Organism in the environment as a whole distinctions
© 1999-2004 by Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr.

This is a working draft and is subject to change.
Last revised 16/01/28 at 20:21

• Distinguish in general
• Distinguishing self from environment
• Distinguishing within self
  • need for sustenance
  • need for rest.
  • propagation
• Distinguishing within the environment.
  • food
  • toxins
  • predators
  • mates
  • competitors
  • Direction
• value - "good" / "bad"
  • Context of valuation
    • Individual survival
      • Food - good
      • Toxins - bad
      • Rest - good
      • predators - bad
    • Species survival
      • mates - good
      • competitors - bad

• Life essentials
  • energy
  • reproduction

• Distinguishing in general - Distinguish without substance, or pure distinguishing, is formally described by Laws of Form .  Distinguishing with substance - territory - provides a way of organizing knowledge.
• Distinguishing self from environment
  Maintaining the distinction between the self and the environment is the fundamental task of survival.  In the context of the long term, this becomes reproducing one's own form - the fundamental task of species survival.  These two elements comprise the simplest essentials of life.  These two elements are necessary components of any life, but these are all there is to the simplest form - non-binders .
• Distinguishing within self
  As part of the process of maintaining one's own form, one needs to have sensors to determine one's condition in this regard.  A "sensor", in this regard, is simply a detection apparatus capable of responding to some condition or situation.  A sensor is to be distinguished from an effector.  A sensor distinguishes between two conditions and responds differently for the conditions.  Conditions requiring sensors are both internal and external to the form of living entities.  Internal sensors distinguish energy level needs, rest level needs, and replication needs.
  • need for sustenance
    In maintaining one's own form, one must replenish substance and energy.  A sensor is needed in order to allow one to determine when this is necessary.
  • need for rest.
    For some organisms periods of rest are required.  Sensors are need to determine when this is necessary.
  • propagation
    For all forms, replication is necessary.  Sensors are needed to determine when conditions internally are ready to permit the process  to occur.
• Distinguishing within the environment.
  As part of the process of maintaining one's own form, one needs to have sensors to detect relevant conditions.  External sensors detect the presence of usable energy, threats to one's existence, opportunities for replication, threats to replication, and possible relative location.
  • food
    All life must maintain its form.  In order to do this, it must replenish its substance.  Detecting usable substance requires a sensor.
  • predators
    Some life can defend against threats to its existence.  Sensors capable of distinguishing a predator are required to enable defense.
  • mates
    Some life forms reproduce sexually; these require sensors capable of identifying potential partners.
  • competitors
    Potential sexual partners must be distinguished from competitors. Sensory recognition is required for these possibilities also.
  • Direction
    At some higher levels of development, some life-forms have developed sensory apparatus that can differentiate directions.

The simplest form of a sensor gives the equivalent of a yes or no response to detecting the condition it senses.  Two kinds of sensors are required. They are sensors that detect usable resources - "good" sensors - and sensors that detect threats to existence - "bad" sensors.  This introduces the concept of "value" in relation to the organism. 

1. Value - "good" / "bad"
   Value - the importance or worth of something for someone.
   A "value" is a measure of something by a process or function.  In the simplest of situations, the process or function produces only a binary output - "yes" or "no", "1" or "0", "good" or "bad", etc..  These two values "represent" differences in the something the function or process measures.  In mathematics a function has a domain and a range.  The domain is the territory being sensed, and the range is the set of values the function takes on.
2. Context of valuation
   In the present context, the domain is either the organism itself (internal) or its environment (external).  In the context of an organism in the environment as a whole the process is implemented structurally (chemically) and comprises the sensory apparatus of the organism.
   • Individual survival
     A condition, internal or external, relevant to the survival of the organism is "sensed" by the process - it detects the relevant condition by producing one of two possible values.  In this context, "good" represents conditions conducive to survival, while "bad" represent conditions that threaten survival.  These will be two distinct senses,  A "good" sensor will turn on when, for example, food is present.  A "bad" sensor will turn on when, for example, a poison is detected. A combination of many such sensors measures a condition in increments.   A range of levels can be represented as a combination of the appropriate number of binary sensors.  For our purposes here, we only need to be concerned with the ability of the organism to sense the presence of its food.  When the (external) food present sensor "turns on", the organism begins the process of absorbing the food.
     • Food is good (until full)
     • When the (internal) "full" sensor turns on, the organism stops the process of absorbing food. Too much food is "bad". (Or, rest is "good".).
     • If a poison sensor turns on, the organism stops the process of absorbing food.  Poison  is "bad".
     • For some organisms, sensors detect predators.  Predators are "bad".
   • Species survival
     • mates - good
     • competitors - bad

Add direction and build simple mapping structure here.