Re: Is the Sun alife

Cliff Joslyn (cjoslyn@BINGSUNS.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU)
Sat, 1 Apr 1995 12:07:26 -0500


> >is the Sun a life-form? probably not but it may be more than a trivial
> >nuclear fusion machine.
>
> Well, I would see the Sun basically as a dissipative system, in the same
> category as the chemical reactions studied by Prigogine, the Benard
rolls

The answer seems clear, and I agree w/Francis. There is a hierarchical
relation between equilibria systems like rocks, dynamic equilibria
systems like the sun, and living systems. Control systems may or may
not be equivalent to living systems. Each depends on the level below,
but not vice versa. All living systems are dynamic equilibrium
systems, and all of these are equilibria systems. I have also dealt
with this specifically in my WOrld Futures paper, an old LaTeX version
of which can be found at:

file://is1.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/WF-issue/Joslyn.tex

O----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
| Cliff Joslyn, NRC Research Associate, Cybernetician at Large, (301) 286-7816
| Code 522.3, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA
| joslyn@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov http://groucho.gsfc.nasa.gov/joslyn/joslyn.html
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .