. To recover information, a flow is morphed by the evolved channel. In photography, silver halide crystals are “triggered” by incoming photons in a cascade reaction. Larger grains have more area and thus are more likely to be triggered than small ones. By controlling the number of photons (aperture) and the exposure time, and controlling grain size, a gray scale is produced. This is exactly analogous to the refinery function described above. We have captured and frozen an energetic and organized flow of photons.
To put it in constructal terms, an ordered flow of photons reflected from a subject strikes the film, a channel barrier, and morphs the chemical structure of the channel. In the process, the entire flow is apparently dissipated - the channel dominates, but is altered by the flow. After developing and reversing the image in printing, an unstructured flow of photons is dominated by the frozen flow channel and an “image” of the original flow is recreated. Is this an example of a constructal flow increasing access for its flows - in the future?
At extreme magnification we can see the individual grains of silver nitrate that make up the “developed” image. A very small jump indeed from the constructal flows making patterns on the beach.
The Constructal Law does not preclude the interruption or modulation of flows, nor speak to their physical manifestation, whether kinetic, electromagnetic or photonic. Using the ability of flow dominance (morphing) to induce permanent changes in its channels, and the ability of channels in turn to modulate flows, we have the physical basis for understanding the operation of all information systems within the Constructal Law.
Dominance is much in evidence in the neural networks of the brain as the balance between promotion and suppression of impulses. Many pathways, morphing constantly. Our ability to receive information from patterns of frozen flows is one of the essential characteristics of all life forms. How some flows “learned” how to create, preserve and replicate frozen flows is the key to understanding biological replication.
The contest of all life, universal and classical, is the nature of matter and its attractive forces to constrain the energetic flows of other matter which are imposed upon it. Channel vs. flow. Clues to the emergence of organized classical life are to be found at the boundaries between flow and channel dominance. This is where we should be looking to solve the mystery of the origin of classical life.
This article has provided a foundation for understanding the physical link between the Constructal Law and information. In the next article, I will begin to place the Constructal Law within the context of information systems.