Oranic Space-Time vs. Mechanical Space-Time

The quantum coherence of liquid crystalline organisms

In Yi-Fu Tuan's essay Time and Place, he describes the relationship of time and place as an intricate problem that invites different approaches. The three that Tuan explores are: time as motion or flow and place as a pause in the temporal current; attachment to a place as a function of time; and place as time made visible, or place as memorial to times past. According to the laws of Newton, if you know the initial conditions of any object in space, it is possible to predict the future of that object as well as retrodict the past. Time plays no part, it is reversible. This universe of absolute space-time views things as separate solid object with definite locations.

Thermodynamics, which is roughly the way in which systems exchange energy and matter with their environment, introduced times arrow into physics and hence the idea of irreversible processes. If the world is a big machine, then entropy implies it is slowing down, energy is leaking out, it could not last for ever, and time therefore, took on a new meaning. However, if we observe the world around us it is clear that some processes such as evolutionary biology are speeding up. Ilya Prigogine revolutionized thermodynamics by showing that the classical results were only valid for closed systems, where the overall quantities of energy are always conserved. If one allows an intense flow of energy in or out of the system (pushing it far from equilibrium), the number and type of historical outcomes greatly increases. Instead of a unique and simple form of stability, we now have multiple coexisting forms of varying complexity. Moreover, when a system switches from one stable state to another (at a critical point called a bifurcation) minor fluctuations may play a crucial role in deciding the outcome. At this point systems will either dissolve into chaos or radically self-organize and jump to a higher level of complexity. This new state is termed a dissipative structure and demonstrates how entropy can actually produce order.

Deterministic physics views the world as a static machine. Objects exist in space and time, where as organisms in essence are of space-time, meaning that they create space-time by their actions that are not always predictable. Physics deals with deterministic systems, but biology is an evolutionary process. Thermodynamics proves that the 'universal laws are not so universal after all. In fact, they only apply to local regions of reality (such as the motion of a pendulum, or planetary movement). Most phenomena of interest us are open systems in which time plays a much more crucial role. Einstein's theory of relativity also helped to break up Newton's perfect world and asserts a multitude of space-time frames, each tied to a particular observer, who therefore not only has a different clock, but also a different map.

The living organism maintain a complex level of quantum coherence. This means that every molecule in an organism, though it is moving, maintains a relationship to that of its neighbors maximizing local freedom while also providing global coherence. Organisms are partially determined by genetics, but also communicate and send message with the environment. At any time one of these message can modulate the system causing it to mutate but still maintain the relationship of its components in relation to each other and to the whole. Similar to a giant orchestra in which every individual musician is capable of improvisation while still staying in time with the rest of the group. All of these molecules in our bodies are moving together but they give the appearance of being static. This is made possible because the molecules exist in a dynamic crystalline state that is highly sensitive to intensive effects (such as heat and pressure) and connected by a matrix that allows it to synchronize itself. Because light vibrates much faster than the coherent rhythms of molecules, organisms appear static under polarizing microscopes. This is proof of their quantum coherence.

Time is very much a factor in all processes of life. Molecules are constantly moving, combining, dissolving and recycling into other formations. Inert objects are simply the extensive (metric quantities) crystallization of processes. These historical processes account for all structures that we see around us and that constitute our reality.