[Fis] Anticipatory Systems

[Pedro C. Marijuan]

Dear FIS Collegues,

In my second of the week I am responding to the recent comments.

To Loet: Of course there might be many "imperatives" around. Focusing on 
the "cellular" (versus atomic or molecular ones you mention) is due to 
several reasons: the cell contains an inner description , "coding", of 
its active components; it changes its composition of active elements 
according to the demands of the environment regarding the advancement of 
its own life course; it "senses" the environment itself before 
activating specific gene expression cascades. A watershed in signaling 
has been the fact that hundreds of substances may be felt by "simple" 
bacteria, which was unknown until last 15 years or so (the revolution of 
the "one component systems"). The cell not only evolves, it also 
"returns": all multicellular are inexorably bound to return to unicells 
for their reproduction. It is a fascinating aspect, coupled with 
epigenetic changes...  and together with many other recent discoveries, 
the need of a new evolutionary theory has become deeply felt by quite 
many researchers; besides a number of them make "informational" style 
considerations. Well, to conclude, If any molecule or atom can do 
similar "informational" things, please tell me. I will surrender to 
their "imperative".

To Jerry: Thanks for the appreciation. I cannot object the logico-formal 
path you propose, but is it feasible? I really doubt that a new way of 
thinking could emerge by logically bridging those different disciplines; 
the magnitude is more than enormous. My argument is that the most 
pressing problems in the informational arena (susceptible of being 
"bridged") refer to cell-cycle logics of signaling, and human life 
advancement and social communication strategies. Narratives are not the 
sceintific subject per se, but only in their tight relationship with the 
advancement of our own individual lives. Tales, comedies, tragedies, 
operas, novels, lullabies, media, today propaganda ... are natural units 
with different calibers that are useful for different life situations. 
In all cases the universal reference is the advancement of the life 
course. Stories provide us with a unique mirror to the inner dynamics of 
human nature. The scientific approach has not realized that our urge to 
understand the world and to imagine stories is something as much 
governed by laws as the structures of the atom or the genome (as Booker 
puts!). Similarly, couldn't we describe as "molecular narratives" the 
developmental trajectory of one of our cells after 30 or 40 divisions 
with progressive modifications due to signaling, epigenesis, 
extracellular matrix, niche, and physical force&adhesion?

To Stan: Thanks for incorporating the four Aristotelian causes below. 
But do you think they are useful or well suited for communicational 
phenomena? Rather they respond better to the single agent or designer 
arranging a piece of the inanimate world to his/her plans. See the 
traditional metaphor of the sculptor carving out the statue. But 
communication and narratives could be different.  Seemingly they respond 
better to questions such as: What? (Content) To whom? (interlocutor) 
Why? (reasons or purpose) How? (style, moods, manners) How long? 
(duration of the engagement, transitions). I think that when cells 
indulge in their molecular narratives or when we do communicate with our 
stories the causal analysis becomes different from the Aistotelian 
frame. It could be a good point to search out.

Best wishes to all
--Pedro

  El 19/10/2018 a las 15:49, Stanley N Salthe escribió:
> On the topic of information as narration:
>
> Information as Narrative (would involve serial ‘statements’)
>
> Formal cause (of narrative) ...  the presence of available channels 
> (in nature and/or culture) for informative energy flows
>
> Material cause ...  available energy gradients for required actions 
> generating the narrative
>
> Efficient cause(s) ...  serial actions having sequential cumulative 
> effects on the result of information flow in such a channel
>
> Final cause ...  anticipated subsequents as effects of the narrative
>
>  (Anticipation requires system survival over a period of time, during 
> which impingements were survived, sometimes by way of internal 
> modification -- Rosen, 1985, Anticipatory Systems)
>
> STAN
>
>
>
>
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-- 
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group

pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
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