Hylozoism or hylonekrism?

Is it possible to reduce physics to biology?

Peter ZamarovskýPeter ZamarovskýFEL, ČVUTFEL, ČVUTTechnická 2Technická 2166 27 Praha 6166 27 Praha 6zamarovs@feld.cvut.cz

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"Any statement can be maintained as true,

no matter what happens,

if enough drastic adjustments elsewhere in the system are done.“

Quine Willard van Orman

(ontological relativity)

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Redukcionism – fundamental instrument of science (and getting knowledge in general)

Reductionism: ontological x epistemological Ontological: … it is nothing but … Epistemological: …it appears as it was …, we can understand as …. Milesians philosophers, “physicists” reducing view on material reality, everything (material) is various forms of …. (water, apeiron, air…)“Only reducing approach is rational.”Understanding is not unambiguous representation of subject to mind, but reduction. Thanks to this, the following statement is not valid:

If the human brain was so simple      that we could understand it,      then we ourselves were so primitive,      that we could not understand it. (Emerson Pugh)

complex → simple unknown → known incomprehensible → comprehensible

Critique: reductionism is oversimplification – HOLISM (However: limitation of holism)Conclusion: Needed conscious reductionism, plurality of reductionisms

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Reduction of biology to physics (and chemistry)

Atomism – from Leucippus and Democritus to CERN Reduction in physics – atomism – composition of matter,

(Aristotelian causa materialis + causa formalis) “All there is are atoms and voids.” (Leucippus, Democritus)Atoms behave according to laws of physics

Reduction in biology – (Aristotelian “causa finalis”) Newtonian (later quantum) physics (mechanics): operating

case → behaviour of the system

Biomorphism - “reduction of physics to biology” – utilization of teleology (finality, causa finalis) in physics

Principle of the last action, Fermat principle – Euler (existence of God), anthropic principle

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Reduction of nonliving to living and vice versa

Hylozoism (and animism) – evolutionary primary approach to world

division living x not living things is only apparent, artificial

Never ... I learned to live in the prosaic world of inanimate objects. In theory ... I know that the world can be understood as a cluster of particles in a mechanical movement, that goose in livestock production can be understood as a biological mechanism and mug like thing. I can get to it when needed, but I find it artificial, unreal. I do not experience the world like that. My world is a community of fellow human beings, human and nonhuman ...

Erazim Kohák

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Pythagoreans (Philolaus) – animated planets (Bruno), Anaxagoras „everything comes from seeds“Plato – Timaios „world is a living creature, (animal,

organism)“, (Human society is also organism.)Aristotle (everything is driven by aim, purpose - teleology)…….Fritjof Capra – biology is primary scienceJames Lovelock – Gaia hypothesis (1970th), („Gaia, the

living planet“, Earth alive) (geophysiology) proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.“Super organism“ (something like anthil)

Metabolisms (income of nutriment, and outcome) (nutriment – Sun heat?)

Feedbacks - homeostasis (homeodynamics): regulation of the salinity in the oceans, regulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, global surface temperature

Homeostasis (from Greek: ὅμοιος, hómoios, "similar", and στάσις, stásis, "standing still") is the property of a system that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition of properties such as temperature or pH. (It was defined by Claude Bernard in 19th cent.)

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Daisyworld simulations James Lovelock and Andrew Watson developed the

mathematical model Daisyworld, that shows how temperature regulation can arise from organisms interacting with their environment. The purpose of the model is to demonstrate that feedback mechanisms can evolve from the actions or activities of self-interested organisms, rather than through classic group selection mechanisms.

Daisyworld examines the energy budget of a planet populated by two different types of plants, black daisies and white daisies. The colour of the daisies influences the albedo (reflexivity of light-heat) of the planet such that black daisies absorb light and warm the planet, while white daisies reflect light and cool the planet. Competition between the daisies (based on temperature-effects on growth rates) leads to a balance of populations that tends to favour a planetary temperature close to the optimum for daisy growth.

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Lee Smolin: “The life of the Cosmos”In the visible universe approximately 1011 galaxies

with 1011 stars, i.e., 1022 stars and 1018 black holes

According to general theory of relativity time coordinates start in the Big bang and end in black holes (both these are singularities)

Singularity in black hole: thanks to quantum phenomena – there is no end of time but it continues in new area (dimension) of space-time that is interconnected with our through starting moment of black hole – local Big Bang.

From back holes new universes are born. They can have various fundamental parameters (Smolin considered 20).

20-ti dimensional parametric space of universes, Universes are reproduced by black holes, universes with greater amount of black holes are more fertile.

Fundamental parameters of children-universes are close to fundamental parameters of parents universes.

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Landscape (parametric space) of universesHorizontal plane - the space of basic physical parameters (20, shown only two)Vertical axis - the frequency of universes with relevant parametersCats - individual universes(Analogy with the genetic space.)Verifiability theory (?) - by variation of basic parameters - we have to be near or at the peak, i.e., at the peak of numbers of black holes.

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Is it possible to apply hylozoism – bio-reductionism in inorganic

physics, in cosmology?Metatheory

+ provides new heuristic principles suitable for understanding of complex systems

- It provides no deterministic theories