Ang relasyon ng mababang antas sa mas mataas na antas ng sistema

Matagal-tagal na rin akong hindi nakapagblog kaya dadagdagan ko ng isang post na kinopya ko lang sa isang lumang libro ni Brian C. Goodwin na pinamagatang Temporal organization in cells (1963). Ito ay isang paragraph tungkol sa relasyon ng mas mababang antas ng organisasyon ng matter sa mas mataas na antas (lower-order systems versus higher-order systems). Sa pagkakaintindi ko, simple lang ang gusto nyang sabihin, na hindi kinakailangang mas kumplikado ang description ng mas mataas na antas sa description ng mas mababang antas. Sabi nya sa pahina 15:

The possibility that lower-order (shorter relaxation time) variables can be eliminated from the equations of motion of higher-order systems, means that the dynamic description of higher-order systems need not be more complex than that of lower-order systems. Thus there is no necessary relation between the position of a system in a temporal ordering of dynamic activities and its complexity. A biophysical system can and very often does have a much more complicated mathematical description than a population of randomly-mating organisms, regarded as an evolving gene pool.

Nagbigay siya ng ilang halimbawa:

Even more dramatic is the fact that certain epigenetic processes, such as the spiral growth of seeds in the cone of a conifer, can be described in terms of a few initial conditions and a law of growth which follows the Fibonacci number series (Thompson 1959); whereas the metabolic activities taking place in the same pine cone would require a very complex set of equations to adequately describe their dynamics. Again, the growth of a coral reef could undoubtedly be described in much simpler terms than the metabolic, epigenetic, or genetic processes of the organisms whose skeletons constitute the substance of the coral. Here we have clearly a very great difference in relaxation times, since the reef takes many decades to grow appreciably, while the coral polyps have a generation time of a few months.

Dagdag pa nya:

Therefore the "nesting" properties of systems defined according to relaxation times, whereby one system contains all lower-order systems, carries no implications with regard to the complexity of behaviour which is found in one system compared with another.