A Molecule Is An Organism
Here, take my hand, and let me show you
This is the second bold article of the organism series.
The first one discussed the atom and the bold claim about its features. Atoms are organisms, just like you and me. But you need a different lens to appreciate it.
In the same spirit, a molecule is an organism.
No, I am not peddling conspiracies. I argue from a basis of fact. Mathematical and physical fact.
From mathematics, I use the calculus of probability. In simple terms, I use the probability we were all taught from high school.
From physics, I use the power of the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that entropy tends to increase over time.
In common parlance, entropy is disorder. Over time it increases to the point of complete disorder. The other name for complete disorder is death.
So systems progress toward their death.
For this article, we’ll consider the molecule, and see how it relates to other organisms. Since the molecule is made up of particles with few emergent traits, we’ll call the molecule a particulate organism.
Let’s consider oxygen
Oxygen, we are incorrectly taught, is the active part of air.
But all particles are active. They actively move.
Oxygen only happens to support combustion. Other compounds are also combustible.
I use oxygen because everybody, at least those who can read and have been in a science class, knows about it. We breathe in roughly 20% and exhale around 16%.
Enough of all that. Onto serious matters.
Oxygen has features like any organism. The first is existence.
Existence
Oxygen exists.
Not in the abstract sense. I talk about physical existence. It is made up of two oxygen atoms, merged through a molecular bond, to form the oxygen molecule. O2, in short.
According to the theory of Organismal Selection, physical existence is necessary before we begin to talk about organisms.
Oxygen physically exists.
That was easy.
Now, the not-so-easy but not-too-difficult bit — the tendency to avoid annihilation.
Tendency to avoid annihilation
As long as you have a physical form of existence, you will tend to avoid annihilation. Annihilation for the particulate organisms is complete cessation of existence.
If a molecule is split by breaking the bond which holds it intact, it ceases to exit. They are either ions or atoms.
But before they are split, they resist the splitting. You have to mount a good amount of energy before the successful breakage of a molecular bond.
This is how particulate organisms avoid annihilation.
When they do it often, it becomes a tendency. Organisms tend to avoid annihilation.
Thus, the litmus test of identifying organisms is subjecting the entity to an imminent form of a credible threat. For the oxygen molecule, it is threatening the molecular bond.
If one fails to meet the threshold, the oxygen molecule will remain intact.
Organismal Selection asserts that these are the two criteria an entity needs to meet for it to be considered an organism.
It defines an organism as:
An existent physical entity with a tendency to avoid annihilation.
There’s something extra I would wish to talk about it. It has to do with mergers.
Two oxygen atoms make a molecule — that is a merger
I have mentioned how probability can be used to describe organisms. A more comprehensive intro to this can be found in this article.
If an organism has a probability of dying of ¼ and it mergers with another with ¼, then the emergent probability of dying is ¼ and ¼ which makes it 1/16. In probability, the word ‘and’ implies multiplication.
If we assume that each oxygen atom has a probability of dying of ¼, then after the merger, through the covalent bond, it becomes harder to destroy the molecule. Its new probability of dying is now 1/16 after the merger.
Thus, through mergers, organisms prolong their existence.
The oxygen molecule is one of the examples I use, but it can be used to refer to any other known — or unknown — molecule.
Set of assumptions
If you’re a keen reader or scholar, you will notice some assumptions which I make from the example I have given.
The first is we assume we know the probability of dying.
We do not.
It is simply an illustration. The truth we can never know the probability of annihilation. For clarity, the probability of annihilation is similar to the probability of death.
For organisms of higher complexity, such as you and me, we consider death to be annihilation. For simpler organisms such as the atom and oxygen molecule, annihilation is the cessation of existence.
Whether of high or low complexity, we can never know the probability of existence. The reason for this is the probability is ever-shifting. It can never be static. It is always dynamic.
However, for us to understand how it works, we have to slow down and imagine they are static. Once we get the idea behind how probabilities can identify organisms, we can predict and see how they behave.
Organismal Selection predicts the need for mergers, which we see even at the particulate level.
The other assumption deals with the emergence of new organisms after a merger. The oxygen molecule emerges from the merger of two oxygen atoms.
Annihilation then refers to the complete annihilation of the oxygen molecule. This includes the atoms and the bonds holding them together. Remember, the atoms are also organisms. However, when they merge, they result in an emergent organism, the oxygen molecule.
Key features absent in the atomic organism but present in the molecular organism is the covalent bond holding the two atoms together.
Thus, the probability of annihilation then becomes an emergent probability. It means that the chances of annihilating the molecule and its constituents increase in line with the rules of probability.
Mergers, then, result in non-linear outcomes.
The product of two probabilities is non-linear. Thus, the theory of Organismal Selection predicts the need for mergers among organisms.
It also asserts that evolution, through mergers, results in non-linear patterns. It is evident even among these particles which the same theory considers to be organisms.
Final thought
Molecules are organisms.
They satisfy the criteria for organisms as far as Organismal Selection goes.
If you think this theory can never get weirder, you are in for a rough ride.
I am only getting started.
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