Information in the individual living system is stored, at least in part, in the DNA molecule by the sequential arrangement of adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine bases. Because the strands of DNA are so long, the number of possible base sequences in a single strand exceeds the estimated number of particles in the universe.²⁴.. This allows for an extremely large amount of information storage. She made the assumption that when this stored information within the DNA is translated into the substance of protein molecules, then communication takes place.²⁵

Evolution would appear to be more than just random changes in proteins that are selected for fitness by purely external factors like ecology, population clusters, food supply, and competition. It has an internal, abstract side as well, which can be understood in terms of the laws of information and communication.²⁶... DNA would appear to be more than just a passenger in the emergence of living organisms. Biologists King and Jukes concluded in 1969 that evolutionary change is not imposed upon DNA from without, but rather arises from within: "Natural selection is the editor, rather than the composer, of the genetic message.".²⁷

More and more support for the concept of "active information" is accumulating from a variety of sources that would correlate closely with Sheldrake's morphic fields and Jung's archetypes. "Active information," as it is being defined, would be very similar in concept to "intelligence" as described in this text. David Bohm, for example, is developing a new theory of "quantum potential" that has some features similar to Sheldrake's fields.

Bohm's theory suggests that wave particles have considerable internal complexity and are represented by fluctuations within a quantum field. The field forces differ from others in nature in that the quantum potential influence does not fall off with distance, and its action does not take the form of a mechanical push or pull but acts more like a guide wave.²⁸... The quantum potential carries information about the environment of the quantum particle, and by so doing informs and affects its motion. He suggests that matter has orders that are closer to those of mind and gives "information" an active formative role.²⁹... This active information is responsible for the way that quantum processes unfold out of the quantum field of the universe. Each elementary particle may be of unlimited complexity and have holographic properties, being in essence an expression of the entire universe.³⁰

An elementary particle is the manifestation of an underlying quantum field and represents a folding of the field into a localized region. In reciprocal fashion, the annihilation of a particle is the unfolding back into the field.³¹

Bohm suggests that all of reality is based on an "implicate" order where elementary particles are continuously enfolding and unfolding within a dynamic background. Our everyday world of solid structures corresponds to an "explicate" or unfolded order, which is actually a manifestation of an unfolding from the deeper implicate order. All forms unfold out of the same ground, and the forces that we perceive to be present are actually illusionary and reflect the unfolding of explicate forms from the implicate order.³²... He sees mind and consciousness operating within the implicate order through fields of active information.³³... The brain is continuously structurally unfolding from a background of active information that is present both in its own structure and in the external environment. This constantly changing brain in turn acts back upon the environment to change it and to create a new reality.³⁴... In essence, the material level is perceived by the mental level, which then acts back on the material side.³⁵... A two-way flow therefore exists between the mental and material orders of the universe, which are essentially indivisible.³⁶

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