Time LO20874

AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Sat, 13 Mar 1999 22:51:56 +0200

Replying to LO20848 --

Dear Organlearners,

Winfried Dressler <winfried.dressler@voith.de> writes:

At de Lange wrote:

>Like all other physical quantities the time
>scale measured by a clock is linear. It means that clock time increases
>with equal intervals. Most probably this idea of regular time intervals
>developed about 6000 years ago by observing the motion of stellar clocks
>(galactic bodies like the moon, planets, sun and stars). But eventually
>humankind invented local clocks (sand glass, pendulum clock, fly wheel
>clock, atomic clock, quarts clock, etc.). But they kept on using a linear
>time scale for these local clocks.

>Now I have two definitions of clocks:
>1.) Linear increase of entropy
>2.) A repeated, rhythmic event (such as heart beat, chemical
>clocks, the four seasons, the "beat" of a production site - every
>x minutes one unit,...)
>
>I think both are closely related. Rhythm or music emerge (as
>order of being) out of noise (as chaos of becoming). A clock
>may be a symbol of the minimality requirement of entropy
>production in sparseness ("quantity-limit"). Without rythm,
>synchronisation (the opposite of "time dissonance") could not
>occur. Synchronisation refers to sparseness and fruitfulness.

Greetings Winfried,

Yes, the measurement of time is not possible without entropy
production. When any system settles into equilbrium, no entropy is
produced any more. Consequently time do not play a role any more in
such a system. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are the same in such a
system. How dreadful for any person to be part of such a system.

Thank you for reminding us of rythm. You are thinking of a fixed
rythm which is again a linear case. But what about the heart beat of a
person who goes to sleep, or the heart beat of a person who
particpates in an exciting event. Even my succulent plants has such a
changing rythm depending on changes in temperature and water! Yes,
they exhibit linear rythms (daily and seasonal), but on it are many
nonlinear rythms superimposed. In about 25% of the species it is
actually these nonlinear rythms which enables several specimens of a
species to flower simultaneously! This enables me to cross polinate
different clones in order to produce seed since very few succlent
plants are self-fertile.

Let us recall the rythms in any piece of music, for example a piano
sonata of Beethoven. The notes in the score are positioned in bars.
The bars indicate a linear (regular) increase in time. This is the
back ground -- clock time. But the notes themselves have different
time values. This the foreground -- the phenomenological time. By
playing the score one completely forgets about clock time. It is
there, but its role is insignificant. One's mind rather becomes filled
with the rythmic ideas which the composer had in mind, all woven into
one gigantic, complex fabric.

The same with our organisations. At any instance of clock time some
people move to the edge of chaos where entropy production is high and
phenomenological time increases fast. No time to spare. The emergency
of emergences. Such events are necessary in their lives to renew
themselves. But at that same instance of clock time some other people
move closer to equilbrium where entropy production is low and
phenomenological time increases slow. Such events are also necessary
in their lives for the new things to grow into maturity. When these
people fail to synchronise fast and slow times and thus make effective
contact with one another in whatever they do, the organisation will
immerge step by step. On the other hand, the central idea of a LO is
to work together for the common good by learning from one another. It
includes the synchronisation of the tasks of the individual members.
Or as our fellow learner Ray Evans Harrel would say -- performing all
the tasks like in one symphonic orchestra.

>Such a rhythm by means of various synchronisations is what
>we try to achive in our assembly plant. Every beat is highly
>nonlinear in entropy production - an active phase of high entropy
>production (getting the work startet) and a recreational phase of
>low entropy production (making the work perfect). The heart beat
>seems to be a good analogy.

Yes, how right you are. Fellow learners may wonder why each individual
beat is highly nonlinear while a succession of such beats with a
constant interval between is again linear. Think of the pattern on an
electrocardiograph. Most of you have seen it on TV. Each beat goes up
and down -- no resemblance to a straight line.

But should we plot clock time against the time interval between each
beat, we will have a straight vertical line for a regular heart beat.
When the heart, for example, begins to beat slower, this straight line
will bend forwards into a curve. When the heart eventually stops
beating, the vertical line will have become a horisontal line. Clock
time has ceased to exist in the linearity of death.

>What have I done in my sketch above? I have learnt again
>about the content (dynamics) / form (mechanics) issue. If entropy
>production is fundamental to the dynamcis of time, then rhythm
>is fundamental to the mechancis of time. If content and form falls
>apart with respect to time, we may talk of "time dissonance".

Beautifully said! Since the seven essentialities pertain to the
mechanics/form of entropy production and thus time, they play a
critical role in establishing a healthy rythm for the organisation.
Synchronisation, for example, is nothing else than a manifestation of
fruitfulness ("connect-beget").

By the way -- yesterday I have had the third test on my eyes. Their
focal length is getting worse (longer). I now have to use temporary
glasses with a 5x magnification. According to the doctor this is a
good recovery sign! How is that possible? The osmosis of excess
dissolved substances in the eye takes several weeks - definitely not
something happening at the edge of chaos. Execpt for light, the eyes
act almost like an isolated system to protect them from changes in
osmotic pressure and fluid pressure of the blood. As the concentration
of the solutions in the eye ball and lens decrease, their refractive
indexes also decrease so that the light rays are bended less. This is
why stonger glasses are needed to bend the rays more!

My greatest frustration is to synchronise this slow recovery to my
insatiable appetite for reading.

Best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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