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Given the archive difficulties with attached files, systematically
scrubbed by the server, I am posting Bill's text as a regular
message (today I finally could do that!).<br>
It is an angle pretty different from the mechanism/non mechanism
one... Regards --Pedro<br>
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<p><b><font size="4">Information in a cellular framework – abstract
for discussion<br>
William B. Miller, Jr.</font></b><br>
</p>
<p>A long-standing presumption among many physicists and
mathematicians is<br>
that biology is a descriptive endeavor and any deep understanding
of the<br>
living frame must issue from their more rigorous disciplines.
Nonetheless,<br>
neither physics nor mathematics has explained the non-equilibrium
living<br>
state in which intelligent self-referential cells deploy
problem-solving<br>
competencies to sustain themselves across living scales.
Consequently, some<br>
scientists argue that the reverse may be correct: biology might
productively<br>
inform physics and mathematics, offering insights into how natural
laws<br>
might extend beyond known physical and mathematical principles.<br>
In the same spirit, examining the specific attributes of
biological<br>
information processing and living information management as
specifically<br>
exemplified by cells might provide a productive further thrust to
the<br>
fundamental action-logic of those theoretical information systems
formulated<br>
by visionary information theorists.</p>
<p>To stimulate that initiative, it is proposed that information
theorists might<br>
direct their attention to the specific informational
characteristics of intelligent,<br>
measuring cells, which represent the basal strata of our living
planetary<br>
system.<br>
</p>
<p>Several specific attributes of biological information have been<br>
empirically verified at the cellular level, thereby defining the
informational<br>
conditions of our living system:</p>
<p>--All cells are cognitive, problem-solving agents.</p>
<p>--Their living context is the ambiguity of information.</p>
<p>--The uncertain validity of environmental stimuli governs the
cellular<br>
reception, analysis, and deployment of all cellular resources.</p>
<p>--Imperfect information requires cells to internally measure
their<br>
received information.</p>
<p>--Accordingly, all cellular information is a product of
infoautopoiesis,<br>
entailing that all the information that any cell has about its
external<br>
environment is exclusive, self-referential, and self-produced.</p>
<p>--Cellular infoautopiesis drives an obligatory and little
appreciated<br>
derivative: each cell, and then we as cellular beings, create our<br>
exclusive self-referential representations of reality and act upon
that<br>
self-generated purview.</p>
<p>--Obliged informational uncertainties stimulate the collective
cellular<br>
analysis of self-generated cellular information, driving
ubiquitous<br>
planetary multicellularity as a cellular expression of the
familiar<br>
'wisdom of crowds'.</p>
<p>--Cellular information processing directs toward narrowing
distinctions<br>
on the adjacents to diminish their obligatory uncertainty gap,
yielding<br>
the effective minimization of surprisal in conformity with the
Free<br>
Energy Principle.</p>
<p>--Every cell does work to sustain its self-directed state of
homeorhetic<br>
preferential flux.</p>
<p>--Narrowing the distinctions on the adjacents as the effective<br>
minimization of surprisal enables cellular predictions and<br>
anticipations.</p>
<p>--Self-referential cellular states of homeorhetic preference
drive<br>
multicellular eukaryotic macroorganic behaviors and emotions.<br>
</p>
<p><b>SOME BASIC QUESTIONS (for the discussion)</b></p>
<p>Information in the living frame has been commonly defined
according to<br>
Bateson’s familiar definition as a 'difference that makes a
difference over<br>
time.' How might that definition explain internal self reference
that governs<br>
our lives, enabling living information management? Might other
definitions<br>
serve better?<br>
</p>
<p>How can previously formulated information theories illuminate the
cellular<br>
living process within its obligatory context of informational
ambiguity?<br>
How do current information theories explain the presence of
inference,<br>
prediction, and anticipation.<br>
</p>
<p>Why do these informational cues, which must first manifest at the
level of<br>
cells as exclusive states of self-referential homeorhetic
preference, exert in<br>
multicellularity as nuanced multicellular behaviors and emotions?<br>
Recent research confirms the remarkable competencies of diverse<br>
intelligences across living scales. How might applying information
systems<br>
theory contribute to our debate about any categorical distinctions
between the<br>
living frame and the abiotic realm? If a fluid continuum is
asserted, how<br>
might that be rationalized?<br>
</p>
<p>Is our understanding of biological systems improved by asserting
an<br>
immaterial Platonic informational platform permitting cells to
interrogate a<br>
constrained portion of universal informational space-time (? phase
space<br>
partition) as part of a universal informational fabric?<br>
</p>
<p>Given the extraordinary competencies of current AI systems and
projected<br>
future abilities, how might information theory inform constructive
responses<br>
to inevitable social, economic, and cultural pressures?</p>
What should govern our ethical responses to the still-developing
organic constructs<br>
which will include synthetic combinations of digital competencies
and living cells?<br>
If 'consciousness' is determined to be a litmus of our ethical
stance toward<br>
other living entities, what practical informational threshold
exists, if any?<br>
<p>------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
</p>
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