Mark Sheeky Artworks

Replication And Decay

We start in a pure state, but only near pure for purity is infinity and conveys nothing, if one thing is infinite then all things are infinite. Purity replicates, or moves which is replication through time. Inevitably, errors creep in during replication from tiny and essentially random fluctuations and these create information. Just one blip is a steady sea creates some information. The amount of information is proportional to the mix of purity to error.

The information is random and most of the information is meaningless, but some information can, by chance, self organise or form stable structures. Some information is by chance able to replicate itself, its structures, and this is naturally selected over the random noise and begins to proliferate. During replication errors occur, as always, and so things seemingly eventually evolve into a state of chaos where errors dominate. However, as described by this idea, this factor can create the ability to form new unexpected stable structures on a larger scale.

Thus, with only one force for replication, or even motion, and a random disturbance, structures of complexity should arise. These structures should be stable and able to replicate, and during replication errors must creep in. For any replicating structure, errors would be necessary, because a pure and error free state could not evolve into existence itself.

Or could it? Perhaps a random error could push an object into a perfect form, like an uneven copper disc accidentally honed into a perfect circle, but that perfect form, being error free would be trapped in its state for all time. As a perfect form it would not change, have no sense of time or decay or be able to replicate itself. It would effectively be a pure infinite object in at least one dimension or to at least one degree, which would convey nothing, like the infinitely pure state, and if one thing is infinite then all things are infinite. A perfect form cannot exist or evolve at any point then.

On a related matter, can correct information accidentally be regained? This depends on what is meant by correct information. There is only former information. There might also be more stable or less stable patterns, but is it relevant which is better than another, or which comes before or after another?

Let us think about replication more.

What is needed for replication? Is movement replication? Movement needs a change of location but to replicate means to grow, making something new, so movement is not the same as replication. To replicate, extra energy is needed, the same amount as the parent, the thing to be duplicated, and a communication of information about the form of the parent. If the total energy in a system is fixed then replication can only occur by taking energy from elsewhere; either the background, the space into which the replicated thing would appear, or from the parent. Information about the construction of the parent must come from the parent.

The simplest form of replication is division, where one entity splits into two or more parts. This would assume that all parts of the object contain all of the information about it. The lack of complete information in some parts would cause errors when dividing in this way. Cells divide into two parts, and in subsequent twos. Would splits into many parts be as likely as a simple split into two? What might trigger a split?

One large fixed object for all time would be and convey no information, and would be the same as a smaller number of identical objects, so some instabilities must be present inside even single objects, so perhaps the crucial aspect of this are the boundaries between objects, not the objects themselves. It is the space between two objects that makes two objects rather than one, but as earlier stated, one object would be pure meaningless infinity. It is the gaps between objects that create objects. Perhaps it is the shape of these gaps that are the crucial random variational element in the universe.