Three Kinds of Order in the Universe
From Crystals to Cells to Galaxies
Sungchul Ji, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Cell Biology
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ
October 15, 2025
In 1948 [2], Warren Weaver published Science and Complexity, proposing that nature displays not just order and disorder, but also a third and far richer mode of organization—organized complexity.
Today, with evidence spanning from molecular biology to astrophysics, it has become clear that the cosmos itself may be in an organized complex state, not a random one. (see Row 1, Table 1 below).
1. Ordered State — Symmetry and Stability
The ordered state is the realm of crystals—highly regular, repetitive structures governed by symmetry and low entropy. Atoms and molecules repeat in perfect lattices; once formed, they rarely change. Crystals represent the frozen perfection of nature, where predictability reigns but novelty is absent.
Examples:
NaCl crystal lattice
Diamond or quartz
Snowflakes and mineral formations
Order provides stability, yet it lacks the creative adaptability that characterizes life.
2. Disordered State — Chaos and Randomness
At the opposite extreme lies disorder, the realm of gases and plasmas where particles move randomly and entropy is maximal. Although this state is dynamic and energetic, it lacks organization (or information) —motion without meaning.
Examples:
Stellar interiors
Interstellar clouds and turbulent fluids
The cosmic microwave background (although I found evidence for partial order even here [7] (see Figure 8.6(t) below).
Disorder fuels change but cannot by itself create life or consciousness.
3. Organized Complex State — The Architecture of Life and Mind
Between the two extremes emerges the organized complex state—a dynamic balance of order and chaos where coherent patterns arise spontaneously through interaction. Weaver called this “organized complexity”; I now view it as the state of codality [1], where relationships are mediated not purely by force (causality) but by shared information and meaning.
The table below (adapted from my correspondence) illustrates three hierarchical forms of organized complexity, each expressing a higher degree of codality—that is, relational connectedness across scales.
4. Conclusion: From Codality to Cosmology
Crystals are ordered, gases are disordered, but life—and perhaps the cosmos itself—exists in a third, organized complex state governed by codal rather than merely causal relations.
Just as neuronal networks mirror the cosmic web, and the Nautilus shell echoes the spiral arms of galaxies, the same principle of self-organizing codality may operate from molecules to galaxies.
The cosmos, then, is not a frozen crystal nor a chaotic gas—but an evolving, living geometry woven from energy, information, and meaning.[5]
References
Ji, S., and Davis, J.J.J. (2025). Causality vs. Codality: Information Encoded in Space-Time. Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research 16 (1): 16–25.
Weaver, W. (1948). Science and Complexity. American Scientist 36 (4): 536–544.
Ji, S. (2012). Molecular Theory of the Living Cell. Springer.
Ji, S. (2018). The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter. World Scientific.
Ji, S. (2025). The Geometry of Reality (GOR): A Triadic Framework for Matter, Mind, and Spirit.
Brown, R. and Porter, T. (1989). Category Theory: an abstract setting for analogy and comparison. http://pages.bangor.ac.uk/~mas010/Analogy-and-Comparison.pdf
Ji, S. (2018). Op. cit., Polarized Cosmological Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation. Pp.346, 359.