Bios
Bios is a process observed in natural processes that continually creates novel and transient patterns. As unpredictability
defines chaos, novelty defines bios.
Biotic patterns
have been identified in time series of:
- heartbeat intervals: Sequences of cardiac beats have a biotic pattern. This
is highly significant because heart rate variation is a vital marker of health. Further, heart rate variation is
generated by behavior and emotions, and thereby it reflects our interactions with the universe that surrounds us.
- economic indexes, prices, inventory variations, etc.
- series generated by the process
equation that formulates process
theory.
Biotic patterns meet the definition of chaos,
and displays additional features that differentiate it from low dimensional chaos:
- expanding phase space volume;
- episodic patterns separated by interruptions (complexes) rather than stationarity;
- novelty (operationally
defined as being less recurrent than random).
Bios resembles natural processes and human language in continually generating new patterns. In contrast, an attractor,
including chaotic attractors, is changeless -the more it changes, the more it stays the same .
Bios is also characterized by:
- asymmetric rather than symmetric statistical distribution,
- multiple fixed points,
- high self-correlation (Pearson's correlation),
- anti-persistence (Hurst exponent < 0.5),
- patterned wavelet and recurrence plots resembling those obtained with 1/f noise,
and
- ring patterns in complement
plots. In contrast to random series, bios is characterized by determined
novelty and determined recurrences rather than abundant recurrence and low determination.
Bios represents a class of patterns. Different types of biotic
patterns obtain in series of heartbeat intervals in healthy and sick
individuals, in various economic processes, and in series
generated by the process equation and a number of process
equation variants.
The time series of differences between successive members of a biotic series is chaotic, so biotic patterns in
natural processes are mistakenly identified as chaotic when the data are differenced prior to analysis.
References:
Sabelli, H., Carlson-Sabelli, L., Patel, M and Sugerman, A. 1997. Dynamics and psychodynamics. Process Foundations
of Psychology. J. Mind and Behavior 18:
305-334. Special issue edited by L. Vandervert Understanding Tomorrow's Mind: Advances in Chaos Theory, Quantum
Theory, and Consciousness in Psychology.
Sabelli, H. The Union of Opposites: from Taoism to Process Theory. Systems
research 15: 429-441, 1998.
Kauffman, L. and Sabelli, H. 1998. The Process equation. Cybernetics and
Systems 29 (4): 345-362
Sabelli , H. and L. Kauffman 1999. The Process Equation: Formulating And Testing The Process Theory of Systems.
Cybernetics and Systems 30:
261-294.
Sabelli, H. Complement plots: analyzing opposites reveals Mandala-like patterns in human heart beats. International Journal of General Systems (accepted
for publication)
Prepared by Hector Sabelli hsabelli@rush.edu
Date: August 1999
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