Body Temperature And Complexity

The human body is an extraordinarily complex system which operates down to the level of atoms and molecules. It is unlike anything else that we know in it's sheer complexity. We cannot even conceive of how complex the human brain is because we are processing the information with our own brains and to do that, we would have to be smarter than ourselves, which is impossible.

Today, I would like to use the body as an example of how an extremely complex system involving the peak pattern, as described on this blog, will manifest a sharper peak than a less complex system. This means that one way to get a measurement of the complexity of a system involving a peak pattern is the sharpness of the peak.

One prominent fact about the body is it's strict operating temperature, 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius. This is unlike any other machine or system known to us. All warm-blooded creatures have a narrow operating temperature, cold-blooded life forms like insects and snakes are sluggish at cold temperatures.

I have explained that gaining the ability to measure complexity will require us to come up with some creative ways of measuring. As one example, it seemed to me that we could get a good idea of the complexity of the human body by the number of diseases and ailments by which it could possibly be afflicted.

My logic was that the more complex a system or operation is, relative to the surrounding inanimate environment, the more the possible things that can go wrong with it. Thus, the total number of diseases and ailments, and their variations, in a medical textbook, from the flu to cystic fibrosis, becomes an effective measurement of the complexity of the body and brain.

Now, let's have a look at how the strict and narrow operating temperature range of the body is another tool by which it's complexity might be measured. Heat is the kinetic energy of moving atoms and molecules within an object or environment. The atoms and molecules continuously collide with one another and, in doing so, impart and take energy from each other.

Imagine two baseball or cricket players standing opposite one another in a school hallway, on opposite sides of the hallway. The two are trying to perform a difficult stunt consisting of each throwing a ball at the same instant in the same direction down the hallway. The object is to have each ball bounce off the floor once and then collide with the other ball in the air in the middle of the hallway. The balls will then bounce off one another and impact the walls of the hallway at the same height off the floor and exactly opposite each other.

The stunt would be extremely difficult to achieve. It would require endless practice (practise) and would be worthy of Youtube fame if it succeeded. This scenario is so difficult because a ball can travel at any speed and the speed of both balls would have to be exactly equal to bring this about.

But suppose that the laws of physics were different so that a ball could travel at only one possible speed. Then this stunt would be much easier to achieve.

Let's go back to moving atoms. Heat is actually the velocity of the moving atoms and molecules but it is much easier for us to measure the general level of kinetic energy present and express is as temperature than to measure the velocities of individual atoms.

Suppose that we had a vast number of atoms and molecules that were part of a very complex system. In the system, the atoms and molecules must interact with great precision. They continuously collide and bounce off one another.

Such a very complex system involving moving things like this would be far more simple if the atoms and molecules all move at the same speed. This is why the human body has such a finely-defined operating temperature. Just imagine how much more complex and how much more difficult the operation of the body would be if the participating atoms and molecules were moving at different speeds.

Since the benefit of maintaining a carefully-controlled temperature is proportional to the complexity of the body, the sharpness of the acceptable temperature range is an effective measurement it's complexity. The optimum operating temperature is the top of the peak pattern that is manifested.