Big questions – concise resolutions

 

What is life?  

Life is a natural process like any other consuming free energy in least time. Hence animate exhibit the same ubiquitous characteristics as inanimate. Namely skewed distributions accumulate from sigmoid growth and decline curves which display the ubiquitous power laws on log-log plots.

Read more: Natural process – Natural selection, Why did life emerge?, Natural patterns of energy dispersal, Looking for LUCA, Gaia again

 

Abiogenesis or panspermia?

Since there is no demarcation line between animate and inanimate, there has neither been a genesis nor a seeding life.

Read more: Natural process – Natural selection, Why did life emerge?, Looking for LUCA, Ecological succession as an energy dispersal process, Roots of diversity relations, Natural patterns of energy dispersal, Gaia again

 

Why so many species?  

Species, animate just as inanimate are means and mechanisms to consume free energy whereas order and complexity are no ends themselves. Diversity will increase when more species allow an ecosystem, economic system or any other system to consume more free energy. Conversely, the number of species will decline when less will allow the system to consume more.

Read more: Natural process – Natural selection, Why did life emerge?, Ecological succession as an energy dispersal process, Natural patterns of energy dispersal, Economies evolve by energy dispersal

 

Space colonization – Future or fantasy?

A viable planet will have life of its own. Even when seemingly similar to ours, yet it would be incompatible with that of ours. To convert an unviable planet to a viable one will exceed our means. We do not only live on the face of Earth, but the Earth as a whole is a living planet.

Read more: Natural process – Natural selection, Why did life emerge?, Ecological succession as an energy dispersal process, Cause of chirality consensus, Gaia again

 

Are we alone in the Universe?

We are not alone, but a part of the Universe among all other natural processes. There are numerous local circumstances where natural processes have advanced far and perhaps even beyond those states we witness on Earth. Nonetheless, we may remain isolated from other civilizations by vast distances in space and time.

Read more: Natural process – Natural selection, Why did life emerge?, Natural patterns of energy dispersal, Gaia again

 

What is consciousness?

Consciousness is a means, like any other, to consume free energy. Awareness of activities enables coordination of actions. Not only individuals but also cells and societies and other systems monitor their own doings and surrounding processes in order to facilitate their consumption of free energy.

Read more: Cultural naturalism, Economies evolve by energy dispersal, Natural games, Thoughts about thinking

 

From where do values and moral ascend? 

One values means and deeds good as much as they contribute to the free energy consumption. Conversely one deems acts and thoughts evil as much as they prevent from consuming free energy. All evaluations are subjective, at best inter-subjective as much as subjects are integrated with each other. Values and moral will change along with changes of an individual, community, society or any other system.

Read more: Cultural naturalism, Economies evolve by energy dispersal, Natural games

 

Does one have free will? 

One has free will up to the amount of free energy in one’s command to direct natural processes among alternative trajectories. Conversely without free energy, there are no means to make any choice to proceed.

Read more: Cultural naturalism, Natural games, Thoughts about thinking

 

What is information? 

Information is physical in its representation whose meaning is valued by the free energy that a message endows.

Read more: The physical character of information, Physical portrayal of computational complexity, Looking for LUCA

 

Why are some mathematical problems so hard to crack? 

For a solution to exist, the mathematical equation must relate to a stationary state. Conversely, theorems and conjectures that concern non-stationarity but require stationarity in a proof produce a conflict.

Read more: Physical portrayal of computational complexity, All in action, Space, time and machines

 

What are the basic constituents of nature?

The photon is the basic constituent of nature, since no change of state will yield less.

Read more: All in action, The meaning of mass, Natural patterns of energy dispersal

 

From where do new qualities emerge?

When any two or more constituents integrate, the natural process engages also ingredients, at least one photon, from surroundings or expels ingredients to the surroundings. Due this influx or efflux of quanta new qualities are irreducible to the system’s prior constituents. The integrated or disintegrated quanta allow for new paths of energy transduction that manifests themselves as the new qualities.

Read more: Natural process – Natural selection, All in action, Natural emergence

 

What sets the arrow of time?

The irrevocable consumption of free energy sets the arrow of time. A quantized flow of energy from the system to its surroundings or vice versa is a flow of time.

Read more: In the light of time, Threads of time, Least-time paths of light, Least-action perihelion precession, Probing Mach’s principle

 

What is the cause of causality?

A flow of quanta will cause a change of state.

Read more: In the light of time, Threads of time, Tangled in entanglement, The capricious character of nature, On intractable tracks

 

Why is the future unpredictable?

When flows of energy and their driving forces cannot be separated from each other, everything will depend on everything else and the future trajectories cannot be predicted with certainty. Future does not exist for a prediction prior to its execution. Only stationary-state trajectories are computable as well as those paths without alternatives.

Read more: In the light of time, Natural patterns of energy dispersal, All in action, The capricious character of nature, On intractable tracks

 

Why are all observations limited by uncertainty of at least one quantum?

To observe the observer must receive at least one quantum from the object, hence the object will change upon the observation at least by one quantum.

Read more: In the light of time, Tangled in entanglement

 

What is the meaning of mass?

The mass is a measure for how much quantized flows of energy on their bound paths of a body will project on the freely propagating surrounding density of photons. Conversely, the mass is a measure for how much photons of the surrounding space must condense their paths to stay in balance with the bound energy density of a body. In the energy-mass equivalence E = mc2 the squared speed of light denotes the self-projection, i.e., the norm which characterizes the properties of free space.

Read more: All in action, The meaning of mass

 

What is free space?

Free space is not empty but embodied by photons which are on the average in pairs of opposite polarization. Hence the free space is without electromagnetic fields, yet the vacuum’s energy density comprises photons that propagate on their least-time paths (straight lines) to abolish any density difference.

Read more: All in action, The meaning of mass, Probing Mach’s principle, Cosmic rays report from the structure of space

 

What is gravity?

Gravity is a force like any other difference in energy that will drive motions to abolish the differences in energy densities. When the surroundings, like the contemporary Universe, is sparse in energy density, bodies of a system, such as nearby galaxies, will move toward each other to release quanta from the system to its sparser surroundings. Conversely, when the surroundings, like the nascent Universe, is dense in energy, bodies of a system, such as distant galaxies, will move apart from each other to acquire quanta to the system from its denser surroundings.

Read more: All in action, The meaning of mass

 

What is inertia?

Inertia is the response by the Universe to a system’s change of state. In the system’s change of state at least one quantum will either be acquired from or expelled to its surrounding vacuum density that maintains in balance with the whole Universe.

Read more: All in action, The meaning of mass, Probing Mach’s principle

 

What is the fate of the Universe?

The Universe in its entirety is a natural process that progresses by breaking its symmetry to lower and lower in the quest for the equilibrium with its zero-density surroundings. At the heat death everything has been broken down to the lowest group of symmetry U(1), that is, to extremely cold photons.

Read more: Space, time and machines, Least-time paths of light, Least-action perihelion precession, Probing Mach’s principle, All in action, The meaning of mass