Some rough working notes, me thinking out loud: "The varieties of material existence": http://cognitivemedium.com/vme pic.twitter.com/g66P85yiVZ
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I realized, somewhat to my chagrin, that I didn't have a very good answer to the question "what phase of matter are living systems"? Thinking this through, they're a hybrid: many components are liquids or solids; many important components are far from equilibrium; &
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they contain amazing systems which are designed to keep them away from equilibrium.pic.twitter.com/5S3qXQqrUS
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On physics as a design science. One of my favourite distinctions is Herb Simon's distinction between sciences of the natural & sciences of the artificial. I wonder if physics might actually transition from one to the other?pic.twitter.com/Cim23RdVAo
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Here's Simon's book on the distinction:https://www.amazon.com/Sciences-Artificial-Herbert-Simon/dp/0262691914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537418555&sr=8-1&keywords=herb+simon+artificial …
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And some speculation about whether the notion of fundamental particles even makes sense, since there are systems in which it's possible to give two equivalent descriptions in terms of entirely different sets of fundamental particles.pic.twitter.com/r2FsiRkrdS
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A particularly strong version of this might result in a point of view in which the fundamental particles and forces barely matter at all, and what really matters is notions like universality in computation, programmability, and some sufficiently broad notion of phases of matter.
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If you read this far, thanks for indulging my thinking aloud!
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End of conversation
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I found it useful to consider self-winding watches, which also contain neat systems designed to keep them away from equilibrium, given random motion. Thus, life as an extremely complex self-duplicating self-winding watch.
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The crucial distinction between homeostasis and equilibrium. The old phrase "equilibrium systems are dead" is a reminder of this delicate balance in biology. Interesting to consider the entropy and informational perspective of life via dissipation-driven adaptive organization.
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It's not stable but quasi-stable. Large perturbations (injuries) cause permanent damage or death. Use of "stable" is BS.
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