The Universe is alive! The biological reference frame views reality as a living process. This philosophy assumes an infinite Universe, and in so doing, accepts an infinite array of life processes.

Physiology

Your body extends beyond your epidermis. It is the Universe that supports you. The Universe is your complete body. Your body generates all of your viewpoints. It supports all of your reference frames. You could say that the Universe is your "outer" body. Your inner body, then, would begin at your epidermis. This separation is necessary for analysis, at times. At other times we must remember that the Universe is within, or acts as, each particle.

Your inner body then, is composed of a number of specialized systems. These systems are exaggerated outgrowths of specific characteristics common to all living cells. For example, all cells have the fundamental bio-electric properties of the neuron. In the neuron, this aspect of cells has developed, because the developments improved the odds of survival amidst the context of environmental process. Similarly, the cells of the kidneys have expounded the excretory functions that are basic to all cells. The cells of the various organs have enhanced efficiency, and survivability, in their specific characteristics. At the same time, none of these systems could survive by themselves. Each system supports all of the others, in addition to contributing its function to itself.

This structure, to living reality, is repeated on larger and smaller scales. It exists within each living cell as a collection of biochemical sub-systems. Here you might think of DNA as a hub around which a variety of RNA spokes support the whole wheel that is the cell. Such a general structure is also carried into the societies of ecosystems and intelligent beings.

In the arena of natural selection, it is usually detrimental to many species for there to be a loss of any one species. It doesn’t help you to be better at gobbling someone up, if you gobble them completely up, and eat yourself out of a food source. Selection is competitive; but it is also cooperative. It is both ways without the need of attendant mentality to control the actions involved. Where the balance is lost, the process ends. Where it is maintained, the process continues to develop. This natural progression of improvement is made possible by the systems of Natural Memory that act as a basis for sophisticated interaction. They are available for exploitation by, and of, the active rules of the chemistry. Where these rules are being tapped, we say that biochemistry or life exists.

The framework of civilization has developed in the same manner. The needs of beings with higher awareness become more complex and varied. This, in turn, contributes to the elevation of their awareness. We help each other, as we help ourselves, by developing skills in more or less specialized ways. Where the process seeks profitability at the expense of abandoning some of its segments, the costs generated eventually show up to bring the system back in balance, or to a conclusion.

When thinking at the level of civilization in the Biological reference frame, we want to ignore the inner details of that frame’s constitution, just as we do for chemistry; and for the same reasons — the subject gets quite complex enough, thank-you, without bringing all that up. Nevertheless, it is the job of this philosophy to address reality from the more complex view.

Here, we note that connection, for example, between DNA and the skyscrapers. People are an extension of the RNA system. This extension continues the developmental process beyond the cell wall, beyond the system organ, and beyond the epidermis, to produce a super-epidermis within which the process of life can continue to develop technologically. It is ultimately true that a concert, directed by the DNA/cell system, has produced these further safeguards of its operations, which promotes its avenues of survival.

As we view higher levels, we see the buildings as cells that are serviced by a system of roadways. Those systems constitute communities, that constitute counties, that constitute states... and we see the Earth as a cell, or an organism. It is alive. It is a living process. These planets of the Universe are the life of the Universe; and it’s all done with communicating atoms.

Planetary development begins, and continues for billions of years, without the presence of human-like thought process and decision making. The natural decisions of evolution produce thinking systems. The atoms communicate, and produce thought. It is the atomic communication that is You. The atoms themselves are replaced regularly, with the flow of your chemical life. It doesn’t matter which atoms get involved — it’s always You — a unique reference frame of the Universe — a unique part of its time. It is such time that actually composes reality. What we have learned to think of as "things and stuff" is really complex process. That process is complex time. It is time that has not a single dimension. It is time of infinite dimensions. Fundamentally, to humans, it is time in nine dimensions; and You are all of it.

Though the atom is often viewed as the simplest building block of life, it can also be seen as the most complex level of systemology. The vector of complexity can be considered to be pointing inward. A whole planet, for example, is not so complex as a person, if you view the process of the planet in terms of interacting people. As we continue inward, the complexity of a person’s arrangement of cells is not as complex as the set of biochemical interactions that are any single living cell. Even the center of the cell, its nucleus, is the most complex intra-cellular organ. Object physics will describe atoms as each being the entire Universe, for the times of a given atom. Each atom is a different reference frame, from a different set of times. Each atom has the entire past and future history of the Universe within it; in its past. Each one is elemental to the production of the future Universe. Each one supports the system it’s composed of. Object Physics includes Universal Systemology, which means that some number of parallel big bangs behave as a very large, very slow, atom. The number of bangs may only be 8 (4 quarks and a shadow), or even 2 ( a proton and reverse phase electron), and the atom is hydrogen, or a hydrogen component of one of the more rare atomic configurations. With this view, the inner workings of an atom could not be more complex.

The Shape of Evolution

To view evolution statistically, and in the long run; we have to use a lot of imagination. We can draw parallels from nature, though. We often use the equation f(x) = e^x, to describe natural development. It is used to predict population growth of bacteria, for example. We might apply it to some guesswork regarding all these parallel planets.

As the first cells of an organism divide, the DNA/cell program produces modified environments that act to modify the course of the program. It’s not unlike self-modifying machine language code. As the process continues, it diverges into a large number of parallel systems.

On our planet, a large number of such sets of systems are developing life styles and cultures in parallel. In our big bang, a huge number of planets are developing in parallel, as they diverge. It may well be that this frame is no different than all of its component frames with respect to the involvement of interacting support.

It took a couple of billion years for the Earth to coalesce, cool, and produce the first molecules with life-like replicating qualities. It took half this long for the next step — a complex modern cell. The general trend has been that it keeps taking about half as long to make the next major advance. This trend has been carried right into the development of cultures. Technology is the leading edge of evolution. It too, is able to advance further in less time, the farther it gets.

The evolution on any one planet might be long, or short. The short cases parallel cell death, in the brain, for example. The longer it runs, the more chance it will have to continue its self-improvement; which improves its chances of having even more time... the more successful creations of parallel evolution enjoy a natural turbo-boost into ultra-advanced development.

Such process obtains options for behavior beyond our ability to imagine. Object Physics requires that evolution make full use of the history of the Universe contained within its atoms.

With these ideas in mind, the overall course of evolution, within an atom, might look like this:

The "jobs" of such "civilization" amount to atomic communication. The jobs might be viewed more as natural, attractive opportunities. The reference frame of the entire atom sees the Universe as its composition. To communicate with "other" atoms is simply to alter its own internal process. What we see as a lot of communicating atoms is really the one atom at various points in the dimensions of Universal time.

This is to say that all big bangs lead to big photon events, or non-events. The photon event does not require the creation of a big particle or wave that travels away, somewhere specific, or in an exact direction. The event is one of self-transformation. The medium of this "travel" is the bang’s constituent H Universes. The rules develop them so as to allow their continuance, which maintains the rules. In other words, the rules exist. They are developmental, because development is dimensional to reality — it is part of the rules. We have this reality because it is its rules. Its rules exist because all rules exist; but they do so in related sets. Our rules connect our eternities into one reality — You.

The photon event essentially travels to another bang somewhere "way out there" beyond its fully curved local space, via inward manipulation of its H set of of H sets of H sets... through the roots of the local bang, and up the roots of the destination bang. The local and destination bangs are the same bang at different space-times in solid time. The self-manipulation is an adjustment to the whole system that develops before complete draining to its next relative alternate time cycle.

Each H is a different "map" of solid time, drawn from a different point in the map. Each one is a different reference frame of the same whole thing. When we see one H communicate with another, the sending H transforms itself in such a way as to reach the receiving H on a later cycle that exists within the sending H at the time of emission. These cycles represent various distances and directions of photon communication, to our perception and thought process. The geometrical view, that is most true, places these interactions within the point.

If there is an ever-present attempt by climaxing evolutionary process, to communicate with us here, at our level, in this stage of our development; one primary port, or medium, or direction from which the messages are coming might be our DNA. Genetic engineering might be considered as the beginning of our communication through this channel. When things work, we understand — a message is received. Our experiments are questions sent. This might be the closest communication any creatures get with the Universe.

Consciousness itself may be a form of communication between the Universe and the brains of creatures. It is possible that the primary channel for this is through the DNA of the neurons. Messages are only successfully sent when they pattern relative meaning. The reception of this meaning, by the Universe, is the consciousness. Reception hinges on the relative content of memory potential in the brain. This establishes the definition of what DNA belongs to what set of times. In the case of a split brain then, neural separation would separate the time sets as well, because the memory is only relative if it is included by connection in the set of DNA/neurons. This would make sense, as a fundamental fact of the structure of dimensionality, to have inclusion by connection, as well as by relative meaning, as a requirement for the definition of unity, as the potential for memory. In other words, we experience reality as the flow of time, but the unity we sense as our individual self, is derived from the definition of that unity that is produced by the entire course of our lives. The nine dimensional objects, that are these lives, attain the illusive unity, by having the necessary "size" of time that it takes to make a "thing" out of physically and meaningfully connected process. Perhaps you would need to be ten dimensional to plainly see this, while our development is such that only nine dimensions are perceptive.

Another way of looking at this, is by the groupings of dimensionality. The first three dimensions, though composed of time, effect a physical basis for our reality, in the sense of generating the fundamental support of geometry. The next three dimensions then proceed to tear this all apart, into zillions of separate times of time. This is the level of looking at things that makes brain function so illusive, with respect to the creation of individual unity. The next set of three dimensions returns us to the mode of the original three. It acts to define the ongoing system in process as an object with unity of identity, by effectively gluing all that fragmentation of time together with relative memory.

There are a number of ideas available in this vein for consideration as members of the mix. Math and Physics know-how, well beyond the scope of the present effort, will certainly be required to ascertain the particulars of the structure of Object Physics. The present goal is simply to get the wheels turning in that direction, if they aren’t already doing so; to elucidate the general flavor of Universal Systemology.

It is tempting, for example, to view DNA as a very special "bell" that rings with each spike produced by a neuron. It, or at least its’ heavy particles, seem to be the most constant element of your system. It is also the foremost signature of your identity. However, your identical twins, and your split brain, present contingencies of reality that strongly detract from this view. In Object Physics, the status of being Hydrogen is essentially equal to being Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen; or any inorganic or organic molecule, for that matter. The communication here, is regarded as taking place through the Hydrogen channel. This channel is directly involved in all communication. All other objects are indirectly induced perceptions of that fundamental structure of reality. You might term them "virtual" assemblages of Hydrogen, if it weren’t that Hydrogen, like the photons connecting it to its other selves, weren’t also virtual. What is real is the dimensional structure of active reality; as composed of its rules. The rules look like chemistry to themselves. They are really a constant aspect of the point. To us, they look like math, or physics, or chemistry, or biology, or sociology; so we must deal with and as them, along those pathways.

I don’t know if philosophy or science can resolve a view of religious nature, regarding the Biological Universe, with respect to the fundamental view of the Mathematical Universe from which all reference frames are generated. The basic religious view here, would be that, given eternity to develop, the rule tree has captured itself in such a way as to gain command of logic itself, and overcome any "future potential" for the "continued enactment" of all possible realms.

It seems that all realms simply "are," and could be thought of as being superimposed in the mathematical point. Being realms, they are fully isolated from each other; the definition of a realm being that it is the contingent set of rules governing it. What does seem quite possible is that some realms, if not ours, are rule tree structures that are stable, everlasting, self-supporting, and very wonderful on the whole.

It might even be that all continuing, functional, consciousness-producing realms are "good." The vector of development produces consciousness by pointing in the direction of self-improvement. Consciousness is raised as the logic that produces it falls into the opportunities it contains to be conscious. Any other logic is too random to produce relative meaning — to gain consciousness.

The Nervous System

Of all the systems and functions of the Universe, the one that most intimately affects a creature is its nervous system. The rest of the systems can be thought of as a support network for nervous interaction. Indeed, a creature could experience all manners of reality, if its nervous system were adept, and sufficiently interfaced with a good enough computer system. In reality, though, the dimensions of developmental process occur; and nervous perception proceeds relative to much unconscious process. That process could be as intimate as the support provided by the circulatory system, yet we can sense that that system is not conscious, or absolutely necessary for consciousness. If all the capillaries could be replaced with the right plastic tubing, and the heart replaced with an electric pump, consciousness would continue, for some length of time. Even if each neuron could be fitted with a nuclear powered micro-system that would convert the cell’s waste products to oxygen and nutrients, we sense that consciousness would continue.

The organization of the nervous system supports the concert of its behavior, that is its consciousness. It is the function of a neuron, in transferring data from one of its ends to the other, that is the fundamental building block of conscious process and social interaction. The rules that govern this flow are written partly in the overall structure of neural interconnection (brain geometry), that DNA has been adjusted to support in response to its conditions, and partly in the behavior of individual neurons, which is even more directly a product of the DNA/cell program. All the other rules of reality temporarily support this subset of rules. To some extent, the rules gain longevity by getting transmitted to our offspring and culture. And to some degree, this process involves modifications that fill out the dimensions of reality we term sociological development.

The medium for this development is "coated" with the nervous system. The medium has more primary dimensions, relative to the function it supports, than a photograph or movie, or even a moving sculpture. The dimensionality goes beyond space, time and energy to include the meaning that is transferred around as patterns of energy. All of this is relatively real and orderly, because of various attributes of memory that support the process with the ongoing formation of a substratum of more and less temporary constant references. The medium for sociological development is a moving coating of biology on the sub-substratum of our geophysical planet. The biological coating has an upper layer that is its nervous system. That coating has a "grain," as it is composed of individual biological particles. It is here, where we meet this analogy to the particle, that we meet the need to include memory in the dimensions of the framework that is our sociological medium. The definition of a person as a particle spans the time of that person’s life. The particle includes all past and future history of memory that participates in the overall function of the particle. In our reference frame, a particle is not a dot... it is always a system... a system that behaves over a period of time. The reference frame of the one true dot infers all systems to our reference frame, produced as the rules of this frame.

The data regarding split brains and cortex removal, requires that we adopt a framework of dimensionality that includes memory as a definitive element. Consciousness is relative meaning because the patterns of energy have meaning relative to the involvement of memory that supports the ongoing propagation of temporal patterns. In the long run, it is the involvement of memory that brings unity to the process. The long run can be a moment, a day, or a lifetime; and a particular system will continue to be You, relative to the memory that has participated. The other half of the split system also continues to be You, due to the connections that allow that memory to continue its participation over that other set of times. The physical neural connections allow the memory to connect the times of each overall system, in the long run, into a unit, that is a particle of You; perhaps of nine fundamental dimensions. Sociological development might then define a ten dimensional object.

There are a number of biological particulars that bear directly on the flow of consciousness, as definitions of the nervous system. In this section, I will attempt to list some of this data. This might be convenient for those who are inspired to develop systems, beyond the "Beepers" described in Chapter 11. I must caution the reader, however, that I have noted differences in some of this data, from one book to another; and some of my sources are rather old. If nothing else, this section will depict the illusions I was under. Nevertheless, I am eternally grateful for the effort that has gone into the acquisition of these figures.

Cortex

The cortex has 10¹⁰ to 10¹¹ neurons.

These neurons make 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁶ connections.

75% of the brain’s neurons are in the cortex.

20% of the cortical neurons are inhibitory.

The separation between neurons is about 1/10th the reach of their branches.

The neurons are grouped into vertical columns of about 5000. The bi-directional vertical orientation of neurons in the columns, and cortical layering, supports loop formation, of various lengths and repetitions, in response to specific I/O conditions on the column.

For 5000 neurons in a column, there would be about 500 I/O neurons.

Inhibition runs horizontally between all columns to "sharpen the edge" of projected "images" (approximately 1000 INH neurons per column).

80% (i.e. 10⁹) of the I/O-type connections of the cortex are cortex-to-cortex, between these columns. The rest are for sense, indirect activation, and motor function.

Some of the cortex-to-cortex connection is random, some is projected, and some is abstracted projection.

Projection generally is accompanied by diffused feedback.

I/O

10⁸ neurons bi-directionally connect the cortex to the thalamus/LGN level.

10⁶ neurons connect the senses to the thalamus/LGN level — most of these are visual to/from the LGN.

Senses project a map through levels, to the cortex. The levels return dispersed information in greater numbers of neurons than come in from the senses.

Neuron

Produces a spike, a sharp energy wave, that travels from its input end to its output end, as a complex set of chemical interactions, that move bi-directionally through the neural cell membrane, more or less at right angles to the direction of spike propagation.

The base rate of spike production, without input stimulation, is about 1 or 2 per second.

The rate of spike production increases with the time density of spike reception at the input end. It may also increase as specific input connections are re-used; more so the more frequent the re-use.

The maximum rate of spike production is 500 to 1000 per second. At this rate, the neuron will fatigue, and go into a recovery mode for about an hour. During this time, it is much less responsive to input stimulation.

A spike will run for from 2 to 5 msec, depending on the length of the neuron. The speed of propagation is 130 meters/sec in myelinated neurons, and .5 meters/sec in unmyelinated neurons. Myelinated neurons are essentially insulated from each other, and take long I/O runs between the levels and sense organs.

Where neurons connect, the synaptic delay time is 1 msec.

System

Perceptual recognition takes 100 to 200 msec; so 20 to 100 neuron "steps" would be involved in a conscious perception. By other accounts, recognition takes 200 to 300 msec (about 1/3 second), and there are 20 to 60 steps, with 5 to 10 msec taken by each step.

3-D perception involves projection from each eye to the same visual cortex. The left and right image is superimposed, yet separate, by being shuffled into alternating narrow strips. I have noted that the researchers find this puzzling — as though the 3-D information is getting "shorted out." It makes sense to me, though, when viewed as a mechanism with which to associate the relative difference in offset of similar images as the meaning of depth. The meaning of the color blue, for example, is simply its redundant, diverse repetition, in various contexts, with various degrees of overlapping common play in all instances of the perception of blue.

In Audition, projection takes the form of even spacing of I/O on the cortex, over the octaves of pitch. As for visual, each ear is projected to the same cortex. Here the meaning made available for association, relates to sound direction. Descending inhibition, through the levels, sharpens pitch discrimination, from the spectrum analyzer-like cochlea.

The hippocampus is a development along an edge of the cortical sheet, that sets up specific prolonged stimulation, in response to cortical activity, through various neural "fingers" reaching into the cortex, as positive feedback loops. The stimulation persists until new stimulation is elicited. The separation of this system from the general cortical sheet might be advantageous for the creation of a relative memory system, more specific to its function; or, it may provide a necessary improved opportunity for specific chemical bathing; or both.

The association cortex relates the various primary sense and motor areas of the cortex to each other. It is the seat of higher learning. Maze learning is not impaired after this area is "sliced up" like a grid, if the cuts are applied vertically; even when insulators are placed in the cuts. It is detrimental to remove cortex, or apply horizontal cuts to the underside, where I/O interconnection is rich. Learning impairment is proportional to the amount of association cortex removed, but is not related to the specific location or areas of that removal.

RNA might develop a signature that represents whole brain learning, as a sort of map, that details "which" neurons have "what" set of prioritized sensitivities to what other neurons, and even to temporal patterns. The idea sounds far-fetched, but the analogy to DNA in each cell is relatively familiar. Furthermore, the numbers involved seem to support its feasibility. A µgm of RNA might involve some 10¹⁷ atoms; while there are some 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁶ synapses to map. Learning was accelerated when RNA was removed from an already-trained rat brain, and installed in the brains of trainees. I don’t know if there was a control group that got un-trained RNA installed, or if this very interesting experiment was taken seriously enough to be tested repeatedly. It is remotely conceivable that such a system could support and utilize an electromagnetic network, that is involved with the general process of memory formation, maintenance, and activation. This system would work in concert with, not in place of, the fundamental necessity of neural connection enhancement.

Note that the neurons are regularly re-built. The RNA-cell system is evidently able to replace the chemical memory representations of relative synaptic involvement. This system may be structured as a mapping function.

Memory affects the conduction and modification of thought, in the activity of neurons, as the selection of sensitivities by association in time.

There might be an advantage to erasure within the short-term/long-term memory system. Though we like to think of the brain as a bottomless memory pit, it may work better each day, by clearing away non-essential representation. Under non-emotional conditions of short-term "scratch pad" memory utilization, the chemical effect on synapses may be characterized for a degree of subsequent erasure... and this may ensue within a few minutes of use. The chemistry involved with various emotional conditions may serve as "flags" for subsequent memory-setting processes, during sleep phases.

These memory setting processes would also benefit from the repetitive influence of hippocampal action. For reasons considered in chapters 8 & 11, the continuation of hippocampal action, beyond the time of its origin consciousness, would not carry on that original thought as an imposition to consciousness. The original element of change does not exist within the repetitive cycles. The dimensionality of this process is that of unconscious conditioned thinking. These activities amount to a random mix of various thought elements, that do not associate into the mainstream of awareness; unless the mainstream associates to some element in the mix.