the specific molecular or
atomic parts of a system are becomes far less important for
creating the total effect of the system than organizational concerns. When we
look at most of our scientific attitudes and techniques, they are all
geared towards taking systems apart to study them. When we do that, we are
studying an entirely different reality.
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