Pain might be the latest key to understanding how the autonomy of organisms works and how we are motivated to do things. In this post, I explain why a nasty nip led to deep thinking on consciousness, biological control systems and lobsters.
Apr 25 2022
Biology is no threat to Physics
Apr 25 2022.
In this post, I highlight the way thinking about physical reality from an 'information perspective' gives us a bridge between biology and physics. Why, you might ask, and the answer is that many physicists who are willing to think deeply about life (as a phenomenon) find it very puzzling indeed because it seems to defy some very basic principles. I might be wrong, but I currently believe that the information perspective allows us to see what is the essential difference between a living system and one that is not. The answer lies in the accumulation of information, its protection from being either affected by or affecting (as formal cause) physical forces ... that is, until it is required. The explanation I build up in Farnsworth (2022) "How an information perspective helps overcome the challenge of biology to physics" (Biosystems 104683) manages to make downward causation, irreducible hierarchies, circular causation and autopoiesis all compatible with normal physics - there is no need for a special 'life' law.
Nov 23 2021
Is free will a proper subject for science?
Nov 23 2021.
Keith Farnsworth contemplates whether the question - do we have free will? (and even whether such a thing can exist) is answerable by science. The conclusion, of course, is yes - as long as we are willing to give up our subjective prejudices.
Jul 12 2021
A factory in every cell
Jul 12 2021.
Jannie Hofmeyr's Biochemically-realisable relational model of the self-manufacturing cell
This is a commentary on Hofmeyr's groundbreaking paper in which he applies the idea of Rosen's (M,R)-system to a real cellular network of biochemical organisation. That is something that has never been done before. In the post, I explain the main aspects of his paper and some of the implications. It is also described on the main website at www.whatlifeis.info
Mar 29 2021
Welcome to the IFB Blog!
Mar 29 2021.
The intention is to provide a more inclusive area of IFB for those interested in the topic of understanding living systems through information theory and related matters such as systems biology, code biology, (M,R)-Systems and autopoietic systems and their implications for understanding autonomy and […]
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