energy vs. work

Norbert:

After your last post, I now have the impression that our positions are
closer together than I realized earlier. But let me ask you a question
to probe the nature of the differences (if any) remaining.

You wrote:

"In a very basic sense: signs are differences of input and they need to
be “interpreted” by the receiver to be information FOR the receiving
system. If the organization pattern, the logic of its structural
organization, enables the open system to react to the incoming signs (in
other words: to actualize its own specific structural information), than
we can say that the system processes the signs to information. In
phys-chem. systems these processes can be very complex and should not be
understood as a simple mechanical reaction."

I certainly agree that nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems (hurricanes,
Benard cells, B-Z reaction, etc.) have a kind of semi-goal-directed
behavior that transcends simple mechanical interaction. Since I view
"mechanism" as a linear relation between cause and effect, for me this
is so more or less by definition. Wherever you have a nonlinear relation
between cause and effect, i.e., a "disproportionate response," you have
a transcendence of pure mechanism.

But all the systems mentioned above are still describable purely in
terms of energy minimization (given the constraints), are they not?
Whereas living systems transcend not only mechanism, but also---and this
is crucial---energy minimization.

Another way of putting it is to say that living systems do work. By
"work" I mean the directing of stored energy for specific ends in a
goal-directed manner. Work in this sense requires a cognitive component
to explain how it is possible. It is this cognitive component to all
functional action (utilizing low-energy triggers correlated with
specific recurring environmental conditions) that differentiates life
from nonlife. And it is also this selfsame cognitive component that
constitutes the framework within which information in the true semantic
sense (the aforesaid low-energy triggers) first came into existence
during the course of cosmic evolution.

What say you?

Best regards,

James
Received on Tue May 21 22:29:02 2002