Chapter 16 Seeing Beyond the Curtains Preview We close the loop between our earlier chapters and the link we have made between evolving living systems and static inorganic ones. We provide a summary of our conclusions, most notably that the distinguishing feature is difference in the rela- tionship between process and structure. Differences between organic hierarchy and inorganic hierarchy are noted, and their comparison is related to a wider view of Nature. We address historical aspects of the development of science, most partic- ularly with respect to the basis elements of modelling. We conclude that the mathematics of solid state physics does indeed appear to present us with the beginnings of a possible initial route towards mathematically representing the scale- set of a natural hierarchy. It remains to be seen whether cross-modelling between these two very different organizations may directly or indirectly lead to more successful models of biological systems, and whether our identified underlying feature of both systems holds up to scrutiny. Conclusions We pointed out in the preceding chapter that electron ‘orbitals’ in a semiconducting crystal are characterized by synchronization of the electrons’ wave functions, and raised the question of the equivalence to this in a living system. We wish now to identify the common cause of living hierarchy levels and crystalline energy levels, as an underlying feature of both. We believe this is related to the feedback prop- erties of an electronic op-amp, which we presented in Chap. 3. To recap: feedback of the output to the input in an op-amp initially results in violent swings between the two supply voltages, but progressively, with time, losses in the circuitry causes the circuit’s operation to evolve towards stabilization of the output at a fixed value © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2017 R. Cottam and W. Ranson, Bridging the Gap between Life and Physics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74533-6_16 295