Foreword
Some questions are universal. How did the world begin? What came before? What came before that? Who made it? Children are naturally curious. And it seems the role of an adult is to channel curiosity until it fits the standard model. The standard model is an obvious goal there for the child to see, it is the adult’s guide. Despite the inadequacy of their logic the non-answers come heavily laden with hints of obligations. The nature of creation and a possible creator divide the answers but each stream fails to address the further questions that arise. In the end there is one outstanding claim that dries up the questions. Trust me I am an adult and what I say is the best way for you to survive in this world. Even science falls foul when asked these questions. I must have been about fifteen when I first realized the adult dilemma. There was nothing before the universe came into being! But how could so much energy and mass come from nothing? How could there not be space and time before the universe began? It is a singularity, a one-off event never to be repeated again within our universe! But, but, but that goes against both the conservation and continuity principles doesn’t it? Sixty years later I feel better placed to give a logical answer. This is in the main due to understandings of the world made possible by modern scientific explorations and understandings. But it is also due to my never giving up on asking questions, refusing to bow to the dictatorship of the standard model and continuously searching for better answers. The following discourse outlines a world view that I believe allows the answers to the basic questions to be better addressed without departure from the scientific model. However it does differ from the belief that the current standard model is unquestionnable. It introduces four new ideas I consider essential. The first is the strengthening of the role of the time vector by tying events in a particular space to the flow of time. The second involves the transforming mechanism of evolution which enables the time vector and its events in space links to anticipate, shape and exploit the future. The third major idea is the recognition and defining of eternal zones that evolution of the universe and life has always relied on. We humans have always exploited this idea but in the main have not acknowledged its importance. And the fourth idea is the natural existence of a simple chain mechanism that gives evolution the ability to maximise chance. It is this that makes natural selection work.
Anticipation and its fore-effects
This paper
trespasses on the art of anticipation since it deals with natural
mechanisms that enable life forms to perceive the future based on
deduced links between past and present. It may
seem like a trespass on the forward march of time but it already occurs
as I hope to demonstrate. And I will show that the mechanism that allows
this intrusion into the past is the relentless unchanging forward
progression of time.
Anticipation implies an inbuilt ability to hold past and present
experiences in some storage area where it can be processed then used in
a predictive program developed to respond to what is stored. This is a
complex sequence of behaviours in which the future picture becomes a
shaper of the present. I believe
there are two valid mechanisms by which the future and present interact. One
involves the use of the past to predict the future independent of time,
place or substance such as in our everyday assumption the sun will come
up and set. The other
involves a class of events in which past events generate mechanisms that
enable control over the future as
demonstrated by the ability to catch a ball or to eat plant and animal
matter and turn it into energy. To make discussion easier I will refer to the latter mechanism which involve shaping the future as fore-science and the kind that relies only on the past and present to predict the future as projective-science. Science
already embraces both these modes of prediction but its major focus has
arguably been on the projective aspects.
Whenever we make predictions there are choices to be made and these are shaped by the fundamental assumptions guiding our selections.
Projective science isn't free
of assumptive values for its basic premise is that the universe has
continuous order which enables past events to be a guide to the future.
This principle is fundamental
to all of science and there is ample evidence a similar assumption is
built into living things. For instance every time a bird flies it
assumes it can because of its past experience.
Every law or principle in
science is a form of projection of this ordered continuity concept.
Whenever claims are made as to how the universe, nature and life will
evolve it is making this assumption. Whenever a law of science is quoted
it is assumed that the future will fit with our experience of the past.
There have been and still are
instances when scientists have realized that that assumption is not
holding within a newly discovered environment or niche. Yet they don't
need to discard the basic assumption; just acknowledge that their
experience of the past has been expanded and reformulate the laws to
accommodate the novel experience.
Fore-science relies on this
same principle but it comes to its laws via a different path.
In using the past as a means
to the future an organism relies on the structures built within it in
the past. These structures allow that organism to be present in the
future and be prepared for what lies ahead. Its ability to do this
relies passively on projective-science but critically it also relies on
a transformation of passive awareness into a more proactive form.
We already know that these
proactive mechanisms exist. You are a prime example of them at work as
is every living thing.
Non evolutionary material
displays no ability to expand its behaviour whereas life-forms have
already established that their ordered continuity pattern is based on
filling potentials within any reachable environment. Any seemingly
willful expansion of behaviour is one indicator that proactive mechanisms
are involved.
And time is one such
environmental niche that life-forms have uniquely mastered.
Non-evolutionary material has
no mechanism to direct its growth path; it resides in the instant within
the continuous ordering of time. Yet the constraint imposed by
minuteness of the instant is able to be escaped by living things. This
interaction with time is another indicator of an inbuilt proactive
program.
Yet within a continuous
ordered system projective predicting is highly valuable since it is the
starting point that nature had to work with in bringing about life and
evolution.
The purpose of this article is
to explore how passive selection can be transformed by chance alone into
mechanisms that seem to learn from the past how to shape and control
their future. It is the story of how evolution enabled the escape from
insentience.
Physio-chemical material has
no inbuilt evolutionary capacity. There is nothing that allows such
material to conceive of space, matter or time or ways to alter events.
Neither atoms nor gravity create planets but together they determine the
laws by which the stars and planets form. There is no element of choice;
what happens is inevitable.
And there are no laws that
non-evolutionary forms understand; their future is not uncertain but it
is neither known nor cared about. Rocks and planets don't dwell upon why
and how they exist nor do they understand why they erode faster in a
storm.
However evolutionary forms
change through time and that change has seen increasing awareness of how
the universe works. Each step in evolution spreads the range of
recognition of the universe’s capacity; it is an ordered continuity that
progresses smoothly without gaps or complete novelty. There is therefore
a hierarchy of development involving the same pillars mass, energy,
space and time that defined our universe. This distinction is of course
the same idea that underpins Darwin’s theory of evolution. His natural
selection mechanisms are the foundation of the process that
distinguishes nature from the elementary universe.
The impassive elements are
used in all evolutionary forms but only function properly when bound within a
regulated togetherness. So the hierarchy of evolution has to flow along
a route that builds togetherness. It is only then that there is a
possibility of enhancing dimensions of the universe through evolved
creations. That there is such a path is evidenced by life forms all of
which reveal a tendency to become richer and more complex over time. And
further this trend increasingly reflects more and more of the universe’s
dimensions. But the nature of the non-evolutionary elements has a vital division we perceive as time, mass, energy and space. Each of these has continuity. However mass and energy are seen as interchangeable (E=mc^2). There is is also an expansionary aspect involving time and space that locks its continuity into a singular concept, that of space-time. Whether space and time are considered as independent entities or a singular concept it is evident the universe has expanded and continues to do so. This has implications for mass-energy.
There can be little doubt that such expansion must comply with two
principles, continuity and conservation. These two principles should tie all of
the elements mass, energy, space and time to the unchanging totality of
the four.
Accordingly as the universe
expands the products of mass-energy would diminish at an equivalent rate
as space-time gets bigger which in itself implies a limit to the
existence of the universe. Even if this were not so we assume the
universe has a long time left in which to exist.
And while there is a future
evolution will continue to expand into each and every niche the universe
and its expansion generates. Hence the remainder of time is a critical
factor for this evolutionary process since it determines where we as a
species will stand in a scheme whose history sees species continuously
superseded. We can properly assume that the time remaining for life
forms is far more immense than that of the universe's past and that our
existence as a species is only transitory.
Evolution doesn't begin with the luxury of choice
Currently lifeforms have
vastly expanded their handling of past time and so have inbuilt
capabilities to remember and act upon the past to handle their immediate
future.
Remarkably although evolution
currently has no thinking process it is capable of implanting mechanisms
that shape the future.
For instance you came from
just two cells that seemed to know how to grow, divide and specialise
their function. Those cells held the secret to who you are now and they
still continue along a path that stays with you until you die. But there
is no choice in any of this. On the other hand your future is not
totally predestined.
There are already many ways in
which nature has recognized the power of the future without ever making
a choice. Memory, reaction times and thought are all mechanisms that
have evolved to enable the future and past to be exploited. And what we
know of evolution is there is more to come but probably not in any of
our lifetimes nor necessarily in the human species.
Scientists are most
comfortable in the paradigm of the experiment and so most research takes
place where data for experiment is most rich. This means that evolution
usually receives more research attention for its projective-science
capacity rather than its fore-science aspects. Yet remarkable things
have and will happen outside this attention zone.
One such example of this data
bias is in the language skills of the youngest of children who can't yet
speak; children under two years of age. Their age means that the most
vital aspects of their learning capabilities aren’t easily accessed. We
can have no doubt that they are developing and possess language skills
and that it involves the most remarkable type of learning. It is totally
intuitive yet newly born children pick out patterns that become the base
for not only vocabulary but for comprehension of meaning and context.
It isn't just copying for if
we adults had the same skills we would be far more multilingual than we
are. Mimicry comes later and the ease of that technique may well lead to
the demise of that skill that enables learning from a vacuum. In most
cases by the time that testing can take place that earliest of learning
skills is no longer as active. But we know that the art they had wasn’t
just that of repetition; not all animals can speak and even those we
train to mimic sounds have no skills for language.
It is in this early period
that the development of living forms utilizes the same process central
to evolution; it relies on processes that seem to be acts of choice
rather than of learned or copied mechanisms. However the choice
mechanism is originally built from chance events tuned to take advantage
of opportunity.
It
is therefore by an evolutionary implanted program that chance is able to
fill innate potential whenever the environment offers it. The program is
the element that makes living things different from the insentient.
The thing about young human
language proactive talents is that they are most detectable before a
child has reached an age where it can converse on the many aspects of
their daily life. The first words known don’t have a base that speeds
their learning so it isn't dependent on a process of observing and
studying the structure of language and speech. And when a child before
the age of three turns the words heard from a fluent speaker into a
response that is transformed from the speaker's context to that of the
child we are being gifted a precious moment. When
me or I becomes
you and
yours is returned as
mine a complex relationship
has been understood. There have been many such moments I have
experienced as a parent and grand-parent and I remain in awe as to the
means by which the very young grasp the linguistic opportunities offered
in human-kind.
And this isn't merely the
pride of parenthood that makes me admire this aspect of childhood since
I like many others know advanced learning skills in the young is
commonly observed.
Children have a far greater
capacity than adults to learn more than one language before the rules of
projective behaviour are solidly imprinted into their brain.
We can understand the reasons
why fore-science mechanisms should be in play at this early age since in
all species and age-groups there is a natural void to be escaped; a void
that doesn't automatically permit learning by comparison or repetition.
But once its task is filled and
the easier skills offered by comparison are in place then the earliest
skills seem to fade.
And you will know that for all
the many times you have heard people speak a different language as an
adult you haven't progressed at the rate of a child of less than three.
Like me you probably can't speak Italian, Greek, German or any other
language which people speak constantly in your community. For us of a
mature age when a learning task is really new and starts with nothing
we end with nothing unless we dedicate our attention and efforts to the
learning task. For grown up people successful learning rarely is a
natural result of exposure to repetition. But starting with no words or
guides to style and context a child builds a vocabulary, learns how to
speak, put it into context and use proper grammar.
But we aren't alone in having
notable skills; animals have similarly bewildering abilities. Some can
change their colour or patterning to match that of their background,
others can return to ancient nesting sites they have never seen and
follow traditional paths without guidance. We suspect such behaviours
are explicable through inherited evolutionary traits but this mechanical
means doesn't make their existence any less remarkable. They too start
in a void that finds context through their innate evolutionary implanted
program. For living things in the earliest stages of growth the past is not the source of their future development, it has to be something in the present that offers the means. The new-born child doesn't go back to the womb to learn to speak and home-seeking creatures can't make infinitely small trips that extend their range further over a large period of time.
But neither is the present the
permanent domain of the newly-born child. There is no reason propelling
change; yet the baby voluntarily grows but not in obedience to a
parental command.
The present and past are both
comfortable states beyond which there is no need for more yet they do
proceed into the unknown and into their future. It is true that progress
is restricted in the absence of appropriate stimuli but an abundance of
speech in an environment doesn't enable a dog to talk; there is a
requirement that there also be both an appropriate drive and an
available path.
It is the future that frames
the growth of the newly born; a future known and prepared for in a
manner implying knowledge of what will work and prepare the way. All
this is set down in hidden code. And much of this code has no present
meaning nor is there any visible sign it is there at all. It is the past
that has set the code, the present that is shaped by it and the future
that relies upon its yet untapped content.
In the DNA past, present and
future are one. By contrast a rock or solar system doesn't have such a
future link controlling its destiny; what they will become is dictated
solely by external factors. But the DNA that controls the future has no
meaning for the present; there are no images or detailed manuals nor are
there little miniature models of organs lying dormant. A dormant trigger
is all there is and it will only activate under the influence of a
favourable future environment. The event it triggers may be found in the
distant past beyond the life span of the host and require a vast array
of sequential changes to occur before it will do its work.
The DNA is the mechanism
whereby the future reaches back to the past to ensure that the present
is shaped to make a particular future happen. And the present has no
clue as to the precious cargo it carries.
Significantly the DNA doesn't
allow for infinite possibilities since there are shapes and patterns
giving both potential and bounds. The human child doesn't become a cat.
We know a lot about what that child will become if it lives a normal
life and yet we with diagnostic abilities far greater than most living
things can only guess the nature of the adult that evolves from the
child.
It is obvious when we consider
these aspects of development in living things that nature through
evolution has learnt to shape the future; it passes on things from the
past and makes the future have form that would not normally exist in the
absence of life but this is not just a result of projective science.
At the same time as it
experiences events and build records of the past it is putting in place
things that make the future form possible, things which may cause the
living being to transform from its current shape, size, colour or
function and in so doing the present is being shaped by the future. The
caterpillar is shaped by the butterfly as much as the butterfly by the
caterpillar since when you see a caterpillar you are looking at a time
capsule whose packages manufacture a carefully crafted creature of
the future.
These processes that enable
futuristic designing and manufacturing of highly functional creatures
are built through evolution and each relied for its origin on natural
selection that involved natural events and chance. In the beginning
choice plays no part yet lifeforms include many choice making
mechanisms. In these choice- capable proactive mechanisms awareness,
memory motivation and anticipation and many similar conceptual factors
are critical.
It is the choice-capable
proactive evolutionary products that I class as mechanisms of
fore-science. It is the reliance on unique qualities needed to make
choices and be proactive that make fore-science markedly different from
projective-science that uses past observation alone to judge future
space-time mass-energy aspects of our universe
The Fore-science
Platform
The mechanism that first allows an insensate structure to exploit choices has to work without having any internal support; it must be environmentally driven. This is as true of evolution as it is of every life-form and chemical-reaction that exists. So what are the agencies capable of producing the qualities seen in evolution?
The agencies behind evolution
are seen in every one of its creations. They are continuity and
conservation but the third factor is the expansion inescapably linked to
space and time. It is this third factor that provides kinesis which is
the factor leading to insentient things seeming to have drive and
purpose.
It is easy to envisage
continuity of space for we are used to plains and seas stretching as far
as the eye can see. Experience of such things is commonplace and
involves one instant of time and a continuous sequence of locations.
And we can just as readily
imagine an object existing over a continuous span of time in which we
have one locally defined space observed over a continuous sequence of
time. The dropping of a ball, cooking of a meal, a television program
all confirm our assumptions as to the continuity and conservation
relationship between space, matter and energy over a passage of time.
Continuity is a fundamental
quality on which our judgment of the universe relies but so too is
conservation; we expect the sum of the fundamental elements at one
instance of space or time to be exactly the same at any other instance
of that same quality.
But neither continuity nor
conservation can lead to kinesis; a motion, direction or impulse.
Kinesis evokes considerations of an act of choice, motivation, change,
force or drive.
It is expansion of space-time
that provides kinesis to the universe and in so doing it generates
considerations such as awareness and evolution that have no relevance in
a static system.
It is kinesis that has the
capacity to change insentient material into structures that seem able to
make choices even though such a property is not universal.
Importantly space-time
expansion changes environments and hence there is obviously more room
for dynamics that move materials from denser zones to those less
occupied. Even things that weren't once possible may now be triggered;
new combinations, new interactions initiated by factors related to
space-time density such as temperature, nuclear fission and fusion may
now occur.
However opportunity doesn't
necessarily lead to sentience; it needs more than this for the universe
to be transformed from a place where only the laws of projective science
apply.
For opportunity to be of any
value it must persist thereby making possible that which happens
infrequently.
Opportunity is a quality that
self-evidently is not the same as continuity, conservation, expansion,
kinesis, mass, energy or space-time. Yet each of these independent
qualities is capable of both existence and co-existence with the others
without any act of choice being involved.
When these qualities coexist
then intrinsic pattern such as seen in resonant settings can produce dramatic changes. In such
circumstances each and every potential and niche within that environment
has a chance of being fulfilled.
Intrinsic
pattern is also an independent attribute of the universe which like all
the others is observable and thought to apply equally to all space-time
possibilities. And the eternal presence of a pattern resource within our
universe is fundamental to the universe’s existence as we know it. See
later for more detail on the nature and importance of naturally
occurring pattern templates.
But the persistence and
continuity of expansion generates a new equally critical dynamic. It
produces direction linked to time.
This linking of time to
direction in a physical form is a direct result of flows from the old
space confines into the freedoms and bound of the new. The universe of
change is vectored because of space-time being the actuality rather than
space and time as separate entities. So constant continuous expansion
means there will be time associated properties that differ from that of
a static system. This vectorial factor also is detailed further in a later section.
Significantly this independent
attribute of a vector offers another product upon which chance can act
and as it does it will inevitably alter the limitations of chance.
For instance a system like the
universe can and will naturally evolve by chance and from then on
contain the process called evolution.
So even at this early stage
the existent hierarchy can feed back on itself by including into its newly
created forms patterns that enhance the directional flow.
Each of these mandatory layers when in play within a bounded environment will have
predictable consequences which includes the potential for both evolution
and life.
The above has presented a case
for there being a plausible hierarchy of insentient events that can and
will set in motion the process we call evolution. Yet it is only through
living things that the future is manipulated to benefit the present.
There is still a way to go in
this presentation before the property of proactive life and fore-science
are reached. And an important element in achieving that goal is reliance
on the evolution of concepts.
This
type of evolution is fascinating because, like child learning, each
concept starts with nothing, evolves through passive chance factors and
merges with already existent proactive elements that transform it into a
fully fledged practitioner of fore-science.
Evolution and the hierarchy of concepts which dictate its form
From the above it becomes
apparent there are nine no-choice states that can and will inevitably
lead from existence of the pre-universe to the creation of our universe
and then onto the process we call evolution. These states are a growth
series with each state persisting as an underlay for all that follows
and significantly they are rigidly hierarchical with each lower state
requiring all the higher states for it to exist.
Understanding this hierarchal
nature adds new understanding to the processes of evolution and its
bonds with time, space and space-time.
Existence
is the highest level concept for anything and everything.
Existence is axiomatic requiring no proof for its acceptance. Existence
doesn't imply time or space but does infer there is content that is
distinguishable from an absolute void.
The next two levels provide
the highest order pillars for the organization of all that exists. The
first of these, the second level, is that of Conservation.
It is an empirical principle supported by everything that can be
observed. It can be concluded that conservation is valid even if there
was nothing able to observe it. And the evidence from the existence
factors at the first moment of our universe imply the principle holds
true for all existence even that outside the type of existence
represented by our space-time mass-energy version.
The third level
is that of Continuity
and it too is an empirical tool. Observations within our universe
suggest that its being here in the form we see relies on continuity of
space-time. And although existence and conservation may be applied to
the time before the universe began continuity is a product of adjacency
of objects and events. For example continuity, conservation and
existence are all observable within our universe within such things as
crystals.
However it is possible that
adjacent things might exist and be bound by conservation principles but
for there not to be either time or space e.g. the pre universe or an
alternate universe.
It is also possible to
consider that mass and energy might apply to a single point and instant.
In such an event there would be no time or space. The beginning point of
our universe is one example where this idea is applicable.
In the modern world where we
understand more about the internal structures of atoms and star systems
we have seen such behaviour. Black holes and neutron stars illustrate
the reality of these extremes.
The next layer, the fourth
in the hierarchy, is that of expansion of our universe. Our
acceptance of the expansion of the universe like that given to
conservation and continuity is based on observation but unlike them it
doesn't lead to an overarching principle that can extend beyond our
universe or to its components.
However expansion provides
dynamic new features to that which exist in its absence. Importantly it
gives directional movement and a progressive time system which when
combined give our universe a unique and fundamental vector quality.
Thus, the fifth layer
in the hierarchy; is perceived as continuous directional flows, the
primary path of which is the flow from the old state to the new.
It is a future seeking vector biased towards what is unfolding. It gives
time the quality of a marker with each and every shift in spatial flow
entwining with the flow of time. The overarching time scale is that of
the universe however expansion vectors are present in sub-systems of the
universe such as those of the atomic, quantum, life and astronomic
realms.
A time vector component
emerges out of expansion in any continuous orderly system. So everything
that grows will have its own unique time scale. For example human life
has a unique clock guiding the organism that is us from conception to
death.
So time and space, like
everything within, are the combination of continuity, conservation and
existence that is triggered by a set of unique internal environment
factors such as a phase change. Without that combination there is only
total disorder, total constraint or non-existence. However our
universe is not total chaos or totally constrained since it exists in
the manner we all experience.
Hence time is intertwined with
space and observed by us as an orderly, sequential, continuous expansion
of the universe. But expansion also exposes previously un-experienced
events triggered by phase changes in the state of the environment.
It is through expansion unique
opportunities emerge and it is this aspect that beckons events that
bring about change. Hence opportunity is the sixth level
of the hierarchy of factors needed in order for the creation of the
process we call evolution.
And yet the most likely result
in a system where all the above prevail is that nothing constructive
will emerge. What is required is persistence of new effects that enables
potential to be achieved. A rapidly expanding system bringing frequent
dramatic changes makes it unlikely that any potential that is achieved
will endure. A non-continuous expansion creates gaps that the past
cannot fill. And a snail-paced expansion sees faster pockets overwhelm
the slow.
It is these constraints that
dictate the seventh level of the hierarchy of essential
requirements. There must be persistence of events in order for
potential features to come to fruition. And the persistence required
will differ for different potentials depending on complexity and
divergence from the existing norms.
But even with persistence
added to the other earlier levels there is no guarantee that evolution
will result, another feature is required and it will be there lying
dormant in any persistent continuous expansion. Changing environmental
settings opens and shuts gates to the patterning scheme inherent in our
universe.
We know there is natural
patterning requiring no act of choice to activate them. Number is one
such pattern and geometry is another but there are far more than these
that we see at work in nature and take for granted. The commonality of
patterns on beaches, waves, sand dunes, in our muscles and in the skies
is one such guide to there being a library of templates that nature can
unconditionally draw on.
There is a constant shower of
unfilled opportunities and of those opportunities some will strengthen
the forward thrust and others dampen it. Feedback loops biased towards
the future will inevitably create the strongest patterns while those
dampened by the future will be far weaker. Feedback naturally
favouring the future is then the eighth level of the
hierarchy of concepts leading to evolution.
Once all of these are in place
then any possibility that can enhance the total process will naturally
be found, amplified and brought to the fore.
One
such process that enables evolution is represented in the structure of
DNA for it shows there is a mechanism for passing beyond bounds to new
forms while obeying all the observed rules and principles of our
universe.
It
is based on the simplest of elemental factors, the pairing of two
separate items to make two new entities that inherit and share the
genetic properties of the parents while complying with continuity and
conservation principles.
The primary mechanism shown in
the accompanying diagram is one of the most if not the most vital
foundation mechanisms of the processes we call evolution. It provides a
blueprint for the more complex structures such as the double helix
chains that will emerge at a later time.
But most importantly it is a
natural means by which the duration available for evolution to act is
increased from an instant to eternity.
Mortality is a discontinuity
related to time and wherever erosion, corrosion and decay are in play
existence will be threatened. However the simple mechanism shown above
offers an escape from the limitations on time inherent in terminal decay
of an organism or structure. It allows the time for replicas to be part
of an environment whose bounds constrain it until the pattern and
environment offer chance the opportunity it needs.
By this means the simple legacy
module makes natural selection viable and inevitable.
But it also offers greater
opportunity in another way because it passes on two threads so that
posterity contains ever-changing variety upon which chance can act. The
discontinuity caused by physical bounds as well as that of time can
therefore be overcome. These mechanisms for escaping from natural bounds
make evolution uniquely different to inert material. It has passive
mechanisms that allow it to give chance the aids it needs.
Further, as evolution
proceeds, it will be able to selectively incorporate conflicting
mechanisms that enhance chance. For example shortening life span
increases risk of extinction of a structure that cannot pass on via two
streams but where that structure continues into the future and does it
more quickly the full testing of patterns happens much quicker. So the
two escape mechanisms can be offset by natural selection to address even
their own limitations.
And in this ability to pass
things on it is eternally expanding the concept of memory. Already it is
retaining parts of the past and ensuring these can exist into the future
Thus, the ninth step,
involves a chain adhering to all physical laws that passively connects
present to future. The model
presented above fulfils these fore-mentioned conditions and in doing so
makes possible the process we call evolution. From the foregoing we can deduce that evolution is inevitable as it requires no special properties for it to emerge.
The Time Vector as a defining character of Evolution
Natural selection is the mandatory choice mechanism for initial evolution but this process inevitably moves from passive natural selection to selection programmed by past evolution. We see this throughout all life forms and in our own kind. Choices are being made by your body as to what elements to take from the food you eat. You determine which road you will drive down. These are active choices not the passive ones typified by natural selection. Many remain involuntary however. They are choices affecting survival into the future and hence draw upon the mechanisms evolution has implanted in your DNA. So I postulate in this post that natural things evolved to a point where the means by which choice and the ability to make selections affecting the future exist in many forms throughout this planet and beyond. This is no small leap for it is this element of choice that was totally missing at the beginning of our universe. The ability to choose can only result from natural selection influenced by a time vector and the reinforcing mechanisms that bring it about in an environment offering adequate opportunity. It is this time vector that is the principal pillar of evolution and from it comes choice, memory, awareness, fore-science and the ability to predict and manipulate the future. Just as the process of evolution has a natural hierarchy of factors there is a path to each of the aspects that make life-forms different from the inert. Evolution is not something that is unique to the universe's formation even though time only had meaning from the instant when space-time expansion began. It is present wherever there is a closed system undergoing continuous expansion. And although time and its vector are at first passive they become transformed whenever their initial qualities feed a feedback loop. Throughout long periods of its early presence the time vector is a weak factor in the evolutionary process relying on chance natural events to strengthen its ties to the materials and events of the universe. The time vector’s impact is seen in a vast array of materials with radioactive decay being a good illustration of its potential. Active radioactive materials can decay by half in a minute space of time or may take many billions of years. Those that are decayed have a different physical structure to those that haven’t so at any time in the future the time vector can indicate the age of the original material. This isn’t true of ripples in sand where patterns are part of a landscape change in which time plays a part but not as a vector. But you contain a vectored time system that is independent of every other system of the universe. It runs your life and influences when your hair goes gray, puberty commences, menstruation and menopause will occur. And it sets the timing as to when your system will degenerate. These things although they can be affected by local factors are outside your control. They will happen at the appropriate stage and the best you can do is either disguise its impact or by changing your local environment slightly delay or accelerate the inevitable. There is a vectorial aspect to your life locking how you develop, thrive and survive to an orderly flow of time and the time-locked triggers set in your DNA. It is these that help you on your short journey in this universe. There are discontinuities in your life with the largest of them being death but your system has in-built escape mechanisms to preserve your links to the universes time vector. The mechanisms are internal and were there at your conception even before there was a capacity for any part of you to be aware. And your birth then set you on a journey that goes on a continuous path between two points in time. All that was required to shape the environment to meet your differing needs throughout your journey has wherever possible been included in the package and you still carry that set of instructions today. Your drives to eat, survive, flee danger, seek warmth or coolness didn’t come from external sources and most of it is not the accident of chance. So much of what defines you seems to be beyond chance, so much so we can be certain there is a mechanism in play. It is only the source of those techniques that is open to debate. However in the current era we now know DNA, as a part of its manifold roles in evolution, offers each and every living thing access to natures design source. We have evolved mostly by the in-built program but chance played a part. Yet even the part of chance was incorporated in the program. You evolved from a union involving the agency of chance, you were given the structures to shape your environment to capture whatever chance for development, and survival the external environment has to offer. And evolution the creative but inevitable product of chance ensures you have its vector as a shield from the present and as a ticket to the future. You are a living demonstration evolution leads to things that are no longer controlled by chance alone. This path whereby evolution takes on forms that are unique in having attributes associated with life relies on the inbuilt properties of DNA, the double helix and the discontinuity escape mechanisms. But essentially it still has a reliance on the hierarchy of environmental factors and presences leading to the inevitability of evolution.
The evolutionary path enabling the mechanism of choice
This paper shows how evolution begins with
predictive science but inevitably acquires a more active form I call
fore-science.
Fore-science can only be achieved after
evolution has caused structures that master predictive science to be
gathered into localized clusters. This in itself was a momentous step in
the organization of the universe but it inevitably happened due to the
same factors that enabled evolution, namely continuity, the time-vector,
opportunity and feedback. These are some of the principal mechanisms of
natural selection and without the full range of natural selection being
existent fore-science would not exist. The fundamental building block used by evolution
in all stages is the innate capacity of inert materials to have after
effects. This natural mechanism is the earliest form of
memory. Hence the concept of memory becomes the cornerstone of the
hierarchy of concepts evolution brings into existence and this will
eventually lead to active memory that makesfore-science possible.
In
the enabling of memory other mechanisms involving natural sorting and
accumulation of like materials play important parts. There is no inert material that shows the
ability to manipulate time but adjacency as an aspect of space-time
exists naturally throughout all stages and locations of the universe. It is the linked adjacency of expanding
space-time that provides the means for a forward-driven process to
evolve towards memory. Memory is the prime requirement for any
manipulation of time to occur. Chemical and physical changes in a continuous
universe don't just affect an instant or a point. They alter the
surrounds in the same direction as expansion. There is an after-effect of such events that
spreads outwards for a time and distance from the instant. This is the
elementary space-time device on which primal memory is based. After- effects broaden the nature of space-time
time from the instant into a bounded sequence stretching into the
future. By this means the after-effect allows the vector of time to
manifest itself as a discernible physical record linked to events in a
region that stretches beyond the moment of its happening. In many
instances the presence of an after affect will change the environment
for materials. It may prolong warmth, offer newly formed material, cause
flows or solidification. Things having the capacity to retain after
effects of an event then can be classed as materials with potential to
extend the range of experiences beyond the instant but their ability to
do so doesn’t require any ability to recall the past or predict the
future.
Yet natural forces such as marine or lava flows, winds, erosion,
melting, solidifying and deposition can build deposits of materials with
like properties and it is by such accumulation that other chance events
are transformed into inevitability. And patterns will emerge in these
accumulations produced as much by the shapes and bounds as by their
content.
There
will be a diversity of niches sheltering many styles of primal memory
material and they can remain in this variety, constancy and
continuity of pattern throughout vast periods of time. They are the
opportunity for memory but their potential usually remains unfulfilled. Within the richness of niches there will be
layers or pockets where adjacent parts have all the properties to form a
chain and one by one natural events can bring them to a place close
enough for them to join and
form a greater unit. These niches will abound in chains. They are still
memory-necessary materials without purpose, a potential rich niche with
nowhere to go. But there will be
a time and place when two units with a unique capacity exist adjacently.
Their combination produces a result that is bizarre in the context of
the then extant universe. They unite and under a change in environment
split into copies of themselves and they do so not from any drive or
inherited behaviour but because their extant properties make it happen.
They unite again with others and split and repeat these steps without
end.
They appear immortal and by
chance alone will occupy all possible niches suited to their formation.
They are a creation of the universe generated by chance alone but
nonetheless their coming is beyond chance, it is natural and inevitable.
And
in the same manner there will be chains whose natural attributes and
affinities surround them with the components from which the chains are
built. It is merely the accident of them having the appropriate
attributes that sees them favoured in any chain building and by the
natural order of things chains will become more abundant than scattered
solitary units reliant on chance to bring materials close enough to
interact. Their dominance isn’t an act of choice it is a fortuitous
alignment that enhances the role of chance.
But this accidental favouritism means over-representation in any
environment and therefore an increase of chance having an impact upon
their future as well as their present. These clusters are more likely to
undergo change than points where the nearby materials are unsorted. They
are still not memory but inert clusters of materials more aligned with
that needed to make active memory possible.
And once again through this associative process passive memory is on the
move, heading in the direction of the future by holding together related
components involved in past events. This is again not an act of choice
but a result of sequential favourable circumstance. Now as this
process fills each niche it only needs one last step for there to be
primal life. Where two adjacent structures combine and pass the memory
of successful combination to their offspring then the chain becomes
inadvertently purpose driven. This is the start of life since forward
seeking behaviour can now be actively pursued. And the model for such
behaviour isn’t complex. It doesn’t require anything more than the
simplest of components and the simplest of rules. The basic model shown
above is the one presented earlier but presented in a different form.
The ability to build eternal chains only broken by external disruption
and availability of suitable materials enhances further the process of
shaping a zone to meet ongoing needs and once again the result is these
chains are becoming increasingly omnipresent. By such mechanisms they
become the prominent structure in the niche where they are found.
All of this progress made by natural sorting and affinity mechanisms now
has structures that are capable of becoming life forms. These are zones
where alignments have occurred based on passive memory attributes and
the line is set as a vector determined by the link from past to present.
There are now space-time vectors associated with the clustered material
arising from common location and the ability of its components to bond.
And
natural selection, a process without the ability of choice, is now
acting in a zone where there are time vectors and memory capable
material, a combination that will eventually build things that wrongly
seem only possible by an agent using active choice.
Just one more step is needed and life begins.
The last step binds the vector of time to an
eternal flow of material that will follow that vector and give that
vector the potential to unite past and present. Such a creation
mimics the process of expansion of the universe. Each draws on the time
vector that commenced with the Big Bang but this new life cluster brings
its own space-time vectors that will define its bounds.
Then by its ability to unite
and extend itself the first living thing continually grows offering
opportunity for change and further growth. And by its minute variances
and its ever-presence it can create new related forms. It is both
evolution and primal life at work.
Memory
comes
to Life
Active memory is the stepping
block that changes everything. Once memory is active environmental
awareness is possible. Natural selection then inevitably brings about
the creation of motivation, purposeful behaviour and drive.
The activation of memory
requires natural selection within a sufficiently expansionary and
dynamic environment.
Anything new leaves a crowded
niche where it was in competition with others of its older kind and
defines a new niche where it can more easily prevail. Being new means
there are less of its old kind and everything in that environment is now
an ancestral part of the new. It is by this means successful newness
increases expansionary opportunities.
And of all the things that
have been transferred in the replication of the chain that which
accentuates its prominence is anything that organises the environment to
its advantage. Memory does this. It doesn’t matter whether it is passive
or active. Whatever shortens the essential tasks will become more
abundant and increase the rate of progress towards the new. And passive
materials prolonging the instant nature of time will not only prevail
but be more likely to evolve further than those which have no ties to
time.
Passive materials with even
the slightest dependence on time will eventually reach the evolutionary
point where they have inbuilt responses triggered by particular events.
The increase of warmth and the flow of water setting off reactions
faster than of old are examples of the type of events that can shape the
environmental state.
The replicating chains will
take on new forms, new variants, and in particular environments some of
these will also become super-abundant.
In
the long course of the history of our planet there have been many phase
changes opening renewed opportunity for all chains to evolve. But the
most successful in an environment rich in carbon hydrogen oxygen and
nitrogen in the temperature range that has prevailed for a large part of
the earth’s history is the one based on the spiral double helix. This
carries all the attributes needed to replicate chains that can hold
memory. It is a highly rich generator of all the factors needed for
active memory and has the potential to enhance the quality of the links
between the space-time vector and opportunities within
the environment.
The helix spiral is one of the
infinite forms available at all points of time and space in our
universe. The linked double helix offers manifold possibilities for
chemical variance.
Importantly the linking
bridges for the spiral pillars offer bonds which can manage both
continuity and discontinuity requirements. And equally as crucial is
these bonds and the components of the spiral pillars are able to form
within the range of chemicals and environmental conditions on our
planet.
The extremely active
physio-chemical nature held within a stable unchanging structure means
that a record of environmental events and results offers chance an
opportunity to create a meaningful memory device. That device was found
by chance and with its finding the first double helix DNA began.
The content that makes such
spirals active memory of events on earth doesn’t give any clue to the
stories it holds but what it does have is the capacity for infinite
combinations of links whose inclusion depends upon localised
environments.
The double helix found in all
life forms is a self-programming structure in which location,
composition and structural grouping allow for controlled release that
can mirror events from the past. It is the memory acquired ability to
manage space-time that makes both life and evolution possible. And
significantly this enables life to have fore-science aspects.
The Critical
Push
The accumulation, sorting,
combining and replicating effects don’t make major evolution happen. By
passive means living things may change in their size, colour, mobility
etc and once useful features may be made redundant. But the changing of
passive qualities, those not linked to the space-time vector, to ones
that will carry change to future generation or meet future needs of a
living organism, requires a time activator.
Feedback takes a small amount
from an impulse that has a time cycle and feeds it back into the next
cycle. When it feeds it back in a manner that flows in the same way as
the impulse the motion in that cycle is amplified. This action makes
feedback a potential activator of time factors because it accelerates
and accumulates time related events within a time package defined by the
cycle. To reach that potential the effect returned must parallel that of
the new cycle at the point it enters.
A child upon a swing given a
slight push at the right instant will go higher. There is an ideal place
dictated by timing for that action to be effective and anywhere else
will either be less effective or counterproductive.
By this same means wind gusts
that somewhat regularly come and go can make a heavy suspended chain
swing.
When feedback is in play
another factor can make the effect far more dramatic. If the period of
the cycle matches values set by the boundaries of the system in which
feedback is happening then resonance can transform the cycle into a
different form.
If you blow air out of your
mouth and change both the shaping of your lips and the placement of your
tongue you can transform that blow from a hiss to a whistle. White noise
of blowing air is changed by your shaping of the container through which
it passes and the irregular time unrelated flow becomes an active sound
related to time. This is resonance combined with feedback, two natural
events that together can shift an event from time passive to time
activated.
The power of feedback and
resonance effects can be harmful as well as beneficial. Waves upon a
bridge in a storm can transform that bridge from a solid rigid platform
to a gyrating, wild and dangerous place to be. Winds can also have the
same effect on towers and at their extreme can cause structures to break
and fall. But despite the side-effect of fatal harm it is resonance fed
by positive feedback that offers a natural mechanism for the most
spectacular creations of evolution.
The
activation of Memory
The most significant creation
of evolution was the activation of memory for it is active memory that
distinguishes the inert from the living. Even primal active memory that
links an organism such as a virus to its chemical surrounds marks a
major difference from other forms of matter.
The activation of memory
transforms the feedback resonance mechanism forever since memory with
its linking past and present then defines a forward flowing space-time
vector. This linking of
past and present through events that happen in a material zone creates
the natural means to shape the future.
This form of replicating
double helix chains that can pass passive prediction skills to future
generations can exist eternally without becoming part of evolution. And
a non progressive lineage factor may also be incorporated without these
chains displaying the features of life.
However though they can remain
the same forever their existence exposes them to the ongoing natural
shaping and transforming processes we call evolution. And this process
of evolution is aided by the ability of these chains to retain details
of the relation between past, present and future phases of a single
event.
The chemical structures of
these chains will be altered by natural events and the effects of
similar events will create similar changes which will pass into the
future. These changes will in turn influence future changes with each
change causing the future to explore divergent paths. These divergent
chains may interact and in this ever changing mould some of those that
have common heritage will perform in a way that makes them more
prolific.
Amongst
all these differing forms there will be some that transform to that of a
previous form. It is this type of retrograde transformation that
provides the feedback loop with complementary material enabling it to
shape the future.
Active generation of memory
now has an aspect in play that evolutionary forces will sharpen.
The importance of active
memory cannot be overstated. Equally the narrowness of the path to reach
that point should not be understated. The existence of life from the
most primitive to the most advanced offers evidence that there was and
still is a path but so far little evidence for evolving forms using
paths or factors other than that for life as we know it has been found. This concept of an existent but narrow path provided by evolved structures such as the double helix is an axiomatic recognition of reality. We know the concept of memory exists and has real structures for enabling it. We also know the universe has structures with the ability to recall past events and combine it with the present in a willful way that guides their future behaviour, functions and structural form.
The
enhancement of chance
Prior to the creation of
active memory any movement through time had to be by chance alone but
after that point it has been possible for evolution to generate life
forms utilizing concepts evolved from memory.
And this new era with its time
vector linkage is hierarchal with a similar form to that of the Tree of
Life.
A consequence of there being a
time vector linked to every evolutionary mechanism that can affect the
future is evolution will appear to be more purposeful. One of the first
things that will happen is all suitable niches will be filled and
dominated by structures with memory capabilities. But there is in this
progression a continual series of emerging trends that we can readily
see in humankind as well as other living things.
We know that our children have
a high chance of being humans with abilities to think in a way that
differs from other living things.
There are also an infinite
number of ways over which our bodies control the localised environment
of organs and nutrient flows that defines each one of us.
Each breath, each sandwich,
each step we take manipulates the environment, absorbing, changing and
discharging parts of it to keep us functioning. And although you have no
choice in much of this it doesn’t happen by chance alone. You eat your
sandwich by choice, you choose the terrain over which you walk and you
have the choice to hold your breath when swimming underwater but your
acts of choice are also results of a long-implanted program.
We are programmed in a way
that means we don’t need to know how every event in our lives happens
nor do we need to be in control. Our future is however bound in the
well-being of that program. Our future is therefore tied to the ability
of the past to make apt connections between the past present and future.
But significantly a
controlling guide couldn’t have been essential for that programming
ability to evolve, at some point it came about by chance.
Chance still persists within
us even though there is a program. We are the children of chance from
the moment of conception and in every instant in every part of our
being. But the program sets present bounds to take advantage of chance
that beneficially shapes us. These bounds then bring about that which is
essential enabling living things to progress through their bounded
future.
Evolution is an eternal
process that through feedback aligns and unites the opportunities
offered by chance with the space-time vector.
So at every step created
through this natural selection device evolution is actively present and
acting on all that exist. Hence every new entity is also subjected to
the evolutionary process from the time of its creation.
Summary of properties leading to life
The concepts and their
relationships raised in the foregoing sections are the same throughout
the remainder of this discourse. It is therefore worth presenting a
diagram to summarise the notable factors, events and sources that the
process of fore-science relies on.
The above factors are all
essential to the evolutionary process and with them in place the shift
towards the future can prepare environments for major change but new
drive factors inherent in most significant advances require a well-timed
push. The natural means delivering that push are positive feedback and
resonance.
The origins
of the Growth concept
The
wider opportunities accompanying every new entity make it an
expansionary force with ties to time.
It follows that the
expansionary nature of new structures will mean the evolutionary process
parenting life forms will always have its own unique eternal time
vector. Its vector is different from the time vector created by the
expansion of the universe. The vector for life is a branch of that
original vector which is only linked to life and no other branch.
Only existent life forms can
utilize active memory and for other non-life form materials to pass that
transition of passive to active memory they must evolve their own unique
vector.
Evolution can branch out from
this vector at any point but its most active points are those where
greatest expansion and hence greatest opportunity exists.
Greatest activity is therefore
at the tips where expansion has been fastest and longest. This is the
same process by which crystals grow, so the shapes and diversity seen in
snow-flakes offer insight into the growth patterns of evolutionary
creation.
However any insight has to be
tempered by recognition that in crystals and snowflakes the growth is
inorganic relying on chance and circumstance while in life it is organic
and has an active vector as its guide. This distinction is seen at its
greatest in the known mechanisms for each form.
Both crystals and snowflakes
(which are ice crystals) gain their form through repetitive addition
from a constant flow of material within the environment. The nature of
its minerals dictates that there are differences in attraction around
the surface layers of each crystal.
Once
a seed crystal is formed and while the creating conditions are in play
chance will add to those special spots and a unique but not totally
random pattern will appear. The patterns are based on geometric forms
and the directions in which they grow and their branches emerge are what
is determined by chance. This process with its reliance on chance and
continuity from a source over time is what is referred to as inorganic
or passive growth.
Organic growth is best
typified by the internal programming that manipulates the host structure
and its environment so that it utilizes innate patterns found in
space-time.
The recent science of fractals
uses mathematical formulae to generate patterns that mirror those found
in nature and in so doing reflects some of the mechanisms at work in
nature. They also reflect the ability for great diversity in what are
essentially randomly generated patterns given a focus by bounds and
repetitive actions.
Organic
manipulation is however forward seeking, preparing new structures and
paths which chance will fill. It manipulates the environment so its
commands are expedited in both time and location.
It
sets internal and external bounds and in addition it regulates the
changes through the initiation of triggered responses to internal and
external conditions.
And all this is done
unwittingly as an inbuilt requirement demanded by the program.
Organic patterning which can
draw on inorganic patterning is therefore infinitely the more enriched
of the two forms.
Continuity
of evolutionary processes
The unique memory based vector
for evolution has quite significant implications for it not only means
each new creation has the potential to evolve from the time of its
creation but evolution itself is an entity upon which it can act.
Passive memory events, such as
the after-effects of chemical change, are part of the opportunities that
lead to evolution of active memory and it happens by linking the passive
factors to the time vector.
For life what allowed it and
memory to evolve was the natural properties of the double helix’s
geometry. We know much about the double Helix DNA role from observations
and experiments made by Crick and Watson and
those who followed.
The vast array of experiments
since the double helix was first proposed establish it as an extremely
credible vehicle for all processes involved in life and evolution. But
our awareness of it is very short since it was in the 1970s that Crick
and Watson first announced the results of and conclusions from their
work.
From what we know and observe
the only rational conclusion is that memory and life did evolve and with
that certainty we can know that the process involved in the creation of
these two primary concepts plays the dominant role in all the
evolutionary novelties that followed. We can be equally as certain that
these processes will continue to act into the future and that novelties
will likewise arise out of the same mechanisms that led to life and
memory.
From the instance of the
creation of active memory new concepts came into play. These were
completely novel with no relevance before active memory made the tie
between the material universe and its space-time vector. And critically,
awareness and active choice could only exist if there was that vectorial
tie that began with active memory.
There is no reason to think
that the planets were or are aware of their place in the universe. Nor
can atoms act because they like or dislike what they are doing. They
have no means of knowing what they did, what was done to them nor why
events happen. Each is subject to events that involve chance and natural
selection yet no discernible connection between past, present and future
has ever been actively made by a planet or atom.
Awareness of the universe and
the ability to shape the future were absent before life began. It may
seem strange to talk of concepts such as these as though they could or
could not have existed before life happened but no more so than the
question of existence over whose paradoxes humans incessantly wrestle.
We are aware. We can choose.
We do exist. All three have reality. But how did the real emerge out of
what preceded that reality?
Surely the answer that relies
on a continuing process of evolution by mechanisms in its environment is
more substantive than any ad-hoc multi-sourced or mystical means.
My answers to the evolution of
new concepts in the universe
relies on the linking of the physical universe to a time factor that
unites the known present with memory of the past to filtered projections
of what is yet to come. Its logic shapes a separate body of laws and
principles that for convenience I have called fore-science. So when I
present the means by which each stage evolves I am building a debatable
platform for life’s ability to utilize the future.
And the platform that I use
for each stage contains the same ideas as used for life and memory.
There is the environment and its influential factors, the time and
space-time vectors, feedback and resonance, the duad lineage model for
overcoming discontinuities such as mortality and the double helix model
as the vehicle for transferring past, present and future to the next
generation.
The term sentience already
exists to cover awareness and choice in animals but all life forms
including the simplest have a level of awareness and shaping of the
present. It is this wider field that demands and deserves a label of its
own since all living things also carry the means for shaping their own
future and that of their progeny.
Plants for example have roots
and leaves that react to changes in the environment in ways that imply
they have a form of awareness and make choices that help them exploit or
protect themselves from those changes. They have seasonal responses,
growth phases and reactions that turn them towards or away from light.
Everything they do is directed to continuing their existence and the
inbuilt program they inherited guides them to that end.
So fore-science relates to
sentience plus a more general array. It embraces all living things from
the most primeval to the fuller flowering of evolution in times to come.
Origin of
Awareness and Choice concepts
It isn’t to say that the
processes give non-animal life the capacity for choices based on
awareness for in the main the evolved control consists of programmed
responses. We don’t have reason to believe that trees or viruses make
choices because they are aware of the nature of time or that its flow
has relevance to the future.
However the program’s
development route in all life forms involves taking past and present
events and shaping part of the existing structure and environment. This
goal-like behaviour arises out of both the space-time vector and
evolution. The resultant flow is therefore biased in the direction that
enhances environmental manipulation of the future. There is however an
inescapable requirement for this enhancement.
Progress does involve
awareness of the environment, past and present and an innate drive that
compels a selection from the options. That innate drive and ability to
choose is what comes out of natural selection when it too is tied to the
space-time vector.
The
component that makes the foregoing possible is active memory and that is
first found in the devices that made life possible.
From this single step the
earliest stages of awareness and choice evolved until their existence in
the universe would be detectable (by beings capable of doing so) as a
distinct characteristic of life.
At some earlier time
representing a minute interval of the evolutionary time vector each
concept must have existed in a state that exploited the universe in a
way not possible in the vast aeons that preceded that interval. Unable
to be noticed, unable to be labelled to all intents it didn’t exist. But
immediately that capacity existed in the universe it would be subject to
further evolution.
So in all living forms active
awareness and choice must go on continuously evolving because the time
biased program drives it. It is through this understanding of
evolution’s time-locking origins that fore-science is seen as relevant
to all life forms.
But as awareness and choice
become embedded in the double helix memory structure they define new
structures that will themselves evolve and create new realities such as
sensory devices not seen before in this universe of ours. And these too will
diverge as specialization in unique environments defines the reality of
each new
concept. Innate
Patterning in and beyond our Universe
Throughout
this presentation there is frequent mention of natural patterns that
provide the framework for this universe of ours. Since evolution is a
part of this universe it too can draw on that resource.
Natural patterns have no
substance. They can’t be touched, stored in a drawer, examined with a
magnifying glass, held up to the light or shown upon a screen. Yet they
have the same reality as existence, awareness, choice, sentience, growth
and motivation. We know they exist since we see their presence in
undeniable ways. These are concepts that we as humans have the ability
to witness.
The innate patterning in the
universe we know by the same intuitive means we know the universe is
there.
We are so used to the presence
of this patterning resource that it escapes our scrutiny. There is no
questioning of its source or its properties. Yet in science it helps if
we seek answers to these qualities since in seeking we understand more
about possibilities.
Numbers are one set of innate
patterns and the branches of that set are also forms of innate
patterning. But these have a natural connection to our universe since
number manifests itself in any cluster (union) of points.
And geometry is an obvious
branch naturally arising out of the adjacency of points.
We expect that wherever we are
in this universe the laws of numbers and geometry plus included entities
will be the same. There will be one & two etc plus points & lines etc.
And when any pair are added or subtracted the result will always be the
same no matter at what instant of time and place on the universe’s
space-time vector we are located.
We know with unquestionable
certainty nature draws on these concepts for its repertoire of shapes
including points, lines, circles, spheres, spirals and pyramids plus a
manifold array of diff
erent
forms. And humankind is well placed to judge this since we can draw and
build mirror images of what nature has achieved from the beginning of
time. And the range of intangible pattern templates goes far beyond the
concepts of both number and geometry to offer us frames for rainbows,
skeletons, music, words, photons, crystals, art, geology and many more.
The
nature of these patterns is eternal and they are real even though they
are intangible. Similarly all that is framed by numbers in our current
world was always a part of that primal resource.
And we also have strong
evidence from all the different inorganic and organic structures we see
around us that nature has always not only had eternal access to the
contained models but has utilized them with only chance as its
assistant.
We can conclude that the
reality of patterning in the objects of the universe means there are
such things as eternal zones that man and nature can draw upon to
support their creative drives. See my paper titled
Eternity
for more.
The eternal
zone holding the patterns of space-time
Space-time is a concept that
has only been noted by humankind since the early 20th
century. Although the term was used by Albert Einstein’s teacher Hermann
Minkowski it was the former who delivered the better understanding of
this term. The basic difference to the view before its introduction is
that time was seen as a separate function from location in the universe
whereas Einstein presented the case that time and space had influence
upon each other. Space-time as a single unit is now seen as a more valid
way of viewing the universe when considering events involving movement.
In doing this Einstein
effectively introduced a vector quality to the basic dimensions of the
universe since time has a direction independent of space.
Humankind has been a pattern
identifying form of life throughout its evolution but that trait has
been amplified in the millions of years since the first hominid trod
this planet. So for all but a hundred years or so the dimensions of
space were seen as three that set size and place plus another dimension
we called time which traced the instances of history. And the human
vision parallels that of nature for it is nature as manifested on a slow
moving planet that shaped our view.
The eternal pattern zones that
guided our understanding of the universe were accordingly focused on the
dimensions related to a point, a direction, a surface and a solid. And
time played little part in this focus since patterning remained valid no
matter when or where we experienced it. With this approach it is very
apparent that there is a hierarchy of patterns in which higher
dimensions include lower orders. So geometry includes number and
space-time etc but number doesn’t include geometry as there is no
essential requirement for shape of oneness or twoness etc.
Hence the eternal zone for all
these factors may be considered as a unified whole where drawing rights
are defined by the number of dimensions available in the environment.
Therefore dimensional penetration at a point in history determines the
availability of patterns for evolving forms.
Access to the eternal zones
requires a key which is based on bounds and appropriate conditions as
stated above. Within the universe it is well known that feedback and
resonance created by internal motions allow chance to be the powerful
shapers of objects. Wave forms, atoms, molecules, liquids, solids and
gases etc are all known to be defined by these factors. They are
products of chance even as to their patterns but chance is restricted by
the imposed and inescapable requirements.
An accidental feature of
humankind’s long entrenched focus on spatial events is that patterns
found in life that result from the time vector have not received the
same scrutiny or recognition. Awareness, existence, drive, motivation
etc are all known to humankind but little attention has been given to
how these attributes evolved from chance selection into manipulative
shapers of destiny.
Time vectored factors such as
evolution, memory, growth, sight, hearing, touch etc are the logical
companions of awareness, existence etc. And together they represent an
eternal zone of increased dimensions and so will include patterns that
the spatial zones embrace but they have access to far more.
Within such a zone there will
be every possible pattern and whenever the bounds and settings resonate
with that pattern its contents are automatically available within our
universe. And as with all such patterns these will be accessible at
every point of space, time and space-time.
We already know that the same
conditions for nature’s accessing these invisible, intangible but real
patterns is demanded of living things. And again feedback and resonance
within specific bounds offers chance its opportunity to create seemingly
miraculous patterns.
Implications of the time vector on the attributes of Evolution
With the mechanisms in place
that enables memory to have an active reality evolution becomes an
unstoppable sequence progressing at every
From the time of its first
reliance on memory to the creation of life everything that happens is
unguided, a pure product of a chain of chances that were possible. There
really is no great momentum in this time lock free phase but there is
plausibility that it would happen and can happen again through a
different physio-chemical means.
However once memory
transformed by mechanisms that depended on the legacy model and its
subsequent locking onto the DNA double helix’s physio-chemical
capabilities the processes leading to that point meant the process of
evolution could and would be incorporated as a passive part of the
memory of DNA.
As time elapsed the inbuilt
evolutionary mechanisms would continue to be active and new active
concepts would emerge. Each and every one of these needed nothing more
than that which transformed passive memory into active memory and hence
the dependence on chance events was substantially reduced.
Everything we observe in
nature as a consequence of evolutionary process is united by their
shared links to the progenitive memory vector. There is a sequence, a
progression based on prior success; it shapes new forms by building on
the past. There is therefore a genealogy to concepts that parallels the
tree of life for both are products of evolution.
That a sequence is applicable
to all evolutionary products is an invaluable property that evolution
inevitably exploits. The process of evolution not only feeds back
through its memory based roots but feeds forward through the potential
of each newly evolved attribute. Evolution evolves. Stages of evolution
speed up. It can therefore be said that evolution is capable of learning
and with the progress of time active learning will be built into the
process we call evolution.
There are an infinite number
of attributes that evolution has brought into reality from potentials it
has learnt to exploit. Each organic structure supporting life, each
cell, each organ, each species is built on an eternal reshaping of what
exists to form what will advance the sequential stream.
So evolution has purpose set
by its vectors. Originally it was expand, wait, give chance a chance,
expand, wait, give chance a chance....
As time has passed a deeper
agenda has imprinted itself into more recently evolved DNA; expand,
sense, memorise, wait, give chance a chance.....
Effectively evolution reaches
into every possible niche that can be occupied by its progeny.
Efficiently it exposes its own
processes to every possible aspect of the space-time dimensions that
form our universe.
Stage by stage and phase by
phase it embraces the potentials this universe offers.
New concepts enrich in an
orderly way the aspects of the universe more removed from the simplicity
of the material universe.
There is a hierarchy of
exploration of the dimensions that shape the abundance of what is
created.
Each in its own time can come
to the fore as a by-product of ongoing evolution.
Memory, awareness growth,
chemical response, touch, mobility, smell, sight etc, ever moving
forward sensual activations are the hallmarks that distinguish life from
passive elements of the universe.
Unwittingly we breathe and
equally as unknowingly evolution gives unique purpose to the processes
that define it.
Inevitably the ability to
anticipate the future and build mechanisms that take advantage of that
connection will expand and in so doing humankind will lose relevance.
Although we can’t know or
experience the organic mechanisms of the distant future we can
reasonably deduce that the links between future and present will be
enhanced.
Infinity and Eternity of
novel patterns
Every possibility is resident
in nature’s library of potential patterns.
Although evolution does also
evolve it cannot learn to preference any of its creations in a way that
lasts for eternity. The eternal nature of expansion of the universe
guarantees novel patterns will continue to emerge.
Any perceived favouritism
bestowed by nature is guaranteed to be a misconception. Evolution cannot
learn a mechanism that would create a being that fills the rest of time.
To do so that being needs to be so superior in its structure that all
possibilities in future expansion of space-time already existed in that
being. That being would have to incorporate every possible aspect of the
universe that hasn’t yet had the means to be exploited. It would require
abilities beyond the ability to be aware, think or have emotions. It
would need to be more durable than evolution. Everything that evolves
must be able to be surpassed while the universe exists or else it
becomes our universe’s kin. |