Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 8:25
PM
Subject: [ROSEN] When does an (M,R)
system cease to be alive?
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of the repair components that normally would have been replaced by the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
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
May I
suggest to open up and reconsider the aspects of the wholeness
(complexity) and its intereffective influences?
considering
that the "existence" is a process, nothing repeats itself unchanged - the
environment is changing.
So the
"repair" tools are reformulated in their new appearance which change is
sufficient reason for death.
John
M