[Fis] The genesis of art, love and wellbeing--roots of the roots

[Francesco Rizzo]

Dear Pedro, William, and everyone,

I must acknowledge that Pedro contributed significantly to my understanding
of the eco-biological foundations that—combined with the thermodynamic and
hermeneutic-mathematical-semiotic (or historical-cultural) ones—have formed
my real, singular and exclusive economic knowledge that draws from (and
gives to) all the sciences. Thank you!

But speaking of the harmony of beauty or the beauty of harmony, I quote a
few lines from paragraph 2.5 "I dreamed of being a living embryo in my
mother's womb: from the psycho-physical matrix to emotional intelligence in
the economy" of my weighty (1,422-page) book "Economia della vita, della
scienza e della fede. Il moss che manca(va)" [Aracne, Rome, 2010]:



⌠1. I resume writing, recalling something important: the dream of my life
that I had last night, or perhaps in the early hours of the morning. The
dream of desire, or the desire of the dream, of knowing how I was in my
mother's womb has come true. Thus, the power of mystery returns, solemn and
imposing. It is significant, premonitory, and prophetic (with respect to
the debate on life or assisted procreation currently underway, given that
we are on the eve of the referendum to repeal the existing law). I have had
the conscious, clear, and distinct experience of being a collection of
cells, an embryo. An embryo that, with contemptuous ease and obsessive
self- and other-destructive mania, is considered by some to be a lump of
cells not yet a person, with or without a soul (…).

In the reality of the dream, I was a cell, lovingly preparing to unite with
other cells to lovingly form tissues, eager to lovingly unite in organs,
eager to lovingly unite with other organs to lovingly form the organism
that I am. Then, as if by magic, which did not erase the magic of the
dream, the time to wake up arrived, and thanking the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit, I prayed for all those who have or take life, even by
preventing the birth of children ⌡[pp. 102 and 105].

May the Lord help us.

Francis



Cari Pedro, William e tutti,

debbo riconoscere che Pedro ha contribuito non poco a farmi assumere i
fondamenti eco-biologici che ̶ uniti a quelli termodinamici ed
ermeneutico-matematico-semiotici (o storico-culturali) ̶ hanno composto la
mia reale, singolare ed esclusiva cono-sc(i)enza economica che prende dalle
(e da a tutte le) scienze. Grazie!

Ma a proposito dell’armonia della bellezza o della bellezza dell’armonia,
riporto alcune righe del paragrafo *2.5 Ho sognato di essere un embrione
vivente nel grembo di mia madre: dalla matrice psico-fisica
all’intelligenza emotiva nell’economia* del mio ponderoso (1422 pagine)
libro *Economia della vita, della scienza e della fede. Il muschio che
manca(va) *[Aracne, Roma, 2010]:



⌠1. Riprendo a scrivere ricordando qualcosa di importante: il sogno della
vita che ho fatto stanotte o forse nelle prime ore del mattino. Il sogno
del desiderio o il desiderio del sogno di sapere come stavo nel grembo di
mia madre è divenuto realtà. Ritorna, così, solenne e imponente la forza
del mistero. È significativo, premonitore e profetico (rispetto al
dibattito sulla vita o sulla procreazione assistita, attualmente in corso,
dato che siamo alla vigilia del referendum abrogativo della legge
esistente). Ho vissuto la consapevole, chiara e nitida esperienza di essere
un insieme di cellule, un embrione. Embrione che, con sprezzante
disinvoltura e ossessiva mania auto ed etero-distruttiva, da alcuni viene
considerato un grumo di cellule non ancora persona, con o senza l’anima (…).

Nella realtà del sogno ero una *cellula*, che si preparava con amore ad
unirsi con altre cellule per formare con amore i *tessuti*, che erano
impazienti di unirsi con amore negli *organi*, che erano impazienti di
unirsi con amore ad altri organi per formare con amore l’*organismo *che
sono. Poi come per incanto, che non ha cancellato la magia del sogno, è
arrivata l’ora della sveglia e ringraziando il Padre, il Figlio e lo
Spirito Santo ho pregato per tutti gli uomini che hanno o tolgono la vita,
anche impedendo la nascita dei bambini⌡[pp. 102 e 105].

Il Signore ci aiuti

Francesco.





Il giorno mer 4 feb 2026 alle ore 16:18 Pedro C. Marijuán <
pedroc.marijuan en gmail.com> ha scritto:

> Dear All,
>
> This quest, about "the roots of the roots" of art, becomes cellular, quite
> cogently. To the cell properties exposed by Bill and Francesco, I would add
> the extraordinary capability of cells & multicells to discover endless math
> patterns. We see fractals, Fibonacci sequences, spirals, symmetries, and
> all kind of math niceties.
> Does it relate to the creation of beauty' -- to remind not only
> Wigner's  “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural
> Sciences” but also how mathematical beauty lies in the harmony, patterns,
> and structures of numbers, and symmetries that explain the universe.
> Seemingly, we would close a circle, with transcendence of art & aesthetics
> linked both to the bottom and to the top of existence. Not to forget the
> fundamental role of sexual selection in the evolutionary quest for beauty
> as the best way to stay in the world.
> Makes sense??
>
> Best --Pedro
>
>  El 03/02/2026 a las 18:27, William Miller escribió:
>
> Dear Francesco,
>
> Thank you for your eloquent response. I agree with your assessment of
> cellular circumstances. Reductionism as a research tool is necessary, but a
> cell can only be understood as a Kantian whole, as Stu Kauffman and my
> colleagues and I have argued. Further, we are in complete agreement that
> each organism is unique. I believe you have hit upon an essential
> difference between my view and others. In my terms (and my colleagues'),
> each cell is a unique, competent, and exclusive individual entity (agent).
> Of course, I don't mean in the same manner as with our human sensibilities,
> but within their scope and at their scale, and importantly, in their
> contextual responses to stress. Consequently, information sharing is the
> cognitive glue that enables seamless multicellularity among the tens of
> trillions of highly differentiated cells and microbial partners that
> sustain our lives. And further, as you note, they have unique phylogenetic
> histories, both collectively and individually.
>
> I do differ with you in one respect, which I have previously indicated. My
> colleagues and I regard all cells as sense-aware individual agents imbued
> with retrievable and deployable memory systems that engage as a Kantian
> whole in decision-making and problem-solving. Since all cells must measure
> their information internally to assess value and valence, they have
> subjective interiors, and the information that they self-create through
> that process (infoautopoiesis) is used to sustain each cell in its
> individual preferential state. Accordingly, for us, each cell is
> conscious/cognitive/sentient.
>
> Lastly, I think biology has historically viewed complexity in a highly
> simplistic and hubristic manner. We do have tools that have enabled us to
> elucidate many multicellular biomolecular pathways, and we have even
> learned to adjust some of these for our benefit as 'fine-tuning'. However,
> the complexities of the crowded, active environment within every cell are
> so great that we have no idea where to begin understanding how they
> operate. We can utilize their products and are beginning to learn how to
> steer them to our aims (e.g., Mike Levin’s work). How much different would
> biology be if we regarded the basic cell as the epitome of complexity and
> its information-processing capabilities as primary and the rest of
> multicellular life as its elaboration?
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Bill
>
>
> On Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 12:31:56 AM MST, Francesco Rizzo
> <13francesco.rizzo en gmail.com> <13francesco.rizzo en gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear William,
>
> in Ethics of Economic Values or Economics of Ethical Values (FrancoAngeli, Milan, 2004) I wrote in 115-122 pages some things that might interest you, I will excerpt a small part of it below
>
>
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://translate.google.it/?hl=it__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!U2dn5Vzo_KZGIpzlfsRxchA5NITvfziJXilO9m0sjiRQDH8KtaAp8J4-7rk6a35kPvIuC5MjoRJRLrhTxRcMavHWH4iI$>
>
> ⌠Since 1979, I have been working on a city model based on a (not hard or
> deterministic, but gentle and flexible) interactive
> multi-temporal-dimensional-media-linguistic-criteria matrix. I have
> written about this several times in this book. Naturally and culturally, I
> have employed and calibrated the same model-algorithm for the company
> analysis. Here – also to pay homage to Pedro C. Marijuán, an exquisite and
> sensitive person (not only in a human sense) whom I met at an international
> conference of physicists, biologists, chemists, etc., which took place in
> Acireale from 17 to 22 September on the topic of Energy and information
> transfer in biological systems, so dear to me as if I had chosen it (too) –
> I would like to launch the hypothesis that it could also be useful to
> better understand and “measure” (in the sense of evaluating) the
> functional-structural nature-culture or de-cipher-ation of a cell, indeed
> of every cell that in a given spatio-temporal situation resembles and/or
> dissimilars (differs from) all the others.
>
> Every cell is a uni-duality or a uni-multiplicity, an I-in-oi or an
> I-in-I, that is, from a functional-structural perspective, a cell in itself
> and an element in the whole of O that is a tissue, an organ, a living
> being, just as a man is at the same time a man in itself and an element in
> the sense of the unitary-unicative comm(-n-io)ne or in the anagrammatic
> communitarian-communicative I. Everything that is, in some way,
> unrepeatable, unique, and absolutely individual and "individualizing" is
> ap-perceived through unique and unrepeatable moments or living beings.
> Individuality, apparently hidden and veiled by the fundamental elements of
> atoms and cells, “emerges” as the universe and its actors (men and women,
> animals and plants) evolve, strengthening and improving their capacity for
> trans-inform-ation or ad-aptation and ex-aptation.
>
> The uniqueness or unrepeatability of individuals and their personalities
> (of humans, animals, and plants) permeates and is permeated by that
> complex, intertwined, convulsive, and chaotic set of similar and dissimilar
> phenomena, of similar and different things, that are natural and social
> systems. Every being is unique, specific, and atypical, regardless of
> whether they are humans, animals, or plants. Besides having in common the
> fact that they are made up of the same-different cells and equal-unequal
> atoms, and being different because humans have consciousness and other
> living beings do not (?), they all have their own unique, mysterious,
> phylo-onto-genetic history⌡.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear William,
>
> in *Etica dei valori economici o economia dei valori etici*
> (FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2004) ho scritto in 115-122 pagine alcune cose che
> potrebbero interessarti, ne stralcio una piccola seguente parte:
>
>
>
> ⌠Dal 1979 lavoro ad un modello di città basato su una (non dura o
> deterministica, ma dolce e flessibile) matrice inter-attiva
> multi-temporale-dimensionale-mediale-linguistica-criteriale. Di questo ho
> scritto più volte nel presente libro. Naturalmente e culturalmente lo
> stesso modello-algoritmo ho impiegato e tarato per l’analisi dell’azienda.
> Qui – anche per fare un omaggio a Pedro C. Marijuán, persona squisita e
> sensibile (non solo in senso umano) che ho conosciuto in un convegno
> internazionale di fisici, biologici, chimici, etc., che s’è svolto ad
> Acireale dal 17 al 22 settembre sul tema Energy and information transfer in
> biological systems, a me tanto caro come se l’avessi scelto (anch’) io –
> desidero lanciare l’ipotesi che esso possa essere utile anche a comprendere
> e “misurare”(nel senso di valutare) meglio la natura-cultura
> funzional-strutturale o de-cifr-azione di una cellula, anzi di ogni cellula
> che in una data situazione spazio-temporale somiglia e/o dissomiglia
> (differisce d)a tutte le altre.
>
> Ogni cellula è un’uni-dualità o un’uni-molteplicità, un io-n-oi o un
> io-n-io, cioè è in una prospettiva funzional-strutturale una cellula a sé e
> un elemento nell’insieme di o che è un tessuto, un organo, un essere
> vivente, come un uomo è allo stesso tempo un uomo a sé e un elemento nel
> senso del(la) comu(-n-io)ne unitario(a)-unicativo(a) o nell’anagrammatico
> io comunitario-comunicativo. Tutto ciò che è, in un certo qual modo,
> ir-ripetibile, unico e assolutamente individuale e “individualizzante” si
> fa ap-percepire attraverso momenti o viventi unici e ir-ripetibili.
> L’individualità, apparentemente nascosta e velata dagli elementi
> fondamentali degli atomi e delle cellule, va “emergendo” man mano che
> l’universo ed i suoi attori (uomini e donne, animali e piante) si evolvono,
> rafforzando e migliorando la loro capacità di tras-inform-azione o
> ad-attamento e ex-attamento.
>
> L’unicità o ir-ripetibilità individual-personale (di uomini, animali,
> piante) attraversa ed è attraversata da quell’insieme, complesso,
> intrecciato, convulso e caotico di fenomeni simili e dissimili e di cose
> somiglianti e differenti che sono i sistemi naturali e sociali. Ogni essere
> è una o ha la sua univoca, specifica e atipica impronta ecologica a
> prescindere che si tratti di uomini, animali o piante, che oltre ad avere
> in comune il fatto che sono costituiti dalle stesse-differenti cellule e
> dagli uguali-disuguali atomi e ad essere differenti perché gli uomini hanno
> la coscienza e gli altri esseri viventi no (?), hanno tutti una loro e
> unica, misteriosa, storia filo-onto-genetica⌡.
>
> Francesco
>
> Il giorno lun 2 feb 2026 alle ore 17:21 William Miller <wbmiller1 en cox.net>
> ha scritto:
>
> Dear All,
>
>
> I have followed this fascinating thread with great interest. Pedro's
> comment on getting to the 'root' of the reason for art and the appreciation
> of beauty has motivated me to comment now, rather than previously, since
> the prior thrust of the discussion has focused on our human sensibilities,
> and my work is about cells. However, any discernment of a 'root' of an
> aesthetic impulse must eventually include consideration of how cells
> operate, since we are all cellular constructs. I hope you will find this
> alternative take on the matter interesting and not off-topic.
>
> I have published about the empirically verified behaviors of all cells.
> Those observations and experiments confirm that cells operate within a
> compact narrative of consistent behaviors since their origin as their means
> of dealing with their obligatory context of the ambiguity of biological
> information (previously presented with Mike Levin).
>
> All cells are intelligent and engaged in measuring ambiguous environmental
> cues as infocomputation for (value) and valence (subjective experiences at
> scale ). I defend that cells have experiences at scale because all cells
> have defined homeorhetic preferences that they maintain but also adjust in
> context as differential rates of dynamic flux. Kant had intuited that all
> learning derives from experiences and cells are certainly learning systems.
>
> Cells consistently display six behavioral attributes: collaboration,
> cooperation, co-dependence, generally mutualizing competition, respect for
> the self-integrity of other cells, and they consistently abide by the
> principle that each is served best by serving others. The proof is seamless
> multicellularity, enabling you to read this now. None of this is
> conjectural and is easily observable. Indeed, cancer is destructive since
> it does not follow those rules with normative cells, only with like-kind
> cancer cells (as a different form of selfhood).
>
> Notably, cells act in these patterns because this is how they form their
> sense of the world, i.e., glean at their scale some understanding of the
> status of their interior versus the external environment, essential to
> maintaining their preferential states and naturally implicit to their
> survival. This is how they form their grasp of reality, from which all
> problem-solving must issue. After all, cells are not programmed robots:
> they are decision-making and problem-solving agents.
>
> I would offer that the deepest root of art is an expression of our
> cellular selves as a search to find answers to our yearning questions and
> doubts about reality, on the one hand, and as an explicit expression of a
> state of preference in context on the other. These two cellular imperatives
> merge as our expression of art and govern our need to create it. This also
> explains why some art is beautiful to some and execrable to others, and
> some art is seen as illuminating to one individual and ridiculous to
> another. It is always an individual, subjective assessment that reflects an
> exclusive interior state.
>
> Our consciousness consists of doubts and preferences. As I often say,
> 'being is doubt', and I now offer that 'life is preferences'. Art is each
> individual's idiosyncratic attempt to resolve personal doubts, expressively
> illustrate its effect on the artist, and satisfy a preferential state.
> Furthermore, since art is shared with others almost without exception, it
> is a communal activity, conforming with the innate cellular root behavior
> of 'you serve yourself best by serving others'.
>
> We are cellular beings, and all of evolution is a narrative of the
> continuous exaptation of unicellular traits channeled and repurposed at
> successive scales . In each instance, it serves to enhance the deployment
> of information to problem-solve in our unending struggle to grasp external
> reality. These exaptations are tools of continuous cellular natural
> learning, which requires an unending exploration the environment through
> alternative paths. Art is one means by which this deeply rooted impulse, so
> essential to life, is satisfied.
>
> After all, isn't this exactly what we are currently engaged in within this
> forum and is it not its own form of Art?
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
>
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