Key Terms and Concepts 27“6x9” b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Mattergenerated by many systomes (e.g., proteins, enzymes, RNA metabolic
network in cells, Tcell receptors, and human breast cancer tissues) fit
the PDE derived from the Planck radiation equation rooted in energy
quantization (as described in Section 8.3). Finally, it should be pointed
out that the concept of systome may be viewed as the manifestation of
the principle of holism advocated by Smuts [56].2.6 Self-Organization, Dissipative Structures
(Dissipations), and Self-Organizing Whenever
and Wherever Needed (SOWAWN) Machines
The notion of selforganization is well known and widely accepted by con
temporary scientists and philosophers. One of the originators of the field of
selforganization, Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), received the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1977 for establishing the concept of dissipative structures
(later referred to as “dissipations” more briefly [25, pp. 76–78]), the
results of selforganization [57].
The phenomenon of spontaneous generation of the spatial patterns of
chemical concentration gradients was first observed in a purely chemical
system in 1958 [58, 59] and inside the living cell in 1985 [60], about 2
years after it was first predicted to exist inside the cell (see the Bhopalator,
Chapter 6) at the 2nd International Seminar on the Living Stater held in
Bhopal, India, in 1983 (see Dissipative Structures of Prigogine in Figure 3.2).
These observations demonstrate that, under appropriate initial and bound
ary conditions, it is possible for chemical concentration gradients to organ
ize themselves in space and time (e.g., oscillating chemical concentrations
in a test tube), driven by the free energy released from the chemical reac
tions themselves. Such phenomena are referred to as self-organization, and
physicochemical systems exhibiting selforganization are called dissipative
structures [58, 59]. All living systems, from cells to multicellular organ
isms, societies of organisms, and the biosphere are dissipative structures.
The investigators in the field of selforganization, including Prigogine
himself, apparently did not consider the antonym to selforganization,
which I called “otherorganization” in 2012 [25, p. 17]. Self and other
organizations can be distinguished based on the source or the locus of the
immediate energy and control information serving as the necessary andb2861_Ch-02.indd 27 17-10-2017 11:39:01 AM