Entries for June 2007
Connectivity
Okay, it's time for some more random thoughts. For almost ten years now, I've been noticing that the world is amazingly recursive. My first recognition of this fact came when I took biology in grade school when I realized how hierarchical living creatures were. Atoms clustered and formed molecules. Molecules clustered and formed simple cells. Over time, cells became compartmentalized and separated their functionality into distinct units. Furthermore, cells grouped and clustered to form the basis of living tissues. Tissues clustered to form simple organisms, and these organisms clustered to become the organs of complex organisms such as humans.
My class's description ended there, but I knew the pattern had already progressed well beyond this stage. Humans began to group into tribes and clans. As time passed, these expanded to become small villages. Humans living within the villages began to specialize their trades to suit the needs of the village (in other words, the village began to compartmentalize in the same way that cells did). Roads of communication began to open between villages, and soon the villages were transformed into the components of larger countries. Needless to say, this progression did not stop here. Today, we have hundreds (thousands?) of countries with veins of rapid transportation and communication running in every direction. Humans are not the most evolved living creature on Earth, nor have they been for the last several thousand years. Cities, countries, and higher-order structures have been forming neural networks of consciousness right before our eyes.
I say neural networks of consciousness for a reason. Even at the atomic level, it is evident that there is a communication pattern. Atoms typically fluctuate between high and low energy states depending upon the conditions of the environment around them. On one hand, this could be seen as a completely chaotic system because so little can be said about the state of an atom over a long period of time. On the other hand, a large number of factors are in fact predetermined. For instance, atoms of similar structures tend to be clustered together (for example: people find deposits of copper and other metals. Sure, other compounds are mixed in, but the density of copper is relatively high compared to the other compounds). These properties place some constraints on how the energy can be transferred between adjacent atoms.
Still, nothing has even been said about the fact that atoms tend to cluster into common molecular structures. At this point, the transfer of energy is no longer the only form of communication. The physical structure and characteristics of the group now seem to contain some form of "information energy" that is reminiscent of a memory or perhaps a promise of functionality. In other words, the molecule is no longer the victim of simple cause-and-effect relations. Placing the molecule in the correct environment can trigger a predetermined chain of events (not just a single communication transfer!) that is much like a recipe for a particular procedure.
I have much more to say on this topic, but it's getting late and I need to go to work in the morning. I'll try to add more tomorrow.