4
1 Morphogenetic Universe
larger scale when the behavior of numerous individual units becomes irrelevant and
science relies on effective continuum theories of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics,
elasticity, and electrodynamics. Finally, spacetime itself is a continuum supporting
our world just as Atlas used to support the skies – although spacetime may also turn
out to be discrete on the unreachably minuscular Planck scale.
The realm of analysis may still be undermined, as the ocean of complexity
spreads under the artifice of classification, like the living ocean under a rational
space ship in a novel by Stanislaw Lem (1961). In this way, the multiplicity of string
theories challenges the neat order of the Standard Model, and the equationless musings of Artificial Intelligence confront established methods of scientific exploration.
1.3 Alphabets and Hieroglyphs
At the base of discretizations and classifications stands an alphabet. The elementary
entity is a “letter”. Letters combine in “words”, words combine in “phrases”, phrases
combine in “texts”. Combinations are governed by “rules”, and the result may either
have a “meaning” or be senseless. The letters of contemporary fundamental physics
are quarks and leptons of the Standard Model, its words are protons, neutrons, and
other “fundamental particles” of the mid-20th century, its phrases are atomic nuclei,
its texts are quantum-mechanical phenomena. Atoms are the letters of chemistry, its
words are molecules, its phrases are polymers, its texts are chemical interactions.
The genetic code of DNA has the most concise alphabet of four bases, its words are
triplets coding twenty amino acids (Fig. 1.1, left), its phrases are chromosomes, its
texts are genetic plans. Cells are atoms of life, its words are tissues, its phrases are
organs, its texts are animals and plants. People are social atoms, families are words,
tribes are phrases, societies are texts.
An alphabet in its direct meaning (Fig. 1.1, right) was a creation by semitic people of the Eastern Mediterranean who happened to realize that the logic of their language dictated which vowel should be inserted between the consonants of their roots
to create an appropriate grammatical form, whereby the syllabic Babylonian script
could be simplified to retain bare consonants. The invention appealed to semiliterate practically minded people by its economy, and became almost universal after the
Greeks added letters for vowels. But only almost universal! The Chinese, cultivating
efforts that sustained the promotion of an intellectual elite through hard examinations, held on to their hieroglyphs, which, of course, like letters, are also formed
from a finite assembly of strokes, but allow for a much wider variety of combinations.
Nowadays, even the Chinese use a standard alphabetic keyboard to input hieroglyphic texts, supplementing machine suggestions by human memory. But hieroglyphs have another virtue: they have sustained the unity of Chinese script among
multiple dialects. If the Romans had adopted Egyptian hieroglyphs rather than the
Greek alphabet, Europeans would now be able to read texts in any European language. But it would then be a different civilization. The advantage of Europe was
1 Morphogenetic Universe
larger scale when the behavior of numerous individual units becomes irrelevant and
science relies on effective continuum theories of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics,
elasticity, and electrodynamics. Finally, spacetime itself is a continuum supporting
our world just as Atlas used to support the skies – although spacetime may also turn
out to be discrete on the unreachably minuscular Planck scale.
The realm of analysis may still be undermined, as the ocean of complexity
spreads under the artifice of classification, like the living ocean under a rational
space ship in a novel by Stanislaw Lem (1961). In this way, the multiplicity of string
theories challenges the neat order of the Standard Model, and the equationless musings of Artificial Intelligence confront established methods of scientific exploration.
1.3 Alphabets and Hieroglyphs
At the base of discretizations and classifications stands an alphabet. The elementary
entity is a “letter”. Letters combine in “words”, words combine in “phrases”, phrases
combine in “texts”. Combinations are governed by “rules”, and the result may either
have a “meaning” or be senseless. The letters of contemporary fundamental physics
are quarks and leptons of the Standard Model, its words are protons, neutrons, and
other “fundamental particles” of the mid-20th century, its phrases are atomic nuclei,
its texts are quantum-mechanical phenomena. Atoms are the letters of chemistry, its
words are molecules, its phrases are polymers, its texts are chemical interactions.
The genetic code of DNA has the most concise alphabet of four bases, its words are
triplets coding twenty amino acids (Fig. 1.1, left), its phrases are chromosomes, its
texts are genetic plans. Cells are atoms of life, its words are tissues, its phrases are
organs, its texts are animals and plants. People are social atoms, families are words,
tribes are phrases, societies are texts.
An alphabet in its direct meaning (Fig. 1.1, right) was a creation by semitic people of the Eastern Mediterranean who happened to realize that the logic of their language dictated which vowel should be inserted between the consonants of their roots
to create an appropriate grammatical form, whereby the syllabic Babylonian script
could be simplified to retain bare consonants. The invention appealed to semiliterate practically minded people by its economy, and became almost universal after the
Greeks added letters for vowels. But only almost universal! The Chinese, cultivating
efforts that sustained the promotion of an intellectual elite through hard examinations, held on to their hieroglyphs, which, of course, like letters, are also formed
from a finite assembly of strokes, but allow for a much wider variety of combinations.
Nowadays, even the Chinese use a standard alphabetic keyboard to input hieroglyphic texts, supplementing machine suggestions by human memory. But hieroglyphs have another virtue: they have sustained the unity of Chinese script among
multiple dialects. If the Romans had adopted Egyptian hieroglyphs rather than the
Greek alphabet, Europeans would now be able to read texts in any European language. But it would then be a different civilization. The advantage of Europe was