Introduction: Sequences, Sequences, and Sequences
Chapter 1. The Problem of Sequentialization
Chapter 2. The Emergence of Constraint
Chapter 3. The Grammar of Interaction
Chapter 4. The Grammar of Extension
Chapter 5. The Grammar of Abstraction
Chapter 6. The Conundrum of Replication
Chapter 7. The Threshold of Complication
Chapter 8. The Institution of Sequences
Chapter 9. The Continuum of Abstraction
Appendix: Just Enough Molecular Biology
Dennis P. Waters received his Ph.D. from Binghamton University in 1990. He became a publishing entrepreneur, founding technical news services like GenomeWeb.com. After retiring, Waters continued his Ph.D. research, how one-dimensional patterns of DNA, language, and code guide the three-dimensional world. He is a visiting scientist at Rutgers University.
"Behavior and Culture in One Dimension provides an engaging, highly
readable exploration of the foundational role of one-dimensional
patterns or "sequences" in the origin and evolution of complex
systems on earth, among them, living systems. These one-dimensional
sequences (including, for example, RNA, DNA, linguistic sequences,
computer code) serve to organize, harness, and control
(three-dimensional) physical systems so that the systems exhibit
functional, organized activity at larger spatiotemporal scales
including ecologically relevant scales. The book should attract a
variety of readerships including popular science readers and
students of evolution, ecological science, and language. For
language scholars, such as myself, it offers a unique, persuasive,
and impactful perspective on the kind of thing that language is,
offering valuable insight on how language use in the world (written
as well as spoken) can do the work it does. I highly recommend this
book."— Carol A. Fowler, Haskins Laboratories, U.S.A."Over the past
60 years Howard Pattee proposed foundational ideas for
understanding the nature of life. With spectacular clarity and
force his former student Dennis Waters examines and extends
Pattee’s work to produce a vibrant framework for thinking how the
physical/biological world constructs life itself. Get ready to
think and then think again. This book is true scholarship in its
finest form."— Michael Gazzaniga, SAGE Center for the Study of
Mind, University of California, U.S.A."Dennis Waters’ Behavior and
Culture in One Dimension explores the implications of a deceptively
simple idea—the concept of a sequence—and shows how much of the
complexity of the biological and human world is dependent on it.
With DNA at one end of his account and written language at the
other, he shows how sequences have played midwife to the emergence
of complex life and human civilization." — Terrence Deacon,
University of California, U.S.A"Behavior and Culture in One
Dimension pursues the bold and intriguing claim that DNA, language,
and computer code are not simply metaphorical allies. Waters builds
the case that systems of linear sequences have properties in common
that allow them to constrain activity in three dimensions. He’s
after a universal organizing principle that is independent of the
embodiment of the sequence—human language, animal communication,
behavior by parasites, bacteria, and civilizations are all in his
sights. The neglect of language has long been seen by cognitive
science as the Achilles heel of ecological psychology. An approach
to language that respects the ecological emphasis on natural law is
sorely needed and that is very much what Waters provides."— Claudia
Carello, University of Connecticut, U.S.A.
"Behavior and Culture in One Dimension provides an engaging, highly
readable exploration of the foundational role of one-dimensional
patterns or "sequences" in the origin and evolution of complex
systems on earth, among them, living systems. These one-dimensional
sequences (including, for example, RNA, DNA, linguistic sequences,
computer code) serve to organize, harness, and control
(three-dimensional) physical systems so that the systems exhibit
functional, organized activity at larger spatiotemporal scales
including ecologically relevant scales. The book should attract a
variety of readerships including popular science readers and
students of evolution, ecological science, and language. For
language scholars, such as myself, it offers a unique, persuasive,
and impactful perspective on the kind of thing that language is,
offering valuable insight on how language use in the world (written
as well as spoken) can do the work it does. I highly recommend this
book."— Carol A. Fowler, Haskins Laboratories, U.S.A."Over the past
60 years Howard Pattee proposed foundational ideas for
understanding the nature of life. With spectacular clarity and
force his former student Dennis Waters examines and extends
Pattee’s work to produce a vibrant framework for thinking how the
physical/biological world constructs life itself. Get ready to
think and then think again. This book is true scholarship in its
finest form."— Michael Gazzaniga, SAGE Center for the Study of
Mind, University of California, U.S.A."Dennis Waters’ Behavior and
Culture in One Dimension explores the implications of a deceptively
simple idea—the concept of a sequence—and shows how much of the
complexity of the biological and human world is dependent on it.
With DNA at one end of his account and written language at the
other, he shows how sequences have played midwife to the emergence
of complex life and human civilization." — Terrence Deacon,
University of California, U.S.A"Behavior and Culture in One
Dimension pursues the bold and intriguing claim that DNA, language,
and computer code are not simply metaphorical allies. Waters builds
the case that systems of linear sequences have properties in common
that allow them to constrain activity in three dimensions. He’s
after a universal organizing principle that is independent of the
embodiment of the sequence—human language, animal communication,
behavior by parasites, bacteria, and civilizations are all in his
sights. The neglect of language has long been seen by cognitive
science as the Achilles heel of ecological psychology. An approach
to language that respects the ecological emphasis on natural law is
sorely needed and that is very much what Waters provides."— Claudia
Carello, University of Connecticut, U.S.A.
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