Adventures Beyond Reductionism: The Wondrous Manifesto of Holism (1109.3889v4)

Abstract: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down". Can Darwinian random mutations and selection generate biological complexity and holism? In this paper we argue that the "wonderful but not enough" tools of linear reductionism cannot lead to chaos and hence to complexity and holism, but with ChaNoXity this seems indeed plausible, even likely. Based on the Pump-Engine realism of mutually interacting supply and demand --- demand institutes supply that fuels demand --- we demonstrate that the "supply" of symmetry breaking Darwinian genetic variation, in direct conflict with the symmetry inducing "demand" of natural selection, defines the antagonistic arrows of the real and negative worlds. Working in this competitively collaborating nonlinear mode, these opposites generate the homeostasy of holistic life. Protein folding, mitosis, meiosis, hydrophobicity and other ingredients have their respective expressions in this paradigm; nucleotide substitution, gene duplication-divergence, HGT, stress-induced mutations, antibiotic resistance, Lamarckism would appear to fit in naturally in this complexity paradigm defined through emergence of novelty and self-organization. With obvious departures from current reductionism, this can have far reaching implications in the Darwinian and nano medicine of genetic diseases and disorders. Our goal is to chart a roadmap of adventure beyond (neo)-Darwinian reductionism.