Preface
This book is about morphogenesis as genesis of forms, not necessarily in a plant
growing from a seed or an animal from an embryo (although they supply the most
abundant and unequivocal material) but also in kindred processes, from inorganic
to social. It is about our morphogenetic universe: unplanned, unfair, and frustratingly complicated but benevolent in allowing us to emerge, survive, and inquire
into its laws. Why did I embark upon writing this book? Forms of life and related
forms of inorganic Nature that allowed life to originate and evolve are, on the one
hand, captivating philosophically charged themes and, on the other hand, a subject
of intensive investigation into their minute detail. The first has prompted many fascinating books, some turning into bestsellers; the second, mountains of scientific
papers and monographs, read by a few specialists if at all. My intention here is to
interpose bit-size samples of the detailed view into the broad picture, in the attempt
to raise the former and anchor the latter.
I have tried wherever possible to emphasize structural connections between dissimilar phenomena. One could find a deeper and more eloquent description of any
particular subject in this book but I hope this approach will appeal to the inquisitive reader with a wide range of interests or perhaps to the wide-eyed youth who
has not yet decided what to do in life. Although the content is not technical, the
reader should be tolerant to unfamiliar scientific terminology, which I have tried to
decipher and to make more friendly. It is impossible to avoid biological nomenclature with its unpronounceable Graeco-Latin terms, often of an obscure or unrelated
origin, which seems to be designed to repel a lay reader, but you will not see here
arbitrary names of genes, enzymes, and signaling molecules. In order to keep the
chronology right, I often refer to original publications, even though later interpretations, derivative works, and reviews might be more accessible. The citation list
cannot be comprehensive in such a wide area, but references may give the interested
reader a thread to a plethora of related literature in the citation network.
Why the word deconstruction in the title? Google defines deconstruction as a
method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language. Deconstruction
implies an outside viewpoint, and this is how the physicist views the intricacies of
life, trying to infer general features from a confusion of details. In the words of
Heidegger (1962), Destruktion aims to “arrive at those primordial experiences in
which we achieved our first ways of determining the nature of Being”. This attitude
is not bereft of dangers. Bare etymology implies that deconstruction is apt to destroy
what has been carefully constructed, in the way the meaning of a text used to be
deconstructed by Jacques Derrida and his followers. In contrast, deconstruction is
understood here in an affirmative sense more fitting of Heidegger’s and Google’s
definitions as the analytic way to understand construction.
Len Pismen
Haifa, 2019
v
This book is about morphogenesis as genesis of forms, not necessarily in a plant
growing from a seed or an animal from an embryo (although they supply the most
abundant and unequivocal material) but also in kindred processes, from inorganic
to social. It is about our morphogenetic universe: unplanned, unfair, and frustratingly complicated but benevolent in allowing us to emerge, survive, and inquire
into its laws. Why did I embark upon writing this book? Forms of life and related
forms of inorganic Nature that allowed life to originate and evolve are, on the one
hand, captivating philosophically charged themes and, on the other hand, a subject
of intensive investigation into their minute detail. The first has prompted many fascinating books, some turning into bestsellers; the second, mountains of scientific
papers and monographs, read by a few specialists if at all. My intention here is to
interpose bit-size samples of the detailed view into the broad picture, in the attempt
to raise the former and anchor the latter.
I have tried wherever possible to emphasize structural connections between dissimilar phenomena. One could find a deeper and more eloquent description of any
particular subject in this book but I hope this approach will appeal to the inquisitive reader with a wide range of interests or perhaps to the wide-eyed youth who
has not yet decided what to do in life. Although the content is not technical, the
reader should be tolerant to unfamiliar scientific terminology, which I have tried to
decipher and to make more friendly. It is impossible to avoid biological nomenclature with its unpronounceable Graeco-Latin terms, often of an obscure or unrelated
origin, which seems to be designed to repel a lay reader, but you will not see here
arbitrary names of genes, enzymes, and signaling molecules. In order to keep the
chronology right, I often refer to original publications, even though later interpretations, derivative works, and reviews might be more accessible. The citation list
cannot be comprehensive in such a wide area, but references may give the interested
reader a thread to a plethora of related literature in the citation network.
Why the word deconstruction in the title? Google defines deconstruction as a
method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language. Deconstruction
implies an outside viewpoint, and this is how the physicist views the intricacies of
life, trying to infer general features from a confusion of details. In the words of
Heidegger (1962), Destruktion aims to “arrive at those primordial experiences in
which we achieved our first ways of determining the nature of Being”. This attitude
is not bereft of dangers. Bare etymology implies that deconstruction is apt to destroy
what has been carefully constructed, in the way the meaning of a text used to be
deconstructed by Jacques Derrida and his followers. In contrast, deconstruction is
understood here in an affirmative sense more fitting of Heidegger’s and Google’s
definitions as the analytic way to understand construction.
Len Pismen
Haifa, 2019
v