Self-Organising System Characteristics

As defined in the previous post, open systems are driven from equilibrium because of the impact of an evolving environment producing stress, which eventually causes the system to morph into one or several new configurations. For example a bird species morphing into two separate species in response to climate change or a string energy landscape tunnelling into a lower energy topology at the Planck level in response to quantum fluctuations.
In string theory this may have the effect of releasing sufficient energy to create a new bubble universe. This bifurcation or splitting into new information states produces new configurations which match the changing environment more closely. In classical Darwinian terms, the environment has selected the new state(s) as a better match over the original architecture. Stress on a system requires the need for a new information injection which allows increased complexity to be achieved. The need to survive or realise greater potential drives the accrual of new information, causing the system to seek new options.

Once the system splits it then reaches a new equilibrium state, in effect it has self-organised its network configuration into a lower information and energy differential. Again the environment diverges and so the process repeats ad infinitum. It will also increase the thermodynamic entropy of its environment by exporting its waste energy, evading degeneration by importing information and exporting entropy.
Self-organising systems, organic or inorganic, therefore try to reach equilibrium with their environments, whether in the form of life, ecosystems, galaxies, molecular chemical solutions or black holes. The form of equilibrium reached may be in relation to any energy form- thermal, kinetic, electromagnetic or nuclear. All can ultimately be associated with and measured in terms of information states.
In each case the process is the same- the system minimises its energy or information differential to achieve equilibrium.
Therefore the process of self-organisation is equivalent to evolution.
The inevitability of the variation in the constants and laws of nature can also be better understood within the D-Net framework as follows-
All parameters of the universe including the so-called constants of nature- the masses and charges of elementary particles as well as the speed of light and Planck’s constant, are emergent properties of the constantly evolving braiding networks of space-time, as they accommodate within the larger structure of the multiverse. This is the same process of self-organisation or adaptation that drives all other physical phenomena and processes.
As our particular universe self-organises to minimise its energy and information differential in relation to the larger multiverse environment, these parameters or constants continuously vary, as also do the relationships between them- the Laws of Nature. This never-ending evolutionary process in turn alters the environment of the larger universe or system, which alters its system’s environment and so the evolutionary process continues ad infinitum.

Life as both observer and efficient information processor converts entropy or unknown information states to known information states, reducing entropy within the interactive observer system. Therefore the universe can both increase its organisational complexity and at the same time maintain creative unidirectional progress in the face of the second law of thermodynamics. This is life’s crucial significance within the cosmos.
A system such as life is enjoined with all ecosystems within its environment, including not only the biodiversity and biosphere of planet earth but the cosmos at large.
Its survival is therefore intimately linked to the survival of the universe.
Therefore the universe can both increase its level of organisational complexity and entropy and at the same time and can maintain creative unidirectional progress in the face of the second law of thermodynamics. A system such as life is enjoined with all other ecosystems of its environment, including not only the biodiversity and biosphere of planet earth, but the cosmos at large. Its survival is therefore intimately linked to the survival of the universe.

The validity of the D-Net model depends on its deep connection to both the latest biological and physical theories. These are now discussed.