Dear Professor Carlo Rovelli:
I am going to refer myself to the last part of your essay.The main finality of a living system is to survive, in the case of the Galapagos cormoran its "selected structure" which "original finality" was to be a "flying bird" is not flying, environment (as you said, making use of the information they have about the exterior world) more than enough food around the island, and the absence of predators, result in the opposite of what you said "finality define the structure" he cease to be a flying bird because his wings become a third of the necessary size to be able to fly. Every living thing strong tendency is to survive and "they would make almost "every and I mean everything of the necessary changes of their structure to adapt to its new finality", if given the necessary time for all necessary changes to adapt, ( 30 Kg. horses with five fingers in swamp fields, become three or four hundred Kg with one finger on hard floor. Etc.) if environment change to fast the specie and its finality structure would not adapt and would cease to exist (selection). How they change?. How they would adapt? When extremely slow ( comparing with their life length) environment changes, "secure", long endurance changes, allowing an also slow chromosomes modification that would rule the bird reproduction with a paulatine body changes (structure) like diminishing wing size through 2 million years when specialists say those cormorans came from the American continent flying.
Reality, is not, that because we have big brains (comparing with other animals) we can relate and analyze more data coming from sensors, but the opposite "Because we had many data coming from sensors to be analyze by our brains they become biger".
When you are referring to DNA etc. saying "it is by dealing with information that these systems effectively persist" you are being drag by the same wrong approach. The real thing is that "by dealing with information is that these systems change and adapt continuously to this information to be able to persist"(DNA code, immune systems etc. etc.)
"The world is not just a blind wind of atoms, or generally covariant quantum fields " I agree with that.
But when you said "formed by the correlations among the structures formed by the elementary objects". "Correlations" means relations between the structures, I suppose this means informations that comes and goes between them. And when we say "comes" and "goes" what ever is what do that, I suppose that this action imply "motion".
When I read your book What's time? What's space? I find out, that you was very interested since you was a young boy to know what is time specially more than space. That your interest motivate you to study physics, this didn't clarified the definition and specially the empiric meaning of time, so you went to Pittsburg and study philosophy you new knowledge did not answer your question either, so after many years of trying with no results and taking into account the failure to do it, since at least 25 hundred years by Heraclites, Plato, Aristotle, Newton, Einstein, after those grate minds didn't find it, you as physicist Barbour felted back up to decide that "time" did not exist. I recognize it was a logical conclusion, I understand he made his theory to do physics without "time" and that you are trying to do yours.
I realize that you and Julian Babour who are recognized physicists all over the world, both of you when decided that "time" didn't exist, because nobody reach its definition and empiric meaning, simultaneously implied the not existence of "motion" or "movement" as you like, which has a clear definition and empiric meaning.
So I ask myself why? couldn't be, that because time empiric meaning is not know, you don't know what you are leaving out? So there was no change at all.
Since Heraclites "time" was related with "motion" that's why now days people talk of the "flow of time" "the arrow of time", "time direction" " back to the past, forward to the future" which nobody ever proved, but all those sayings implied "motion". Nobody imagine himself measuring time, if absolutely nothing moves.
So to know what happen leaving "time" out, you felt force to leave "motion" out, to make a difference. None of you ever ask yourselves?. Couldn't be that when you think, you are measuring "time", you are not conscious that instead (or in fact) you are measuring "motion" ?. even in Einstein book "Ideas and Opinions" pg. 354,he recognize that "time" is a man creation, he called them pre-scientific concepts. In fact is a remnant word from which mankind forgot its meaning, probably refering to a system to measure "motion".
I think nobody can't ignore "motion" I think also that is the first physical thing that us and all animals know of its existence. Nobody that insist in its no existence, cross a high-way blind folded, a galaxy and a subatomic particle move. I think that every physically existent thing moves. I think that because you didn't find the door you are trying to open one through the wall by force, like you did about the living sytems,. Just because we are in this contest I will finish this note with one of John Wheeler sayings "I would like to stand for. We can and will understand.".
My best whishes to you
Héctor