Ontogeny is a neologism, derived from onto- + -geny to refer to the entirety of the development of an individual BEING, from its inception, over the entirety of it's life. This proceeds through its interactions with its environment and involves, in addition to its genetic unfolding, not only its physiological but also its psychological development.

see for instance: Evolutionary transitions in individuality. [Maynard Smith, Szathmary], Social evolution. [Hamilton], Eusociality. [E.O.Wilson et.al].

Lickliter and Honeycutt, in Developmental Dynamics: Toward a Biologically Plausible Evolutionary Psychology, 2003, p.826, Psychological Bulletin, American Psychological Association, Vol. 129, No. 6, pp.819-835.

Lickliter and Honeycutt, in Developmental Dynamics: Toward a Biologically Plausible Evolutionary Psychology, 2003, p.828, Psychological Bulletin, American Psychological Association, Vol. 129, No. 6, pp.819-835.

'The Great Chain of Semiosis. Investigating the Steps in the Evolution of Semiotic Competence.' by Jesper Hoffmeyer and Frederik Stjernfelt (2015), Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht; citing Odling-Smee, L., & Braithwaite, V. (2003) 'The role of learning in fish orientation.' Fish and Fisheries, 4, 235-246.

biophysicality

If we accept that all descriptions of the ineffable are unavoidably metaphorical,  and if creationist and anthropocentric teleologies and their concepts of the soul are set aside,  then BEINGS can be defined simply as 'vehicles' of life and LIFE inferred recursively.

BEINGS, rather than merely 'wet' physical entities, are BIOPHYSICAL EXPRESSIONS organized and animated by the interpretations their BIOSEMIOTIC systems make of their external and internal environments.

Any psychological construct, to exist, must have a BIOPHYSICAL correlate To survive, every BIOPHYSICAL construct requires a psychological correlate. Psychology, in actuality, is a study of METABIOPHYSICAL expression.

Those attributes of BIOSEMIOTIC systems, which in humans are referred to as awareness, consciousness, EGO and mind, are PERCEPTIONS, generated from the information that the SENSES of a BEING provide of NOUMENA that it encounters — in the same way as the PERCEPTION of colour is.

wellness

In an individual, the development of wellness and illness is a function of the interaction between their BIOPHYSICAL actuality and their environment.  It is this system as a whole that is impacted by any medical or psychological interventions, and any social support and care, that the individual receives or is privated of.

Research into cancer and other diseases has long since identified the existence and primacy of METABIOPHYSICAL systems, and the need to address these as a whole; however, despite the work of the WHO modern societies and their BROADCASTING systems appear obdurate, discounting 'holism' and instead promoting increasingly reductionist models.

MEANING, is that which a BEING PERCEIVES of the EXPRESSION of a . It is inherited, encoded and developed through the reference-frame of the individual's ONTOGENY. Different reference-frames then inevitably arise.

Those BEINGS less able to recognize and reconcile differing reference-frames are at greater risk in social groups of being misinformed and deceived.

Ultimately, short term success is an insufficient guide for future action. Locusts are successful but find themselves unable to escape developing from their peaceful co-existance as individuals into the cannibalistic wars of their swarms. 

virtuality refers to abstractions of actuality that pre-process EXPERIENCE.

We recognize what we see;  this is our PERCEPTION, inherited and learnt from EXPERIENCE. 

Seeing what we expect to see we then construct and integrate accordingly the data that our eyes and other senses are capable of registering.

The term BEINGS, applies here to all forms of LIFE, whether multicellular (humans, ants, plants, etc.); unicellular (bacteria, archaea, algae, etc.); or the MODULAR societies of slime molds, jellyfish, ants, humans, deer, etc.

BIOSEMIOSIS is the recursive process of RECOGNITION through which every BEING generates MEANING by aligning its PERCEPTION of current EXPERIENCE with those previously EMBODIED in itself, or externally, either by itself or through inheritance. ENDOSEMIOSIS and EXOSEMIOSIS then refer, respectively, to the RECOGNITION of internal and external NOUMENA.

BIOSEMIOSIS is the recursive process of RECOGNITION through which every BEING generates MEANING by aligning its PERCEPTION of current EXPERIENCE with those previously EMBODIED in itself, or externally, either by itself or through inheritance. ENDOSEMIOSIS and EXOSEMIOSIS then refer, respectively, to the RECOGNITION of internal and external NOUMENA.

EMBODIMENT here then refers both to the biophysical EXPRESSION of BIOSEMIOSIS and the semiosis that biophysical EXPRESSION represents. In this, embodied and extended cognition are descriptions of BIOSEMIOSIS.

A metatransition is a metasystem transition to EITHER a more complex OR a simpler structure, ultimately leading to a transitory OR a permanent evolutionary transition in individuality.

Here, metasystem refers to a general, rather than to a restricted, controlling or organizational system which maintains the homeostasis necessary for the functioning of a system and its subsystems.

functioning, disability and health

First drafted by the WHO in 1980,  the International Classification of Functioning (the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health), is an holistic overview of wellness and illness. Despite its publication, and the fact that today biopsychosocial models are taught in medical schools, the significance and impact on social organization and its institutions of these models might appear to citizens to have been relatively minimal — perhaps because of the powerful lobbies that work to promote a fundamentalist belief in scientific reductionism.

After nine years of international revision efforts coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Health Assembly on May 22, 2001, approved the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and its abbreviation of "ICF." This classification was first created in 1980 ... by WHO to provide a unifying framework for classifying the consequences of disease. ... Functioning and disability are viewed as a complex interaction between the health condition of the individual and the contextual factors of the environment as well as personal factors. The picture produced by this combination of factors and dimensions is of "the person in his or her world." The classification treats these dimensions as interactive and dynamic rather than linear or static. It allows for an assessment of the degree of disability, although it is not a measurement instrument. It is applicable to all people, whatever their health condition. The language of the ICF is neutral as to etiology, placing the emphasis on function rather than condition or disease. It also is carefully designed to be relevant across cultures as well as age groups and genders, making it highly appropriate for heterogeneous populations. 

Human beings are spatially and temporally limited parts of the whole that we call "universe"; yet we experience ourselves and our feelings as separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness.

close

delusions and illusions

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Einstein spoke the refined German of the Bildungsbürgertum, a language characterized by its precision. It might the be reasonable to assume, as an inspection of Einstein's note also suggests, that his use of the word Täuschung (delusion) twice and Illusion once, was considered not careless.

 The German word Täuschung in the original note, meaning 'delusion'.

Etymologically the word delusion implies an action, a deceiving, referring here to that suffered by human beings through our consciousness, through which we perceive a deceptive appearance, the illusion of being "separated from the rest".

Technically, delusion is a belief that, though false, has been surrendered to and accepted by the whole mind as a truth; illusion is an impression that, though false, is entertained on the recommendation of the senses or the imagination. Illusion (n.), developed in Church Latin from the late 14c. onwards to mean: a "deceptive appearance".

On delusion, and illusion; from the Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved: 4 October 2022.

The prefix "meta-" is used here as in the term meta-language — a system of symbols or signs (a language) used to describe or contextualize another language.

I'd like people to reconceptualize cancer as a biological event that triggers stress responses affecting how the disease progresses... Managing those stress responses by adopting healthy eating and exercise habits, getting a good night's sleep, and finding good emotional and social support, should be regarded as much a part of cancer treatment as chemotherapy or radiation.

The article, from which the quote was taken, although apparently accessible in 2024, has now been taken down by Stanford Medicine. The new article (at Stanford research builds link between sleep, cancer progression) still refers to Spiegal's work, but the expurgated quote there now, intentionally or otherwise, seems to downplay the research and to distance Stanford from Spiegal and the view he expressed.

life

Life is the state of being.

Being is the condition of BEINGS.

A BEING is descended from a BEING.

I am a BEING.

It is as correct or incorrect to say that hormones create love as it is to say that love creates hormones. Love is not definable in the way that hormones are; they are terms in different reference frames.

Noumenon, is a Greek word meaning "that which is perceived".  It is the word Kant used to identify the thing-in-itself, the underlying reality that is then recognized by an observer as a SIGN. 

Kant referred to recognition of the thing-in-itself as perception. Here however, PERCEPTION is used to label one of the four stages in the process of BIOSEMIOSIS that is bootstrapped by RECOGNITION.

Communicate: to convey information through a system of arbitrary signals. 

Language: a system of arbitrary signals used to communicate information. 

Meaning: the sense or reference of an expression. 

Recognize: to know something as the same as, or belonging to the same class as, something known before. 

Semantic: of or relating to meaning. 

Hydrozoa show great diversity of lifestyle; some species maintain the polyp form for their entire life and do not form medusae at all.  Polyps of some species propagate vegetatively, forming colonies.. polymorphism occurs in colonies of some species of hydrozoans and anthozoans, the polyps being specialized for functions such as feeding, defense, and sexual reproduction. 

Ruppert, Edward E.; Fox, Richard, S.; Barnes, Robert D. (2004). Invertebrate Zoology, 7th edition. Cengage Learning. pp. 148-174; cited in Jellyfish, Taxonomy (list item: Staurozoa), Wikipedia..

Fautin, Daphne G. and Sandra L. Romano. 1997. Cnidaria. Sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, sea pens, hydra. Version 24 April 1997. http://tolweb.org/Cnidaria/2461/1997.04.24 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/.

Anthropocentrism is the narcissistic belief that the human species is the central fact and final aim of a universe that must therefore be understood in terms of human experience, needs, and values. 

science

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.    Albert Einstein. 

Science is an elementary practice. Scientism is a belief. Eugenics and the Holocaust it drove are among the brutal consequences and stark reminders of not recognizing this distinction.

Hormone, from the Greek, hormon, meaning 'that which sets in motion'. 

from the Greek, akrasia, meaning 'loss of free will'.