Complexity and functionality: a search for the where, the when, and the how

We discuss three approaches to a study of complexity: the reductionist stance; a search for new laws; and a search for a new aspect of reality, besides space and time. We focus on the latter, introducing the term`sense' as a candidate for such a third aspect. We point out some of the ramiications of such a move for the subject/object relationship in physics and in biology. 1 Complexity with an Attitude { but which one? How do complex phenomena such as life and especially consciousness t into our scientiic world view, based on physics as the most fundamental of the natural sciences? Is biology more than a complex form of applied physics? In general, what is the character ofèmergent properties'? There are three fundamentally diierent attitudes that we can take with respect to these questions. 1) the reductionist stance. We can deny that there is any problem, remaining satissed with thèexplanation' that ultimately the most complex phenomena are, after all, layered upon some physical substratum, a dance of matter and energy in space and time. Whatever it is that is thus layered on top is seen as mere icing on the cake, nothing`substan-tial', and hence nothing special, from a basic point of view. 2) a search for new laws. Accepting that physics in its current state is unable to capture phenomena such as life and consciousness, although it may suuce to describe the behavior of the physical substrata, it is natural to search for something else, something with which to augment physics. A natural move is then a search for new laws of physics, additional principles that may help explain properties such as autonomous agency and adaptive behavior. 3) a search for a new aspect of reality, besides space and time. This is the move that we are exploring in this paper. At rst, this move may seem bewildering. What could there possibly be, in addition to space and time, and equiprimor-dial with space and time, irreducible to either or both? The answer may lie along the lines of intention, agency, cogni-tion/feedback, relationship, and functionality. In a nutshell, the move from space and time to a third aspect of reality can be motivated as follows. A movie shows motion in time, but does so by freezing temporality into S.K. acknowledges grants from NIH and NASA a series of purely spatial snapshots. Similarly, a biological treatment of a living cell shows …