How Does Time Flow in Living Systems? Retrocausal Scaffolding and E-series Time

Abstract

Anticipatory acts or predictive behavior are prerequisites for living organisms to sustain their survival when escaping from a predator, catching prey, or schooling. For example, catching prey requires that the predator perform some procedures that are equivalent to estimating the directional movement of the prey, its speed and its distance relative to the predator. Underlying these procedures is time experience, which does not adhere to man-made mechanical clocks. Living organisms keep time based on the local activities of each participant and form ecological clocks together. The timekeeping of ecological clocks has been called E-series time, which is interactive in character and consists of mutual alignment of timing that is co-adjusted to each other's movements and rhythms. A main objective of our current work is to illustrate how E-series time is used for flows of anticipatory acts. To explain such predictive moves and their efforts based on how the perspective of the immediate future affects the present, we resort to the organismic activity of revising the preceding acts in retrospect and semiotic scaffolding that extends beyond simple linear causality. Special attention is paid to the construction of the notion of retrocausal scaffolding, which is a series of dialogical punctuations or mutual coordination of rhythms for the joint production of the present moment of now. Retrocausal scaffolding is synonymous with negotiated anticipation, which is a semiotic/communicative account of revising the preceding acts in the present moment.

Toward a Practical Theory of Timing: Upbeat and E-Series Time for Organisms

“…It defies against simplistic and sweeping generalizations and remains mysteriously impenetrable. Although various ways exist of interpreting the enigmatic nature of time (Aristotle 1930, p. 217b-224a, Augustine 1961, p. 253-280, Heidegger 1996, p. 279-398, Ricoeur 1984, we view time as a relational or meaning-making system based on punctuation (Nomura and Matsuno 2016;Nomura et al 2018Nomura et al , 2019. Humans feel the passage of time when noticing the hands of a clock progressing, seeing the sun tilting, or hearing church bells, and all of these recognitions are the result of sensing continuous states or events that have been marked off or punctuated.…”

“…We summarize our premises as follows based on our previous works (Nomura and Matsuno 2016;Nomura et al 2018Nomura et al , 2019.…”

“…Anticipation in this sense is not the projection of a definite outcome but a readiness to interpret emerging novelty in light of what has gone before (Hasty 1997: 69). It is a retrocausal action where the immediate future event becomes the cause of the present behavior in terms of "acting for the present in the immediate future" (Nomura et al 2019).…”

“…Our research team has been exploring avenues to the comprehensive time theory that covers biological behaviors that are experienced from within, i.e., from the organisms' perspective, and our concern has been how to obtain a dependable framework that permits us to see time as a semiotic/communicative process (Nomura and Matsuno 2016;Nomura et al 2018Nomura et al , 2019. The underlying thesis of our theory is the notion called punctuation, i.e., the act of making a distinction by drawing a boundary somewhere in the course of an event.…”

“…A sharp focus on timing adjustments by organisms makes the present paper unique. We have already discussed synchronicity in relation to time and its semiotic nature (Nomura and Matsuno 2016;Nomura et al 2018) and how time in the E-series flows through interactions (Nomura et al 2019). Thus, we currently turn to "time-ing" in terms of action (as a verb), which could be more relevant to organisms as participantplayers than "timing" in terms of a time spot (as a noun).…”