Engineering - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 147

Gnergy

3 2

Complementarism =

Mattergy Liformation

1

BPB

Fig. 5.11 A three-node network representation of complementarism

3. The uncertainty inequality differs from systems to systems as evident in the
second row. The numerical value of the minimum uncertainty associated with a
given system appears to increase approximately linearly with its material vol-
ume (compare the first two rows).
4. The complementarity pairs associated with their associated uncertainty
inequalities also vary depending on systems (see the second and third rows).
5. The key principles underlying each uncertainty inequality and its associated
complementarity pair depend on systems, the principle of self-organization for
cells (discussed in Sect. 3.1 ) being a prime example (see the fourth row).
6. Just as the action is quantized in physics, so it is proposed here that life and
knowledge are quantized in cell biology and psychology/philosophy (see the
fifth row).
7. Somewhat simplifying, physics may be viewed as the study of energy (or
ergons), cell biology as the study of gnergy , and philosophy/psychology as the
study of information (or gnons) (see the sixth row).
8. One of the most significant conclusions suggested by Table 5.9 is that there is no
overarching uncertainty principle nor is there an associated complementarity
principle but these principles are all system-dependent , giving rise to a multi-
plicity of uncertainty principles and complementarity principles:

Uncertainty principles and complementarity principles are system-dependent . (5.55)
Statement (5.55) may be referred to as the System-Dependency of Uncertainty
and Complementarity Principles (SDUCP).
9. Table 5.9 strongly indicates that the principles of uncertainty and complemen-
tarity are not confined to physics but are universal. Since complementarism
(Sect. 2.3.4 ) is a philosophical framework based on the universality of comple-
mentarity and since the principle of complementarity is in turn thought to be
related to that of uncertainty (see the second and third rows, Table 5.9 ), the
question naturally arises as to how complementarism may be related not only to
uncertainties but also to other cognate terms such as information (or liformation
more generally, Sect. 2.3.1 ), energy (or mattergy more generally), and measure-
ment (Plotnitsky 2006). One possible way to characterize the multifaceted
relations among these terms is suggested in Fig. 5.11 , utilizing the language of
networks and the Peircean triadic template (see Fig. 4.6 ) :