From Matter to Life: Information and Causality 1st Edition by Sara Imari Walker (PDF)

Description

Recent advances suggest that the concept of information might hold the key to unravelling the mystery of life’s nature and origin. Fresh insights from a broad and authoritative range of articulate and respected experts focus on the transition from matter to life, and hence reconcile the deep conceptual schism between the way we describe physical and biological systems. A unique cross-disciplinary perspective, drawing on expertise from philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, and cognitive and social sciences, provides a new way to look at the deepest questions of our existence. This book addresses the role of information in life, and how it can make a difference to what we know about the world. Students, researchers, and all those interested in what life is and how it began will gain insights into the nature of life and its origins that touch on nearly every domain of science.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is an outstanding review of what I believe is the central problem in all of biology: Where does the information come from?Biology is vastly easier to understand and simpler to explain in information terms than purely chemicals. This asks the question: How do you get from chemicals to code? What are the possible emergent properties?This is a survey of many views including various chemical scenarios. But it goes much, much further by looking at cellular automata, philosophy and ontology; various aspects of information theory, communication, epistemology and knowledge, by numerous top-shelf researchers.Davies and Walker are both at ASU, which is arguably the leading “deepest questions of science” research program in academia and there is a boldness here – and an honesty – that is not typically found in origin of life books. This book emphasizes the systemic, mathematical and conceptual problems as opposed to the mere physics and chemistry problems. There is no hesitation to look at philosophical questions.I thought the best chapter was actually the introduction, where the central problem of information was clearly and forcefully laid out. If you’re interested in origin of life OR the information problem in biology, this book needs to be in your library.

⭐Nice

⭐A terrific review, highly recommended

⭐very good actualization of the subject

⭐The cosmos is like a computer, and the information about matter and energy is processed in this computer to make physical reality. But the idea of “information” makes sense only to a conscious observer according to quantum physics. Classical/relativistic physics affirms that reality exists independent of conscious observers. In recent years, thermodynamics and the information dynamics have refined our understanding of physical reality.In thermodynamics, entropy is related to a concrete process, but in quantum mechanics, this translates into the ability to measure and manipulate a system based on the information gathered by this measurement. A well-known example is Maxwell’s demon. Like life, Maxwell’s imaginary demon seems to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But on careful examination it doesn’t, so long as information is treated as a physical resource, an additional fuel.In this book, physicist Paul Davies applies information as the key to understand life. Simple elements assemble to form molecules and then turn into life. But non-living matter also consists of the same atoms, then how do we explain this conversion? Non-life to life? Life is generally defined by its hallmarks: reproduction, harnessing energy, responding to stimuli, etc. But that doesn’t tell us what life is. We may know all about the complete genome of a mouse, but we don’t know what it is like to be a mouse!The information flow in genetics is complex. This is illustrated in an experiment that chops the head and tail of a worm and applying electricity, which disrupts the information flow in regrowth. This results in a worm with a head at both ends, and they reproduce with those physical traits, even though they have the same DNA as the original one-headed worm!Life is marked by a remarkable transformation in the organization of information facilitated by the operation of laws of physics. The cellular dynamics that includes complex biochemical reactions occurring in a concerted manner to support life. Genes, the molecular components of hereditary materials are read, decoded and translated into proteins. Then “life” uses these informational pathways for regulation and functioning of cells. Treating information as a physical quantity formulate “laws of life” that transcend life’s physical substrate. This is where non-life is turning into life, but it is the information dynamics and not mere matter to matter transformation!The authors take a cross-sectional view of quantum physics, chemistry, nanotechnology and information processing considering hardware (physics and chemistry) and software of life (biology). They don’t describe the nature of biological Maxwell Demon nor we can measure any of its physical attributes.The first two chapters, Introduction; and the “Hard Problem” of Life by Sara Imari Walker and Paul Davies, Chapter 15. Biological Information, Causality, and Specificity – An Intimate Relationship by Karola Stotz and Paul E. Griffiths; Chapter 13. Living through Downward Causation – From Molecules to Ecosystems by Keith D. Farnsworth, George F. R. Ellis, and Luc Jaeger are interesting chapters. A college level physics, and biology would be helpful to appreciate this book.

⭐Walker and Davies are eminent materialists in their fields, and have done impressive work concerning the current paradigm of science, that is, there is nothing but matter.But this paradigm was dealt a lethal blow by the likes of Maxwell, Planck , and Einstein, and 100 years later, material science is still in the ICU on ‘life’ support.The origins of the universe are chaos until we find the first organization, the Hydrogen atom. The authors make this ‘matter’ reference but do not follow with their oft-stated goal of the philosophy behind all material states. It would seem then , that the most critical philosophy would be found behind the primordial core of all existence- the hydrogen atom, without which nothing at all exists.Walker and Davies hint that there is a ‘deeper layer’but donot consider any mechanism by which this is possible.Consciousness, the principal aspect of life, can be considered here as the summit of that ‘irreducible complexity’ yet the authors do not account for the ‘deeper layer’ that even precedes the first ‘matter’ – the complex non tangible formation of the hydrogen atom.They have not considered the cyclical processes of energy creating ‘matter’ and vice- versa, as Einstein stated, thereby omitting the philosophic conundrum of the chicken and the egg. That the plan of the chicken must precede its manifestation as the egg is now 2nd grade science.Another effort by Walker and Davies to provide credibility to the shaking tower of physical sciences, without offering that very philosophy required to return it to the world of humanity.

⭐Superb study of the concept of emergent phenomena. Highly recommended.

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