COMPLEXITY, SELF-ORGANIZATION, AND EMERGENCE AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS IN LIFE ORIGIN MODELS

摘要

"Complexity," "self-organization," and "emergence" are terms used extensively in life-origin literature Yet precise and quantitative definitions of these terms are sorely lacking, "Emergence at the edge of chaos" invites vivid imagination of spontaneous creativity Unfortunately, the phrase lacks scientific substance and explanatory mechanism We explore the meaning, role, and relationship of complexity at the edge of chaos along with self-organization We examine their relevance to life-origin processes. The high degree of order and pattern found in "necessity" (the regularities of nature described by the "laws" of physics) greatly reduce the uncertainty and information retaining potential of spontaneously-ordered physical matrices No as-of-yet undiscovered law, therefore, will be able to explain the high information content of even the simplest prescriptive genome Maximum complexity corresponds to randomness when defined from a Kolmogorov perspective No empirical evidence exists of randomness (maximum complexity) generating a halting computational program Neither order nor complexity is the key to function Complexity demonstrates no ability to compute Genetic cybernetics inspired Turing's, von Neumann's, and Wiener's development of computer science Genetic cybernetics cannot be explained by the chance and necessity of physicodynamics Genetic algorithmic control is fundamentally formal, not physical But like other expressions of formality, it can be instantiated into a physical matrix of retention and channel transmission using dynamically-inert configurable switches Neither parsimonious law nor complexity can program the efficacious decision-node logic-gate settings of algorithmic organization observed in all known living organisms.