What's rattling?

A theoretical framework aimed at explaining order in nature, and specifically self-organization and adaptation in non-living dynamical systems. It is inspired by the quest to understand the general drivers of the origins of life: why non-living matter might spontaneously turn into living matter. It’s a new and active area of research, with some of the core questions having been resolved, and others very much open—join our effort!

Rattling $\mathcal{R}(x)$ is:

• a property of a dynamical system’s state $x$
• related to how quickly the system “leaves” the state:
  • for discrete systems, it is the log exit rate of a state
  • for continuous system, it is the entropy of local forces acting on the configuration
• easy to measure locally
• predictive of how likely you are to find the system in that state $x$ at long times
• useful far from equilibrium, as energy is useful at equilibrium
• related to how well state $x$ is “matched to” the system’s environment
• a way to explain order in nature