jamenegay{at}ra.rockwell.com (Jim Menegay) wrote in
news:brv9rt$27u$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 

> William Morse  wrote in message
> news:... 
>> Given your interest in studying the basics of biochemistry as they
>> apply to evolution, I suspect you might also be interested in some of
>> the work that attempts to explain the appearance of complexity as a
>> general phenomenon of non-equilibrium systems. This work attempts  to
>> bridge the divide between chemistry and biology. Stuart Kauffman is a
>> leading expert in the field, but the only book I have by him -
>> "Investigations" - I have found rather impenetrable.
Apparently his
>> "Coming of Age in the Universe" is more readable, but I have heard
>> that there are better introductions to this subject - unfortunately I
>> can't remember any names. 
> 
> I've read some Kauffman.  The two books you mention, particularly
> "Investigations", struck me as things that he turned out under a 
> deadline from his publisher - part of a three book deal to cash in.
> 
> Some of his earlier stuff had some substance, but not enough 
> thermodynamic realism to suit me.  Prigogene, on the other hand,
> has the thermodynamics, but not the information theory.  Brooks and
> Wiley attempt both, but there are so many errors in their concept and
> in their details that it is impossible to take them seriously.  I
> wish there were a good tutorial on this whole thing of information,
> thermodynamics, evolution, and systems theory that spelled out the
> foundations properly before going on to speculation about the possible
> applications.  I haven't come across any thing like that yet.  Though
> I noticed some recommendations on another thread recently.
> 

You seem to be ahead of me on this end of evolution. It is only recently 
that I realized I would have to be able to understand Boltzmann, 
Prigogene, and Shannon along with pid control  if I was serious about 
figuring out how life started - and my ability to follow the details of 
the math stops right about at Maxwell. Unfortunately I have also not 
found the tutorial you are looking for. You may want to check out Howard 
Odum's " Environment, Power, and Society" for an early attempt at 
"consilience".I would think someone has done a similar synthesis 
recently, but I don't know of one. Wilson does a reasonably nice job of 
defining the benefits of consilience, but he doesn't fill in the details.  

Yours,

Bill Morse
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