Self-Organization, Transformity, and Information

TLDR

Self‑organizing systems, such as ecosystems, exhibit energy‑reinforcing designs that alternate production and consumption, a paradigm gaining recognition. The study proposes redefining work by introducing transformity, a measure of the energy of one type required per unit of another, based on ecological energetics. Transformity scales the universe’s hierarchies—including information—with solar transformities ranging from one for insolation to trillions for shared information, providing a scientifically grounded value system for human services, environmental mitigation, trade equity, policy, and economic vitality.

Abstract

Ecosystems and other self-organizing systems develop system designs and mathematics that reinforce energy use, characteristically with alternate pulsing of production and consumption, increasingly recognized as the new paradigm. Insights from the energetics of ecological food chains suggest the need to redefine work, distinguishing kinds of energy with a new quantity, the transformity (energy of one type required per unit of another). Transformities may be used as an energy-scaling factor for the hierarchies of the universe including information. Solar transformities in the biosphere, expressed as solar emjoules per joule, range from one for solar insolation to trillions for categories of shared information. Resource contributions multiplied by their transformities provide a scientifically based value system for human service, environmental mitigation, foreign trade equity, public policy alternatives, and economic vitality.