Re: Function, unfractionable as first principle

[Dan Fiscus <***>]

Tim Gwinn wrote:

> > Other places in the article Rashevsky (as for Rosen) considers cells and
> > organisms as the basic unit of life, but quotes such as this, and Rosen's
> > M-R models combined with the principle of unfractionability, suggest to me
> > that prior to the specialization into separately indentifiable
> > functions of
> > autotrophy and heterotrophy these functions were inseparable and unified.
>
>
> [TG]
> If these functions existed already, then what does "specialization" mean
> here? Does it mean separation of these functions into separate spatial
> structures?

Tim,

Again it is hard to avoid terms/ideas like separation, distinction, etc.
when
talking about specialization of function, but I would still try to avoid
these.
So if the functions remain inseparable/unseparated, unfractionable, still
integral and unified in some kind of "function space" this is the main
issue,
even if there may be some appearance or actual separation in space-time
space.

With the ecosystemic life approach, there are two major transitions to deal
with. First is the emergence of ecosystemic life in which the
autotrophic-with-heterotrophic life function differentiates from abiotic
processes/dynamics/relations (differentiation with continued integral unity,
as in mutual causality of abiotic and biotic processes/dynamics/relations).
Second is the emergence of cellular/organismic life in which processes like
HT Odum calls "encapsulation and miniaturization" would have led to a
structural/functional concentration of life function into sub-ecosystemic
components as cells/organisms (using Rosen's definition of component,
"a unit of organization. A part with a function, i.e., a definite relation
between part and whole." Life Itself). Cells/organisms seem to be complex
wholes in and of themselves, but in the ecosystemic life view they are this
while also being complex parts/components unfractionable from the whole
that is life itself.

Your question though is a good one and hints at the impredicative kernel
in any study of these early steps. Here are two other mentions of the same
problem, like when is specialization not specialization, when is separation
not separation, where are neat lines between life and environment, etc.

Rosen from (p. 388) "On a logical paradox implicit in the notion of a
self-reproducing automaton" Bull. of Math. Biophys., Vol.21, 1959,
p. 387-394:

"According to the definition of self-reproducing automaton given above,
the range of the automaton cannot be stipulated until the automaton
itself is given, since the automaton is a member of its own range. Thus,
neither the mapping *f* [ital.] nor its range can be specified *until the
other is given*. In other words, the concept of self-reproducing automaton
requires the concurrent existence of two pieces of information, each of
which is logically anterior to the other."

Harold Morowitz et al., from (p. 7704) "The origin of intermediary
metabolism", PNAS vol. 97, no. 14, July 5, 2000, p. 7704-7708:

"The chart of metabolic pathways (1) is an expression of the universality
of intermediary metabolism. The reaction networks of all extant species
of organisms map onto a single chart, the great unity within diversity of
the living world."

and later on the same page...

"All of the possibilities suggest that the metabolic chart or parts thereof
can be traced to the earliest organisms and contain information about
the chemistry of biogenesis and the prebiotic planet some 4 billion years
ago. This period is the preenzymatic domain. A paradox to be faced is
that, at present, enzymes are required to define or generate the reaction
network, and the network is required to synthesize the enzymes and their
component monomers."

The reaction network they study is that for the reductive citric acid
cycle, but they also mention the oxidative citric acid cycle.

Another possible way to look for the complex differentiation of functions
is to consider how chemical oxidation/reduction reactions are even more
tighly coupled and unfractionable than living autotrophic/heterotrophic
functions, and to look at the wiggle room or variation in tightness of
spatial/temporal/function interdependence in abiotic reactions or such
early life chemical reactions as the citric acid oxidation and reduction
reactions.

Dan