IUBio

Snowflakes [was Re: Physics - Inertia & Work]

Wolf Kirchmeir wwolfkir at sympatico.can
Wed Jan 7 10:01:38 EST 2004


On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 08:06:25 GMT, k p  Collins wrote:

>Because such asymmetry cross-correlations cannot occur, in an
>always-occurring way, via simple molecular lattice-building,
>because, further, if there's asymmetry-cross-correlation, then
>there must be a mechanism through which geometrical information
>is communicated from one locus to another.

Not true. All you need is local rules. Play with Conway's game of Life and
other cellular automata to see this. (A google on "cellular automata
software" will lead you to downloadable freeware.) The "mechanism" you think
necessary to "communicate from one locus to another" is simply the effect of
the local rules on the adjacent regions, and then on the regions adjacent to
those, and so on.

IMO you also need to meditate on the difference between a system that is
determined and predictable, and one that is determined and unpredictable.
That difference relates to the difference between predictability and
explicability.


-- 
Wolf Kirchmeir, Blind River ON Canada
"Nature does not deal in rewards or punishments, but only in consequences."
(Robert Ingersoll)






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