Engineering - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 146

Table 5.9 The uncertainty principles in physics, biology, and philosophy

Uncertainty principle
Heisenberg Cellular Knowledge

Atom (10 30 ) Cell (10 15 )

1. System (volume, m 3 ) Brain (1)

a

u b

2. Uncertainty inequality
(minimum Uncertainty)

D q ∙ D p h/2 p D G ∙ D I g D X ∙ D Y

(~10 14 erg) (~10 2 )

D t ∙ D E h/2 p

(~10 27 erg s)

3. Complementary pairs Wave versus particle Linformation versus mattergy Fuzzy versus crisp ( Kosko 1993)

Diachronicity versus synchronicity c

Kinematics versus dynamics Continuity versus discontinuity

Measuring instruments A versus B Structure versus process Local versus global

Classical versus nonclassical epistemology
(Plotnitsky 2006 )

4. Key principles Principle of the quantum (or the quantization of action,

i.e., energy

Principle of self-organization Principle of ineffability (Statement 5.22)

time)

Principle of the conformon (or the
quantization of biological action)
( Ji 2000)

Einstein's uncertainty thesis (Statement 5.38)
Principle of minimum uncertainty: i.e., u > 0 (see

inequality [5.27])

d )

Life ¼ g (conformons, gnergons e ) Knowledge ¼ u f (gnons g ) 5. Quantum (alternative names) Action ¼ h(quons, ergons

6. Concerned with (discrete units) Energy (ergons) Gnergy (gnergons) Information (gnons)

7. Field of study Physics Biology Philosophy/psychology

a The minimum size of the conformon postulated to be kT or 4.127

10 14 ergs (or 0.594 kcal/mol) (Ji 1991, p. 32)
b To maintain the symmetry of the table, it is postulated that there exist one or more uncertainty pairs denoted as X and Y such that increasing the precision of describing X
is possible if and only if the precision of describing Y is reduced proportionately so that their product is always greater than some minimum uncertainty symbolized by u.
One example of X and Y may be suggested to be natural language and mathematics . The minimum uncertainty of human knowledge, u, may be represented in terms of the
Kosko entropy, S K, that cannot be reduced to zero nor exceeds 1. The numerical value of u has been conjectured to be about 10 2 , which is about 12 orders of magnitude
greater than kT , the minimum size of the cellular uncertainty, and about 25 orders of magnitude greater than h , the minimum size of quantum mechanical uncertainty
c Cells are evolving systems whose current properties and processes have been selected by evolution and hence cannot be completely understood without taking into
account their past history as recorded in their structures, for example, DNA. In other words, cells can be described in two complementary ways - via the diachronic and the
synchronic approaches (see Sect. 4.5 )
d The energetic aspect of gnergy, the complementary union of information and energy (Sect. 2.3.2 )
e The discrete unit of gnergy (Sect. 2.3.2 )
f The symbol u refers to the minimum uncertainty in human knowledge which is equivalent to the maximum human knowledge, because it takes a maximum amount of
information to minimize uncertainty
g The informational aspect of gnergy (Ji 1991, pp. 1, 152 and 160)