Would you like to make this site your homepage? It's fast and easy...
Yes, Please make this my home page!
BACK TO SITE PLAN
B.MORPHOGENESIS
Let us illustrate the concept of order with a simple
example. A moving train has a large amount of kinetic
energy. When braked down to a stop, the amount of this
energy stays unchanged, but not its type: The kinetic
energy of movement has converted itself into heat in
wheels and breaks. Now, the quality of these two types
of energy is not equivalent.
On the one hand, their relation resembles one way
street. Movement may always be converted into heat,
but the conversion is not directly reversible: warming
up the wheels and breaks will not set the train in
motion. Classifying different energy types by their
convertibility we may say that the kinetic energy
belongs to a higher class than the heat.
On the other hand, the higher class energy, kinetic
energy in our case, seems to be more useful. A train
going in the desired direction performs a particular
task. Heat in its wheels seems to be a pure waste.
At a closer glance we discover an interesting
difference between higher and lower classes of energy:
Kinetic energy can act in one and only one direction,
determined by inertia, or, like in our case, by the
rails. It has one degree of freedom which restricts
severely the number of possible system states.
Heat, on the contrary, involves microscopic movements
of trillions of particles unrestricted in their
direction. It has an enormous, unnumerable amount of
freedom degrees and possible system states.
According to the definition of ORDER of the preceding
chapter "Entropy", heat is chaotic and the kinetic
energy is highly ordered.
In the present chapter we propose a looser definition
of Order, more accessible for the reader not familiar
with the rudiments of physics: the Order of an
energetic system is directly related to its energy
class and inversely to the number of its freedom
degrees.
The principle associating Order with restriction of
freedom degrees applies as well to energetic, as to
informatic systems.
In the area of technology we may mention the laser,
ordered type of light restricted to one frequency, as
opposed to the usual light composed of a wide range of
frequencies. Efficiency of the laser is incomparably
higher.
In the field of human organization, let us mention an
alphabetically ordered library, as opposed to a
bohemian room full of books spread randomly and
chaotically all over the place. It is certainly much
easier to find a required book in the ordered library.
A system may be ordered in many different ways:
The train may be following the rails, but it may also
continue over a collapsed bridge, in which case its
unique freedom degree becomes a parabola ending down
in the river. Rather than in alphabetic order, the
books may be sorted by color or size. Each type of
order is determined by a factor such as the rails for
the train, the alphabet for the library, the light
frequency for the laser. We shall call this factor
the ORDERER of the system.
One of the basic laws of physics, the second law of
thermodynamics which we called in "Entropy"
DISORDERING PRINCIPLE states that any spontaneous
change of a system decreases its order. In the limit
case of an ideal "reversible system" order stays
constant. It never increases. Let us illustrate this
law with a simple example.
Let's imagine 4 balls and two compartments.
In the case a all balls are in one compartment which
means that there is only one distribution, only one
possible macroscopic system state, realized by a
unique possible microscopic state.
In the case b the balls are equally distributed in
both compartments which determines a macroscopic state
realizable by 6 possible microscopic states.
Following our definition the case a is highly ordered
and the case b - disordered. If the balls represent by
extension uncountable particles of a colored gas, the
case a appears as a heterogeneous, discrete pattern
composed of two forms, while in the case b both
compartments form one continuously uniform pattern.
In the case a there is a difference of pressure
between the two compartments, which may be maintained
only by a strong and impermeable partition.
The only spontaneous changes of the system state, i.e.
changes involving no external intervention, may occur
owing to the weakening or opening of the partition.
Such changes will obviously decrease the pressure
difference: spontaneous changes modify the system
state from a towards b, from higher towards lower
order. Only a complete disorder is stable. Ordered
systems tend to change spontaneously towards the
lesser order and maintain their transient stability
only in presence of an adequate orderer (partition in
our example) strong enough to counteract the
uniformizing drive.
Mountains represent a system of a higher order than a
plain. They never arise spontaneously, but are formed
by some external cause such as a volcanic eruption.
Left to themselves they necessarily tend to erode.
Streams and avalanches pull rocks out of heights,
transport them downwards and fill up the valleys.
Ordered, multiform chain of mountains is necessarily
fated to become a uniform, shapeless plain.
Life is conditioned by the existence and availability
of non-solid phases: liquids and gases which are, in
turn, conditioned by differences of temperature.
If the Universe may be assumed to behave like a local
closed physical system, it tends towards the maximum
thermic uniformity. The uniform average temperature is
low enough to solidify all life conditioning fluids.
Consequently, by virtue of the DISORDERING PRINCIPLE
the Universe would necessarily tend towards thermal
death and absolute uniformity. On condition to be
equivalent to a local closed system. However, this
equivalence is far from sure and we shall return to
this point below.
Yet, the DISORDERING PRINCIPLE holds certainly for
closed systems left to themselves to "decay". However,
the whole Morphogenesis, whether cosmological,
biological, psychological or social consists in
ordering local chaotic systems, in contradicting
locally the DISORDERING PRINCIPLE.
Let's return to our train example.
-Movement may always be converted into heat, but the
conversion is not directly reversible: warming up of
wheels and breaks will not set the train in motion.
Classifying different energy types by their
convertibility we may say that the kinetic energy
belongs to a higher class than the heat.-
However, under particular conditions chaotic heat may
be converted to the highly ordered kinetic energy.
Gas heated in combustion chamber pushes the piston and
converts its energy to that of piston movement, which
has the highest, one freedom degree order easily
transmitted to wheels setting in motion the train.
Let's note:
1.Action of Orderer, in this case cylinder and piston.
2.Supply of energy from outside: in order to push the
piston the gas had to be heated.
We may formulate the ORDERING PRINCIPLE:
"Order of a local system may be increased under action
of an orderer and supply of energy from outside".
The whole history of Universe encompassing cosmology,
physics, chemistry, biology as well as human conscious
individual and social behavior, boils down to the
"competition", or to the Dichotomy of Ordering and
Disordering Principles.
ORDERING PRINCIPLE may be alternatively called
MORPHOGENETIC PRINCIPLE. It supports emerging of
discrete, ordered forms from chaotic Continuum.
The Dichotomy Chaos/Order presents another aspect of
the fundamental Polarity of Events, viz. Continuity/
Discreteness, the basic fabric of the phenomenal
Universe.
