INTRODUCTION TO PATTERN CHEMISTRY (Econochemistry)
Parts 1, 2, and 3
Yuri Tarnopolsky
2009
353 pages Last revision: July 16, 2009


Preface:

In 1977 I divorced my wife, left Siberian Institute of Technology in the city of
Krasnoyarsk, where I taught organic chemistry and supervised postgraduates, and
returned with our 6 year old daughter to my native city of Kharkov in the Ukraine.
The fake divorce was a part of our plan to emigrate to America. By that time I had
discovered, under rather dramatic circumstances, that the KGB (Soviet secret police) was
following my every step. The immediate reason was my personal correspondence with
my friend, a former schoolmate, in Kharkov, who applied for exit visa but had been under
surveillance himself for his antipathy to the Soviet regime and inability to keep his mouth
shut and pen restrained. A deeper reason was that I had been involved in a research work
for a top secret chemical plant for which I developed a system of liquid extraction of rare
metal cesium. My correspondence was routinely checked. The conjunction of both
reasons was a guarantee of unpleasant changes in my life. As for the divorce, to be single
was a legal condition for the residence permit in my parents’ apartment in Kharkov.
I found a job at a patent office and re-married my own wife, who joined us. Now she got
entitled to a residence permit.
By 1977, the Jewish emigration from former Soviet Union was practically free. In 1979,
however, when we had already applied for exit visa and both quit our jobs, the Soviets
invaded Afghanistan and closed emigration. Tens of thousands of applicants were refused
visas. We could not imagine that we would be stuck in the “refusal” for eight years with
no chance of employment. Fortunately, the KGB took care of me by providing shelter,
food, and work in a Siberian labor camp for three out of those years. Meanwhile,
American Jews helped my family.
Barred from a chemical lab, I kept thinking about the question that had been nagging me
for two decades. How was it possible that such an absurd and entirely bogus system as
Russian communism could exist and how could it end up? As a chemist, I thought in
chemical terms and this is how I came to an idea of generalized chemistry applicable to
complex social formations. I even managed to publish some ideas in a popular science
magazine. Ulf Grenander’s books on Pattern Theory, translated by that time into Russian,
gave me a strong impetus and one of them even helped me maintain my sanity—one
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thing not guaranteed by KGB—in the labor camp. I sent home a long series of notes in
letters.
When after ten year long break in professional activity I came to America, the way to
academia was closed to me. Although I returned to research work in the lab, pattern
chemistry remained my main obsession. I cared little about Russia, but America became
an inexhaustible source of intriguing mysteries and astonishing discoveries.
My personal website spirospero.net contains a significant volume of results
summarized in this text. They are duplicated on SCRIBD. My website also reflects some
other details of my story.
This text consists of three chronologically consecutive but otherwise dissimilar parts,
quite like my life. Initially, I had no plans for two last parts, but the financial crisis
offered me a unique opportunity of observation of two concurrent large scale events in
economy and political life.
The chronological order is preserved inside the parts, too. I do not think that any
dogmatic quasi-theoretical form could be appropriate for this venture. Besides, I have no
time for anything else. Therefore, it is, in essence, a stretch of a raw personal history. I
come to its roots in Part 3.
Since my youth I have been deeply imprinted by Michel Montaigne’s Essays. This text
continues my own Essays. I switched to it from Essays when I had noticed that
economics became a true “THEORY OF EVERYTHING.”
This is not so much e-book as a web-book and its form is experimental. I sincerely
apologize for my blunders of grammar, style, and taste.
May, 2009



CONTENTS
My story 6
PART ONE: FUNDAMENTALS 8
Foreword 9
Section 1. CHEMISTRY ON HUMAN SCALE 10
Note on terminology 10
1.1. SCIENCE, META-SCIENCE, AND HUMAN SCALE 10
1.2. WHAT IS CHEMISTRY 12
1.3. WHY DO WE NEED META-SCIENCE? 16
1.4. EVOLVING COMPLEX SYSTEMS 17
1.5. THE CHEMISTRY OF TIME 20
1.6. CHEMISTRY AND ECONOMY 25
1.7. ENERGY, STABILITY, AND STRESS 27
1.8. IS THERMODYNAMICS A THEORY? 30
1.9. THE CHEMISTRY OF SIZE 32
1.10. THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE 33
Section 2. PATTERN CHEMISTRY 35
2.1. CONFIGURATIONS AND PATTERNS 35
2.2. IRREGULARITY 41
2.3. STATES AND EVENTS 42
2.4. THE NEW AND THE DIFFERENT 47
2.5. THE ARCHEOLOGY OF STRUCTURE 49
2.6. PATTERN CHEMISTRY CREDO 56
2.7. THE STRUCTURE OF STRUCTURE 58
2.8. LINEARIZATION 62
2.9. WHY COMPLEXITY GROWS 64
2.10. CHEMICAL BONDS 69
2.11. MATTER, MIND, AND MACHINE: A DIGRESSION 73
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Section 3. EXAMPLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 78
3.1. VIVA FiOS! EXAMPLE OF NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE
BONDS 78
3.2. READING ERIC BEINHOCKER: WHAT IS WEALTH? 80
3.3 IS INEQUALITY NATURAL? 83
3.4. BONDS OF ELECTRONS AND BONDS OF INK 89
3.5. EVOLUTION AS HIGH WIRE ACT 95
3.6. METABOLIC COST 100
3.7. READING ROBER REAICH:WHAT HAPPENED
IN 1970? 105
3.8. EVOLUTION: UNSTABLE AT ANY SPEED 113
3.9. THE TALMUD AND THE TAX CODE 115
3.10. CAVEAT EMPTOR: BUYING THE FLAT WORLD 121
3.11. HATS AND ROOFS, LIZARDS AND DINOSAURS 129
3.12. CIVILIZATIONS IN HOT SEAT 137
3.13. THE CHEMISTRY OF FREEDOM 143
3.14. THE SIMPLE CHEMISTRY OF FEAR AND DESIRE 151
3.15. CATALYSIS AND HANDS, PATTERN AND
TEMPLATE 154
3.16. READING ISAAC NEWTON: CALCULUS WITHOUT
NUMBERS 156
3.17. THE CHEMISTRY OF LANGUAGE 163
Section 4. WORLD VIEW 179
4.1. WHAT IS? READING FRANCIS HEYLIGHEN 170
4.2. CHEMISTRY IN THE WORLD VIEW 174
4.3. HUMANS AND THINGS 178
4.4. HUMANS AND HUMANS 182
Conclusion: PERSONAL NOTES 186
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PART TWO: OBSERVATIONS 188
DIARY OF A FERRIS WHEEL RIDER
2008 2009
September 190 January 249
October 195 February 257
November 211 March 281
December 234
PART THREE: PRINCIPLES 299
THE STEPPING STONES OF UNDERSTANDING
Preface to Part 3 300
1. FROM CHEMISTRY TO EVERYTHING 304
2. FROM EVERYTHING TO ECONOMY 311
3. FROM ENERGY TO INSTABILITY 316
4. FROM ENERGY TO ENTROPY 321
5. FROM ECONOMY TO RELIGION 328
6. FROM INSTABILITY TO EVENT 333
7. FROM EVENT TO CONSEQUENCES 340
8. FROM CONSEQUENCES TO ADAPTATION 345
9. FROM COMPLEXITY TO SIMPLICITY 347