Complexity and the Arrow of Time

by Charles H. Lineweaver

Written by a wide range of experts, this work presents cosmological, biological and philosophical perspectives on complexity in our universe.

Complexity and the Arrow of Time

Author: Charles H. Lineweaver

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 110702725X

Page: 357

View: 496

There is a widespread assumption that the universe in general, and life in particular, is 'getting more complex with time'. This book brings together a wide range of experts in science, philosophy and theology and unveils their joint effort in exploring this idea. They confront essential problems behind the theory of complexity and the role of life within it: what is complexity? When does it increase, and why? Is the universe evolving towards states of ever greater complexity and diversity? If so, what is the source of this universal enrichment? This book addresses those difficult questions, and offers a unique cross-disciplinary perspective on some of the most profound issues at the heart of science and philosophy. Readers will gain insights in complexity that reach deep into key areas of physics, biology, complexity science, philosophy and religion.

Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry

by J. J. Halliwell

Yet this manifest fact of our experience is particularly difficult to explain in terms of the fundamental laws of physics. This volume reconciles these profoundly conflicting facts.

Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry

Author: J. J. Halliwell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9780521568371

Page: 536

View: 869

We say that the processes going on in the world about us are asymmetric in time or display an arrow of time. Yet this manifest fact of our experience is particularly difficult to explain in terms of the fundamental laws of physics. This volume reconciles these profoundly conflicting facts.

Evolving Complexity

by Harrison Crecraft

These are reversible explanations for a fundamentally irreversible universe. Reversibility means that there can be no selection of possibilities.

Evolving Complexity

Author: Harrison Crecraft

Publisher:

ISBN: 9780998617800

Page: 206

View: 331

This book reveals a bold new physical explanation for "Why are we here?" Physics currently just offers reversible explanations, such as the universe somehow started off in an exceptionally improbable state, or there are multiple universes but we perceive only this exceptional one. Physics interprets nature as friction-free and reversible. This means there can be no selection of possibilities. The future, as well as the past, is set in stone, and free will is only an illusion. Dr. Crecraft corrects the accident of history that has led physics to interpret nature as reversible and deterministic, despite quantum randomness and our own experience. He extends physics' existing conceptual foundation to accommodate the emergence and evolution of complexity. The book provides clear and specific explanations for: - Why the universe has evolved to the point that we can ponder its origin; - Time's thermodynamic arrow of dissipation; - Time's second arrow of progress; - The origins of cooperation and competition in evolving systems. Understanding the emergence, evolution and behavior of complex systems is critical as we navigate our way through this increasingly complex world. About The Author: Harrison Crecraft holds a PhD in geological sciences. Throughout his career, he has probed beneath the surface to understand the "what" of complex non-equilibrium geological systems. In order to understand the "why" of evolving complexity, he has explored the conceptual foundations of physics and thermodynamics. His investigations have revealed not only why complexity evolves, but also why physics and thermodynamics have failed to shed light on this fundamental drive of nature.

Origins Time and Complexity

by George V. Coyne

THE EMPEROR ' S ARROW OF TIME W . SKOCZNY ( Faculty of Philosophy ,
Cracow , Poland ) The Emperor ' s New Mind " is not only the author ' s polemic
against artificial intelligence , it is also , and may be most importantly an
extremely ...

Origins Time and Complexity

Author: George V. Coyne

Publisher:

ISBN:

Page: 318

View: 534

Complexity in Maurice Blanchot s Fiction

by Deborah M. Hess

Complexity is interdisciplinary and analyzes orderly patterns in disorderly
systems ; it studies the interface between order and disorder of ... 22 In Prigogine
' s theories , the arrow of time is the basis for complexity in nonlinear dynamics .

Complexity in Maurice Blanchot s Fiction

Author: Deborah M. Hess

Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Incorporated

ISBN:

Page: 351

View: 963

Complexity in Maurice Blanchot's Fiction integrates findings from the history of science and mathematics, information theory, symbolic logic, and philosophy, in an interdisciplinary analysis of the relation between order, disorder, and process in the literary text. Maurice Blanchot's fiction serves as an exemplary focus for a textual analysis based on symbol formation and the emergence of order in complex literary texts. His fictional works are analyzed in terms of increasing complexity. Culture relates to the literary text through metaphors expressing indeterminism, subjectivity, multivalence, opposition, recursion, loops, spirals, order and disorder, and emergence. An extensive bibliography on complexity theory and on Blanchot is included.

From Complexity to Life

by Niels Henrik Gregersen

FIVE COMPLEXITY AND THE ARROW OF TIME Paul Davies The Dying
Universe In 1854, in one of the bleakest pronouncements in the history of science
, the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz claimed that the universe must be
dying.

From Complexity to Life

Author: Niels Henrik Gregersen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 9780195348651

Page: 256

View: 458

This book brings together an impressive group of leading scholars in the sciences of complexity, and a few workers on the interface of science and religion, to explore the wider implications of complexity studies. It includes an introduction to complexity studies and explores the concept of information in physics and biology and various philosophical and religious perspectives. Chapter authors include Paul Davies, Greg Chaitin, Charles Bennett, Werner Loewenstein, Paul Dembski, Ian Stewart, Stuart Kauffman, Harold Morowitz, Arthur Peacocke, and Niels H. Gregersen.

Information Ages

by Michael E. Hobart

Scientist Peter Coveney and prize - winning science journalist Roger Highfield
have combined efforts to author a pair of splendid accounts of complexity and the
arrow of time : Frontiers of Complexity : The Search for Order in a Chaotic World ...

Information Ages

Author: Michael E. Hobart

Publisher:

ISBN:

Page: 301

View: 658

A history of information technology illuminates the interdependence of knowledge and the means of its preservation and transmission

From Eternity to Here

by Sean Carroll

In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself—a period modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed.

From Eternity to Here

Author: Sean Carroll

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 9781101152157

Page: 448

View: 404

A rising star in theoretical physics offers his awesome vision of our universe and beyond, all beginning with a simple question: Why does time move forward? Time moves forward, not backward—everyone knows you can’t unscramble an egg. In the hands of one of today’s hottest young physicists, that simple fact of breakfast becomes a doorway to understanding the Big Bang, the universe, and other universes, too. In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself—a period modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed. Increasingly, though, physicists are going out into realms that make the theory of relativity seem like child’s play. Carroll’s scenario is not only elegant, it’s laid out in the same easy-to- understand language that has made his group blog, Cosmic Variance, the most popular physics blog on the Net. From Eternity to Here uses ideas at the cutting edge of theoretical physics to explore how properties of spacetime before the Big Bang can explain the flow of time we experience in our everyday lives. Carroll suggests that we live in a baby universe, part of a large family of universes in which many of our siblings experience an arrow of time running in the opposite direction. It’s an ambitious, fascinating picture of the universe on an ultra-large scale, one that will captivate fans of popular physics blockbusters like Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time. Watch a Video

Arrow of Time and Reality

by Anne Magnon

This book considers the problem within the realm of contemporary physics, and shows that it could be related to that of ultimate entities.

Arrow of Time and Reality

Author: Anne Magnon

Publisher: World Scientific

ISBN: 9789810230227

Page: 290

View: 227

What is Reality? What is the role of human consciousness in the shaping of such a concept? These questions are as old as mankind and gave rise to the MIND-MATTER dualism which preoccupied so many physicists: Schrödinger, Wigner, etc. This book considers the problem within the realm of contemporary physics, and shows that it could be related to that of ultimate entities. The author develops the viewpoint according to which human thinking activities are fruit of the Cosmos and of its combinatorial activity. Ultimate entities, the bricks out of which our universe is made, could be hidden, as a primordial alphabet, in the foundations of the pyramid of increasing complexity, which seems to unfold as a language and to culminate in the emergence of organized and thinking structures. This is analyzed in the context of cosmological screening and horizons (an expression of our lack of access to totality) where macroscopic and microscopic can mingle, where a unification of interactions and a matching of available arrows of time can take place. This context is also that of quantum evaporation of particle-antiparticle like entities, which triggers entropy increase, and of the overlap between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. The problem of an (global) origin of the cruising (and evanescent) “Now” is considered. A creative principle (reminiscent of the biological mitosis) is also presented which is the generator of the “event” through breaking of temporal symmetry. In this perspective, time-flow is an emergent concept: Creation of the World is declined priority on the concept of “coming into existence”. Participant to the origin of the World, all (possibly virtual) processes are able to culminate into the phenomenon of consciousness and Self-Awareness.

Complexity and Public Policy

by Robert Geyer

Arrow of time and depth As already mentioned in the context of physical complex
systems , the flow of time is highly significant when it comes to all complex
phenomena including biotic and conscious systems . The arrow of time moves in
one ...

Complexity and Public Policy

Author: Robert Geyer

Publisher:

ISBN: 9780415556637

Page: 215

View: 565

This book provides a clear, concise and readable introduction to complexity thinking, its application to the social sciences and public policy, and the relevance of its tools to politics, health, the international realm, development, planning and terrorism.

Conceptions of Change Over Time

by Jacques Montangero

The relationship between parts of such a system is one of simple complexity in
the sense that interactions between ... Closed systems near equilibrium entail the
arrow of time, but the arrow itself as irreversible inherent direction may, ...

Conceptions of Change Over Time

Author: Jacques Montangero

Publisher:

ISBN:

Page: 290

View: 711

Thinking Complexity

by Paul Cilliers

... concept of linear temporality as the cornerstone of the modern configuration of
knowledge , important exponents of Complexity Science identify the novelty of
Complexity in its recognition of time irreversibility ( or the arrow of Time ' ) as a
real ...

Thinking Complexity

Author: Paul Cilliers

Publisher: Isce Pub

ISBN:

Page: 259

View: 234

This volume examines the impact of complexity theory on various disciplines, especially the area of philosophy. (Philosophy)

Debating Design

by William A. Dembski

10 Emergent Complexity , Teleology , and the Arrow of Time Paul Davies 1. THE
DYING UNIVERSE In 1854 , in one of the bleakest pronouncements in the history
of science , the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz claimed that the ...

Debating Design

Author: William A. Dembski

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781139459617

Page:

View: 644

In this book, first published in 2004, William Dembski, Michael Ruse, and other prominent philosophers provide a comprehensive balanced overview of the debate concerning biological origins - a controversial dialectic since Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. Invariably, the source of controversy has been 'design'. Is the appearance of design in organisms (as exhibited in their functional complexity) the result of purely natural forces acting without prevision or teleology? Or, does the appearance of design signify genuine prevision and teleology, and, if so, is that design empirically detectable and thus open to scientific inquiry? Four main positions have emerged in response to these questions: Darwinism, self-organisation, theistic evolution, and intelligent design. The contributors to this volume define their respective positions in an accessible style, inviting readers to draw their own conclusions. Two introductory essays furnish a historical overview of the debate.

The Complexity Paradox

by Kenneth Mossman

As a complex disease, cancer can be viewed as a progressively degenerative
process without order or predictable pattern. The cancer is the agency of
degeneration. Complexity predicts an “arrow of time”—that is, a movement
toward ...

The Complexity Paradox

Author: Kenneth Mossman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0199330360

Page: 240

View: 238

Living systems exhibit a fundamental contradiction: they are highly stable and reliable, yet they have the capacity to adapt to changing environmental conditions. This paradoxical behavior arises from the complexity of life--a high degree of order and cooperation that emerges from relatively simple interactions among cellular components. The Complexity Paradox proposes inventive, interdisciplinary approaches to maintaining health and managing and preventing disease by considering the totality of human biology, from the cellular level on up to entire populations of individuals. From the perspective of complexity, which acknowledges that there are limits to what we can know, Kenneth L. Mossman opens the door to understanding essential life processes in new and extraordinary ways. By tying together evolution, functional dynamics, and investigations into how the body processes energy and uses genetic information, Mossman's analysis expresses a unified theory of biology that fills a critical niche for future research in biology, medicine, and public health.

Vikalpa

by

It is out of these sources of complexity that the chaotic behaviour of the real
manufacturing system germinates . ... Complex systems often exhibit an arrow of
time — they have irreversible components : Irreversible change is also often
intrinsic ...

Vikalpa

Author:

Publisher:

ISBN:

Page:

View: 491

Thinking in Complexity

by Klaus Mainzer

The two arrows denote Boltzmann's local worlds in which life may occur. So, in
the sense of Boltzmann, there cannot be an objectively unique arrow of time, but
only one of the two possible directions of increasing entropy which people ...

Thinking in Complexity

Author: Klaus Mainzer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 3662033054

Page: 351

View: 764

Since the first edition sold out in less than a year, we now present the revised second edition of Mainzer's popular book. The theory of nonlinear complex systems has become a successful problem-solving approach in the natural sciences from laser physics, quantum chaos, and meteorology to computer simulations of cell growth in biology. It is now recognized that many of our social, ecological, and political problems are also of a global, complex, and nonlinear nature. And one of the most exciting contemporary topics is the idea that even the human mind is governed largely by the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems. In this wide-ranging but concise treatment, Prof. Mainzer discusses, in a nontechnical language, the common framework behind these endeavors. Emphasis is given to the evolution of new structures in natural and cultural systems and we see clearly how the new integrative approach can give insights not available from traditional reductionistic methods.

The Evolution of Biological Organization as a Function of Information

by Ilse Walker

Complexity and arrows of time. The genetic information of any organism is of a
complex, hierarchical structure: The bases A, T, C and G compose the triplett
codons of the amino acids, codons compose exons separated by introns, exons ...

The Evolution of Biological Organization as a Function of Information

Author: Ilse Walker

Publisher:

ISBN:

Page: 319

View: 829

The basic concepts. Biological information: the necklace principle of coding. Analogy as a biophysical concept. Symmetry in biological structure and function. Biological complexity: problems of analysis. Growth in the organic hierarchy. Cyclic function and the problem of control. The evolution of the cooperative group and structural individualization. The evolution of systemic mortality as a consequence of central control. Maintenance of information. Mutation and selection. Population growth and selection. Competition. Competition and biodiversity.