The Quantum Evolution of Matter:
The Mechanical Unit of Complexification
A Sketch

 

George L. Farre

Department of Philosophy

Georgetown University

Washington, D.C. USA 20057

 

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ABSTRACT

What follows is a sketch of the Evolution of Matter, which began with a so-called Hot Bang estimated to have occurred some 15 giga years ago, and is still going on in the cosmic context. The focus on matter is due to a number of factors, the chief one being the observability of its behavior in Space-Time, the sole empirical ground for the representation of nature (Heelan). The evolutionary genesis of natural systems is thus reconstructed on the basis of the Science of Matter, and is articulated by means of its language, quantum mechanics (QM for short).

Certain assumptions govern the representation of the evolutionary process, the principal one being that of the observed unity of the Cosmos. The facts that matter is local in space-time and that it becomes ever more complex as the cosmos expands, result in the diversification of natural systems, each type of which is identifiable by the unique specificity of the behavior of its local instances. So a main objective of the scientific theory of evolution is to provide a reasonable account of the diversity of natural systems within the context of the unity of nature.

What natural systems have in common is their genesis in the same cosmos, born of a burst of radiant energy of enormous magnitude. This energy is the protean substrate of all that exist, matter being a compacted form of this radiation [Wilczek 1999: 11, 2000: 11].  The materialisation of radiant energy is presently thought to be the effect of vibrations of the primal energy field (Strings, M-branes, etc.), which becomes entangled in complex topologies. The complexity of these entanglements is governed in part by the density of the radiant energy, which decreases progressively as the cosmos expands, the energy filling an increasing volume of space-time where the relevant processes of energy transformation occur.

Energy õ is definable in this context as the dynamical principle of the cosmos. It is desirable to distinguish two main forms of this energy: in the evolutionary context: the original radiant form and the subsequent material form. The former is non local (e.g. electromagnetic radiation: radio, television, radar, etc.), while matter is inherently local. The genetic connection between them is governed by the Poincare-Einstein relation õ = mc2 (from which we get m = õ/c2). Thus radiant energy may be materialised and matter dematerialised, transformations, which are common occurences in laboratories and in everyday life. The relation between the radiant and material energy forms is apparent in the action of the fields on matter. The science of matter is therefore articulated by QM in terms of the action of õ fields on matter in Space-Time.

The following paper is a sketch of the fundamental process of the complexification of matter in the context of the evolution of the cosmos. It has been published by the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies and Artificial Intelligence in March of 2002, and so is already in circulation. It is submitted now because it mirrors a key point of the presentation I gave in October 2001 at the SEE conference in Toronto chaired by Edwina Taborsky.

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