Incomplete Nature
Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter is a 2011 book by biological anthropologist Terrence Deacon. The book covers topics in biosemiotics, philosophy of mind, and the origins of life. Broadly, the book seeks to naturalistically explain "aboutness", that is, concepts like intentionality, meaning, normativity, purpose, and function; which Deacon groups together and labels as ententional phenomena.
Core ideas
Deacon's first book, The Symbolic Species focused on the evolution of human language. In that book, Deacon notes that much of the mystery surrounding language origins comes from a profound confusion about the nature of semiotic processes themselves. Accordingly, the focus of Incomplete Nature shifts from human origins to the origin of life and semiosis. Incomplete Nature can be viewed as a sizable contribution to the growing body of work positing that the problem of consciousness and the problem of the origin of life are inexorably linked. Deacon tackles these two linked problems by going back to basics. The book expands upon the classical conceptions of work and information in order to give an account of ententionality that is consistent with materialism and yet does not seek to explain away or pass off as epiphenominal the non-physical properties of life.Constraints
A central thesis of the book is that absence can still be efficacious. Deacon makes the claim that just as the concept of zero revolutionized mathematics, thinking about life, mind, and other ententional phenomena in terms of constraints can similarly help us overcome the artificial dichotomy of the mind body problem. A good example of this concept is the hole that defines the hub of a wagon wheel. The hole itself is not a physical thing, but rather a source of constraint that helps to restrict the conformational possibilities of the wheel's components, such that, on a global scale, the property of rolling emerges. Constraints which produce emergent phenomena may not be a process which can be understood by looking at the make-up of the constituents of a pattern. Emergent phenomena are difficult to study because their complexity does not necessarily decompose into parts. When a pattern is broken down, the constraints are no longer at work; there is no hole, no absence to notice. Imagine a hub, a hole for an axle, produced only when the wheel is rolling, thus breaking the wheel may not show you how the hub emerges.Orthograde and contragrade
Deacon notes that the apparent patterns of causality exhibited by living systems seem to be in some ways the inverse of the causal patterns of non-living systems. In an attempt to find a solution to the philosophical problems associated with teleological explanations, Deacon returns to Aristotle's four causes and attempts to modernize them with thermodynamic concepts.Orthograde changes are caused internally. They are spontaneous changes. That is, orthograde changes are generated by the spontaneous elimination of asymmetries in a thermodynamic system in disequilibrium. Because orthograde changes are driven by the internal geometry of a changing system, orthograde causes can be seen as analogous to Aristotle's formal cause. More loosely, Aristotle's final cause can also be considered orthograde, because goal oriented actions are caused from within.
Contragrade changes are imposed from the outside. They are non-spontaneous changes. Contragrade change is induced when one thermodynamic system interacts with the orthograde changes of another thermodynamic system. The interaction drives the first system into a higher energy, more asymmetrical state. Contragrade changes do work. Because contragrade changes are driven by external interactions with another changing system, contragrade causes can be seen as analogous to Aristotle's efficient cause.
Homeodynamics, morphodynamics, and teleodynamics
Much of the book is devoted to expanding upon the ideas of classical thermodynamics, with an extended discussion about how consistently far from equilibrium systems can interact and combine to produce novel emergent properties.Deacon defines three hierarchically nested levels of thermodynamic systems: Homeodynamic systems combine to produce morphodynamic systems which combine to produce teleodynamic systems. Teleodynamic systems can be further combined to produce higher orders of self organization.
Homeodynamics
Homeodynamic systems are essentially equivalent to classical thermodynamic systems like a gas under pressure or solute in solution, but the term serves to emphasize that homeodynamics is an abstract process that can be realized in forms beyond the scope of classic thermodynamics. For example, the diffuse brain activity normally associated with emotional states can be considered to be a homeodynamic system because there is a general state of equilibrium which its components distribute towards. In general, a homeodynamic system is any collection of components that will spontaneously eliminate constraints by rearranging the parts until a maximum entropy state is achieved.Morphodynamics
A morphodynamic system consists of a coupling of two homeodynamic systems such that the constraint dissipation of each complements the other, producing macroscopic order out of microscopic interactions. Morphodynamic systems require constant perturbation to maintain their structure, so they are relatively rare in nature. The paradigm example of a morphodynamic system is a Rayleigh–Bénard cell. Other common examples are snowflake formation, whirlpools and the stimulated emission of laser light.Maximum entropy production: The organized structure of a morphodynamic system forms to facilitate maximal entropy production. In the case of a Rayleigh–Bénard cell, heat at the base of the liquid produces an uneven distribution of high energy molecules which will tend to diffuse towards the surface. As the temperature of the heat source increases, density effects come into play. Simple diffusion can no longer dissipate energy as fast as it is added and so the bottom of the liquid becomes hot and more buoyant than the cooler, denser liquid at the top. The bottom of the liquid begins to rise, and the top begins to sink - producing convection currents.
Two systems: The significant heat differential on the liquid produces two homeodynamic systems. The first is a diffusion system, where high energy molecules on the bottom collide with lower energy molecules on the top until the added kinetic energy from the heat source is evenly distributed. The second is a convection system, where the low density fluid on the bottom mixes with the high density fluid on the top until the density becomes evenly distributed. The second system arises when there is too much energy to be effectively dissipated by the first, and once both systems are in place, they will begin to interact.
Self organization: The convection creates currents in the fluid that disrupt the pattern of heat diffusion from bottom to top. Heat begins to diffuse into the denser areas of current, irrespective of the vertical location of these denser portions of fluid. The areas of the fluid where diffusion is occurring most rapidly will be the most viscous because molecules are rubbing against each other in opposite directions. The convection currents will shun these areas in favor of parts of the fluid where they can flow more easily. And so the fluid spontaneously segregates itself into cells where high energy, low density fluid flows up from the center of the cell and cooler, denser fluid flows down along the edges, with diffusion effects dominating in the area between the center and the edge of each cell.
Synergy and constraint: What is notable about morphodynamic processes is that order spontaneously emerges explicitly because the ordered system that results is more efficient at increasing entropy than a chaotic one. In the case of the Rayleigh–Bénard cell, neither diffusion nor convection on their own will produce as much entropy as both effects coupled together. When both effects are brought into interaction, they constrain each other into a particular geometric form because that form facilitates minimal interference between the two processes. The orderly hexagonal form is stable as long as the energy differential persists, and yet the orderly form more effectively degrades the energy differential than any other form. This is why morphodynamic processes in nature are usually so short lived. They are self organizing, but also self undermining.
Teleodynamics
A teleodynamic system consists of coupling two morphodynamic systems such that the self undermining quality of each is constrained by the other. Each system prevents the other from dissipating all of the energy available, and so long term organizational stability is obtained. Deacon claims that we should pinpoint the moment when two morphodynamic systems reciprocally constrain each other as the point when ententional qualities like function, purpose and normativity emerge.Autogenesis
Deacon explores the properties of teleodynamic systems by describing a chemically plausible model system called an autogen. Deacon emphasizes that the specific autogen he describes is not a proposed description of the first life form, but rather a description of the kinds of thermodynamic synergies that the first living creature likely possessed.Reciprocal catalysis: An autogen consists of two self catalyzing cyclical morphodynamic chemical reactions, similar to a chemoton. In one reaction, organic molecules react in a looped series, the products of one reaction becoming the reactants for the next. This looped reaction is self amplifying, producing more and more reactants until all the substrate is consumed. A side product of this reciprocally catalytic loop is a lipid that can be used as a reactant in a second reaction. This second reaction creates a boundary, that serves to contain the first reaction. The boundary limits diffusion; it keeps all of the necessary catalysts in close proximity to each other. In addition, the boundary prevents the first reaction from completely consuming all of the available substrate in the environment.
The first self: Unlike an isolated morphodynamic process whose organization rapidly eliminates the energy gradient necessary to maintain its structure, a teleodynamic process is self-limiting and self-preserving. The two reactions complement each other, and ensure that neither ever runs to equilibrium - that is completion, cessation, and death. So, in a teleodynamic system there will be structures that embody a preliminary sketch of a biological function. The internal reaction network functions to create the substrates for the boundary reaction, and the boundary reaction functions to protect and constrain the internal reaction network. Either process in isolation would be abiotic but together they create a system with a normative status dependent on the functioning of its component parts.