Beginning research on the quantification of spatial order

Abstract

This research was conceived to contribute to the theoretical foundations of a general view of the dynamics of the world based on a concept of spatial order, defined and quantified in terms of differences or gradients. The Second Law of thermodynamics, which in its original conception expressed the dynamic potential of differences (of temperature), is central to this study, because of its unique and controversial role in relating spatial order to temporal order, providing an apparent direction to time and to general evolution. It suggests the existence and import of widely-applicable principles of a broader “entropy dynamics”, in which the evolution of order, intentional or otherwise, depends recursively on the dissipation of order; moreover the Second Law itself is understood as a consequence of primordial spatial order—viz. vanishing Weyl tensor of space-time curvature (Penrose 1989). Hence the intention is to explore the foundations and implications of a proposed scientific “paradigm”, of attempted maximal logical economy, in which spatial order is seen as both cause and effect of what we observe. Change of perspective regarding individuals’ relation to their world is the principal aim of the study, to be motivated by elaboration of the applicability of the proposed paradigm to diverse fields and by exploration of computational models which, it is hoped, will reveal some of the unexpected dynamics of the evolution of order.