Posts Tagged ‘morphology’

About Intelligent Design

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Thermodynamics, the Science of Heat, became an important science in the 19th century when physicists started to improve the Steam-Machine. This blog is about a recently discovered law of Thermodynamics called the Constructal Law.

The Constructal Law describes How Intelligent Systems emerge out of the Laws of Thermodynamics.

Heat is Random Motion

According to Thermodynamics the evolution of the universe has been characterized by an on-going transformation from a simple, restricted, highly condensed, homogeneous state (the Big Bang) to an increasingly complex, widely dispersed, dynamic, multipotent, granular diversity.

Energy always moves from High to Low Temperature. This is the main reason why most of the energy of Earth comes from our Sun.

With help of the Electro-Magnetic radiation of the Sun we call Light, plants, algae and bacteria transform simple molecules into complex organic structures (Biomass = Potential Chemical Energy) and store the energy of the Sun. Bacteria and Fungi brake up these structures, produce heat, reduce the complexity, and close the Cycle.

The Input of the Heat of the Sun has to be compensated by a comparable Output of Radiation otherwise Earth would be burned instantly. The difference between the Input and Output of Energy is transformed into Movements on Earth.

The Earth’s climate is a huge flow system. It circulates air and water from the tropics to the poles and back. These flows develop as air and water move from hot to cold regions, a result of variation in the heating of the Earth’s surface by the sun.

The Earth is not only heated by the Sun. The hot kernel of the Earth is surrounded by a small crust. At certain places on Earth and the Sea the rotating pool of the magma-ocean produces a lot of energy.

The Earth with its solar heat input, heat rejection, and wheels of atmospheric and oceanic circulation, is a heat engine without shaft. Its maximized mechanical power cannot be delivered, but is instead destined to dissipate through air and water friction and other forms of heat loss. It produces maximum power, which it then dissipates at a maximum rate.

The earth is wasting a lot of energy because the transmission of  most of its energy is not contained in a Tube-like-system.

The system maximizes the sum of the work done driving the planetary circulation, and the heat rejected back to space at the cold end of the heat engine.

When the speed of the planetary circulation is low, so are the turbulent losses. As speed increases, up to a certain point the sum of work done (circulation speed) and heat rejected also increasing until the turbulence starts to interfere with the circulation and  actually decrease the total of work done and heat rejected. That is the point, “the edge of turbulence”,  at which the system will naturally run.

Every flow system tries to find the perfect balance between movement and friction.

The interesting point is that friction is movement in opposition to itself.

Clouds on the Edge of Turbulence

The biomass on Earth is direct or later (Oil, Gaz, Coal) consumed by all kinds of organisms. In Food-Webs Organisms are consumed by other organisms.

We, the Humans, describe the interaction of the organisms in the Food-Webs as a Struggle for Live, a Survival of the Fittest, but the flow of energy in the food webs could also be seen as an adaptive chain of chemical reactions that are performed in self-moving, self-reproducing chemical factories.

Energy is Potential Movement. The potential energy stored in the biomass on Earth is transformed into circular movement (kinetic energy). During this transformation Heat is produced. Heat is the waste produced by a restrained non-effective movement.

The energy of the Sun produces all kinds of movements on Earth. Examples are river-delta’s, our respiratory system and the weather-system.

Flow Systems that move from one  to many always look like a leaf or a tree

Flow Systems that move from One to Many always look like a Leaf or a Tree. Left a River Delta is shown. Right a picture of the Lungs is displayed.

According to Constructal Theory the generation of design (configuration, patterns, geometry, shape, structure, rhythm) in nature is a physical phenomenon that unites all animate and inanimate systems. Design in Nature always shows itself as systems that flow and improve themselves.  Systems improve themselves because the movement from chaos to order takes many discrete steps.

Biological organisms are flow systems. River basins are flow systems. A Tree is a flow system. The Traffic System is a flow system. The City of Paris is a flow system. The Financial Market is a flow system. The Internet is a flow system. A Proces-Manager is a flow system.

Flow Systems

All these flow systems must be structured (architecturally designed) in such a way that the currents that flow (Life Energy, Water, Air, Electricity, Gaz, People, Cars, Trains, Airplanes, Content, Money) increasingly get to where they need to go. This gives shape and structure to everything that evolves over time.

Flow Systems always remove the Resistance to the Flow themselves.

Constructal Law is formulated as follows: “For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it.”.

Nature always provides Resistance to Change (Heat, Erosion, Friction) and this resistance is provided by the Systems of the Past. The current Order resists the potential Chaos of Free Moving Energy.

The Paths of Change of our Universe always move in the same way. The pattern looks like a Moebius Ring, the number 8, because this is the only way to cope with the polarity of the movements. In a Moebius Ring two Opposite Cyclic Movements are perfectly United.

A Moebius Ring is a 2D-structure that operates in 3D because it needs a Twist to operate.

According to Constructal Theory the Energy of the Sun creates two types of Systems called Engines and Brakes.

Engines are the most effective and efficient states in the evolution of our Universe. They have found the best way to cope with the resistance that is provided by the Brakes. Brakes are the old systems like trees, forests and natural or constructed dams that slow down the movement so the potential energy can be stored.

If the Energy of the Sun is not stored,  the Self-Reproducing Systems are unable to evolve to a higher level of organization.  If every Resistance would be gone the Flow-Systems would Flow in a Radial Pattern to every Direction possible.

If we remove the Natural Brakes (Forests, River-delta’s) the Expansive Flow-systems will take over control and the Smart Highly Improbable Next Generation Brake Systems, the Organisms would die.

We, the Humans, are here to Resist the Engines that give the Flow-Systems the opportunity to make Everything the Same. Every Thing has to become the Same because the Universe does not discriminate. Every configuration has the same chance to be alive.

Dependent on the type of flow there are standard solutions to the dualities that are provided by the eternal battle between engine (movement) and brake (not-movement).

Paris is a Flow System

The standard solution can be calculated using the Laws of Thermodynamics. Tree (or Leaf)-shaped fractal systems are for example the best solution for a One-to-Many (or Many-to-One) Flow. The Flow Systems always converge to these Shapes.

Our Earth is rotating, spinning and moving around our moving Sun. The influx of Energy on every area on Earth is changing all the time.

This means that every Flow-System on Earth has to adapt to the short term and long term changing Energy Input of the Sun.

The stability of a Flow-System, the Resistance to Change, is highly dependent on the Resilience of the System.

According to the theory of Panarchy the Resilience of a System is dependent on the Potential and the Connectedness of a System.

In  the Exploitation/Conservation phase of the Adaptive Panarchy-Cycle the Constructal Engines become more efficient (producing more Potential) and Connected. This means that the amount of possible paths in the River-delta of the System is reduced. This amount determinates the resilience of the system.

At the state of maximum production and maximum connection (conservation) the system is spending all its potential at self-reproduction and is highly vulnerable to external disturbances. At a certain moment when a disturbance destroys the majority of the paths the system collapses (release).

Revolt: A small Wildfire can destroy a complete Ecology

The bits and pieces, the components, of the scattered ecology are reassembled sometimes in a different way (reorganization) and the system starts again most of the time on a higher level of organization.

Kleiber's law

Kleiber’s Law is an example of the Constructal Law. It shows the many levels of organization that have occured since the chemical factories of the bacteria started to work together. Kleiber’s Law can be extented to the level of the Community and the City.

The Panarchy Cycle is Self-Similar. It repeats itself on many Scales. The higher the scale the bigger the impact and the slower change takes place.

The Scales are interconnected. A huge disturbance on a lower scale (Revolt) can have an huge impact on a higher scale when both cycles are moving into the Release State.

A Slow moving High Level Cycle can help to restructure a fast moving cycle by providing the template of the way the components were originally assembled (its CommunityDNA) (Remember).

Constructal Law is a Law of Thermodynamics. Thermodynamics has evolved into a Statistical Theory called Statistical Mechanics. To calculate a probability you have to define the Space of all Possibilities of a System, the Phase Space.

When you don’t know what a system will look like it is impossible to calculate the Phase Space. To calculate the possibilities of Constructal Law you have to imagine the possible constructions of Mother Nature.

It is possible to play with Probability Theory without knowing the exact Phase Space. In this case you have to look at the probabilities of the probabilities. These probabilities are described by the Triangle of Pascal. Behind the Triangle of Pascal a new Triangular Structure shows itself. This pattern goes on and on until the primary Triangle of Creation, the Holy Trinity, is reached.

The Trinity is a combination of Desire (Mother, Female, Expansion, FLOW), Control (Father, Male, Compression, BRAKE) and the combination of both Expansion AND Compression also called the Void or the Tao. In Physics the Void is called the Vacuum or the Zero-Point-Field.

The Triangular Pattern behind the Triangle of Pascal

When we have moved back in time and have reached the state of the Trinity we are very close to the Big Bang. The Big Bang is a result of the Union of the Opposites (Yin/Yang, Male/Female, Matter/Anti-Matter, Expansion/Compression) that both came out of the Void.

The Vacuum is the Eternal Flow System of Creation. It contains everything that is possible even the impossible, the Empty Set.

The Tao is like a well: 

used but never used up.

It is like the eternal void:

filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.

I don’t know who gave birth to it.

It is older than God.

(Tao Te Ching 4)

According to Constructal Law every finite-size system must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it.

The Tao is the Channel of the Energy of Life. If Constructal Law is Right we have to give easier access to this Flow. We have to become the River to move to our final destination, the Sea of the Nothing.

LINKS 

A video about Constructal Theory

About the Higgs Field and the Big Bang

Why the Objects in the Universe are of Different Size

About Innovation and Thermodynamics 

About the Big Bang

About Friction

About the Big Freeze

About the Constructal Theory of David Deutsch

The Website about Constructal Theory

An Introduction into Constructal Theory

About Morphology

About Panarchy

About Kleiber’s Law

About Genetic Similarity Theory

Why a City is an Organism

About the Triangle of Pascal and the Holy Trinity

About the Holy Trinity

About Constructal Law and the Trinity

Attraction + Obstacles = Excitement 

About the Law of three & Gurdjieff

 

 

About the Law of KLeiber

Friday, October 29th, 2010

A power law relates one variable to another raised to a constant power. The general form takes y = xa, where y and x are variables, and a is a constant exponent.

A power law exhibits the property of scale invariance. When you multiply the Scale (x) with a factor b the function (y =  baxa) does not change its Shape.

In 1817 Goethe wrote his book ”Zur Morphologie“. This book was the start of a new science called Morphology, the Science of the Shapes.

In his book Goethe describes the so called Uhrplant, the Primal Plant, which is based on the shape of the Leaf. Goethe believed that every Plant was a Leaf within a Leaf within a Leaf.

At the time of Goethe the concept of the fractal was not known. It was developed in 1975 by Benois Mandelbrot (“The Fractal Geometry of Nature”).

A fractal is a self-similar structure. It’s shape repeats itself on every level of expansion.  Some fractals are scale-invariant.

Scale Invariance in the Leaf

The scale invariant fractal structure of the Leaf

About Kleiber’s Law

Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. During this complex biochemical process, calories in food and beverages are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function.

The oldest and best known Power Law is Kleiber’s law devised by the Swiss-American zoologist Max Kleiber in 1932.

Kleiber’s Law, MR = W3/4, describes the relationship of the metabolic rate (MR) to the biomass W, raised to an exponent.

Kleiber’s law means that a cat’s metabolic rate is not a hundred or 21.5 times greater than a mouse’s, but about 31.6 — 100 to the three-quarter power.

This relationship seems to hold across the animal kingdom  and it has since been extended all the way down to single-celled organisms, and possibly within the cells themselves to the internal structures called mitochondria, the cellular powerplants, that turn nutrients into energy. Mitochondria have many features in common with bacteria.

The law of Kleiber is  also applicable to super-organisms” like ant colonies, Cities and Eco-Systems.

Because of Economies of Scale, larger and more complex forms of organisms need less energy for each individual cell. They grow and reproduce more slowly and they live longer.

Kleiber's law

Kleiber's law

About Fractals and Kleiber’s Law

Kleiber’s law can be explained from a general model that describes how essentialmaterials are transported through Space-Filling Fractal Networks of Branching Tubes.

Goethe was right. The leaf is a one of the fundamental structures of Nature.

The factor 3/4 (3/3+1)  is a consequence of the fact that a Fractal Structure has to incorporate a not-Fractal Structure, 3-Dimensional Space.

One of the Bilateria: The Octopus

One of our fellow Bilaterians: The Octopus

About Bilateria

About 590 million years ago, the Central Nervous System (CNS), the Brain, appeared.

The organisms with a CNS (including the Humans), the Bilateria, are able to Act and React to a Possible Harmful Stimulus.

The CNS of the Bilateria is  a result of  an Increase in Competition between the Life Forms that came out of the Continuing Fusion of  the Cooperative Life Forms, the Bacteria. The first step in this proces was the Tube of the Sponge.

The fundamental Bilaterian Body Shape is a Tube running from Mouth to Anus, and a second Tube called the Notochord, with an especially large Sphere at the front, called the “Brain“.

The Bilateria have Five Body Spheres (1) the Brain; (2) the Spinal Cord; (3) the Heart and Lungs; (4) the Digestive Organs and Kidneys; (5) the Bladder and Reproductive organs.

Lung

About the Tiny Spheres of the Lungs

When we look at the Lungs, one of the Fractal Tube-like branching-structures of the human organism, we can see that the Branches end in Nodes called the alveoli (“little cavities“). The end-nodes of the branching system are tiny Spheres.

Alveoli

The Alveoli use another basic structure of Nature: The Sphere

In the tiny Spheres the Exchange takes place of Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen between the Lungs and the Blood-Vessels. Each human lung contains about 600 million alveoli.

Water diffuses from the alveoli cells into the alveoli so that they are constantly moist.  Oxygen dissolves in this water before diffusing through the cells into the blood.

The Oxygen-rich blood returns to the Heart via the pulmonary veins to be pumped back into circulation. The Carbon Dioxide is pumped out by the Lungs.

In the many million Small Spherical End-Nodes Two Circulatory Systems, the Cardiovascular System (Heart) and Pulmonary System (Lungs), are Connected.

The Big Structures of Nature are able to Scale because the Connection-Points of the Networks are Very Small.

They are reusable on Every Scale that is Bigger than the Scale of the Connection Points.

We will see that all the other Fractal Systems in our Body are based on the Same Principle.

Villi

Villi

About the Tube of the Digestive System

The Tube contains the Digestive System. It breaks-down larger food molecules into smaller ones that can be absorbed into the blood stream. This happens in the Small Intestine in the vili and microvilli.

The villi (“shaggy hair“)  are tiny, finger-like projections that are approximately 0.5-1mm in length. The microvilli are mechanosensors and have a lot in common with the flagellum (“the roter“) of a bacterium. Microvilli appear in many places in the body. They are also of importance on the cell surface of white blood cells, as they aid in the migration of white blood cells.

The Tube of our Digestive System is highly similar to the Tube of the Sponge, the first fusion of the Bacteria in a  more efficient metabolic structure.

The Output part of the Tube is called the Large Intestine (Colon). Its function is to absorb water from the remaining indigestible food matter, and then to pass Useless Waste Material from the body. The large intestine houses over 700 species of bacteria that perform a variety of functions.

Liver

The Liver Fractal

About the Chemical Factory of the Liver Cell.

The Liver is  a Fractal Branching System that detoxifies harmful substances absorbed via the Small Intestines.  It’s basic structure is the Liver Cell.

The Chemical reactions in the liver cells produces a lot of waste heat. This is carried round the body in the blood and warms less active regions.

The Liver regulates the amount of Blood Sugar, Lipids, Amino Acids.  The Liver is the Storage House of  Blood, Iron, Vitamine A, D, B12  and Clycogen, the Source of Energy of the Body.

The Liver produces Bile that is stored in the Gall Bladder. Bile is used to dissolve fat.

White Blood Cell

The White Blood Cell

About the Spleen and the Immune System

Another Fractal Branching System, the Lymphatic System ( “The Immune System“, Spleen),  maintains the health of the body by protecting it from invasions by harmful pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. These pathogens are the cause of many diseases, so it is necessary to detect and eliminate them rapidly.

The Lymphatic System is connected to the Blood System and produces the White Blood Cells (Lymphocites).  The Lymphocites are the Basic Unit of the Human Defense System. They look like Bacteria.

A lymphocite fits with a pathogen

A lymphocite fits with a pathogen

The surface of a lymphocyte is covered with a large number of identical receptors. Recognition and destruction occurs when the receptors of the lymphocyte fit like a key into the surface of the pathogen.

The Immune System is a Highly Adaptive System. It is able to generate new types of Lymphocites out of a Library of DNA-components.

Nephron

Nephron

About the Kidneys and the Bladder

The Kidneys serve the body as a natural filter of the blood, and remove wastes which are diverted to the urinary bladder. The Nephron is the basic structural and functional unit of the kidney. In humans, a normal kidney contains 800,000 to 1.5 million nephrons. Nephrons are wave-like structures. Its chief function is to regulate the concentration of water and soluble substances like sodium salts by filtering the blood.

About the Electro Magnetic System

The last  Fractal Branching System, the Meridians, is a Fast Electro-Magnetic Channel that connects to Organs to the Spine and the CNS.

The Ancient Chinese Scientists believed that this System pumps its Energy, the Chi Force, out of the Earth Magnetic Field.

The Ancient Egyptian Scientists believed the same thing. They named  the Four Cavities the Four Suns of Horus and the Spine, the Djed Pillar (Dj means “Snake”).

The Five Organs of Acupuncture

The Five Systems of Acupuncture

About the number Five

The number Five (4 +1 ) plays an important role in Ancient Chinese Medicine.

The Central Fractal System, the One (1), the Fire System, the Blood System, with its Center the Heart,  contains Four (4) Links to the Other Systems.

The Four Systems are combinations of Two Forces, Expansion and Compression.

The Two Forces came out of One Force (“The Void“).

Two Systems contain the same combination (Expansion x Expansion (Wood, Gall Bladder, Liver, Three Heater), Compression x Compression (Metal, Lungs)).

Two Systems combine Expansion and Compression in a different order (Expansion x Compression, Compression x Expansion). They create a Wave (Water, Bladder, Kidney) or Spiral -like (Earth, Immune System) structures.

The Five Spheres of the Body are incorporated in one Super Protective Sphere, the Coelum, the Skin.

In the Human Embryo the First step of Division of the Cells is between the Coelum,the Multi-Cellar Body, and the Brain, the CNS. In the first step the One was divided into the Two, the Actor and the Monitor.

The CNS  “mirrors” the activities of  the Body and acts as a “predictive simulator”.

The Shape of the CNS is a mirror (Up-Side-Down) of the Shape of the Multic-Cellular Body.

The Bilateria are a Fuse of two Organisms in which one organism changed into the Body and the other changed into the Brain.

These two structures are always competing in the Human Being.

The Brain is Looking Up at the Sky. The Body is Looking Down at Mother Earth, it’s Creator.

The Brain and the Body are United in  the Heart, the Balancer of Body and Soul and the Keeper of the Rhythm (The Pericardium).

Sponge

Sponge, The Tube

About Bacteria

The Body Shape of the Tube was inherited from the first Multi-Cellular Organism, the Sponge. The Sponge is a  Static Cluster of Amoeba, free moving bacteria, that are propelled by their flagellum (a Roter).

Bacterium

The Basic Building Block of the Body, the Bacterium

Bacteria are small chemical factories that are able to share and combine their production processes by exchanging DNA.

With their flagellum the Bacteria Explore the environment to find the chemical food they need. When they have found food the Circulation of the Flagellum moves into the Opposite Direction.

The bacterium integrates incoming chemical signals during a few-second period of its travels, and adjusts its direction of advance accordingly.

The integration is achieved through temporary chemical modifications to molecules located in the bounding membrane, which transfer nutrients to the cytoplasm, and also through changes to certain other molecules in the interior of the cell. Such integration is essentially a short-term memory mechanism.

Bacteria exchange their DNA

Bacteria exchange their DNA

At a certain moment the Bacteria got together because the Sponge is a much more Efficient Metabolic Structure than a group of Free Moving Bacteria.

Strangely enough the DNA of the Sponge already contains the complete Bleuprint of the Humans.

Scientists now believe that most species on earth are a result of a loss of DNA from the original Bleuprint that was created when the Bacteria finally fused into one Organism.

About the Nano-Level

Recently scientists have found Electric Fields as strong as 15 million volts per meter in the Nano-Parts of the Cells. These fields are as strong as those produced in lightning bolts.

It’s not clear what causes these strong fields or what they might mean but they could account for a until now unknown (by Science) or well-known (by the Old Scientists, Chi) Source of  Bodily Energy.

The nano-parts of the Cell could be the very very very small universal building blocks of Nature.

What has Happened?

In the beginning the Chemical Soup generated Self-Reproducing Chemical Factories.

These Factories combined into bigger Factories by exchanging and combining their factory-designs.

Every time when the Factories fused they became more Efficient, Bigger, Stronger, Older and therefore more Competitive.

When the Factories became more competitive they had to Protect themselves against the other Factories.

To Protect themselves the Multi-Cellular Systems started to Sense in Many Directions.

In the first step a Nerve-Net was created.

In the second step one part of the Organism turned Upside-Down and became a Specialized Predictive System (the CNS).

This part fused with the Bodily Part creating one Organism that contained Two Organisms.

The Bilateria, the Organisms with Two Complementary Parts, Body and Mind, were born.

Some of the Bilateria called Humans fused in Social Structures and the Social Structures fused and fused and became more efficient, bigger, stronger, older and therefore more competitive.

In due time they will Rule the Earth and will start to create bigger and bigger systems until they will rule the complete Universe.

To make this possible the Humans need every other part of Nature to Sustain their Growth. This will certainly result in a huge Collapse of their own Eco-System.

The main reason this is happening is that the Humans forgot to Copy the Designs of Mother Nature.

The Brain (Thinking and Sensing, Left Brain), Looking Up at the Sky,  believed it could do a much Better Job than it’s counterpart the Multi-Cellular Body (Emotions and Imagination, Right Brain), Looking Down at the Earth, the Source of All Creation.

Kleiber’s Law shows that we are now using 122 times more Energy per Person than we really would need if we would Scale in the right way.

What can we learn from Kleiber’s Law?

All organisms including the humans depend for their maintenance and reproduction on the close integration of numerous subunits.

These components need to be serviced in a relatively `democratic’ and efficient fashionto supply energy, remove waste  and regulate activity.

Natural Selection solved this problem byevolving hierarchical fractal-like branching networks, whichdistribute Energy, Information and Materials between Big Reservoirs (“Lungs”) and Small Connection Points (“Alveoli”) of other Circulatory Systems (“Blood”).

This Fractal Bottum-Up approach is highly effective and efficient.

The not-fractal, Top-Down,  machinery designed by the Humans is Scaled with a factor 1 so we can improve a lot by copying Mother Nature.

LINKS

About Goethe and Morphology

About the Heart Chakra or Why the Heart connects the Brain and the Body

How to use the Heart to find Balance

About the Heart and Ethics

Why Humans look a lot like Bacteria

About Kleibers Law and the Rain Forest

About the Five Worldviews

A movie about Fractal Structures in Nature

About the Fusion of Water in the Cell

About the Number Five in Chinese Medicine

Why Humans are part of Super Organisms

How the Humans evolved out of the Bacteria

About the Left and the Right Brain

About the Void

How the Heart synchronizes the Body

About the Fast Transmisson Channel in the Body

About Kleiber’s Law

A general model to explain Kleiber’s Law

About Kleiber’s Law and the Growth of Cities

About the Immune System

About Bacteria

About the Law of Kleiber and Ant Colonies

The terrestrial evolution of metabolism and life

A movie about the origin of vertebrates

About Morphology or How Alan Turing Made the Dream of Goethe Come True

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

The Ancient Greeks believed that the images of waking life and dreams came from the same source, Morpheus (Μορφέας, Μορφεύς), “He who Shapes“.

The Science of the Shapes, Morphology, was created and named by Goethe in his botanical writings (“Zur Morphologie“, 1817).

Goethe used comparative anatomical methods, to discover a primal plant form that would contain all the others-the Urpflanze. Goethe being a Romantic Idealist hoped that Morphology would Unify Science and Art.

The Uhrplant shows itself also in the Lungs and Riversystems

The Uhrplant shows itself also in the Lungs and Riversystems

“The Primal Plant is going to be the strangest creature in the world, which Nature herself shall envy me. With this model and the key to it, it will be possible to go on forever inventing plants and know that their existence is logical”. Nature always plays, and from which she produces her great variety. Had I the time in this brief span of life I am confident I could extend it to all the realms of Nature – the whole realm“.

Goethe (wikipedia)

Goethe (wikipedia)

Hundred years later in the 1920s Goethe’s dream came true. Morphology moved outside Biology to other parts of Science due to the works of D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, Oswald Spengler Morphology of History, Carol O. Sauer Morphology of Landscape, Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale and Alfred North Whitehead Process and Reality.

Goethe observed nature and reflected on similar structures. He believed that there was something behind this similarity, an archetypal plant.

According to Goethe the archetypal plant was the leaf (“While walking in the Public Gardens of Palermo it came to me in a flash that in the organ of the plant which we are accustomed to call the leaf lies the true Proteus who can hide or reveal himself in all vegetal forms. From first to last the plant is nothing but leaf“).

At this moment scientists know the reason why the leaf is the most important structure of the plant. It is a solar collector full of photosynthetic cells.

The energy of the sun provides the energy to transform water from the roots gathered by the leafs and carbon dioxide out of the air also gathered by the leafs, into sugar and oxygen. Plants are structures with many leaves. These leafs shield other leafs from collecting sunlight and water.

To solve this problem a plant has to optimize its structure to collect enough Sunlight and Water. The process of Optimization is not a Central Coordinated action. Every leaf tries to find the best place in the Sun on its own. This place determinates the growth of the next level of branches and leafs.

Goethe observed a pattern and deduced a structure, the leaf, the Uhrplanze. What Goethe really observed was not a Static Uhrplant but the Dynamic Process of the Branching of all kinds of leaves in all kinds of plants (Morpho-Genesis).

The leafs of the plants are not the main target of the morphogenesis of the plant. The visible External and the invisible Internal Forms or Organs are one of the many solutions of an equation with many variables and constraints. The optimal solution is reached by experimenting (“Nature always plays”).

Many solutions fail but some survive (Evolution of the Fittest). When a solution survives it is used as a Foundation to find new rules for more specific problems (Specialization). When the environment, the context, changes old rules have to be replaced by new rules (a Paradigm Shift).

The Fractal Geometry of Nature

The Fractal Geometry of Nature

New mathematical paradigms in the field of the Machines and Languages (Alan Turing, The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis) and the Self-Referencial Geometry of Nature (Benoît Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature) have stimulated further investigation in the Field of Morphology.

In 1931, in a monograph entitled On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems Gödel proved that it is impossible to define a theory that is both Self-Consistent and Complete. The paper of Gödel destroyed the ambitions of the Mathematicians at that time to define one theory that explains everything.

In 1936 Alan Turing produced a paper entitled On Computable Numbers. In this paper Alan Turing defined a Universal Machine now called a Turing Machine. A Turing machine contains an infinite tape that can move backwards and forwards and a reading/writing device that changes the tape. The Turing Machine represents every Theory we can Imagine.

Turing proved that the kinds of questions the machine can not solve are about its own Performance. The machine is Unable to Reflect about Itself. It needs another independent machine, an Observer or Monitor to do this.

It can be proved that Turing proved the so called Incompleteness Theorem and the Undecidability Theorem of Gödel in a very simple way.

eniac

The Eniac

In 1943 Turing helped to Crack the Codes of the Germans in the Second World War. At that time the first computers were build (Eniac, Collossus).

It was very difficult to Program a Computer. This problem was solved when Noam Chomsky defined the Theory of Formal Grammars in 1955 (The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory).

When you want to define a Language you need two things, an Alphabet of symbols and Rules. The symbols are the End-Nodes (Terminals) of the Network of Possibilities that is produced when the Rules (Non-Terminals) are Applied. The Alphabet and the (Production- or Rewriting) rules are called a Formal Grammar.

If the Alphabet contains an “a” and a “p” the rules S→AAP, A→”a” and P→”p” produce the result “aap”. Of course this system can be replaced by the simple rule S→”aap”. The output becomes an infinite string when one of the rules contains a Self-Reference. The rules A→a and S→AS produce an Infinity String of “a’-s (“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….”).

The system becomes more complicated when we put terminals and rules (non-terminals) on the Left Side. The System S→aBSc, S→abc, Ba→aB and Bb→bb produces strings like, “abc”, “aabbcc” and “aaabbbccc”. In fact it produces all the strings a**n/b**n/c**n with n>0.

The inventor of the theory of Formal Grammar, Chomsky, defined a Hierarchy of Languages. The most complex languages in his hierarchy are called Context-Dependent and Unrestricted. They represent complex networks of nodes.

A language where the left-hand side of each production rule consists of only a single nonterminal symbol is called a Context Free language. Context Free Languages are used to define Computer Languages. Context Free Languages are defined by a hierarchical structure of nodes. Human Languages are dependent on the context of the words that are spoken.

It is therefore impossible to describe a Human Language, Organisms, Organisations and Life Itself with a Context Free Computer Language.

Context Free Systems with very simple rule-systems produce natural and mathematical structures. The System A → AB, B → A models the Growth of Algae and the Fibonacci Numbers.

A Recognizer or Parser determinates if the output of a formal grammar is produced by the grammar. Parsers are used to check and translate a Program written in a Formal (Context Free) Language to the level of the Operating System of the Computer.

grammarRegular and Context Free Grammars are easily recognized because the process of parsing is linear (causal, step by step). The stucture of the language is a hierarchy.

The recognizer (now called a Push-Down Machine) needs a small memory to keep the books.

Context Dependent (L-systems) and Unrestricted Grammars are difficult to recognize or are not recognizable in practice because the parser needs a huge sometimes Infinite Memory or Infinite Time to complete its task.

To find the Context the Recognizer has to jump backwards and forwards through the infinite string to detect the pattern.

If the network loops the recognizer will Never Stop (“The Halting Problem“).

Turing proved that the Halting Problem is Undecidable. We will Never Know for Sure if an Unrestricted Grammar contains Loops.

The Rules and the Output of Unrestricted Grammars Change and never stop Changing. Our Reality is certainly Context Dependent and perhaps Unrestricted.

Parsing or Recognizing looks like (is similar with) the process of Scientific Discovery. A theory, a Grammar of a Context-Free Systems (“aaaaaaaaaaa…”) is recognizable (testable) in Finite Time with a Finite Memory. Theories that are Context Dependent or Unrestricted cannot be proved although the Output of the Theory generates Our Observation of Nature. In this case we have to trust Practice and not Theory.

cellular automata

A 3D Cellular Automaton

In 2002 the Mathematician Stephen Wolfram wrote the book A New Kind of Science.

In this book he tells about his long term Experiments with his own Mathematical Program Mathematica. Wolfram defined a System to Generate and Experiment with Cellular Automata.

Wolfram believes that the Science of the Future will be based on Trial and Error using Theory Generators (Genetic Algorithms). The big problem with Genetic Algorithms is that they generate patterns we are unable to understand. We cannot  find Metaphors and Words to describe the Patterns in our Language System.

This problem was adressed by the famous Mathematician Leibniz who called this the Principle of Sufficient Reason.

Leibniz believed that our Universe was based on Simple Understandable Rules that are capable of generating Highly Complex Systems.

It is now very clear that the Self-Referencial Structures, the Fractals, of Mandelbrot are the solution of this problem.

The Scientific Quest at this moment is to find the most simple Fractal Structure that is capable of explaining the Complexity of our Universe. It looks like this fractal has a lot to do with the Number 3.

It is sometimes impossible to define a structured process to recognize (to prove) a Grammar. Therefore it is impossible to detect the rules of Mother Nature by a Structured process. The rules of Mother Nature are detected by Chance just like Goethe discovered the Uhrplanze. Science looks a lot like (is similar with) Mother Nature Herself.

When a Grammar is detected it is possible to use this grammar as a Foundation to find new solutions for more specific problems (Specialization, Add More Rules) or when the system is not able to respond to its environment it has to Change the Rules (a Paradigm Shift). All the time the result of the System has to be compared with Mother Nature herself (Recognizing, Testing, Verification).

Turing proved that if Nature is equivalent to a Turing machine we, as parts of this machine, can not generate a complete description of its functioning.

In other words, a Turing machine, A Scientific Theory, can be a very useful tool to help humans design another, improved Turing Machine, A new Theory, but it is not capable of doing so on its own – A Scientific Theory, A System, can not answer Questions about Itself.

The solution to this problem is to Cooperate. Two or more (Human) Machines, A Group, are able to Reflect on the Other. When the new solution is found the members of the Group have to Adopt to the new solution to move on to a New Level of Understanding and drop their own Egoistic Theory.

Each of the individuals has to alter its Own Self and Adapt it to that of the Group. It is proved that Bacteria use this Strategy and are therefore unbeatable by our tactics to destroy them.

Turing proved that Intelligence requires Learning, which in turn requires the Human Machine to have sufficient Flexibility, including Self Alteration capabilities. It is further implied that the (Human) Machine should have the Freedom to make Mistakes.

Perfect Human Machines will never Detect the Patterns of Nature because they get Stuck in their Own Theory of Life.

The Patterns of Turing

The Patterns of Turing

The Only ONE who is able to Reflect on the Morphogenesis of Mother Nature is the Creator of the Creator of Mother Nature, The Void.

Gregory Chaitin used the theory of Chomsky and proved that we will never be able to understand  The Void.

The Void is beyond our Limits of Reason. Therefore the first step in Creation will always be  a Mystery.

At the end of his life (he commited suicide) Alan Turing started to investigate Morphology.

As you can see the Patterns of Alan Turing are created by combining many Triangels. The Triangel is called the Trinity in Ancient Sciences.

According to the Tao Tse King, “The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things”, which means that the Trinity is the Basic Fractal Pattern of the Universe.

In modern Science this pattern is called the Bronze Mean.

It generates so called Quasi Crystals and the Famous Penrose Tilings.

The Bronze Mean is represented by the Ancient Structure of the Sri Yantra (“Devine Machine”).

Goethe was not the real discoverer of Morphology. The knowledge was already there 8000 years ago.

LINKS

About the Observer and Second Order Cybernetics

A PDF About the Morphology of Music.

The origins of life and context-dependent languages

A Website About the Morphology of Botanic Systems

A Website About the Morphology of Architectural Systems

A Plant Simulator using Morphology

About Intelligent Design

The Mathematical Proof of Gödel of the Existence of God

About Bacteria 

About the Bronze Mean

About the Trinity