So, I just had these ideas and I want to write them down in a place more ‘concrete’ than a piece of scrap paper. (the internet is more concrete than paper? wow)
Derrida has “force” and “structure” working together to create meaning, to create the way we see the world… His ideas have been playing in my head for months now, and… ok, so I was reading this article about how the discovery of life outside Earth would probably lead to a large religious identity crisis on earth, revolution etc. In other words, this discovery would be just as significant as “the earth is round” and “we aren’t the center” yadda yadda, no duh.
ANYWAY
This led me to thinking about the origin of life, and thinking about life is like Derrida’s “force” or “play”. And the physical matter is like Derrida’s “structure”. It came to me that even on a molecular level, motion and force is essential. No scientist ever has reached Absolute Zero as of yet, and even if they could, it’s been theorized that the matter itself would break down, or at least be easily and completely changed with the use of precision “tweezers” that could restructure the molecular bonds once all internal kinetic force and energy was gone. (It’s like molecular anaesthesia, and could allow for matter-threatening surgery or whatever, yadda yadda)
So, using derrida’s ideas of force+structure (not to mention both sides of any binary opposite) being essential and inherent for meaning to exist, it would make sense to me if we discovered that matter and energy together is essential and inherent for anything to exist in our world (physics here).
Ok ok ok. I’m not done here.
Going back to thoughts on the origin of life. Life seems like a creative form of this force+structure thing… it does more than just exist, or float around in the universe recombining. It’s got meaning and “consciousness” and all this other stuff that makes it different from other physical things.
This seems analogous to what language is in relation to like… sound. Or even just the things that animals do to ‘communicate’. Some event? in the history of “life” resulted in language, which is really essential if not inherent to the ability to consciously think, or so it has been theorized, and so i’ve come to accept, yadda yadda, i’ll go into detail later.
language uses the relationship of force and structure to create meaning, and in conveying and recieving meaning. Similarly, force and structure (matter and energy) have been put into place in order to create life. See where I’m going?
So it could be that if we could find the ‘origin’ of language, or do more research into the origin of consciousness, we could find an analogy for the origin of life in the universe…. find an analogy that would describe the processes by which chemicals found themselves recombining in creative ways… the way sounds (in our human case) found themselves recombining and creating a language.
This analogy seems disconnected, far-fetched in the form i’m writing it now. But it’s just enough that I’d like to read more, do more, understand more, write more and explore this idea more and see if it’s got any potential.
blah. ok. i’m going to go finish reading that article now.
procyon112 | 17-Mar-04 at 6:45 am | Permalink
IMHO information transcends matter and energy. It is “organization” and can be done using matter and energy, but it can also be done abstractly, with mathematics for instance. Matter and energy is just the medium in our universe that is used to convey this organization, but it is not impossible to think of alternate media. Matter and energy are therefore not needed to define existence or conciousness, but rather organizational structure. I type this on a computer and the words flow out into the void as a stream of electrons, but it is not the electrons which are important to convey my idea, it is the protocols that are used so that the idea can be reconstructed.
autarchex | 17-Mar-04 at 6:57 am | Permalink
the earth is round
I don’t recall hearing that this realization actually caused much of a stir. Then again, our records aren’t so great from back then… maybe a bunch of Greek peasants decided to riot when they heard the news?
been theorized that the matter itself would break down
…
There is still motion at absolute zero. Absolute zero is the temperature at which molecular motion is at a minimum. At extremely small scales matter takes on wave-like properties; it cannot stop completely - it will always oscillate. But you can take away the forcing function of temperature and that leaves only the natural function, which is a very small vibration.
starladear6 | 17-Mar-04 at 10:00 am | Permalink
Shit, well maybe absolute zero isn’t what my brain was thinking.
if the motions did stop, matter itself might break down. The Day After Tomorrow was written based on that theory, so someone did think it possible.
starladear6 | 17-Mar-04 at 10:06 am | Permalink
I read your comment three times and I don’t quite understand how it relates to what I was saying.
I understand that ‘information’ and ‘thoughts’ and ‘meaning’ and stuff “transcends” matter and energy because the matter/energy system is the language through which the information gets passed etc. But that’s not what I was talking about. Information or meaning would be the product of the ‘force’ and ’structure’ I was babbling about… but the forces and structures don’t exist for the sole purpose of passing on information. the fact that “information” even exists at all is our own human construct.
What you are refering to as “energy” (elecrons or whatever)is very different from what I was talking about when I refered to Derrida’s force, or even what I was talking about when I was refering to energy.
So yeah… what exactly did you mean?
I’m just babbling, trying to write shit down before I forget. maybe you were doing the same thing?
starladear6 | 17-Mar-04 at 10:08 am | Permalink
oh yeah. and the ‘earth is round’ thing was a minor minor analogy. I am allowed to make historical mistakes when I’m just free-writing.
durandal1707 | 17-Mar-04 at 11:44 am | Permalink
You’re allowed to do whatever the hell you want when free-writing, so in case your next entry from a non-French computer needs accents, here.
autarchex | 17-Mar-04 at 8:57 pm | Permalink
:)
Arturo Tariq | 29-Nov-06 at 1:02 am | Permalink
I think this is an excellent post. I was referred by ProBlogger.
emily | 29-Nov-06 at 9:44 am | Permalink
Thanks for visiting Arturo. :)