The Universe as an Open System

在整个科学中，系统和它们的环境之间是有区别的。如果系统与环境交换能量、物质、热量或信息，系统可以被视为开放的，如果不是，系统可以被视为关闭。由于系统比环境小得多，所以从环境到系统，这种交换被认为是不对称的。通常，所有关于环境的假设是，与系统相比，环境是非常大的，因为正在研究的是后者。正如伯特兰·罗素(Bertrand Russell，1903)很早以前就指出的那样，严格来说，宇宙中的所有系统都应该是开放的，因为万有引力是普遍存在的。如果我们接受罗素的论点，那么只有一个‘系统’可以被视为一个封闭的系统：整个宇宙。如果被研究的宇宙的“部分”是整个宇宙，那么显然没有什么可以发挥环境的作用了，因此，根据定义，我们是在研究一个封闭的系统。尽管宇宙作为一个封闭系统的观点很有说服力，但有三个看似合理的理由可以证明，将宇宙描述为一个开放系统终究是有洞察力的。这些论点中的每一个都将在本项目中进行调查。更具体地说，我们将对案例进行综合和综合的分析，并在这样做的过程中建立将宇宙建模为开放系统的哲学和物理可行性。我们的核心方法论问题是，科学家是否有理由将宇宙视为一个开放的系统，仅仅作为一个实用的有用的谎言，或者是否有充分的理由将宇宙作为一个开放的系统，作为一个真正的本体论主张。我们的目标是捍卫本体论的主张，即宇宙在有限和精确的意义上是一个开放的系统，基于对相关系统-子系统关系的形式和概念上的严格分析。特别是，这个项目将(I)提供新的形式和概念工具来理解宇宙和我们在其中的位置；(Ii)评估宇宙是一个开放系统的想法的动机和影响；(Iii)通过对适当机制的详细研究，描述三个重要物理背景下的开放性；(Iv)通过考虑认知剂作为嵌入在宇宙中的信息处理系统的作用，证明这些机制可以联系在一起；以及(V)捍卫宇宙是有限和精确意义上的开放系统的本体论主张。

Throughout science a distinction is made between systems and their environments. Systems can be treated as either open, if they exchange energy, matter, heat or information with the environment, and closed if they do not. Since the system is so much smaller than the environment, such exchanges are assumed to be asymmetric, from the environment to the system. Often, all that is assumed about the environment is that is very large compared to the system, since it is the latter that is being studied. As was pointed out long ago by Bertrand Russell (1903), strictly speaking all systems within the universe should be expected to be open, since the force of gravity is universal. If we accept Russell’s argument, there is then only one ‘system’ that can be treated as a closed system: the universe as a whole. If the ‘part’ of the universe being studied is the entire universe, then it seems obviously true that there can be nothing left to play the role of the environment, and thus that we are, by definition, studying a closed system. Despite the persuasiveness of the universe as a closed system viewpoint, there are three plausible arguments why it may prove insightful to represent the universe as an open system after all. Each of these arguments will be investigated in this project. More specifically, we will conduct a synthetic and integrated analysis of cases and in doing so establish the philosophical and physical viability of modelling the universe as an open system. Our core methodological question is whether scientists are justified in treating the universe as an open system merely as a pragmatically useful falsehood, or whether there are good reasons to accept the universe as an open system as a genuine ontological claim. We aim to defend the ontological claim that the universe is an open system, in a limited and precise sense, based upon a formally and conceptually rigorous analysis of the relevant system-sub-system relationships. In particular, this project will (i) provide new formal and conceptual tools to understand both the universe and our place in it; (ii) evaluate the motivations and implications of the idea of the universe as an open system, (iii) characterize openness in three important physical contexts via a detailed study of the appropriate mechanisms; (iv) demonstrate that these mechanisms can be linked together by considering the role of epistemic agents as an information processing system embedded within a universe and weakly coupled to a measuring apparatus and the rest of the environment; and (v) defend the ontological claim that universe is an open system in a limited and precise sense.