6.21.2012

Program

The key word in the definition of teleonomic is program. The importance of the recognition of the existence of programs lies in the fact that a program is (1) something material and (2) something existing prior to the initiation of the teleonomic process. This shows that there is no conflict between teleonomy and causality. A program might be defined as coded or prearranged information that controls a process (or behavior) leading it toward a goal. The program contains not only the blueprint of the goal but also the instructions of how to use the information of the blueprint. A program is not a description of a given situation but a set of instructions.
Mayr (1992). The Idea of Teleology

6.12.2012

A preferred direction for time II

(...) several deep thinkers have arrived independently at a somewhat intriguing view of time. To paraphrase them: time is a stubborn illusion (Einstein), connected with human sensory impressions (Eddington), so that all moments of time exist together (Hoyle), with the division between past and future merely a holdover from our primitive ancestors (Ballard). Perhaps the most trenchant opinion is that of Hoyle (1966), who summarizes the situation thus: “There’s one thing quite certain in this business. The idea of time as a steady progression from past to future is wrong. I know very well we feel this way about it subjectively. But we’re all victims of a confidence trick. If there’s one thing we can be sure about in physics, it is that all times exist with equal reality.” Wesson, 2010, Weaving the Universe, p. 89

A preferred direction for time

"While no longer regarded as a practical cosmology, the steady-state theory shows that it is the motions of galaxies which essentially defines a preferred direction for time, rather than the (still poorly understood) processes by which they may have formed after the big bang."
Wesson, 2010, Weaving the Universe, p. 82

Eclipse em Príncipe, 1919


Nonlinear dynamics and chaos