4 Some Biochemical Reflections on Information and Communication
89
treatment that agrees with general relativity. Whether probing the small or the large,
communication in its most general sense seems to follow comparable patterns, i.e.
originating from a certain awareness of absentia complying with the law of selfreference. In this way we are all children of evolving time [22], making our way
through the sanctuary of spatio-temporal communication via Gödelian Absentia.
Note Added in Proof The meme-based evolution of culture has been vividly
illustrated by Deutsch [55], who concludes that knowledge changes the very structure of the Universe, i.e. that the creativity program is a combination of genes and
memes and that replicating genes evolve the hardware that support better memes, cf.
also the Blackmore “meme machine” [56]. These ideas find support in the present
theory that indicates a more detailed gene-oriented meme structure. In addition our
teleonomic approach provides backing to the authors simple resolution to the two
puzzles presented [55], (a) why was human creativity evolutionary advantageous at
a time where there was almost no innovation, and (b) why did human memes successfully replicate, given that brains have no mechanism to download them from
other brains. As also confirmed here, complex memes do mandate rules. It remains
a conundrum that Richard Semon’s views [57] on human memory, that emerged in
a biological context for more than 100 years ago, have been ignored not only by
his contemporaries, but almost forgotten until this day. For more details on this, see
Schacter’s remarkable book on Semon’s life and work, as well as considerations
raised about recognition and neglect of ideas in science [58]. It goes without saying that the actual concept of a mneme, introduced in Ref. [57], notwithstanding its
introduction, long before the conceptual development of modern genetics, should
play a significant role also in our present investigation.
Acknowledgements The author thanks the organiser of QSCP XVII, Prof. Matti Hotokka, Åbo
Akademi University, Turku for friendly cooperation, an excellent programme and outstanding organization as well as generous hospitality. The present research has, over the years, been supported
by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research,
The European Commission and the Nobel Foundation.
Appendix A: Derivation of the STN Configuration
To ease the reader I will sketch the theoretical background for the so-called SpatioTemporal Neumatic (STN) configuration, earlier also denoted a coherent dissipative
structure, including a list of the relevant equations needed for the formulation. Neumatic stands for the basic element, “neum”, used in medieval musical notation prior
to the invention of the modern staff notation. It could also relate to the ancient Greek
word, “pneuma”, and meaning breath. For further details on the development, see
the work of the author, [11–13, 15] and references therein, where also more thorough
accounts can be found. The focal point will be the density matrix ρ (the fundamen-
89
treatment that agrees with general relativity. Whether probing the small or the large,
communication in its most general sense seems to follow comparable patterns, i.e.
originating from a certain awareness of absentia complying with the law of selfreference. In this way we are all children of evolving time [22], making our way
through the sanctuary of spatio-temporal communication via Gödelian Absentia.
Note Added in Proof The meme-based evolution of culture has been vividly
illustrated by Deutsch [55], who concludes that knowledge changes the very structure of the Universe, i.e. that the creativity program is a combination of genes and
memes and that replicating genes evolve the hardware that support better memes, cf.
also the Blackmore “meme machine” [56]. These ideas find support in the present
theory that indicates a more detailed gene-oriented meme structure. In addition our
teleonomic approach provides backing to the authors simple resolution to the two
puzzles presented [55], (a) why was human creativity evolutionary advantageous at
a time where there was almost no innovation, and (b) why did human memes successfully replicate, given that brains have no mechanism to download them from
other brains. As also confirmed here, complex memes do mandate rules. It remains
a conundrum that Richard Semon’s views [57] on human memory, that emerged in
a biological context for more than 100 years ago, have been ignored not only by
his contemporaries, but almost forgotten until this day. For more details on this, see
Schacter’s remarkable book on Semon’s life and work, as well as considerations
raised about recognition and neglect of ideas in science [58]. It goes without saying that the actual concept of a mneme, introduced in Ref. [57], notwithstanding its
introduction, long before the conceptual development of modern genetics, should
play a significant role also in our present investigation.
Acknowledgements The author thanks the organiser of QSCP XVII, Prof. Matti Hotokka, Åbo
Akademi University, Turku for friendly cooperation, an excellent programme and outstanding organization as well as generous hospitality. The present research has, over the years, been supported
by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research,
The European Commission and the Nobel Foundation.
Appendix A: Derivation of the STN Configuration
To ease the reader I will sketch the theoretical background for the so-called SpatioTemporal Neumatic (STN) configuration, earlier also denoted a coherent dissipative
structure, including a list of the relevant equations needed for the formulation. Neumatic stands for the basic element, “neum”, used in medieval musical notation prior
to the invention of the modern staff notation. It could also relate to the ancient Greek
word, “pneuma”, and meaning breath. For further details on the development, see
the work of the author, [11–13, 15] and references therein, where also more thorough
accounts can be found. The focal point will be the density matrix ρ (the fundamen-