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The Physics of Life - Introduction - Script of the presentation

I. Introduction

01. I. Title.

Hello, my name is Jan Kubań
I will introduce you to The Physics of Life.
This presentation was performed at Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu, United States, February, two thousand and fourteen, by invitation from Ken Schoolland
– Associate Professor of Economics.

 

02. Agenda.

The Physics of Life is a brand new, advanced and logically consistent attempt to define physical laws and rules, which explain how life emerged from chemical particles, has been continually transforming and is still functioning.
The Physics of Life also provides cognitive models, by which one can easily understand how any living system, for example a cell or a society, works.

The presentation is composed of four parts.

  • Firstly, I will explain why The Physics of Life hasn't been discovered yet and I will introduce myself, because as I can imagine, I am a man from nowhere to you. I will say a few words why The Physics of Life is important for everybody.
  • Secondly, I will explain how I discovered The Physics of Life.
  • Thirdly, I will enlighten you to what The Physics of Life is.
  • And fourthly, I will present a couple of its cognitive models.

The final part is devoted to the great inspirers – people who influenced me and contributed to the creation of The Physics of Life.

 

03. It is impossible to explain life in 1 hour presentation.

I come from Poland and every Polish man usually starts a conversation by complaining, so I have no other way but to start by complaining as well.
I am very sorry but it is impossible to give, in one single hour, a detailed explanation of how a car operates. So you have no chance of me explaining 40 years of investigation in that time.
But I will do my best, at least I will try to guide you in the right direction.

Every subject I will talk about is explained in a lot more details in my book “The Physics of Life” and in the website www.physicsoflife.pl

 

04. Why The Physics of Life hasn't been discovered yet?

One may ask why the The Physics of Life hasn't been discovered yet and why so few people are talking about it. One of the key issues of The Physics of Life is the concept of an object.

Everything is an object:
you, the chair you are sitting on,
the screen you are looking at,
winter, an idea, mathematics, God regardless of the fact that many people state that God does not exist.

The Physics of Life is an object too.
There are different classifications of objects. One of them concerns proliferation. There are objects freely spreading and expanding and there are objects which require a lot of energy to be maintained. The Physics of Life belongs to the second group – it does not spread by itself.

The first very important reason of this is the so-called syndrome of Machiavelli, precisely formulated by the French philosopher François de La Rochefoucauld in the 17th century:

We don't want to unveil the true mechanisms governing human beings, because they are quite unpleasant and we are afraid that they will be attributed to us.

The second reason is that The Physics of Life requires a multidisciplinary approach. However, our education systems are highly specialized and specific. Due to this, we are not prepared to see things holistically.

Thirdly, the state is significantly disinterested in exploring these issues. It is far easier to teach and to mark specific subjects and to be able to grade them for public consumption. Moreover, The Physics of Life explains the behavioural patterns of politicians, which they wish to hide.

Fourthly, the majority of people have short-term goals, are self-absorbed and do not inquire into the essence of things.

 

05. Is it worthwhile to understand The Physics of Life?

So why should you understand The Physics of Life?
Because the most successful people feel it and, even if they are not aware of it, they apply it efficiently.

Because understanding your environment allows you to control it and profit from it. And what is more, if the state you are living in is a very oppressive one knowledge of The Physics of Life, to some extent, can serve as self-defence.

Is it a theory of everything?
Yes, it is.

It is the theory of everything concerning life.

 

06. Who am I?

Let me introduce myself.
I was born in Poland in 1959 during the Communist regime.
When I was ten years old I moved to Moscow and I lived there for four years.
And from the very beginning I wanted to know “Why?”

Why there is no food in the shops?
Why the news is different in the USSR than in Poland?
Why do Russians adore Lenin more than the Poles adore Jesus?
Why the same histories, for example, the battle of Grunwald, are explained in totally different ways in Polish and Russian textbooks?
And nobody gave me a logical and consistent answer.

Moreover, I had never heard of anyone that had formulated the primordial principles governing life, similar to Newton's laws of motion, consisting of the foundations of classical mechanics. There was nothing like this for life. So my thoughts and research started to revolve around finding or discovering them.

I am a strong supporter of Individual Liberty, Limited Accountable Governments and Free Markets with the negative influence of Saint Matthew's ratchet controlled by governments.
I am a qualified biocybernetician,
the creator & owner of a business software company,
a mountaineer,
passionate about sport,
passionate about science,
a lecturer at the International Society for Individual Liberty,
and at ASBIRO which stands for Alternative School of Business and Self-development

 

07. How I reached The Physics of Life

So how did I manage to create The Physics of Life?
I think that it was due to acquiring skills in an unusual way.

First of all, I belong to a generation of pioneers. When I was a young boy, Jules Verne inspired many of us to try to become great inventors; Roald Amundsen and Ernest Shackleton urged us to explore the furthest reaches of our planet.
After reading Viktor Suvorov's “Aquarium”, I learned that to get to the root of the problem, I should ask simple questions, but most people don't. When I began to ask these questions I was amazed that there were no answers to them.
By being educated in five different cultures, and by reading the complete works of George Orwell, I learnt the ability to compare and view things from different perspectives, like Edward O. Wilson comparing ant colonies to human societies. They showed me how to reject my beliefs and previous teachings, in order to completely understand.

The Swiss showed me that the source of wealth lies in work and production.
The Russians taught me that very often things are not as complicated as they look.
One of my heroes was Antoine Lavoisier, who reinvented chemistry, overthrowing the long-established principles of alchemy and developing an entirely new terminology, which is still used by chemists today. This showed me not to be afraid of new concepts.

Running your own business requires both psyhological and sociological skills. You start to see people differently and you notice the flows of benefits and losses all around us. You try not to succumb to the social pressure to conform. When selling a product, the customer is not satisfied with incomplete but nice and simple explanations.

By working for years in the Biocybernetics department of Warsaw Institute of Sport, I was taught to approach problems in a multidisciplinary way. Later, Richard Dawkins and Edward O. Wilson provided me with an abundance of scientific knowledge essential to understand life. Due to this, I quickly came to the conclusion that biological evolution and aeroelasticity flutter are very similar:

both of them are self-exciting phenomena
and both of them are autodynamic systems.

This means that they generate the processes that, in reverse, change the components of the system or the system itself.
In short, not only living objects evolve, but also biological evolution.

Life is a long-lasting sequence of births and deaths, but as phenomenon is very stable, so there should be causative factors which ensure this stability.

Finding similarities when comparing things is the most important skill that a scientist can have. A couple of examples are Ross Ashby, a psychiatrist who created cybernetics and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a biologist and a founder of general systems theory. People like these showed me how important finding similiarities between different objects is.

I am aware that the development of a new branch of science is strictly connected with the introduction of brand new concepts. After all, energy, evolution, rays and so on have already been defined by someone. I also noticed that a lot of concepts are defined ambiguously. How can one understand evolution if it is defined in, at least, ten different ways?
So, I realised that precise definitions play a crucial role in understanding.

Paradoxically, my main asset was the lack of preconceptions about life and its origins. After graduating from university, I had an excellent cybernetic background but no idea about biology. The passion to discover how it happened that humans are systems of perfectly cooperating cells, has pushed me to study life from its very beginning.

The Physics of Life is the result of these studies.

 

II. Discoveries

08. The first discovery: Matrix.

My first discovery – The Matrix.

At the age of ten I moved from Poland to the USSR.
The first thing I noticed there was that Soviet radio was focused on different topics than the Polish one.
I was struck by the second – all Soviet people were persuaded that they live in the world's highest living standards, but I knew perfectly that the variety and amount of products in Polish shops was far greater than in Soviet ones.

As a young boy I didn't draw the right conclusion, it only came 25 years later.

This conclusion is: people lie.

 

09. Matrix - to memorise what it is.

I know it might be a shock for you, but it is true. And this discovery is so important that I wrote some kind of a poem in order to memorise it.

Yes we lie
You and I
Them as well
Be aware
Cause we live
In a Matrix Hell

 

10. Matrix - subtle tactics distorting information.

I don't see you but I bet you snorted.
How dare I say that you are a liar?
Ok, the word “lie” is a strong word, but look at this girl before and after makeup.
Is it the same person?
Yes, but she looks different.
So which one is the real girl?

Her make-up changes her appearance. I agree, make up might not mean lie, however an observer receives an untrue image – generally speaking – the wrong data. Name it as you wish: lie, manipulation, diplomacy, camouflage, but the truth is that all of us are sending false messages.

Why are we doing this?
In order to get something which is unavailable if we don't.

Cheating belongs to one of the subtle tactics to achieve something. We can not only send false messages directly, sometimes it is enough to remain silent or to hide what we know.

 

11. Matrix - information acts in a nonlinear way.

Does everybody really lie and manipulate all the time?
No, but a lie is non-linear. The change of a single bit of information can destroy a complex, perfectly working, system.

 

12. Matrix - vulnerability to propaganda.

Our high vulnerability to propaganda is the second component of the Matrix.

We admire people telling us what we want to hear. Those who tell us that we are brave, smart or intelligent quickly become our best friends. On the other hand, we dislike people criticizing us.
In order not to think a lot, we accept nice and simple explanations, and we readily accept what the majority says.

To summarise the first discovery:

whether we like it or not, we live in a world of perceptions and impressions. Information that reaches our senses is either limited, transformed or fabricated. Also, the media falsifies it even more. The environment we live in is full of false messages and our own illusions.

 

13. The second discovery: A Living Object.

The second discovery – The living object.

For many years, I wondered what is the main, common feature for all living objects. And, in my mid-forties, I came to the conclusion that all living objects actively absorb resources and multiply. I agree, there are a few exceptions, like mules, but those which neither absorb nor multiply do not pass on their genetic code. After more studies, I found out that every cell of our body contains our full design.

 

14. A Living Object - an actively absorbing system.

Moreover, living objects not only absorb matter, information and energy, but also expel them. So they can be imagined as a bathtub, to which something is flowing in and something is flowing out.

 

15. A Living Object - a flow system.

Look at yourself:
you read and write,
you listen and talk,
you eat and defecate,
you drink and urinate,
you warm yourself by wearing clothes,
and you cool yourself by air-conditioning,
and so on, and so on.

In brief, you absorb and you expel, which means that you are also a flow system like a bathtub.

 

16. A Living Object - other flow systems.

Consider a company or a factory, these are flow systems too. As are bacteria.

 

17. A Living Object - basic model of a living object.

This chart shows the simplest model of a flow system. The red arrows represent input streams of resources and the blue, output ones.

 

18. A Living Object - basic model of conflict.

So now imagine that there are two or more similar flow systems. All of them absorb the same resources. Sooner or later, they will drain them completely from the environment. If those resources are crucial for their survival, the objects will eventually die. When two or more flow objects need the same thing, and there is only one, it is called a conflicting situation.

 

19. A Living Object - basic model of cooperation.

Now consider a different situation, there are two flow objects and what one expels the other absorbs and vice versa. This is a general model of cooperation.

To summarise my second discovery:

Living objects have three common features – they actively absorb resources, multiply and contain their own design.

 

20. The third discovery: Mathematical Game Theory.

My third discovery – The game theory

As I already mentioned, I worked for more than ten years in the Biocybernetics Department of the Warsaw Institute of Sport. When I said where I worked people laughed saying that science in sport cant't be important. I had the same attitude from the very beginning, so I didn't treat my job seriously. However a couple months later I changed my mind. I realised that what we were doing was, scientifically, extremely difficult. The objective is simple: my athlete and nobody else, should win the Olympics. But what should I do to achieve this? Maybe you have the formula?

Sport taught me that there are a variety of things I should take care of: strength, technique, training and competition schedule, diet, nutrition, drugs, motivation and even luck. There are plenty of similar things and each of them is complex.

Step-by-step I realised that game does not only mean ball-chasing or “fun”.
In reality it is a very sophisticated activity. Look at the hockey match: there are five cooperating players in conflict with another similar group of players. Both teams want the same resource, of which there is only one – a gold medal. Two fighting judocas, both of them are living objects, no doubt. But at the same time each of them is a team of billions of cooperating cells. They fight for a gold medal as well. The cheetah is chasing for food and the antelope is escaping to save its life.

Playing, fighting, chasing, escaping – all of these are elements of game.

The concept of game in The Physics of Life is defined as: a set of many subtle and complicated operations, performed by one object (or a group of cooperating objects), to reach (or do) something, whilst another object (or another group of cooperating objects) tries to prevent the operations being successful.

Briefly speaking game theory deals with everything relating to conflict and cooperation.

 

21. Game Theory - basic definitions.

Mathematical game theory is the scientific discipline that deals with conflicts of interest.

It precisely defines terms such as:

Player – any object optimizing the absorption of resources;

Strategy – a set of algorithms, plans, calculation methods, decision-making methods, manufacturing methods, criteria of optimization, resources, structures, configurations, “luck”, policies and rules used to develop more refined actions aimed at achieving a goal;

and tactics – the mode of operation within a strategy.

 

22. Game Theory - life is the result of various processes.

We live in a tangle of interactions.

Bacteria want to use my body, but I want to get rid of them so I take an aspirin. A cow eats grass and the poor plant can't do anything about it. A wolf wants to eat a cow who is trying to escape. In Rwanda, Tutsi kill Hutu and vice versa.

We live in a tangle of interactions.
We live in a gargantuan tangle of neverending interactions.
And all of these interactions are either conflicting or cooperative.

The consequence is that life is full of dilemmas & self-exciting conflicts. A dilemma is a situation where we have two options, one of them results in certain benefits and certain losses and the other offers an alternative set of benefits and losses. One of the options should be taken, but each of them brings losses we want to avoid.

You cannot have your cake and eat it.

 

23. Game Theory - the Prisoners Dilemma.

The Physics of Life provides many models which explain how we function. One of them is the prisoners dilemma from game theory.

The two master criminals, John and Eve, have been captured. They face two years in prison because the police don't have enough evidence. But they are offered, individually, the opportunity to go free if they provide false, yet admissible, evidence that the other person committed the crimes. There are four possible outcomes:

  • 1.     If neither of them cheat, they both get 2 years in prison.
  • 2.     If both of them cheat against each other, they will both get 5 years,
  • 3&4. however, if only one of them drops the other one in the shit, the dropper will be free and the dropee will be sentenced to ten years in prison.
  • I think that you can feel this dilemma. What should I do? Remain silent or talk? Both options have benefits and losses. Also, the outcome of one persons decision depends on the decision of the other.

    This dilemma is so important to The Physics of Life I strongly recommend that you study it a lot.

    Now look at the situation in the bottom-right corner and consider the result from the perspective of the group. If both are cheating the ten year prison sentence is shared between them, if only one is cheating, the group is still sharing the ten years. However, if neither cheat the group only serves four years in prison.

    So from the point of view of the group the best solution occurs when both are not cheating. From the individual point of view, it is when the individual decieves the other.

    It is very Shakespearen and typical for life, isn't it?

    There are other dilemmas, such as:
    the I/group dilemma,
    the Short/long term benefit dilemma,
    the Producer/consumer dilemma and more.

     

    24. Game Theory - Orthogonality of interests.

    The prisoners dilemma shows the orthogonality of interests. For a well-functioning group, perfect cooperation is required. However, the individual mostly cares only about themselves, and his profit is far greater when deceiving the others.

     

    25. Game Theory - Producer/consumer dilemma.

    In manufacturing, there is a dilemma between the producer and the consumer.

    A producer sees the effort he has put into creating the merchandise, a customer only sees what is missing. So the producer states: this suit is 99% perfect. But the customer says: I won't buy it because one of the buttons is missing.

    The principle of this dilemma lies in the fact that the manufacturer totals his effort which means that he uses logical disjunction, while the consumer uses the logical conjunction of their needs.

    Note, that while at work we behave as producers, but we act as consumers when shopping. Have you noticed that you have these double standards?

    More about dilemmas can be found in either the Polish or the English vocabulary section of The Physics of Life.

     

    26. Game Theory - Two basic types of selection.

    A lot of people ask how is it possible that an organism is composed of billions of perfectly cooperative, interdependent, cells? The answer lies with selection type. Each of us is a Wholly Selected System – or WSS, which means that if a cell deceives an organism, the organism is weakened in the fulfillement of it's life objectives to survive and multiply. In contrast, in a Partially Selected Systems or PSS, this does not happen. Biological evolution, by selecting humans as WSS'es, forces this perfect cooperation within us. Conversely, treachery pays off in societies which are Partially Selected Systems. One example of such objects are nations. Note, that after the Second World War, neither Germany nor Poland, both PSS-type objects, became extinct.

     

    27. The fourth discovery: Logic.

    My fourth discovery – Logic

    Here we have two people. They are both labelled rich. However, they came into their money in two different ways. The one on the left did it by hard work and free exchange, while the other used coercion and exploitation. One label can have two different meanings but we always attach stereotypes to people. And for the majority of us, the rich are always bad guys and poor people...

     

    28. Logic - ambiguous definitions & stereotypes.

    ... are honest, hard working and exploited. I think, however, that the concept of poverty deserves two meanings showing the reason for this. One group, let's call them poor A, are poor because of external factors such as being born into poverty or being handicapped. The other group, poor B, are poor because of internal factors like laziness.

     

    29. Logic - 10 definitions of evolution.

    When I started to study evolution, I was struck by the lack of its logical and consistent definition, but I knew that such a definition should be the key to understanding life. In the Mirriam-Webster dictionary I found ten definitions of evolution, so how can anyone understand this phenomenon? Consequently, if there is no clear definition of evolution, teachers are unable to fully understand the topic when they teach their students. Then these children grow up and perpetuate the problem.

     

    30. Logic - bizarre definition of inflation.

    One of the key factors of the The Physics of Life is the transfer of resources, which is the subject of economy. Here, we can see the confusion related to the concept of inflation. The dictionary says that it is the raising of prices and that it is the opposite of deflation. Yet deflation is defined as: the reduction of the supply of money. These are two separate things, not opposites!

    Have you asked yourself why someone has defined “the raising of prices” by naming it “inflation”? Why was it so important to change a perfectly clear, two word expression into an unclear one? On the other hand, why does “the increase in the quantity of the money supplied by authorities" not deserve to have its own definiendum?

    One logical reason for this is that the governments want to hide that they are printing money for their own benefit. Long ago, “inflation” meant adding impure metal to silver coins, increasing their profits by lowering the value of the currency.

    A kilogram of silver was mixed with a kilogram of copper. From this mixture, two kilograms of coins were made valued as two kilograms of silver. The profit of one kilogram of silver went into the coinmakers pocket. This practice was cultivated by the Romans, Teutonic Knights, the Communists, and now by democratic governance.

     

    31. Logic - a call to avoid artificiality and reject ambiguity.

    Quoting Bruce Lee may seem ridiculous because he wasn't a scientist. However, he was a master of what he did and he created an original philosophy which should be constantly applied by every scientist. But unfortunately, it is not.

    Lee said that people should “avoid the superficial, penetrate the complex, go to the heart of the problem and pinpoint the key factors”. It is hard to disagree that it should be the first comandment of every scientist.

    He also said that one can become a master only after all vague concepts have fallen. I think that those who use unclear definitions should not be classed as neither scientists nor teachers.

     

    III. Introduction to The Physics of Life.

    32. Introduction to The Physics of Life.

    So, the first part was to introduce myself and how I got to The Physics of Life. Now let's talk about its main concepts.

     

    33. Key questions.

    I had one question that was always on my mind. Is there one consistent theory which explains issues such as:

    The origin of life
    Individual and social behaviour
    Death and the existence of God
    Management and governance?

     

    34. What is The Physics of Life.

    After forty years of investigation I think I found the answer. I managed to create a theory which explains life in all its forms and the processes it undergoes.

     

    35. The book "Physics of Life".

    Exactly one hundred fifty years after Darwin's seminal work “On the origin of species” I published the “The Physics of Life”. It was inspired by the work of other people, I will tell you a little bit more about some of them in another presentation. The most important were: Newton's three principles, the cornerstones of classical mechanics, Edward O. Wilson's “Sociobiology” and “The selfish gene” by Richard Dawkins.

    In biological terms, one can say that the “Physics of life” is a child of “The selfish gene” and the grandchild of “On the origin of species”.

    There are two essential parts in my book. One provides the basic mathematico-physical knowledge necessary to understand life, whilst the other explains the step-by-step process of the emergence of life from the very beginning – from chemical particles.

     

    36. What is needed to fully understand life?

    If you are afraid that you do not have the skills to understand The Physics of Life, don't worry, the main contributors were Ross Ashby – a psychiatrist, and Ludwig von Bertalanffy – a biologist.

    The most important requirement is logic, there is no ambiguity in The Physics of Life, so it is easy to follow. A basic understanding of high school level mathematics and physics is all that you need. If you are passionate to discover the tool for understanding everything around us you will learn everything else. Cybernetics, biology, economy, sociology and other sciences are not dangerous, they can be easily tamed. You just have to be motivated to understand this.

    I have one very important thing to say: there is no simple formula for life. Life is a tangle of various processes. So you should not expect that life can be explained by any single scientific discipline. It is a mistake to seek the answer through the prism of only one scientific field. Life can only be explained using most scientific disciplines together. And that is why you need to have a multidisciplinary approach and an understanding of the links between them.

    It is not as complicated as you think. Really!

     

    37. The fundamental thesis of The Physics of Life.

    Darwin once stated that life is a struggle for existence, The Physics of Life expands this, stating that life is a game for existence. Darwin's explanation of existence was: survival and the successful production of offspring. In The Physics of Life it is not named as “existence” but as a “life purpose” or a “life objective”.

     

    38. Recall of game theory.

    Let's go over the definition of a game: it is a set of many subtle and complicated operations, performed by one object (or a group of objects), to reach or do something whilst another object (or group of objects) tries to prevent these operations being successful.

    A game is not only ball-chasing, it is a complex activity which includes not only a struggle, but cooperation as well.

     

    39. A fundamental shift in the way we should think about life.

    The Physics of Life changes the paradigm of perception avoiding the stereotypical human judgement of things. We will no longer talk about “bad guys” and “good guys”, “poor” and “rich”, “atheist” and “believers”.

    From now on everything will revolve around resergy – a new concept of The Physics of Life. Resergy is the generalized notion of resources indispensable to achieve the life purpose by a living object. In Richard Dawkins book – “The selfish gene” it was named “points of existence” or as we can call it now “points of survival and leaving offspring”. Resergy consists of matter, energy and, what is important, information.

    Instead of saying “good guy” we will talk about a “producer of resergy” and in reverse a “bad guy” is named “consumer, or thief, of resergy”.

    The basic way to understand life is the ancient Roman question “Qui bono?” which means “Who benefits?” or “Who's business caused this?”

     

    40. A flow-systemic approach.

    Any living object and it's elements, including: single cells, colonies, multicellular objects, stocks and human communities can be modelled as a flow system acquiring, producing, transforming and expelling resergy.

    The way we are built and our behaviour are tactics aimed to absorb resergy and to multiply, which were shaped by biological evolution.

     

    41. Examples of flow-systemic approach.

    Look again at our rich people. The one on the left is a producer of resergy (for instance: food, clothes, heat or books) and exchange it with others producers. On the right, there is no exchange but theft, plunder and robbery. In the terms of The Physics of Life: the annihilation of resergy.

     

    42. Basic concepts of The Physics of Life.

    To understand life you need knowledge from many fields, but the most important ones are: logic, mathematics, cybernetics and physics.

    To understand lifethe knowledge from many fields is required, here is my list of cornerstones:

    1. Firstly defining. Define to understand, eliminate all ambiguities and make your definitions universally consistent.

    2. The most important concepts, the basis for all others, are the object, the system and how they are intertwined.

    3. The next step is to understand that the vast majority of information which you receive is not objective. Find out how information is fabricated and then spoiled by your own perception.

      Information is the basis of feedback. The most complicated type of feedback is pursuance – a general model of complex interactions between living objects. You need to study this thoroughly.

    4. If you want to be successful you need to know how to achieve your goals and what is the difference between a tactic and a strategy. These are the elements of game theory which are essential in life.

    5. The concept of process is widely unknown, yet important. I recommend everybody should study this concept and pay attention to such areas as its stability and self-excitation.

    6. Biological evolution is the shaping process which forms all living objects. To fully understand how it operates you need to acquaint yourself to the concepts of gerpedelution and victory factor.

      According to Al Barlett, “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function”. The biggest problems in understanding biological evolution are: the lack of a precise definition and its exponentiality.

      John Mynard Smith applied game theory to evolution. His Hawk-Dove game is considered as the most influential model. The Physics of Life expands this model by adding more relevant models such as: Small Evolution and Small Group Evolution games. The analysis of these games led to the concept of the evolutionary ratchet and victory factor, which explains how it became that humans are such complex creatures.

    7. The population calculus was introduced by The Physics of Life to explain that there are no absolutes, when talking about society.
      To put it simply, one bad apple spoils the barrel.

    The sum of this knowledge allows you to understand life in all its levels.

     

    43. Vocabulary of The Physics of Life.

    I have introduced several new concepts which were highlighted in green on the previous slide. These are important. I advise you to visit this website and get to know them. Be aware that for some of the concepts there are additional links to more detailed explanations.

    Have fun and remember, as Ludwig von Mises said, that understanding is not a privilege of scientists, but it is the business of all of us.

     

    44. Three principles of Life.

    When I was a student, I was fascinated by Newton's three principal laws of motion. From that point, I wondered if such laws exist for life. It became my obsession to discover them and after some years, I succeeded.

    Principal laws of life:

    The first law of life: Matter concentrates and splits.

    Matter concentrates, up to a point. Then it splits, explodes, spreads; generally it divides. I called this RPD phenomenon. RPD in Latin means reconstructo post dividere or, in English, reconstructing after dividing.

    The second law of life: Biological evolution is a self-exciting and autodynamic process/system.

    Biological evolution is self-excited by the RPD phenomenon. Self-excitation is well known in aviation. It is when a process spontaneously emerges due to supplies of external energy. Biological evolution is such a process. Moreover it is an auto-dynamic system which means that constantly dividing and absorbing objects generate the process which, in reverse, changes the subsequent generations of objects. In other words biological evolution shapes subsequent generations of interacting objects, which in turn alters subsequent characteristics of biological evolution.

    Biological evolution has two essential features:

    1. First: It escalates conflict and aggregates cooperation.
    2. And second: improvement depends on selection, and the stronger the selection is, the more suitable subsequent generations are.

    The third law of life: Interaction between living objects is pursuance

    Biological evolution changes the interactions between dividing objects from the most basic type of acquiring resergy, which is chemical affinity, to pursuance, which is the most general model of acquiring resergy performed by more complex living objects.

     

    45. The First Principle of Life.

    We are now going to concentrate on the principles of life. Not only because it is important but also because I want to make sure that it stays in your head.

    Matter has a tendency to concentrate, the final effect of which is a loss of concentration by division. It is called the RPD phenomenon. The Big Bang, the theoretical creation of the Universe, is based on this principle. In our terrestrial conditions, the most well-known RPD-type particles are DNA, Liposomes and RNA, which split and rebuild in our bodies.

     

    46. The Second Principle - an auto-dynamic system.

    As I have already mentioned, I have not found a consistent definition of evolution.
    Recently, I was reading a book, which I consider one of the best ever written. Robert Greene in “Mastery” said: We tend to laugh at people prior to the twentieth century who did not yet believe in evolution... And it struck me! Believe in evolution!? In the second decade of the 21st century? We have to believe instead of understand? Should we really believe in it? Does it still remain incomprehensible? I have already talked about the multitude of definitions of evolution. The word “evolution” is commonly overused and frequently misused. It is often confused with a life cycle. It is a big shame for science not yet defining it precisely. Due to this, we are still in the metaphysical phase of understanding this concept, as Auguste Comte would say.

    Fluid mechanics is far more complicated than biological evolution, but people don't “believe” in the Navier-Stokes equations used to calculate it. These equations are understandable and everybody can analyse them, drawing their own conclusions. The same should happen with biological evolution. Let's attack this concept to understand what it is and how it operates. I use the word “operates” instead of “works” because biological evolution needs to be regarded as a machine, as a tool producing objects.

    The most important thing we need to understand is that it is a process which started due to self-excitation. Moreover, biological evolution, plus the objects submitted to it, create an autodynamic system. Which means that both the process and the subsequent generations of objects perpetually change each other.

     

    47. The Second Principle - biological evolution is a matching process!!!

    Imagine a basic tool like a stamping machine. Every time it stamps, the stamping machine is changed by the stamped products. Which in turn makes the subsequent products different from the ones before. Biological evolution operates in a similar way.

    RPD-type objects absorb and multiply. However, at a certain point, there are too many objects which create a lack of resources. Then begins a..., let's stop here for a second. We have to find the right word to end this sentence. People usually use battle, competition, struggle and others. But should the most suitable be... game? Why game? What is a game? It is an activity performed by objects, aimed to acquire most of the desired resources, which are insufficient for all objects.

    Game contains all the previous activities with the additional factor of cooperation. Because of this, mathematical game theory is so important in The Physics of Life.

    Let's now look at the basic model of biological evolution which I called gerpedelution.

     

    48. The Second Principle - gerpedelution - a basic model of biological evolution.

    If you look at the pretty picture, you will probably be confused. It shows a cycle of the three stages of a perpetual process which is a continual sequence of these cycles. Biological evolution is a little bit more complicated because the stages overlap and new – memetic designs emerged and were incorporated. So, when somebody uses the term “evolution” near you, it must understand it in this way:

    1. First: we have a set of designs on which the set of objects is produced.

    2. Two: then the objects pass through a selection process where some of them are discarded.

    3. Three: then the set of designs on which the selected objects were created undergo a process of duplication and alteration. This new set of designs re-enters into the next three stage cycle.

    From this, cars are produced, as well as athletes, ideas and living objects.

    Thats all. This is the basis of biological evolution.

     

    49. The Second Principle - mathematical analysis of biological evolution.

    We can analyze this process and pick up on its main features. John Maynard Smith introduced mathematical game theory to study biological evolution with his Hawks-Doves game. I developed this with two new games: Small Evolution and Small Group Evolution.

    Using sensitivity analysis on these two games, I discovered a characteristic mechanism which I named the evolutionary ratchet. We are such complex creatures because of this mechanism. It selects the most favorable modification for that time and place, and spreads it exponentially throughout the subsequent generations. These are victory factors. Due to them, living objects are able to survive and multiply. We are the dominant species because we have the best suited set of victory factors in this time and in this place.

    I recommend that you research these new terms on the website shown below.

     

    50. The Second Principle - does biological evolution always improve submitted objects?

    Does the evolutionary ratchet works properly all the time? Charles Darwin noted that organisms have a natural tendency to revert to a less perfect state. This kind of contradicts what I have just said. The analysis of Small Evolution and Small Group Evolution Games led me to the conclusion that whether an improvement occurs or not depends on the “strength” or “force” of selection.

    I can go into more details but I want you to be crystal clear about this subject. Please go to this link to understand this issue.

     

    51. The Second Principle - HeKroGram - schematic of paths of creation of new living objects.

    Darwin coined the term the “tree of evolution”. The concept of the last unversal ancestor is also so widely spread that we think that there was one single organism from which all living objects are descended.

    Some Russian scientists argued against this Darwinian theory which helped me to replace his evolutionary tree with a HeKroGram. The main dfference between these two models are the merging points, where two cooperating living objects become one. As a matter of fact, these were not points, but rather consecutive victory-transformations in subsequent generations.

    Let's sum up the second law of life: biological evolution is not a straight line. It has many variables which change its features and we should all be aware of this.

    Remember: biological evolution is a matching process and objects submitted to it are living objects.
    The process is self-excited, and, with living objects, compose an autodynamic system.
    These features plus a variety of ambiguous definitions of evolution, make biological evolution misunderstood.

     

    52. The Third Principle of Life.

    The second characteristic of gerpedelution results through the emergence of better and better tactics of structure and tactics of behaviour, aimed at acquiring resources. This leads to the situation where the acquisition of resources amongst living objects becomes pursuance.

    The concept of pursuance is so important that there is a special presentation devoted to this subject. You can also study this by going to the link on the screen.

     

    53. The Third Principle of Life - in its shortest form.

    Pursuance is the set of phenomena associated with the process of achieving a goal. From the viewpoint of mathematical game theory, this is a branch of a decision tree. The branch which, up to this point, was taken and will continue to be undertaken from now on. In the simplest way, it can be said that pursuance is how to reach a goal whilst others try to stop you.

     

    54. 10 keys to understanding life.

    The key to understanding life is to understand the matching process, which groups chemical particles together into the form of objects, considered by us, to be alive. During my research, I realized that there are ten key factors which have to be studied in order to understand the emergence of life.
    These keys are shown here and on the left they are labelled according to the stages of gerpedelution.

     

    55. What is life?

    During my studies I came to the conclusion that life is a feature of a set of synthesizing replicators absorbing external resources. They absorb in order to build and create themselves on the information contained within them. Moreover, they absorb until division.

    There are six organisational levels of life, however level zero contains no synthesizing replicators, but just replicators. Due to their cooperation, the first level of life may occur. So they are not a part of life, but without them, life will not happen.

     

    56. A Living Object.

    Remember: the most primitive living objects absorb resources until division, more complicated ones absorb resources and reproduce. This concerns every living object: us, kangaroos, insects, bacteria... all.

     

    IV. Cognitive Models of The Physics of Life

    57. Cognitive Models of The Physics of Life

    Well, we talked about life, now let's talk about cognitive models of The Physics of Life.

     

    58. How to produce fascists in only 5 days.

    Is it possible to transform a group of american teenagers into a group of fighting fascists in only 5 days? Logic says no, but an experiment in Palo Alto, California, says it is.

    The Physics of Life does not show you how to do this, but supplies the cognitive models which help to understand such phenomena.

     

    59. Engineers' approach.

    The main goal of the technical sciences is to supply the knowledge needed to build various machines. The basic methodology consists of examining simple models and connecting them to form more complex systems. Electronic engineers, for example, after learning the exact characteristics of resistors, condensers, coils and transistors, are able to merge them into a radio. More of such block-models are needed to build a plane. So, aerospace engineers examine: springs, dampeners, liquid and gas flows, combustion, strength of materials and so on.

     

    60. Basic cognitive models.

    Using exactly the same methods, the actions of human and human societies can be understood. Interestingly, the number of basic life-models to be used are not that many. The most important ones include:

    All of these models are based on the flow of resergy and the natural phenomena related to it. I will now go into more detail about some of them.

     

    61. Nature of an honest man.

    Throughout history we can detect patterns of human behaviour which are not dependent on culture and time. Whoever I show this slide to, be it Chinese, Nigerian or American, and asked who got the salary increase I always got the same answer – “The A guy”.

     

    62. Nature of an honest man - more for less.

    Every living object is a flow system, meaning that in order to exist it must absorb resergy from its surroundings. So that man, in order to live, must act, and as Napoleon Bonaparte used to say: men are moved by only two things: fear and self-interest.

    So this is a basic cognitive model of The Physics of Life. The model of all of us. The model of an honest man.

    Remember it is universal: each of us wants more for less.

     

    63. Nature of an honest man - The first law of The Physics of Life.

    Whilst acquiring resources we discover patterns on how to do this and we constantly try to improve them. If a lie is profitable, we lie. If a better lie brings more, we lie better.

    As you already know, resergy consists of matter, energy and information. Nowadays, money has become one of the most important elements of resergy.

    A fundamental law of The Physics of Life stands:

    the source of income of resergy determines behaviour,
    the source of our income determines our behaviour.

    For example, the behaviour of lawyers is similar all over the world. It concerns teachers, entrepreneurs and soldiers as well.

     

    64. Nature of an honest man - Aristocratization.

    On the other hand, the more resources we have, the lazier we become. I named this aristocratization. It affects not only humans but other species as well, such as the mice in John Calhoun's experiment, which is explained in detail at this link.

    The model of an honest man is the most basic and universal cognitive model of our behaviour. If you want to know more about yourself, read about Ahamkara in the vocabulary of The Physics of Life.

     

    65. A social group.

    The second cognitive model was provided by an American ecologist, Garret James Hardin, who perfectly defined the concept of a social group.

    A social group consists of a number of individuals interacting with each other in order to satisfy their own needs. Such a group exhibits some degree of social cohesion and has developed both internal and external mechanisms of cooperation.

    The basic feature of the social group is a double standard – different rules for those within the group and those outside.

    However, the cooperation within the group might not be perfect due to our “honest man” attitude.

     

    66. The most effective tactics in absorption of resources.

    The third life-model of The Physics of Life concerns typical game-tactics.

    John von Neumann, the father of the mathematical game theory, concluded that the most effective way to win is to cheat in such a way that your opponent is convinced that he is not being cheated. I called this the von Neumann tactic, after its discoverer.

    It turns out, however, that there are some other similar tactics. For instance, to cheat in such a way that the opponent is convinced that you are doing all you can, to make him win.
    This is von Sociall's tactic, commonly used by politicians. See how many of them are rich and powerful by mastering these tactics.

    Because we all use these and other tactics in our societies we are surrounded by false messages which influence us. The area of false messages is called Matrix, another basic life-model.

     

    67. The pressure for social exploitation - description.

    The next model shows the natural tendency within society to cheat, because of the payoff. We will use systems analysis in order to discuss it.

    Let’s imagine a group of one hundred people who decided to live in an ideal community, meaning that they want to work in harmony and divide the goods they produce equally. Every month, each member has to produce goods worth $100. So, after a month the community has produced products with a value of $10 000 dollars. Everyone gets what they need up to $100. So they get exactly what they put in. The balance is zero.

     

    68. The pressure for social exploitation - sensitivity analysis.

    We are now going to apply a sensitivity analysis to study how a disturbance can affect this systems.

     

    69. The pressure for social exploitation - conclusions.

    One of the community produces absolutely nothing. The cause, as usually in the sensitivity analysis, is not important – it could be an illness or laziness, it doesn’t matter.

    Now, the community has products to the value of $9 900. Everyone gets $99 worth of products, including the one who did nothing. His balance is +$99 whilst the balance of everybody else is -$1, because they produced $100 and received $99. Notice, that the gain of the non-working person is very high in comparison to the others, and more importantly, it grows higher if the community is larger. But what happens if somebody works twice as hard so he can get richer? Working night and day, he managed to produce twice the amount of goods – worth $200. Now there is $10 100 of products to be split among the community, so each one gets $101. However, the balance of the hard-worker is -$99 whilst everybody else's is +$1.

    So by doing nothing, the balance is +$99 and by doing twice as much the balance is -$99. As we are always trying to optimise our profits, it seems that the best course of action is to stay in bed! If everybody in the community worked this out it would collapse after a certain point because not enough products would be created to fulfil the needs of the community.

    This basic model is called Natural pressure for social exploitation.

     

    70. Tytler's cycle.

    The next model is The social cycle.

    It has been attributed to Alexander Tytler that, on average, the great civilizations throughout history have only lasted for 200 years. And they always went through the same stages, always starting with a lack of resources and freedom.

    A similar cycle was observed by John Glubb, a British scholar. John Freeslow combined these cycles and created a more universal one – The social cycle.

     

    71. A Social Cycle.

    When resources are limited, there are two ways to get them, with cooperation or by theft. When you cooperate, it will lead to an excess of resources and everybody is happy and becoming… lazier. This leads to the replacement of cooperation with theft, plunder and robbery, and to the eventual lack of resources. If you steal from others to improve your balance there will never be an excess, you will only return to having nothing.

    The fact that abundance weakens society was proved by John Calhoun's Utopia experiment, which will be discussed in another presentation but can be found at the link shown here.

     

    72. The Classic Dilemma of Authority - description.

    Imagine that you are a powerful president of a country with a lot of hospitals, paid for by using public money. Some of the directors manage their hospitals in the correct way, some others overpay their staff pushing their hospitals into debt which, after time, become significant.

     

    73. The Classic Dilemma of Authority - table of group and individual balance of gains and losses.

    Now you, as the president, have two options: either force them to pay the debt or forgive the debt and print money to cover the shortfall. This table shows the gains and losses for both the leader and the group in both cases.

     

    74. The Classic Dilemma of Authority - cybernetics analysis.

    Democratic leaders usually choose to print more money, creating short term benefits and long term problems. Because this raises their chances to be reelected. But this does not fix the problem, it only hides it. The problem is building up, out of sight, until it suddenly explodes. Sorry communist Poland, sorry modern Greece.

     

    75. The Classic Dilemma of Authority - The role of superior authorities.

    As Noccolo Machiavelli stated, the main role of a leader is to maintain the country or develop it. The actions of many of todays western leaders seem to be nice and efficient, while in reality they stimulate bad behaviours in people. In fact, the development of their country is like the growth of a cancerous tissue.

    A leader must be the guardian of principles but never a businessman.

     

    76. What is life – to memorise

    This is the last slide of the fourth part which is concerned with the cognitive models of The Physics of Life. I would like you to memorise this:

    RPD-type particles created the game for resources which in turn shapes subsequent generations of RPD-type particles which in reverse change the rules of this game.

    This is life.

    The best tactic of any game is to cheat, to make your opponent think that you are honest. When the cheating becomes excellent, we start to believe them ourselves and gradually, they become part of our reality.

    If I have to sum up everything that has so far been told to one sentence, it would sound like this: The whole life revolves around four fundamental concepts: “Game for resources”, “Biological evolution”, “Emergence” and “Tactics used to win the game”.

     

    77. www.physicsoflife.pl website

    Thank you for listening to the introduction to The Physics of Life. If it has peaked your interest, I invite you to visit the website which is on the screen. It is available in English and Polish.

     

    78. Ending

    If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

    I am also available for live presentations.

     

    79. “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

    The human mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy.
    [...]
    The mental resistance to new ideas is partly due to the fact that they have to displace established ideas. New facts are not usually accepted unless they can be correlated with the existing body of knowledge; it is often not sufficient that they can be demonstrated on independent evidence. Therefore premature discoveries are usually neglected and lost. An unreasoning, instinctive mental resistance to novelty is the real basis of excessive scepticism and conservatism.

    Persecution of great discoverers was due partly to mental resistance to new ideas and partly to the disturbance caused to entrenched authority and vested interests, intellectual and material. Sometimes lack of diplomacy on the part of the discoverer has aggravated matters. Opposition must have killed at birth many discoveries.

    “The Art of Scientific Investigation” W. I. B. Beveridge (1908-2006)