Non-material Nature Research Articles

Information and entropy — top-down or bottom-up development in living systems?

Editor's Note: This paper presents a different paradigm than the traditional view. It is, in the view of the Journal, an exploratory paper that does not give a complete justification for the alternative view. The reader should not assume that the Journal or the reviewers agree with the conclusions of the paper. It is a valuable contribution that challenges the conventional vision that systems can design and organise themselves. The Journal hopes that the paper will promote the exchange of ideas in this important topic. Comments are invited in the form of 'Letters to the Editor'. abSTraCT This paper deals with the fundamental and challenging question of the ultimate origin of genetic information from a thermodynamic perspective. The theory of evolution postulates that random mutations and natural selection can increase genetic information over successive generations. It is often argued from an evolutionary perspective that this does not violate the second law of thermodynamics because it is proposed that the entropy of a non-isolated system could reduce due to energy input from an outside source, especially the sun when considering the earth as a biotic system. by this it is proposed that a particular system can become organised at the expense of an increase in entropy elsewhere. However, whilst this argument works for structures such as snowflakes that are formed by natural forces, it does not work for genetic information because the information system is composed of machinery which requires precise and non-spontaneous raised free energy levels - and crystals like snowflakes have zero free energy as the phase transition occurs. The functional machinery of biological systems such as DN a, rNa and proteins requires that precise, non-spontaneous raised free energies be formed in the molecular bonds which are maintained in a far from equilibrium state. furthermore, biological structures contain coded instructions which, as is shown in this paper, are not defined by the matter and energy of the molecules carrying this information. Thus, the specified complexity cannot be created by natural forces even in conditions far from equilibrium. The genetic information needed to code for complex structures like proteins actually requires information which organises the natural forces surrounding it and not the other way around - the information is crucially not defined by the material on which it sits. The information system locally requires the free energies of the molecular machinery to be raised in order for the information to be stored. Consequently, the fundamental laws of thermodynamics show that entropy reduction which can occur naturally in non-isolated systems is not a sufficient argument to explain the origin of either biological machinery or genetic information that is inextricably intertwined with it. This paper highlights the distinctive and non-material nature of information and its relationship with matter, energy and natural forces. It is proposed in conclusion that it is the non-material information (transcendent to the matter and energy) that is actually itself constraining the local thermodynamics to be in ordered disequilibrium and with specified raised free energy levels necessary for the molecular and cellular machinery to operate.

Intellectual Entrepreneurship and Credit Risk Assessment: The Polish Experience

This paper analyses and ascertains the use of intellectual capital (IC) concepts in the process of credit risk assessment. Traditionally, only financial measures were incorporated in the credit risk assessment. In the knowledge-based economy, financial statements no longer provide sufficient information about a company's value. Intellectual entrepreneurs, by engaging human capital, embedded in them in an intellectual venture develop an intellectual product. Because of this non-material nature of the main resources in many small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the industrial, physical collateral model is difficult to apply. Therefore, the question this paper tries to address is: Are credit analysts dealing with SMEs aware of the immaterial part of economy, and if so, do they use such information in their credit decisions? The analysis shows that the use of non-financial information is limited. However, the analysts perceive information about intellectual resources relevant for their job, and point out that the current credit risk assessment procedures do not allow for the use of such information. The research results reveal that there is a space to consider intellectual capital measures when assessing credit risk. Therefore, it might be useful to develop a framework of reporting immaterial resources to assure more accurate credit decisions, and this paper delivers some empirical evidence in that yet unexplored field.

Sob a reestruturação produtiva, enfermeiros, professores e montadores de automóveis se encontram no sofrimento do trabalho

Este artigo propõe-se a discutir as possibilidades e os limites da intervenção social e da satisfação no trabalho dos profissionais da saúde, buscando compreender em que, nos limites do capitalismo, eles se aproximam dos trabalhadores da educação e dos trabalhadores diretamente produtivos. Para tanto, o texto discute a dupla face do trabalho, enquanto produtor de valores de uso e de valores de troca, relação dialética que compõe uma totalidade por contradição. É essa dupla face que, ao mesmo tempo, nega o humano, ao gerar relações sociais alienantes, e o produz, ao afirmá-lo enquanto indivíduo e enquanto humanidade. No capitalismo contemporâneo, marcado pela acumulação flexível, as demandas por ampliação da qualificação dos profissionais da saúde e da educação acentuam esta contradição com base em uma característica muito peculiar do seu trabalho: a sua natureza não-material. A partir desta discussão, o artigo demonstra que, tal como ocorre na educação, a progressiva mercantilização dos serviços na área da saúde, com suas peculiares formas de organização e gestão, se por um lado acentua a dimensão do sofrimento no trabalho, por outro lado também pode potencializar, diante do caráter práxico do trabalho, o desenvolvimento de estratégias de enfrentamento das desigualdades sociais.

Traditional Aspects of New Land Art

Newness in art frequently engenders efforts at a comparable newness in formal analysis and critical evaluation. Those aspects considered inventive receive scrutiny, while those that continue or amplify tradition are overlooked. Such newness in criticism, while not inaccurate or unhelpful, generally requires subsequent reinterpretation. A case in point was provided by the recent exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky's Improvisations organized by E.A. Carmean for the National Gallery of Art in Washington. What had hitherto been thought to be entirely abstract works were revealed to contain veiled but identifiable subject matter, often with a Biblical source. Kandinsky's description of these works as “a largely unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner character, non-material nature” had defined the limits of previous criticism.

Contributions to the theory of organismic sets. II. Aggressiveness and submissiveness.

In the theory of organismic sets (Bull. Math. Biophysics,31, 159–198, 1969) we considered organisms as sets endowed with certain “activities,” the latter’s resulting in a set of “products.” Those products may be of a material nature, like a hormone secreted by a cell, or of a non-material nature, like a feeling or an attitude. In the present paper aggressiveness and submissiveness are considered as such non-material products of the activities of the brain cells. A general description of aggressiveness and submissiveness is given in terms of organismic sets. Cycles in “peck order” are thus naturally explained.

The Structure of Morale

IN the speaking and writing on current problems of which there is to-day such an increasing spate, discussion of values of a non-material nature frequently introduces the use of the word ‘morale’. It is then employed in a loose, indefinite fashion to cover a diversity of meanings. A serious study of the whole subject by a writer of standing, qualifications and experience comes very apt to the moment. The Structure of Morale By Dr. J. T. MacCurdy. Pp. vii + 224. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1943.) 8s 6d. net.

Spiritual Pluralism and Recent Philosophy

THE author examines the Weber-Fechner law of sensation and shows that “unperceived sense-data,” such as are sometimes deduced from it, are not logically admissible. He expresses spiritual; pluralism as the assumption that our sense-perceptions are due to other “subjects of experience” of a non-material nature, and akin to our own subjective self. Guided by this principle, he discusses determinism and immortality, the relation of mind and body, and certain abnormal phenomena usually called “spiritualistic.”