Foundational Papers in Complexity Science pp. 1423–1428
DOI: 10.37911/9781947864542.48
A Factory that Makes Itself
Author: Randall D. Beer, Indiana University
Excerpt
What is life, and how can we distinguish a living system from the many complex but nonliving ones that we encounter? While these may seem like purely philosophical questions, they have significant practical consequences in understanding the origins of life on Earth, in the search for extraterrestrial life, and in attempts to synthesize living systems in the laboratory. Indeed, how we answer these questions defines the very subject matter of the biological sciences.
Proposed scientific answers usually fall into one of two broad classes: the components answer and the characteristics answer. The components answer takes the form of a list of the material ingredients of living systems. On this view, living systems are nothing more than the totality of these molecular components and the specific reactions they undergo. In contrast, the characteristics answer takes the form of a list of phenomena typically associated with life, including the utilization and storage of energy (metabolism), maintenance of a stable internal environment (homeostasis), active response to external stimuli (irritability), growth, self-replication, and evolution.
Bibliography
Agmon, E., A. J. Gates, V. Churavy, and R. D. Beer. 2016. “Exploring the Space of Viable Configurations in a Model of Metabolism–Boundary Co-Construction.” Artificial Life 22 (2): 153–171. https://doi.org/10.1162/ARTL_a_00196.
Beer, R. D. 2015. “Characterizing Autopoiesis in the Game of Life.” Artificial Life 21 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1162/ARTL_a_00143.
Bourgine, P., and J. Stewart. 2004. “Autopoiesis and Cognition.” Artificial Life 10 (3): 327–345. https://doi.org/10.1162/1064546041255557.
Egbert, M. D., and E. Di Paolo. 2009. “Integrating Autopoiesis and Behavior: An Exploration in Computational Chemo-Ethology.” Adaptive Behavior 17 (5): 387–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712309343821.
Luisi, P. 2003. “Autopoiesis: A Review and a Reappraisal.” Naturwissenschaften 90:49–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0389-9.
Maturana, H. R. 1970. “Neurophysiology of Cognition.” In Cognition: A Multiple View, edited by P. L. Garvin, 3–23. New York, NY: Spartan Books.
Maturana, H. R., and F. J. Varela. 1980. Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4.
McMullin, B. 2004. “Thirty Years of Computational Autopoiesis: A Review.” Artificial Life 10 (3): 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1162/1064546041255548.
Ono, N., and T. Ikegami. 2000. “Self-Maintenance and Self-Reproduction in an Abstract Cell Model.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 206 (2): 243–253. https://doi.org/10.1006/jtbi.2000.2121.
Varela, F. J. 1979. Principles of Biological Autonomy. New York, NY: North-Holland.
Varela, F. J., E. Thompson, and E. Rosch. 1991. The Embodied Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.