Did-Not-Die

‘Survive’ is the consequence.

‘Survive’ is the consequence of did-not-die.  It is not the consequence of good, better or excellent. Once you are born, you do not need to do anything to ‘survive.’  Your intrinsic system is designed to live in your environment (e.g. you cannot live in space where there is no oxygen but on Earth). Unless you actively die, you ‘survive.’ Alive is the default for live organisms.  ‘Survive’ is not a goal or purpose but is the default state of life and the retrospective consequence. ‘Survive’ is only recognized in hindsight. 

What is alive? A circuitry momentum flow of biochemical reactions. Self-organized nested multiple circuits with the flow of biochemical reactions that implicate a replicable instruction of reproduction in its minimal unit – a cell. Fundamentally, this circuitry momentum behaves as a perpetual circuit within its local environment that consists of physical and chemical compositions such as temp, pH, organic molecules, etc. This local environment, as a whole, permits, supports and tolerates the perpetual circuitry momentum.

Circuitry biochemical reactions within a cell permit cell replication and gene expression. Circuitry biochemical and biophysical reactions among cells permit self-organization of tissue/organ structures and functions. Circuitry biochemical reactions among tissues/organs permit the homeostasis of an individual. Interconnected nested lower circuits create the circuits of a whole. When momentum flows in the circuits of a whole at the highest nested level stop, this is the individual’s death; even nested lower circuits maintain their flow.

This nestedness is created in development. The life of multicellular organisms begins from fertilization. The development process after fertilization is the creation of upper nested circuits by self-organization of molecules (mainly proteins, RNAs and DNAs), organelles and cells. Cells are the minimal unit of decision-making in an organism. A cell is an entity of sensing-cognizing-reacting. Decision-making comes from a complex biochemical network of positive and negative feedback circuits that create thresholds of cellular reactions within a cell.  No intention.

A series of feedback circuits composed of biochemical reactions which are controlled by substrate concentrations and affinities. The substrate concentrations and affinities are encoded in the genome as gene expression levels and amino-acid sequences. Allocation of proteins and other biomolecules is self-organized based on their biochemical properties.  Therefore, they are reproducible in their progeny.  DNA sequence controls the geometry of amino acids within a protein. The geometry of amino acids within a protein controls the allocation of proteins within a cell. The allocation of proteins within a cell controls the sequence of biochemical reactions.  The sequence of biochemical reactions controls the replication of DNA sequence. A perpetual circuit with a flow of biochemical reactions.

Momentum flow without a circuit is not alive. A circuit without momentum flow is not alive. Circuitry momentum flow is the condition of alive. Then, biological organisms reproduce because this circuitry momentum flow implicates replication machinery for reproduction in their circuit.  On the other hand, the economy in human society is also alive but not reproducing another human society because there is no replication machinery inside. 

This replicable perpetual circuit of life is not the perfect perpetual circuit that is considered an independent closed system. It works with its environment; thus, the circuit is partially open and depends on its surrounding abundance. The success of replication is probabilistic—not zero, never been 100%, even in abundance. However, outside of abundance, the chance is zero.

There are infinite reasons for failing to rebuild a circuitry momentum flow, even in an abundant environment, because none of the processes are 100% accurate. In the beginning, many extra momentum flows that are not involved in the circuitry flow are present in the system because tons of these random momentum flows permit the accidental formation of a circuitry flow. Because of replication-based reproduction, the flows in the circuit become SELF, and others are non-SELF in this replicable perpetual circuit. Many possibilities for circuitry patterns while infinite possibilities of failures due to extra flow routes. 

Trimming out the non-SELF routes based on the erroneous replication process serves to increase the probability of replication success, but trimming also has the risk of disrupting SELF, leading to termination of continuity – death.  ‘Survive’ is the consequence of successfully rebuilding the circuitry momentum flow.

Importantly, ‘survive’ is not the consequence of being good or excellent, but it means did-not-die in the environment. The entity was not internally lethal and externally lethally bad in the environment. Good/excellent and externally bad are eternal values, thus context-dependent. When an environment changes, the direction of values changes.  

If one knows where to go, a direction matters. Good/excellent exists that everyone can aim for. On the other hand, if one wants to escape from whatever, a direction does not matter. All directions are available.  The directions that any survivors have taken are only retrospectively realized. In the above example, the entity needs to have an intention. However, without intention, the diffusion of the replicable perpetual circuit system will show the same consequence. There are infinite possibilities of solutions against infinite reasons for failures. The reason for one failure is only realized after a solution is provided. Everything is in hindsight.

Survivors of Titanic or from a battlefield in war.  What separates those who died or survived? Does the fitness of individuals? Maybe, slightly in very unique situations. But luck is a much bigger contributor than anything else. One person at a specific place at a specific time is not the consequence of their fitness. This dictates their survival.  

Evolution is the retrospective history of did-not-die—the history of successful escapes, hidings, avoidings, or running away, thus did-not-die. You do not need to be better in a competition to be a survivor. One can survive by finding a unique space because others do not care about that. In hindsight, this looks like the one who survives is the best in its environment.  There is one caveat here. Human society is a bit different, though.