[Fis] Autopoiesis, Autocatalysis and the Brain

[Paul Suni]

Dear Professor,

As you tried to put me in my place and teach me a lesson in the quintessentially academic tradition, let me take my turn to educate you in your scientific field of experitse, self-organized criticality in brain functioning:

What I claimed is scientifically plausible, but this plausibility is not only supported by scientific fact, but science says that you are full of it for the following reasons:

Namely, both autocatalytic systems as well as ecological systems, whiich are based on isomorphic mathematics, exhibit self-organized criticality.

Thia means, I am happy to say, that the notion of self-criticality in the brain is precisely operationalized by my mathematics of autocatalysis and ecology.

Furthermore, shoving high negentropy in the brain in my face as a an attempt to refute my mathematical speculation seems delusional, as autocatalytic- and ecological systems are exemplars par excellence of information generating systems.

Take your ivory tower science and shove it where it doesn't fit, professor!


Cheers,
Paul Suni

> On Dec 23, 2025, at 2:10 AM, Alex Hankey <alexhankey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Calling it a mess, is a sign of lack of scientific understanding. 
> Clearly, something that can have optimal regulation, based on 
> very high values of Negentropy, could not possibly be a 'mess'. 
> In my approach, the well-known property of Self-Organised 
> Criticality explains why the 'mess' is not a mess. 
> Alex 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 22 Dec 2025 at 21:39, Paul Suni <paul.p.suni at gmail.com <mailto:paul.p.suni at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Dear FIS Colleagues,
>> 
>> According to AP, the nervous system is operationally closed. Empirically, it produces an electromagnetic signal environment that is a complete mess - objectively. The RMS noise around any given neuron at any given time can be as high as 30%. Yet, this incoprehensible signaling mess produces Bach Preludes and Fugues, Michelangelo sculptures, Shakespeare sonnets, general relativity, quantum mechanics and Maturana and Varela’s “ Tree of Knowledge: the Biological Roots of Understanding” 
>> 
>> Actually, the electromagnetic and biochemical signal environment of the whole organism looks like a mess. The classical approach to this mess sweeps the noise conveniently under the many rugs of academic disciplinarities by designating it as random. I wish to point out that autocatalytic networks, which are ostensibly the basis of autopoiesis, produce ordered (but random-looking) time series, which exhibit mathematically inherently metastable behavior.
>> 
>> Network metastability has become a crucial mathematical tool in understanding the brain and the mind. The neural network of the organism is obviously operationally closed, but is it autocatalytic? It seems that, from the mathematcal stand-point,  just like autopoiesis produces order out of temporal and spatial noise, so does the brain produce order out of non-random noise of metastable origin.
>> 
>> Recently, an ecology-derived mathematical concept of winnerless competition (Rabinovitch et al), which may be familiar to you from the rock-paper-scissors game, has been used to demonstrate mathematically how the brain may produce order out of messy network relations.
>> 
>> Actually, ecology itself is an exploration of networks that are mathematically autocatalytic.This brings me to Gregory Bateson, a historically influential figure in the world of information science. He introduced the idea of “ The Ecology of Mind.” I believe that there is a lot to be learned from studying organism and mind from the mathematical autocatalytic stand-point. Autopoiesis serves as a rich abstraction for both organism and mind. Autocatalysis gives us some of the mathematics.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Paul
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> --
> Alex Hankey M.A. (Cantab.) PhD (M.I.T.) DSc. (Hon Causa) Professor Emeritus of Biology,
> MIT World Peace University, 
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