What Is Life?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_Life%3F


What Is Life?

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What Is Life? is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943, under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. The lectures attracted an audience of about 400, who were warned "that the subject-matter was a difficult one and that the lectures could not be termed popular, even though the physicist’s most dreaded weapon, mathematical deduction, would hardly be utilized." Schrödinger's lecture focused on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?"

In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule. Although the existence of DNA had been known since 1869, its role in reproduction and its helical shape were still unknown at the time of Schrödinger's lecture. In retrospect, Schrödinger's aperiodic crystal can be viewed as a well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been looking for during their search for genetic material. Both James D. Watson, and independently, Francis Crick, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, credited Schrödinger's book with presenting an early theoretical description of how the storage of genetic information would work, and each respectively acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for their initial researches.


Content

In chapter I, Schrödinger explains that most physical laws on a large scale are due to chaos on a small scale. He calls this principle "order-from-disorder." As an example he mentions diffusion, which can be modeled as a highly ordered process, but which is caused by random movement of atoms or molecules. If the number of atoms is reduced, the behaviour of a system becomes more and more random. He states that life greatly depends on order and that a naïve physicist may assume that the master code of a living organism has to consist of a large number of atoms.

In chapter II and III, he summarizes what was known at this time about the hereditary mechanism. Most importantly, he elaborates the important role mutations play in evolution. He concludes that the carrier of hereditary information has to be both small in size and permanent in time, contradicting the naïve physicist's expectation. This contradiction cannot be resolved by classical physics.

In chapter IV, Schrödinger presents molecules, which are indeed stable even if they consist of only a few atoms, as the solution. Even though molecules were known before, their stability could not be explained by classical physics, but is due to the discrete nature of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, mutations are directly linked to quantum leaps.

He continues to explain, in chapter V, that true solids, which are also permanent, are crystals. The stability of molecules and crystals is due to the same principles and a molecule might be called "the germ of a solid." On the other hand, an amorphous solid, without crystalline structure, should be regarded as a liquid with a very high viscosity. Schrödinger believes the heredity material to be a molecule, which unlike a crystal does not repeat itself. He calls this an aperiodic crystal. Its aperiodic nature allows it to encode an almost infinite number of possibilities with a small number of atoms. He finally compares this picture with the known facts and finds it in accordance with them.

In chapter VI Schrödinger states:

…living matter, while not eluding the "laws of physics" as established up to date, is likely to involve "other laws of physics" hitherto unknown, which however, once they have been revealed, will form just as integral a part of science as the former.

He knows that this statement is open to misconception and tries to clarify it. The main principle involved with "order-from-disorder" is the second law of thermodynamics, according to which entropy only increases in a closed system (such as the universe). Schrödinger explains that living matter evades the decay to thermodynamical equilibrium by homeostatically maintaining negative entropy (today this quantity is called information) in an open system.

In chapter VII, he maintains that "order-from-order" is not absolutely new to physics; in fact, it is even simpler and more plausible. But nature follows "order-from-disorder", with some exceptions as the movement of the celestial bodies and the behaviour of mechanical devices such as clocks. But even those are influenced by thermal and frictional forces. The degree to which a system functions mechanically or statistically depends on the temperature. If heated, a clock ceases to function, because it melts. Conversely, if the temperature approaches absolute zero, any system behaves more and more mechanically. Some systems approach this mechanical behaviour rather fast with room temperature already being practically equivalent to absolute zero.

Schrödinger concludes this chapter and the book with philosophical speculations on determinism, free will, and the mystery of human consciousness. He believes he must reconcile two premises: (1) the body fully obeys the laws of quantum mechanics, where quantum indeterminacy plays no important role except to increase randomness at the quantum scale; and (2) there is "incontrovertible direct experience" that we freely direct our bodies, can predict outcomes, and take responsibility for our choice of action. Schrödinger rejects the idea that the source of consciousness should perish with the body because he finds the idea "distasteful". He also rejects the idea that there are multiple immortal souls that can exist without the body because he believes that consciousness is nevertheless highly dependent on the body. Schrödinger writes that, to reconcile the two premises,

The only possible alternative is simply to keep to the immediate experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown; that there is only one thing and that what seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing…

Any intuitions that consciousness is plural, he says, are illusions. Schrödinger is sympathetic to the Hindu concept of Brahman, by which each individual's consciousness is only a manifestation of a unitary consciousness pervading the universe — which corresponds to the Hindu concept of God. Schrödinger concludes that "…'I' am the person, if any, who controls the 'motion of the atoms' according to the Laws of Nature." However, he also qualifies the conclusion as "necessarily subjective" in its "philosophical implications". In the final paragraph, he points out that what is meant by "I" is not the collection of experienced events but "namely the canvas upon which they are collected." If a hypnotist succeeds in blotting out all earlier reminiscences, he writes, there would be no loss of personal existence — "Nor will there ever be."










https://books.google.com/books?id=hP9-WIEyv8cC&lpg=PA89&ots=7g0ySARzOE&dq=%22namely%20the%20canvas%20upon%20which%20they%20are%20collected%22&pg=PA89#v=onepage&q=%22namely%20the%20canvas%20upon%20which%20they%20are%20collected%22&f=false

Google Books


What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

By Erwin Schrodinger


page 89


Yet each of us has the indisputable impression that the sum total of his own experience and memory forms a unit, quite distinct from that of any other person. He refers to it as 'I'. What is this 'I'?

If you analyse it closely you will, I think, find that it is just a little bit more than a collection of single data (experiences and memories), namely the canvas upon which they are collected. And you will, on close introspection, find that what you really mean by 'I' is that ground-stuff upon which they are collected. You may come to a distant country, lose sight of all your friends, may all but forget them; you acquire new friends, you share life with them as intensely as you ever did with your old ones. Less and less important will become the fact that, while living your new life, you still recollect the old one. 'The youth that was I', you come to speak of him in the third person, indeed the protagonist of the novel you are reading is probably nearer to your heart, certainly more intensely alive and better known to you. And even if a skilled hypnotist succeeded in blotting out entirely all your earlier reminiscences, you would not find that he had killed you. In no case is there a loss of personal existence to deplore.

Nor will there ever be.










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess

Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 1:38 PM

To: Kerry Burgess

Subject: Re: Journal May 20, 2006


Kerry Burgess wrote:
In that movie Mission To Mars, there is that part where the second team arrive on Mars. The guy that survived for months there alone has lost it to some degree. The woman who lost her husband explains that extended periods of low-gravity can have that effect on the brain. As I write this, I almost feel like something is figuratively tugging at my mind. Anyway, if low-grav does have that effect, there needs to be a mechanism to help someone keep anchored in reality. Either by training them mentally or through artificial means of mind control. This adds weight to my hunch that I have some kind of device implanted in the back of my head. And it probably means it receives FM signals, although it could be any frequency, but FM would make more sense. Although it could be satellite too, really anything is possible without knowing the details. Although the possibilities are limited, I mean, this isn't Star Trek. I suspect the creators of this project conspired with people in the movie media to condition rational people to dismiss such theories so that no one would really consider the possibility of someone really being mind-controlled so that the project would not be jeopardized.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 20 May 2006 excerpt ends]





JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess

Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 1:38 PM

To: Kerry Burgess

Subject: Re: Journal May 20, 2006


Something is there, something. It is like a shadow. Or something you glimpse in the corner of your eye. It is familar unfamilarity that appears then disappears.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 20 May 2006 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 10:03 AM Thursday, December 14, 2006 - http://hvom.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-privacy-is-important-to-microsoft.html


My privacy is important to Microsoft. They want as much as they can get.

The detail in my "memory" that was actually the first clue that I may not have actually lived in all the places I "remember" was my "memory" of living on a street named Wexford in a town named Taylors. The Taylors I recognized because the first ship that I "remember" being assigned to in the Navy was the USS Taylor FFG-50. Not long after 5/9/06 though, I started thinking that there may be a lot more to those "memories" than I consciously understood. So I started looking for the context of the name "Wexford" and I just before I read about it, I knew it was going to be something startling and I was startled to understand what it meant. County Wexford, Ireland is the birthplace of John Barry, who was selected to receive Commission Number One in the United States Navy in 1797 and is also considered the Father of the U.S. Navy. It was that detail that got me thinking that my own service in the U.S. Navy was much different that I remembered.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 14 December 2006 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 10/15/2006 7:23 PM
It was May 9th this year when I gained a new perception about the places I used to live. I started to question whether I had actually even lived in any of those places at all. I think it was Wexford that I initially began to question. I knew even before I looked up that detail about John Barry that it was going to be something important.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 15 October 2006 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess

To: Kerry Burgess

Sent: Tue, May 16, 2006 5:55:42 PM

Subject: Re: I don't know if I am winning or losing an effort by the Borg to assimilate my mind.


And what memories are real and what memories are manipulated?


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 16 May 2006 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess

To: Kerry Burgess

Sent: Tue, May 16, 2006 5:55:42 PM

Subject: Re: I don't know if I am winning or losing an effort by the Borg to assimilate my mind.


Kerry Burgess wrote:


I have this sense of dread I can't explain. But there is something........I can't put my finger on it, something, something, something, what is it? I had the strongest feeling this morning that I don't know who I am. Then it just clicked back. It just turned off. I think it was something someone on tv said while they were listening to me. I find myself thinking about that part in that 1998 Star Trek movie where Data realizes he is missing some memory chips. And I heard someone just the other day saying something similar. I keep my headphones on to block out stuff like that, but......what am I missing? What other clues are there that I've missed? Are people telling me this all to help? Do I need help?


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 16 May 2006 excerpt ends ]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: ----- Original Message ----

From: Kerry Burgess

To: Kerry Burgess

Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 2:45:01 PM

Subject: Re: Finally


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 10 May 2006 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: - posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 6:53 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Friday 04 December 2015 - http://hvom.blogspot.com/2015/12/first-federal.html


First Federal



What this always reminds me of is what I have written here in the open before about the life I remember in Greenville South Carolina back in early 1990s.

I decided to write this note now because of my theory about the divergence point of the memories stored physically in my human brain.

At first I was thinking for a while that the divergent point was July 1989. And while that hypothetical experience was a theoretical divergence point I began to believe that the point I need to focus on in the sort of peripheral vision into the memory accessible to my mind is June 2005.

I now believe that I was fully aware before 13 June 2005.

But then when they secretly drugged me then that caused me to lose conscious awareness of certain details.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 04 December 2015 excerpt ends]










http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121766/quotes

IMDb


Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Quotes


Obi-Wan Kenobi: Anakin did not take to his new assignment with much enthusiasm.



- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 2:32 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Friday 05 February 2016