Reply To: Is the universe a "living system"?

[Duane Elgin]

Ursula—

 

If something is happening “spontaneously,” then it means that it is happening without any apparent external cause. Yet, in your description you say that “. . . all the prefabbed constraints in the system . . . are externally caused.”  If the constraints are “externally caused” as you say, then it is not, by definition, “happening spontaneously.” Do we need to eliminate the idea of “spontaneous” self-organization?

 

  Here’s another study that suggests the possibility of consciousness or some life-force enabling “self”-organizing behavior that is fitting to the form and function of what is being organized. This study is found in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B and is titled, “DNA Double Helices Recognize Mutual Sequence Homology in a Protein Free Environment” and was published on the web 01/09/2008. See: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jp7112297 The chemistry described in this article is beyond my limited grasp but a number of articles have been written to explain it in more layman’s terms. For example, from the “Daily Galaxy,” December 24, 2008, see the article, “Does DNA Have Telepathic Properties?”  

 

“DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn’t be able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet. Scientists are reporting that contrary to our current beliefs about what is possible, intact double-stranded DNA has the ‘amazing’ ability to recognize similarities in other DNA strands from a distance. . . Double helixes of DNA can recognize matching molecules from a distance and then gather together, all seemingly without help from any other molecules or chemical signals.  . . No one knows how individual DNA strands could possibly be communicating in this way, yet somehow they do. The ‘telepathic’ effect is a source of wonder and amazement for scientists.”

 
The self-organizing behavior of DNA–putting itself together with other strands, even at a seemingly impossible distance–suggests that some level of “knowing” or “consciousness” is operating at this level that fits the form and function of the system being self-organized.