David L Rice
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Member # 167
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posted 20. March 2002 12:44
When you think about it organisms are gigantic flow diagrams or information landscapes. A road map is also an information landscape. When we consider the nature of just what information is it becomes intuitive that information cannot be discerned unless there is a directional movement, flow or transfer from one source to another. In the case of a book, for example, the information is not recognized unless there is some type of transfer from the book to your eye. Movement of information is both the initial cause and sustaining cause of biochemical and physiological systems.
In the case of living organisms this information flow can be detected and illustrated from the molecular scale up to the scale of the organism itself and the environment. But how can we know that mere mapping of the information gets us to design? Well I think I've got at least a partial answer - information mapping can be a way of illustrating how irreducible features interact. Schematic flow diagrams at different scales can illustrate that at one scale directional information becomes the cause and at another scale it becomes the effect. I think that irreducible systems not only merely contain parts or systems that cannot be removed but also the parts (or systems) themselves operate differently at different scales. Just like a road map of the state of Mississippi I won't know a thing about getting around the state capitol unless I zoom in to the city itself. Likewise I can't get out of the city unless I zoom out so that I can find the interstate. We find this same property in designed systems and we find it in living systems. Design cannot only be detected empirically but it can also be mapped. This is just an idea but I think there is some applicability here.
I wonder if information mapping will apply to demonstrating design in say....an insect’s visual system. Basic characteristics of the system involved might include the flow of light, optical properties of ommatidia, inter-ommatidial properties or relationships, behavior, enzyme kinemtics, connections for transfers of information and even OPEN SPACE as a component source of information.
Just a thought.........
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