complexity intro
change & stability
prog. complexity
more complexity
homo nobilis
references
discovery story
implications
invitation
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Story of Discovery
It all began with asking a simple innocent question in the greenhouse - in that beautiful serene place where one is deeply involved in the dynamics of Life, albeit of a much simpler but also much clearer form. |
At the time, I was transplanting new seedlings from the germination box to flats, when I was struck by how much seedlings differed from each other, although they were all tomato seedlings of the same kind. I could understand the infinite variation - none like any other - among them. It was a matter of light and shading in the box and among them, of access to nutrients in the soil, of miniscule temperature variations, of the flow of air and its cargo of nitrogen within the enclosed box.
And I marvelled at the infinite change among these seedlings, and how the laws of physics and their dynamics of change wrought the infinite variation among them. I was comfortable with that understanding; the well known and well understood laws of physics at the root of them all.
But then I began to wonder at the obvious morphological stability among them as well. Despite the infinite variation of these seedlings, they were all definitely and unmistakably tomato seedlings of the same specific kind. And I began to wonder where this stability of form comes from - not the genetic stability, as governed by their inherited genetic endowment. This is well known and understood. I was wondering instead where Stability itself comes from. How come that such a thing as Stability exists? Why does it exist? And what is its origin?
And other than about inertia, which still is a puzzle to physics - no one knows where it comes from, it's just there - I knew not of any laws of physics regarding stability, although there are plenty of stability factors or 'constants', such as the speed of light, for instance. But these too are floating around loose out there, without a root and origin, and with little or no apparent relationships to each other. It was a puzzle, and I began wondering about it.
Almost right away, I came to the inherent stability of the proton and electron - once considered infinite, but as of late also found to be temporary - as the origin and cause of the existence of Stability. For this reason, and since protons and electrons also revert into energy when encountering their antiparticles, this could not be the ultimate origin of Stability. There had to be a deeper origin.
But I could not go any further and left it at that, with this question now dwelling in the back of my mind, but alert to any clues which might come my way. And this is where things remained for about nine months. In the meantime, I had moved back from Salt Spring Island to Vancouver, and as of one evening, I had been helping a friend with an inventory of his store. It had gotten very late, past 1:00 a.m., and since I had missed supper, I decided to stop for a bite to eat on my way home.
There was only a little allnight Chinese fast food diner open at that time of night on my way home. Hungry and too tired, I thought, it'll have to do and went in.
Now imagine this scene. A deserted little Chinese diner in the dead of night, with a sole middle aged male customer sitting quietly over his plate of micro-waved chicken chow mein. When, and almost done with his plate of chicken chow mein, and for no reason at all, he throws his hands up in the air and start yelling, "yahooo - oh my God - wow, heavens" - and so forth, and so forth, for about a minute or more, all in all.
The owner's face appeared at the pass-through window, cleaver in hand - just in case - and the young waitress came over bravely, though with much cautious consternation, to ask if I was alright. I was.
While eating my belated supper, my mind had returned idly to that unanswered question in the back of my mind - where does Stability come from?
In the intervening months I had come to the realisation that all the driving forces of all physical, chemical and biological change ultimately and quickly boil down to energy - either a gain or loss of energy in any of its manyfold forms. This brought me, on that memorable evening, to the first law of thermodynamics and "Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change form".
So, the ultimate origin of all Change lies in the nature of energy, as described by the first law, and I was happy and satisfied with that. But where the heck then does Stability come from? And then it occurred to me that - since "Energy cannot be created or destroyed" - the Stability of Energy itself is infinite, or eternal -- and here, in the nature of energy, was the ultimate origin of Stability as well.
This was quickly followed by the realisation - since all Change and Stability have their ultimate and common origin in the nature of Energy - that Change and Stability are the forever interlocked polarities of an inseparable whole, and with this realisation all heck broke loose in my head. My mind almost literally exploded with the image of the universe unfolding from its big bang birth out of an infinitesimal singularity of energy to its present state - in one glorious, timeless instant. It took my breath away.
Overwhelmed by the immensity of the power, the energy, and the outrageous beauty, majestic simplicity and absolute cohesion of the laws and driving forces of the birth and evolution of this universe, I could not help but throw my arms up in the air and cry out aloud with the sheer outrageous beauty and endless immensity of it all.
It was a typical "Eureka!" moment; a moment oft experienced since time immemorial and as described by many in the sciences and the arts.
When the brave little waitress had come over, I assured her that I was alright, and that I had just discovered that Change and Stability have their ultimate and common origin in the nature of energy, that together they create Progressive Complexity, and that I had just seen the universe evolve from its birth to now. I tried to explain it a bit, but it was obviously way over her head, although she nodded politely and said "ah so" at what appeared to her as appropriate intervals. A brave and kindly soul she was, and I am still grateful that they hadn't called the authorities.
And I was left to dwell in the outrageous beauty of how Stability & Change together create Progressive Complexity - of how Stability provides the base - at every level - upon which Change creates new, and ever higher levels of Complexity which, in turn, become the stable bases for the creation of the next higher levels of Complexity.
It was all there - in that one, timeless instant - the whole works, all of it - from time 0 to now. But it took me many months to follow it through piece by piece and step by step. And it all came from the one simple and innocent question I first asked in the greenhouse, "where does Stability come from?"
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