“The introduction of set theory by Georg Cantor in 1880 was one of a kind among major conceptual revolutions. While previously mathematicians had operated with numbers and points, set theory gave them the tool to deal with any objects. Since set can be not only a collection of numbers but also a collection of things, people, or ideas—and even a mix of all three—science acquired the language to talk about everything. With a hindsight, the abstract message of set theory was a promise of universal approach to the world as a whole, like in the times of Aristotle.

Tarnopolsky’s 2009 Introduction to Pattern Chemistry, digresses on the human chemistry works of Goethe (1809) and Thims (2007), giving his take on the matter, wherein he marvels on Goethe’s usage of human chemical reaction theory, albeit remaining ambivalent on the reality or metaphor issue. [4]

About the same time, thermodynamics came up with an idea of a great generality, introducing the way to measure chaos by entropy. Chaos was one of the most ancient pre-scientific concepts of humanity and it appeared quite natural to apply the idea of entropy (Rudolf Clausius, Ludwig Boltzmann) to many areas beyond traditional physics. Thermodynamics turned out to be as universal as mathematics and not just a part of theory of heat engines. For a while it had balked at the phenomenon of life, but in the twentieth century it smoothly covered the controversial area of non-equilibrium phenomena (Ilya Prigogine).

Thermodynamics is applicable to very large collections of more or less similar objects, such as molecules exchanging energy. Scientific publications, scientists, and large assemblies of people are large collections exchanging information. Economics deals with many thousands of entities exchanging value and information. All those areas have already been treated as thermodynamic systems, in spite of the defiantly individualistic human nature.”

“Practically all comments to the folk tales in my collection contained references to a book by the Russian ethnographer Vladimir Propp (1971), who systematized Russian folk tales as ‘molecules’ consisting of the same ‘atoms’ of plot arranged in different ways, and even wrote their formulas. His book was published in the 30's, when Claude Levi-Strauss, the founder of what became known as structuralism, was studying another kind of “molecules:” the structures of kinship in tribes of Brazil. Remarkably, this time a promise of a generalized and unifying vision of the world was coming from a source in humanities. What later happened to structuralism, however, is a different story, but the opportunity to build a bridge between sciences and humanities was missed. The competitive and pugnacious humanities could be a rough terrain.

I believed that chemistry carried a universal message about changes in systems that could be described in terms of elements and bonds between them. Chemistry was a particular branch of a much more general science about breaking and establishing bonds. It was not just about molecules: a small minority of hothead human ‘molecules’ drove a society toward change. A nation could be hot or cold. A child playing with Lego and a poet looking for a word to combine with others were in the company of a chemist synthesizing a drug.”

“In 1979 I heard about a mathematician who tried to list everything in the world. I easily found in a bookstore the first volume of Pattern Theory (1976) by Ulf Grenander, translated into Russian. As soon as I had opened the book, I saw that it was exactly what I was looking for and what I called ‘meta-chemistry’, i.e., something more general than chemistry, which included chemistry as an application, together with many other applications. I can never forget the physical sensation of a great intellectual power that gushed into my face from the pages of that book.

Although the mathematics in the book was well above my level, Grenander's basic idea was clear. He described the world in terms of structures built of abstract ‘atoms’ possessing bonds to be selectively linked with each other. Body movements, society, pattern of a fabric, chemical compounds, and scientific hypothesis—everything could be described in the atomistic way that had always been considered indigenous for chemistry. Grenander called his ‘atoms of everything’ generators, which tells something to those who are familiar with group theory, but for the rest of us could be a good little metaphor for generating complexity from simplicity. Generators had affinities to each other and could form bonds of various strength. Atomism is a millennia old idea. In the next striking step so much appealing to a chemist, Ulf Grenander outlined the foundation of a universal ‘physical chemistry’ able to approach not only fixed structures but also "reactions" they could undergo.”

Tarnopolsky's 2011 depiction of "pattern chemistry" or "econochemistry" as he also calls it.

“The idea that individual humans are atom-like entities and there is a kind of chemistry between social atoms and molecules is very natural, but whether it is more than a metaphor remains uncertain. Anyway, human chemistry has been on the marketplace of ideas for quite a while. For the history of the subject (see: history of human chemistry), see Libb Thims’ Human Chemistry (EoHT.info) and Human Thermodynamics (HumanThermodynamics.com).

The main reason why I abstain from referring to Libb Thims’ flamboyant venture other than as to a commendable review of literature is that he, apparently, uses the term chemistry too literally in the sense of molecular chemistry, while I am interested in pattern chemistry. I can only note that the very idea of human thermodynamics as a separate subject looks to me completely sound. Thus, the concept of metabolic cost (see Chapter 3.6) is part of it. Obviously, human interaction is a component of global economy.”

“Small minorities of hothead human ‘molecules’ can drive a society toward change and nations can be hot or cold.”

“The main reason why I abstain from referring to Libb Thims’ Human Chemistry is because uses the term chemistry too literally in the sense of molecular chemistry, while I am interested in pattern chemistry.”

“I became a dedicated chemist in my teens after I had seen a demonstration of chemical experiments, arranged at a local college for six-graders. I was hypnotized by chemical names, strange formulas, and miraculous change of color right before my eyes. Soon I was more or less familiar with the high school chemistry, very much ahead of the curriculum. Yet I was open to many other things, not necessarily bordering with chemistry. After high school I even considered psychiatry as my future career. I took up chemistry, however, and joined the Soviet academe as a professor of chemistry in Krasnoyarsk, a large city in Siberia. My bookshelves were stuffed with books on chemistry and psychiatry, but there were also physics, biology, mathematics, logic, Aristotle, Lucretius, Descartes, utopian literature. I devoured all classics of world literature.”

“It was only much later that I learned about the Jewish tradition that strongly opposed any deliberate harm to the body. At the same time, the Jews had their own martyrs, who could sometimes prevent terrible death by repenting or converting. When one believes in God, victory and defeat are unimportant.” (pg. 30)

“I had always respected physicists, viewing them as superior beings and mediators between God and us mere mortals. Gary was the first theoretical physicists I had ever met, and he did not disappoint me. In my memory, he stands as that mediator because was my first teacher of Jewish history.” (pg. 104)

“Heresy could be detected only with the yardstick of orthodoxy. Soviet orthodoxy was shaped as a quasi-religion with Marx as God and the Spirit, Lenin as God the Father, and the party as collective God the Son.” (pg. 135)

“My very first religious book in atheist Russia was the Buddhist Dhammapadha. It deeply imprinted me for life. Five years later, at the age of 25,I accidentally found the Gospel. I managed to get access to the Bible only at 40. At 45, I learned about the Judaism ofTalmud. ‘Jew’ in Soviet Russia meant not religion but ethnicity.”

“On human molecules (2016): Hmolpedia (eoht.info), an A to Z Encyclopedia of
Human Thermodynamics, Human Chemistry, and Human Physics, is a unique, rich venture.”

— Yuri Tarnopolsky (2016), Essays a la Montaigne (pg. 180)