Self-organised Reality Brian Josephson Department of Physics University of Cambridge

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Main theme Classical picture: fixed fundamental law This alternative: emergent laws Need to think in very different ways to the usual! Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Sources Maturana and Varela (autopoiesis) Steve Rosen (emergent order, phenomenology) Stu Kauffman (self-organisation and life) Ilexa Yardley (circular theory) Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Main themes Edge of chaos, order-disorder balance Life as intermediate level of order: chance, necessity and intelligence Cycles, attractors, ambiguity Mutual support, observation Circular thought, ‘post-explanatory reasoning’ Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Edge of chaos Deterministic chaos: sensitive dependence on initial conditions, effective unpredictability ‘Edge of chaos’: boundary between order and chaos Rapid evolution Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Order-disorder interplay Order creates order out of disorder (through ‘intelligent’ observation) Disorder introduces noise into order Systems form and disintegrate Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Life itself Between order and disorder Too much order, not alive Too much disorder, not alive Life shapes itself (autopoiesis) Confines itself to a limited range of possibilities Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Restricted range Range must be enough to be able to embody resources needed to be able to shape itself under all conditions Must act in a precise way, hence requirement for restriction Analogy: computer programs Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Cycles Cycles are a universal phenomenon associated with restricted range Too simple to be considered life, but perhaps essential component of life Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Subsystems and models Biosystems contain subsystems whose behaviour can be related to models Models show how parts work together With complex systems, all models are limited; there is always something outside a given model, possibly ‘intelligent’ Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Chance, Necessity and Intelligence By chance, parts that can work together come together Working together is a necessity for continued existence of the collection The fact of continued existence can be deemed a manifestation of intelligence; thus intelligence naturally exists Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Observation and information Effective action is the effective use of information based on observation Triadic mechanism: one system coordinates the behaviour of two others (example: actions involved in walking) Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Significant interrelations These processes lead to systems becoming related to each other in a significant way Accumulation of parts leads to complex biosystems 1, 2, 3, many; emergent communities Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Dynamic systems perspective Model system as point in many-dimensional space Rigid system, minimal motion Chaotic system, roaming widely Intermediate case: roaming in a restricted region (e.g. simple or extended cycle, attractor situation) Forming and disintegrating Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Evolution/development Roaming limited by homeostatic shaping mechanisms Evolution/development from alternating conservative and active phases Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Conservative and active interplay End up with organisations most resistant to destabilisation: destabilisation in the interests of stability Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Joy of Approximation I System does not have to fit a specific model to be able to be functional (nature uses empirical approach) Advance via approximations Evolution finds good, combinable approximations Problematic for scientists! Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Joy of Approximation II A subsystem works ‘roughly like model X’ Then something happens and it starts working roughly like modification Xso it goes on Life uses approximations but is not bound by them (open system) Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Observation Observation = key process: information processing with some meaningful outcome Develops to extract useful information Two systems can exchange information to assist in acting as one highly integrated system for specified tasks (assisted by 3rd member of a triad?) Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Achievement and potentiality Life continues till something works, what does not work gets discarded Chance observation of what works in a given context leads to progress Reality involves a field of potentiality, things that worked in some context in the past Emergence cannot be captured in a formula Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Potentiality and meaning The meaning of something is what may come of it, its potential Intelligent observer systems can take account of potentiality, thus connecting the real with the unreal Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

History, known and ‘dark’ The past affects present probabilities, in ways we cannot know in detail ‘Dark’ history; intelligent design? Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Objective reality [speculative] According to C S Peirce, ‘thirdness’, involving knowledge of the relationships between things, is the basis of objective reality Hence(?) a group of 3 observers can create something objective, which can be taken up by others Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Objective Space By extension, something with the characteristics of a space of a particular kind can be created by a group of observers acting in coordination with each other cf. flocking of birds Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

What is this all about, anyway? Ideas have been extracted from both biology, and physics (order-disorder component) to get something that may be more general By making unclarity an integral part of science we may be getting closer to the truth Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Application We have abducted principles from biology in order to apply them elsewhere (fundamental physics) Characteristic quantum properties such as wholeness, indeterminism, the role of the observer in deciding between alternatives, come out naturally within this approach Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson Application to psi Intelligent observation systems can take account of meaning and potentiality They discover meaningful possibilities, and develop relationships with them so as to help realise them (cf. Schoenberg on musical creativity) Space is a constructed phenomenon and action is possible outside it, so not limited by space (observers can be outside space-time) Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Application in conventional physics Something to do for string theorists out of a job (?) Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson

Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson THE END Utrecht II, Oct. 17, 2008 Self-organised reality/Brian Josephson