the once and future wallace. a theory of spatial systems. a theory of spatial systems: introduction
TRANSCRIPT
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8/13/2019 The Once and Future Wallace. a Theory of Spatial Systems. a Theory of Spatial Systems: Introduction
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The Once and Future Wallace. A
Theory of Spatial Systems. A Theory of
Spatial Systems: Introduction.
The Once and Future Wallace
A Theory of Spatial Systems: Introduction.
The work described in this section has represented a
great personal adventure for me over the years. It is what it
is: the outcome of nearly thirty years of tinkering with a
theory of natural organization based on the ideas ofBenedict de Spinoza, the celebrated Rationalist
philosopher. As a result of my peculiar circumstances and
various intellectual limitations, I admit to not having so far
proved outrightthat the model holds water; still, on the
scale of all endeavors its various predictions are really notso difficult to examine and test, and at this point I can in
fact cite results from a number of investigations I have
undertaken that seem to argue for its further study. So,
ready or not, it is time to report on what I have discovered,
and perhaps let those in more favorable circumstances act
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upon the evidence as they might care to.
Most basically, the theory begins with Spinoza's ideas on
his two main "attributes" of existence, thought and spatial
extension. In the next two essays I take some time to
translate these Rationalist era concepts into a modern day
systems framework. As it so develops, the critical
connection to modern, testable circumstances is the notion
that the three dimensional (extended) space reality we
inhabit might represent a common kind of solution to the
way the subsystems of any given natural system share and
degrade energy. Specifically, it is posed that all natural
systems are comprised of four subsystems whose
interaction with one another maintains intra-system
integrity on the basis of a single principle, the expression of
which in entropic terms is three-dimensional, "extended,"
space. Spatial extension is thus portrayed as a kind of
"unified solution" to an ever-complexifying
subsystemization of energy flow.
At this point this sounds like a bunch of words just
thrown together for effect, but the discussion to follow will
break the ideas down into more digestible pieces, and show
how easily they can be tested, once one knows what to look
for.
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The reader might remark at this point, "Okay, but what
does any of this have to do with Alfred Russel Wallace?"
Well, I'm glad you asked. If you have absorbed anything
from my analyses of Wallace over the years, it should be myconclusion that his model of biological evolution was based
on a philosophy of final causes. Wallace's cosmological
leanings always were to one degree or another teleological,
and he was a strong believer in the existence of ever more
"recondite" forces that shaped change. The theory of myown I describe here is in fact also one that invokes final
causes, since it argues that only those systems that are
internally organized into the pattern of information flow
and sharing I suggest canexist. This is not to say the
number of possible patterns is absolutely anddeterministically limited as the system evolves, just that the
constraints involved in the concept "outcome" are much
greater than in most modern cosmological models
(including the Darwinian model of biological change, which
approaches an understanding of species developmentbordering on a random walk philosophy). Here, the array
of possible physical-space outcomes is still infinite--just a
much smaller infinite number than before.
Beyond this, the model I am introducing has what will
be viewed as the altogether surprising property of being
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