d, dig its fast straight channel deeper and increase access to its flow. As the slope decreased , the kinetic energy was reduced. Big sand grains precipitated out first, clinging to their brothers on the bottom and asserting their channel dominance, further spreading and slowing the flow. Soon the slowed water flows were absorbed back into the underground sand channels, and we were left with a snapshot in time of the moment the flow dominance disappeared.
Putting on our constructal geophysics magnifier goggles, when we examine the miniature valleys and canyons carefully, we find that they evolved with the largest sand grains deposited first. The flow widened laterally and slowed, creating a mesh of interacting channels, depositing graduated layers of ever finer grains. In our example, the smallest and lightest sand grains happened to be black, marking the last moments when the water flow surrendered its payload. The black sand, which started out as a uniform layer over the surface has been redistributed and concentrated in an image of the flow - a map detailing the exquisite subtlety of the flow regime - its forceful origin, its spreading and morphing of the channel (and morphing of the flow in response to the evolved structure of the channel due to previous flows) and its eventual loss of dominance to the channel. What we see, hours later while wandering the beach, is a preserved snapshot of the universal Constructal refinery in action.
This boundary - the interaction between flow and channel - defines the universal constructal refinery - which shapes and defines the evolution of the living Bejan universe. It is the Constructal Law in action. More important for our present discussion, constructal evolution creates differentiation - design in nature, stored for the future, be it long or short. We perceive the structures and their configurations as information, which we can use to understand the world or shape the future.
This is an exquisite example of flow morphed by channel, in turn morphing channel - perfect parabolas revealed by the contrast between larger white grains and smaller black ones. At the bottom we see the very last incursion of the tidal flow, depositing large artifacts at its leading edge, exhausting its energy and falling back to leave a smooth deposition of fine black sand in its retreat. The sand itself has created a gray-scale image of the flows that created it. Channel recapitulates flow, the basis of all information storage systems.
Classical life, biology, humans and technical life forms, depend on channel dominance for survival. For humans, the channel constraints are obvious - too hot, we die. Too cold, we die. Our biological channels are only capable of managing a narrow range of variation. This is true for the millions of channels which operate within biological life forms, all of them modulated and controlled by subtle and delicate information flows and channels.
However, in order for classical life forms to evolve, they need to be subjected to flows beyond their capability to control. How much beyond is a matter of the physical, behavioral and cognitive makeup of the organism. Too much and they all die. Not enough and no evolution takes place.
Further, in order for classical life forms to store information for later use, a flow must be created which “precipitates out” its flow energy as a deliberately configured physical image at theboundary of flow and channel dominance. The energy of the flow is frozen in the matter of the channel.
Think of an old audio record player. The recording was made by creating a flow (turning a blank disk under a modulated cutting head), which cut the disk so as to increase access to the energetic flows imposed upon the cutting head. In playback, the stylus was jiggled about to recreate the energy profile of the original recording flow. Channel recapitulates flow.
The boundaries on this process are the flow energy necessary to make a “permanent” change in the storage medium - not too little, not too much. The storage medium “morphs” based on
the flow imposed on it