When does an (M,R) system cease to be alive?

["Tim Gwinn" <***>]

I'd been thinking recently about Rosen's (M,R) systems, and after re-reading the 1972 paper from "Foundations of Mathematical Biology" article, and his mentioning of "nonreestablishable components", it occurred to me to try a gedanken experiment. Namely:

1) Suppose that a certain living organism is a realization of an (M,R) system. 

2) Suppose we can damage or incapacitate the replication component(s) (called "Beta" in the (M,R) diagram) in this organism.

 

This would cause the functional organization to no longer be closed to efficient causation. (Because the question "why Phi?" no longer has an answer for efficient cause within the diagram. see LI 250.)

 

But I think I would consider that this organism would continue to be alive until one of the repair components that normally would have been replaced by the replication function has failed, followed by a failure of a corresponding metabolic component which can no longer be repaired. At this point, I would consider death to occur.

 

It would seem to me that although an organism incapacitated in this way would have a greatly reduced lifespan, it remains alive beyond the point of that incapacitation, and until the cessation of metabolism.

 

So, then, does "closed to efficient causation" even qualify as a necessary condition for "alive"? Or, has death actually occurred at the point of the incapacitation, and the time delay observed before the cessation of all metabolism is merely just a delay in the cessation of some of the subordinate processes?

 

Regards,

Tim