Time Management by Living Systems: Time Modularity, Rhythms and Conics Running Calendars. Methodology, Theory and Applications

No system can be defined as an independent closed space but as an independent, autonomous closed ‘time’. Its time modularity is evidenced by rhythms at different scales. Endogenous rhythms are built as a result of past interactive responses (time delays, entrainments and breakages) between its endophysiotope of functioning (ENDO) and its ecoexotope of survival (EXO). Modelling has to take into account the concepts of temporal window, ‘Before the time has come, it's too soon. Once the time has passed, it's too late.’; time latency and time shifting, ‘It is necessary to give some time to the time.’; compartmentation of the time, ‘There is a time for each event. And each event is located into its time place.’; nonlinearity and non‐summation, ‘The temporal Whole is both more and less than the sum of its Parts.’; and interactions between time and space, ‘The time arrow structures the space functionalities of living systems. But, the systems compartments structure back the arrow of their time.’ Time knowledge requires skills and tools to be designed by the system so as to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks to survive. It appears that timelines are designed as ellipses projected on a plan or a Moebius strip and labelled alongside with dates and events on points where they absolutely have to happen. The emergence of a new blueprint runs through the juxtaposition and embedment of previous systems. The new time of the whole emerges through the simultaneous metamorphoses of the parts into their whole. Each subsystem maintains its space–time identity into the whole with which it is a partner, a Parcener.The partial autonomy of each partner is allowed through the maintenance of individual or collective spatial and temporal boundaries. These interfaces structure the spatiotemporal integration of the parts into the ENDO of their whole and of the whole into its EXO of survival. The transition from one level of organization to a superior one results from the building of a new spatiotemporal network. In this new orderly spaced‐timed system, many braces are allowed, but each partner owns a special place, both through the time and into the space. The whole emerges with the building of an Association for the Reciprocal and Mutual Sharing of Advantages and DisAdvantages (http://armsada.eu). That allows—in a no‐change EXO—the maintenance of both a requisite variety of partners and the unity of the whole. If the ENDO or EXO ever changes, that is the only way to set a new networking mode of organization and integration. These associations emerge through the interactive fitness between ‘the capacity to welcome’ of the EXO and ‘the capacity to be welcome’ of the ENDO of each parcener. Failures of medical treatments and pathological processes can be explained in terms of breakages of time architectures. Inside a system, time can stop, move with different speeds and jump from one step to another but will never turn back. When a step is in the past, a complete new cycle is needed to reach it again. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.