Publications of 2023

The Anthropocene crisis is frequently described as the rarefaction of resources or resources per capita. However, both energy and minerals correspond to fundamentally conserved quantities from the perspective of physics. A specific concept is required to understand the rarefaction of available resources. This concept, entropy, pertains to energy and matter configurations and not just to their sheer amount. However, the physics concept of entropy is insufficient to understand biological and social organizations. Biological phenomena display both historicity and systemic properties. A biological organization, the ability of a specific living being to last over time, results from history, expresses itself by systemic properties, and may require generating novelties The concept of anti-entropy stems from the combination of these features. We propose that Anthropocene changes disrupt biological organizations by randomizing them, that is, decreasing anti-entropy. Moreover, second-order disruptions correspond to the decline of the ability to produce functional novelties, that is, to produce anti-entropy.

Keywords: entropy, anti-entropy, resources, organization, disruption, Anthropocene

Dans ce texte, je propose trois ouvertures à partir des réflexions de Jean-Luc Nancy concernant le corps, notamment dans Corpus et L’Intrus.

L’œuvre singulière plurielle de Jean-Luc Nancy a croisé presque toutes les préoccupations majeures de la philosophie – temps, être, espace, négativité, forme, image, poésie –, et a exercé une influence considérable sur de nombreux intellectuels et chercheurs du monde entier. Dans cet ouvrage, qui rassemble des articles rédigés par des philosophes et spécialistes reconnus, français et étrangers (Europe, Inde, États-Unis, Japon, Brésil, Chili, Égypte), les auteurs rendent hommage à Nancy pour son amitié et sa pensée. <br> Considérant qu’une histoire particulière de la philosophie a pris fin, Nancy a montré que la philosophie peut se lever à nouveau, touchant à son éternité. Il a invité à la recommencer de manière multiple, métaphysique, post- phénoménologique, politique, littéraire et esthétique. Se souvenir de sa pensée, c’est donc recommencer ici d’une manière plurielle avec lui ; c’est relancer dans son sillage la réflexion sur la démocratie et l’art, en réassumant une approche résolument transversale, avec ce que Nancy appelait anastasis – ce qui « ne provient pas de soi » mais « vient de l’autre, ou relève de l’autre en lui ».

Unlike inert objects, organisms and their cells have the ability to initiate activity by themselves, and thus change their properties or states even in the absence of an external cause. This crucial difference led us to search for principles suitable for the study organisms. We propose that cells follow the default state of proliferation with variation and motility, a principle of biological inertia. This means that in the presence of sufficient nutrients, cells will express their default state. We also propose a principle of variation that addresses two central features of organisms, variation and historicity. To address interdependence between parts, we use a third principle, the principle of organization: more specifically, the notion of the closure of constraints. Within this theoretical framework, constraints are specific theoretical entities defined by their relative stability with respect to the processes they constrain. Constraints are mutually dependent in an organized system and act on the default state. <br>Here we discuss the application and articulation of these principles for mathematical modeling of morphogenesis in a specific case, that of mammary ductal morphogenesis, with an emphasis on the default state. Our model has both a biological component, the cells, and a physical component, the matrix that contains collagen fibers. Cells are agents that move and proliferate unless constrained; they exert mechanical forces that i) act on collagen fibers and ii) on other cells. As fibers are organized, they constrain the cells’ ability to move and to proliferate. This model exhibits a circularity that can be interpreted in terms of the closure of constraints. Implementing our mathematical model shows that constraints to the default state are sufficient to explain the formation of mammary epithelial structures. Finally, the success of this modeling effort suggests a step-wise approach whereby additional constraints imposed by the tissue and the organism can be examined in silico and rigorously tested by in vitro and in vivo experiments, in accordance with the organicist perspective we embrace.