The Temporal Organization of Life

One of the more contentious debates to emerge into scientific prominence has been whether life is prevalent in the cosmos and its level of complexity.  Of the many factors that shape this debate, one of the most overlooked yet crucial rests on the different roles that temporal organization plays in biotic systems.

Although the origin and evolution of life is dependent on the arrow of time, rooted in entropy, the traditional understanding of time’s arrow is insufficient to account for the diverse types of temporal processes characteristic of living organisms; most notably, the diverse functions played by past-present-future in shaping biotic systems. Far from a minor problem, the author argues that the forms of temporal (bio-tensed) organization utilized by biotic systems shape not only the emergence and prevalence of all life, but also the scientific theories we use to explain the universe along with the moral concepts that inform our responsibilities to extraterrestrial life (should we find any).  Drawing from philosophy, the life sciences and astrobiology, this book argues that understanding the centrality of temporality for living systems provides crucial insights that help answer the epistemological, ethical and cosmological challenges that face astrobiology’s search for the origins and prevalence of life in the universe.