SUCCINCTICITY

By the time something becomes processable information it must by definition contain at least a tiny bit of abstraction.  Abstraction creation, thus, is elementary to understanding the moment when substance attains some modicum of form.  Without form there is no information, there is only pure substance.  Informationalization is the process by which form is attached to substance.  Why does form exist at all?  Arguably, this sentence is true:  two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine to form a water molecule, but this is formation, not information.  The atomic combination is a process but it generates no information because the process is purely substantive, it contains no abstraction.  The question, thus, must be modified:  why does abstraction exist at all?  Arguably, DNA is the “mother” of all abstractions.  The codon’s only job is to be a representative for an amino acid and as such the codon is not only a substantive molecular configuration, it is also a source of information, it informs, it does double duty but, of course, only inside a special context, nowhere else.  The inanimate cosmos knows the codon only as substance, as a configuration of atoms, it does not know one codon from the next in terms of the information is carries.  Only inside the cell does the codon take on a dual role, and, in fact, its primary role is to be informative.  Only inside the cell do processes exist by which the information coded on the codon is detected and utilized.  For a reason yet to be fully understood the twenty amino acids are assemblable into a virtual infinite variety of proteins giving rise to an almost infinite variety of cell types.  Clearly, the cell has many biological functions and one of the most important ones is to be a protein building factory.  There can be little argument:  life is impossible without protein, it makes sense, thus, for there to be a language of protein assembly, especially since only twenty amino acids need to be informationally identified.  The four letters, A C G T, can be formed into sixty-four three letter words or codons.  This may be the most efficient arrangement.  The number of letters must be even, not odd, with two letters the words would have to be five characters long to cover the number twenty, while with six letters the words would only have to be two letters long.  But, perhaps, the number of letters must be a multiple of four, not merely an even number, it may have something to do with the carbon atom being central to all life.  A red blood cell has no DNA, no nucleus containing genetic information, presumably because during its 90 day service life it has no need to build proteins and because it does not duplicate itself.  A neuron, even as it normally does not duplicate itself, contains a nucleus because during its potentially 100 year service life it builds proteins.  The point:  no cell is “immortal.”  Every cell has only two choices:  do the cell cycle or perform apoptosis, i.e., controlled cell death.  A mother cell either splits into two daughter cells or it dies, stops being a cell, and the information contained in it vanishes with it, the abstraction ceases to exist.  Only when an organism accesses the data, information, abstraction coded onto its DNA molecule, only then is the action not purely substantive.  The DNA data is moved to the assembly area, the protein is built and released into general use.  At this point abstraction ends, only pure substance remains, no other parts of a cell know they are dealing with a protein built on the basis of abstraction, the protein itself is not abstract, is not a “code” or “information.”  An exception exists.  A body made of trillions of cells has a need to coordinate cell action and, thus, in addition to the information coded on DNA, cells “talk” or send information to each other.  Cell A must wait, not do its thing until it receives a signal from cell B to go ahead.  The limbic system is thought to be a body wide signal distribution system.  Another is a neural system by which the brain is able to command voluntary muscles to run, to vocalize, to move the eyes, etc.  A human being may be able to hold his breath until he passes out at which time he resumes breathing due to the action of a neural system controlling the involuntary muscles.  On the other hand, human beings do not have an ability to stop the heartbeat in a similar manner.  In the same way, once the food is voluntarily eaten, the internal organs do their job involuntarily, without “will” from the brain.  An athlete who works out on a daily basis controls protein expression, indirectly directing the body to go faster or be stronger.  Will controls training and training forces cells to adapt, to build more robust expressions of muscle proteins.  Will also has access to the realm of infinite abstractions, one of which is the world record in the 100m dash.  If the abstraction is taught at an early enough age and if the will is “willing,” the young athlete may have sufficient time to train hard enough to set a new record.  To set the distance at 100m is pure form, perfectly substanceless.  By definition, any number could have been used, thus, the decision to use 100m is purely arbitrary and, thus, purely abstract.  Will has access to pure form, to pure abstraction, to perfectly arbitrary action.  The realm of infinite abstractions, pure forms is devoid of any substance and will has access to it.  How is this possible?  By what acts is from pure substance a world of pure form constructed?  Planck proved mathematically the smallest act is the quantum of action.  Will’s access to abstractions must be smaller still.  Pure form occupies no space and no time, it is less than infinitesimal, otherwise it would not be pure form, it would be an amalgam of form and substance, and substance must occupy at least space, if not time.  When a photon penetrates a black hole’s event horizon and this increases its radius by a minimal Planck amount it means a photon occupies space, but does the photon occupy time since it is thought to be timeless, thought not to experience time?  The will’s unstoppability, thus, is placed under scrutiny.  If the will does not have pure access to the realm of infinite abstractions, if there are any limits to access, then the will is not substanceless, is stoppable and is not absolutely free to find, access any abstraction, is not free to be perfectly arbitrary.  Then, of course, the will must occupy some amount of measurable space, it must not be less than the minimum quantum of action, it then must not only be a quality, it must also be quantifiable.  Then there must be a “place” where will “resides,” and if it moves then it must move from place to place, measurably, observably, it no longer can be the ghost in the machine, occupying everything and nothing at the same time.  The “I” then becomes as corporeal as a cell is or as a water molecule is, its uniqueness no longer possible as it must be a duplicate of some other, previous “I.”  The symbiosis evidenced by cogito ergo sum vanishes as a reality, pure form is no longer a possibility because the realm of infinite abstractions is no longer accessible by a perfect, pure substanceless will.  A form can no longer be arbitrarily assigned by a perfectly free will to a phenomenon or a substance.  The act of symbol assignment is at least partially controlled by something other than the will housed in an absolutely free mind.