If I might add: The important point about Robert Rosen's work is that his emphasis is not on structures at all. Instead, he develops his ideas based on the relationships between biological components. Hence, the term "relational biology". Moreover, he begins to show (in his book "Life Itself") how biological systems can be modeled with the use of Category Theory (it's all about the arrows/morphisms).
Peter On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Max OrHai <[email protected]> wrote: > I've encountered this "wet a-life" research program before. There's a > biologist at my school who's doing similar stuff... see > http://web.pdx.edu/~niles/Lehman_Lab_at_PSU/Research.html > > I think your analogy is quite understated, Subbu. There are an awful lot > more than 2^(2^10) permutations of elements involved, for starters. (Have > you heard of Tom Ray's "Tierra" project?) But, if I read you right, I > totally agree that Cronin is being unwarrantedly optimistic. There's more to > life than just evolution; metabolism and homeostasis come to mind. In a way, > biology is in a similar situation to computer science in that we have a big > collection of facts, a handful of vague heuristics, and relatively weak real > theoretical grounding. > > I would encourage those with an interest in this stuff to read Robert > Rosen, and also perhaps Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. While > somewhat heterodox, they're the best I've found in the subject of > theoretical biology so far. Any others? > > -- Max > > 2011/9/20 K. K. Subramaniam <[email protected]> > > On Tuesday 20 Sep 2011 9:25:11 AM Shawn Morel wrote: >> > only slightly off topic. The questions posed seem really applicable when >> > pointed at boot-strapping truly complex software: >> > http://www.ted.com/talks/lee_cronin_making_matter_come_alive.html >> The software equivalent of this experiment would be create random >> mutations of >> a 1MB array to see if it becomes a useful program ;-). >> >> Subbu >> >> _______________________________________________ >> fonc mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc >> > > > _______________________________________________ > fonc mailing list > [email protected] > http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc > >
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