Ontic Openness as Key Factor in the Evolution of Biological Systems

Abstract

The heterogenic character of biological systems has as a consequence that calculations of their possible combinatorial constellations very soon run into numerical explosions. This means, that the resulting numbers—so-called immense numbers—exhibit orders of magnitude beyond any physical meaning. Such a high number of possibilities cause another property—named ontic openness by the physicist W. M. Elsasser—to emerge within such systems. All biological systems possess the feature of being ontic open and this is of great importance to evolution, as ontic openness not only guarantees a development of the system to take place, but also interferes with our chances to fully comprehend this evolutionary processes sensu lato. Thus ontic openness implies an extremely high level of uncertainty and unpredictability. On the one hand, we have a certainty that “something” is bound to happen within the system—on the other hand, we can be totally sure that we will never be able to forecast exactly whatever that “something” will be. At lower levels of biological hierarchy, e.g., the molecular level represented by molecules like DNA, RNA, and proteins, ontic openness seems pretty easy to comprehend. When it comes to more aggregate and even conglomerate systems, i.e., at higher levels of biological hierarchy, the emergence as well as the expression of this property becomes increasingly obscure. Although definitely present, the property at superior levels tends to be overlooked or neglected. Although the calculations may take different forms—and in spite of finding different causes—the property penetrates through all levels of biological hierarchy. To prevent systems from ending up in a situation where the evolutionary state described by calculations that are incomprehensible or even intractable constraints of the systems are needed. From the different levels some systematic patterns seem to be recognizable. Whereas lower levels find causes inside–upwards to be dominating, at upper levels causes become dominated by outside–inwards interactions. Eventually, the ontic openness is likely to be limited not only by physical dimensions but is also constrained by downward acting factors. One reason for this is that space and time scales are well-known to be tightly coupled throughout the biological hierarchy—smaller scales have fast reaction rates as opposed to large scale with slower functions. Thus, space and time scales become important to the realization of ontic openness. At the same time, a shift occurs that stresses information exchange and treatment together with cognitive processes to be increasingly dominant in the biosemiotics of the ongoing processes. The whole leads to a shift from dominance of objective factors to more subjective ones in the process of evolution. Viewing evolutionary systems as ontic openness systems and pursuing the constraints influencing them may turn out to be a fruitful strategy to the investigation of all developmental processes.