🚀 go-pugleaf

fujimoto@u.washington.edu (Bryant Fujimoto) writes:

> Marcelo Cantos <marcelo@mds.rmit.edu.au> writes:
> 
> >e904952p@hjc.edu.sg writes:
> >> Since far-from-equilibrium systems has a
> >> tendency to go through bifurcations and 'jump' to some other (stable)
> >> states, and living organisms are all open systems that are far from
> >> equilibrium, I somehow feel that they are related.
> 
> >I doubt it.  I believe where you go wrong is in the assertion that
> >living systems are far from equilibrium.  If you look at organisms
> >around you, they are extremely stable entities.  Humans don't
> >spontaneously dismantle on the street as a daily occurrence; species
> >don't give rise to "hopeful monsters" (macro-mutation) through
> >breeding, or when they do they are generally dead.
> 
> Living systems are far from equilibrium.  They might be regarded as
> being in a steady state configuration, but that is not equilibrium. 
> The fact that our bodies don't spontaneously dismantle simply means
> the rate of conversion of say, sugars, directly into CO2, and H2O is
> very slow at 37C.

I think you have confused what I meant, and that is my fault for my
use of imprecise terminology.  The distinction between equilibrium and
stability is ambiguous since there are two forms of equilibrium,
static and dynamic.  When I say that living systems are stable, I mean
that they are in a state of dynamic equilibrium; Bryant, on the other
hand, is pointing out that they are *not* in a state of static
equilibrium.

Nevertheless, notwithstanding semantic confusion, my point above was
that a frog does not "bifurcate" into a giraffe.  Any kind of jump in
state is tantamount to a saltation; and that, folks, is the "evil"
word!


-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Marcelo Cantos, Research Assistant      __/_   marcelo@mds.rmit.edu.au
Multimedia Database Systems Group, RMIT  /       _  Tel 61-3-9282-2497
723 Swanston St, Carlton VIC 3053    Aus/ralia ><_> Fax 61-3-9282-2490
Acknowledgements: errors - me; wisdom - God; funding - RMIT