The unbounded vistas of science: Evolutionary limitations

Complexity

Volumn 5, Issue 5, 2000, Pages 35-44

  Jackson, E Atlee ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0009645155     PISSN: 10762787     EISSN: 10990526     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/1099-0526(200005/06)5:5<35::AID-CPLX6>3.0.CO;2-P     Document Type: Article

References (47)

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2. A general comparative discourse on the recent views of many scientists, can be found in: Chapter 6: The “Inward-Bound” ←→ “Outward-Bound” Bifurcation within Physics, in my: The Second Metamorphosis of Science: A Second View; Santa Fe Working Paper, 96-05-09, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 1996.
3. Wilson, E.O. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Knopf: New York, 1998.
4. Jackson, E.A. The Evolution of Nature's Dynamnics, at the International Conference on Complex Systems, Nashua, NH, Fall 1998.
5. For some valuable critiques of relationships between experiments and theories, and in particular the three-body problem: Duhem, P. The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ 1991, p 142–143. Translated from La Théorie Physique: Son Objet, Sa Structure. Marcel Rivière & Cie.: Paris, 1914.
6. Ruelle, D. Chance and Chaos. Princeton University Press, 1991; however, Ruelle focused on the sensitivity of dynamic developed by Hadamard for motion abstract mathematical surfaces of negative curvature.
7. Prigogine, I. The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature. The Free Press: New York, 1997.
8. Birkhoff, G.D. Dynamical Systems. American Mathemetical Society Colloquium Pub.: New York, 1927, Vol. 9.
9. See pg. 378 in the following very useful review of Birkhoff's works: Morse, M. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. May 1946, 52 (5), part 1, 357–391.
10. An early exception to this was Newton's “derivation” of Kepler's planetary relationships, involving only one planet–sun interaction (also see [5]). When it came to the three-body gravitational problem, not even the great Poincaré was able to establish the stability of this system in a competition, much less the analytic solution. However, in his attempt, he brought forth his amazing topological methods of understanding dynamics, not the least being the one that eliminated the Newtonian-like deterministic world, already noted. For the fascinating history of Poincaré's error in this highly prestigious planetary-stability competition (which he won!), and the subsequent mathematical and political turmoil, read; Barrow-Green, J. Poincaré and the Three Body Problem. American Mathematical Society, London Math. Society, 1997.
11. For a review of the FPU and KAM results, and added references, see my Perspectives of Nonlinear Dynamics, Vol. 2. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 1991).
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20. For a valuable resource on ancient mathematics, including those of “The Divine Archimedes”: Wilson, A.M. The Infinite in the Finite. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995; including his integral calculus, which is much more precise for finite approximations than taught today.
21. It is important to note that Copernicus never considered such a concept. None of his circular dynamic components were centered at the sun, but well outside the sun. He dealt with a mathematical puzzle, not any physical interactions [21, 22].
22. For a uniquely documented account of the personalities and planetary studies of Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo: Koestler, A. The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the universe. Arkana, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
23. Pannekock, A. A History of Astronomy. Interscience Publications: New York, 1961. An excellent book of this subject. In particular read pp. 197–198 for a quotation from Copernicus' ambivalence about a moving sun, and the background for his assessment of Copernicus: “Nowhere the breath of a new era, nowhere the proud daring of a renovator, nowhere the symptoms of a new spirit of scientific research!” This is confirmed in [21].
24. Needham, J. A History of Embryology, 2nd ed. Abelard-Schuman, 1959, pp. 116–117.
25. Feynman, R. The Character of Physical Law. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1965, pp 57–58.
26. A very informative and relevant study of the historical evolution of different dynamic concepts that arose out of Mendel's, Weismann's, and Darwin's initial perspectives of natural evolution: Depew, D.J.; Weber, B.H. Darwinsim Evoling: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA: 1997.
27. For a thoughtful discussion of a search for new “physical features” that can account for the organizational dynamics of populations: Ulanowicz, R.E. Ecology, The Ascendent Perspective. (Columbia University Press: New York, 1997).
28. Morowitz, H.J. Beginnings of Cellular Life: Metabolism Recapitulates Biogenesis. Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, 1992
29. Complexity 1999, 4(6), 39–53.
30. Goldbeter, A. Biochemical Oscillations and Cellular Rhythms: The Molecular Bases of Periodic and Chaotic Behavior. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 1996).
31. Cercignani, C. Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man who Trusted Atoms. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1998.
32. Leggett, A. The Problems in Physics. Oxford University Press: Oxford; 1987.
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34. Thom, R. Structural Stability and Morphogenesis. Benjamin/Cummings: Reading, 1975.
35. Mayr, E. Nature 1987; 331, 475.
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37. Parsegian, A. Physics Today, July 1997, 23.
38. Bloom, F.E. Science, 14 January 2000, 229.
39. Despite S. Weinberg's characterization in “Newton's Dream” (Stayer, M.S., Ed.; Queen's Quarterly, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1988) pp. 96–106, what Newton actually wrote in the Preface to Principia was, “I wish we could drive the rest of the phenomena of nature by the same kind of reasoning from mechanical principle; but I hope the principles here laid down will afford some light either to this or some truer method of philosophy” (May 8, 1686). Given Newton's well-known diverse interests, this last remark was not gratuitous.
40. Folger, T. Discover, May 2000, 44: with critical reading, this gives useful facts about the upcoming MAP project, and its clever objectives. For an overview, visitmap.gsfc.nasa.gov.
41. Wittgenstein, L. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1961.
42. Feynman, R.P. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. Persues Books: Cambridge, MA, 1999.
43. Bauer, H.H. Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method. University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL, 1992.
44. Jackson, E.A. Complexity, 1995, 1(2): 14–17.
45. This relates to Feynman's conundrum [24].
46. As a matter of practice, they might like to write the book “The End of Serendipity”, or “Limits of Technology” (don't forget that all scientific “laws” are tentative). A greater scientific challenge would be to consider “Limitations of Technology”, particularly as it tries to enter the realm of exceeding the creators' collective “intelligence” [44].
47. Kurzweil, R. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Penguin Books: New York, 1999.