Re: [Fis] "The fiction of function".

Re: [Fis] "The fiction of function".

From: Pedro Marijuan <[email protected]>
Date: Fri 07 Oct 2005 - 14:49:30 CEST

Dear FIS colleagues,

The open-ended nature of biomolecular "function" (the fictive aspect, I
agree with Igor, would be to equate it with the crisp logical formulation
we make in artificial mechanical and electronic systems, where the logical
"soft" is separable from the "hard") is but a leverage tool for efficient
action in the real world.

I think it connects with the life-cycle as the fundamental reference of
information ---both at cellular and human life scales. "Meaning" appears
then, cellularly, as the brute changes induced by the incoming
environmental signal within the different proteomic, transcriptomic and
metabolomic networks (in the massive interconnection of open ended
processes). "Relevance" can be taken as the subsequent crossing or not of
crucial thresholds instantiated in the structure of cell-cycle checkpoints
---the borders in the classical phases G1, S, G2, M. And finally, "value"
would be but a relative difference around some cardinality, so has to be
equated with biological "fitness", that we can only gauge as difference in
reproductive rates (or biomass maintenance) between strains, individuals,
etc. Karl's leitmotif of multidimensional partitions collapsing into a
"system M" cardinal metrics could be a metaphorical referent.

Adaptability between the internal molecular info moving the "cogs" of the
above cellular engine, and the info inherent in the occurrences of the
environment becomes the most intriguing theoretical outcome. Different
information-theoretical approaches may be invoked here, from Conrad's, to
Rossen's and to other forms of entropy.

best

Pedro

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Received on Fri Oct 7 14:48:22 2005


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