A World Beyond Physics by Kauffman, Stuart A. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Prologue 1. The World Is Not a Machine

The Nonergodic Universe above the Level of Atoms Beyond the Second Law Why Do Human Hearts Exist? What Is an Organism? The World as Machine

2. The Function of Function 3. Propagating Organization

Work Boundary Conditions, Work, and Entropy The Constraint Work Cycle Nonpropagating and Propagating Work Constraint Closure—and More Two Closures Potential for Self-Reproduction: Three Closures Nonmystical Holism The Genericity of Physics and Specificity of Biology Propagating Organization of Process

4. Demystifying Life

The RNA World The Lipid World The Connectivity of Random Graphs From the Computer to the Lab Three Closures of Life Life as the Daughter of Molecular Diversity The “Life Force”

5. How to Make a Metabolism

CHNOPS Beginning Guesses about Reaction Graphs Into the Laboratory Joining a Metabolism to a Collectively Autocatalytic Set

6. Protocells

The Damer–Deamer Scenario Onward to Protocells Entropy and Persistent Self-Construction Things Not Said

7. Heritable Variation 8. The Games We Play

Sensing, Evaluating, Responding to the World Moving From Matter to Mattering Instrumental Ought The Filigreed Games We Play

The Story of Patrick! The Story of Rupert! The Amazing Story of Sly Protocell The Story of Gus

9. The Stage Is Set

The Biosphere Explodes in Diversity We Cannot Mathematize This Becoming Context-Dependent Information

10. Exaptations and Screwdrivers

Preadaptations and Exaptations The Many Uses of Screwdrivers Jury-Rigging and Whatnot

11. A World Beyond Physics

Entropy and Evolution Niche Creation Is Self-Amplifying Beyond Law: Biology Cannot Be Reduced to Physics No Laws Entail the Becoming of the Biosphere Reductionism Fails

Epilogue: The Evolution of the Economy

What Is an Economic Web? Two Senses of “Need” A Brief Look at the Evolution of the IT Industry The Adjacent Possible of the Economic Web The Algorithmic Adjacent Possible The Non-Algorithmic, Unprestatable, Adjacent Possible of the Economy The Diversity of Contexts and Diversity of Uses The Growing Web Is the Growing Context for Its Own Further Growth A Brief Comment on Standard Economic Growth Models An Early Statistical Model of the Adjacent Possible

References Index