Time (for a new post).

One thing is for sure, there is no past, only the remnants of dissipative structures and the impressions they leave in matter as they follow their relatively short course through “life”. Even the memories and analog world in a human mind are impressions left in matter to be used as a guide for future activity. All of the human feelings are just an impression created in neural tissue after the fact of moving about and dissipating energy, usually searching for more energy to keep moving about. The future of cellular life is largely determined by impressions in matter, DNA, left by the past generations of dissipative structures to guide our future behavior. Time is what happens when energy flows from a higher to a lower concentration, often through the behaviors and actions of dissipative structures that make it their business to seek high concentrations of available energy and release it, putting it to good metabolic use.

All of the books, photographs and other media in a library are impressions and rearrangements in matter accomplished by some living and now deceased disspative structures. You may imagine they were left to us in the past, but there is no past, only rearrangements of matter that always exist in the “now”. Perhaps all of that chronology, diagrams and the like can give guidance to those actively metabolizing. In time most of the forms will be corrupted, overwritten, disintegrate or be consumed as disspatives equipped with the information and enzymes for eating cellulose, leather or binding glue have at it.

This resliant ammonite fossil dates back perhaps seventy-five million years. But what does that really mean? That it was actively dissipating energy at a time that would allow several million human generations to exist since its demise? Since this remnant fell into the mud at the bottom of a sea millions of years of new forms superceded older forms, each composed of matter on earth’s surface. But does time exist? No, only leftover impressions in matter exist to give us the illusion of the past. It’s always “now” in this universe.

Time is running out on humans which pretty much means your gradient is about gone. You may need to rewind your watch.

Why are humans always pointing at their watches? Because “time is money (energy)” or “you’re running out of time” or “you’re going to be late.” What does this mean? Is it only a way to synchronize activity? Perhaps its a reminder of energy dissipation, the clock is ticking, you had better get busy and find some energy to dissipate. Perhaps you should write a book and leave an impression in the matter to guide future dissipatives. Perhaps you should try to stockpile as much energy as possible for future dissipation. It is fortunate that atoms don’t easily dissipate or we wouldn’t be here dissipating at all. Instead we can point to our watches and say, “It’s lunch time.” It’s time to decrease the energy concentration between the atoms and molecules of the gradients we consume.

Sometimes humans want to “leave their mark” upon the world, but this is what usually happens on the highly energetic, dissipating surface of the earth.

Surely the humans will project themselves into the future using the remnant information provided by so many generations of living organisms and resist a future as RNA inmates in ill-conceived technocratic cages. The evolution has been self-organizing until now, even our technological misdirection. Can humans choose how they wish to exist or will evolution dispense with their forms? Only time will tell.

Have a nice day at work.

Very basically life can be defined as the flow of energy from higher to lower density through specialized structures intended for that purpose. Both biological/cellular entities and technological/cellular entities qualify as life. The structure/organization of complex dissipative structures are determined by their effectiveness in releasing trapped energy to a lower energy or colder environments like space. All of biological and technological activity is nothing more in essence than the manifestation of otherwise unlikely arrangements of matter through which energy may be converted into a less concentrated form. Organism release trapped energy from the bodies of other organisms while technological, cellular entities or businesses release trapped energy from the non-living fossil fuel gradients in addition to hydrological dissipative structures like dams, nuclear power plants for the harder to tap but more potent energy of the atom’s nucleus, wind turbines to extract a fraction of other natural dissipative currents like wind and solar panels for harvesting radiation and the creation of energy gradients in batteries for later release (much like plants do with chlorophyll and glucose).

Humans sometimes get tired of going to work and making things happen but must continue to maintain the flow of energy through their bodies from ecological sources and through the corpus of their technological creation just to maintain its structure and functionality which doesn’t exist for any particular purpose other than to release energy from gradients and radiate heat to a cold sink. Interfaces with the cool environment are essential so that heat doesn’t build-up and destroy the various structures. Variations on a theme of dissipative structures, like the many unique humans, will actually compete to obtain the gradient energy to continue their existences and are more or less captive to the process and without free will. The organizations of atoms and molecules that are not very effective at releasing energy from gradients and reproducing themselves tend to go extinct as other more successful ones persist. Humans may laud success at releasing energy from gradients and proudly display their large families and very energy hungry dissipative homes, cars, jets and boats but in essence these people are only useful and unwitting tools in a thermodynamic phenomenon.

Have a nice day at “work” dissipating energy. Your cells, your body, your children, your employer, your nation, the universe is counting on you. When the gradient is gone and equilibrium is restored there will be no need for dissipative structures and you may rest in peace.

A technological disspative structure of the Chicago Transit system carries human RNA to and from their work cells as energy trapped in fossil fuel and food molecules is released, makes its way through the biological/technological structures and radiates into space.