Computation by Biological Systems
نویسنده
چکیده
What are biological systems and how do they work? Does there exist a physical explanation that captures both their complexity and their simplicity? Biological systems are, after all, just another type of physical system. It has the distinction that it is “alive” whatever this means. Otherwise, biological systems consume mass and energy like any other endothermic process requiring these to operate. This paper introduces a very fundamental theory of computation. So fundamental in fact that it is both simple and easy to overlook. It is based on the computational interpretation of two basic questions. The first is “What does it means for a system to subjective distinguish its environment?” This defines the “tokens” of computations. The second is “What does causality mean?” The answers and the implications of these questions lead a computational definition for what a “process” is at a very basic level. This applies to any process inclusive of biological ones. The theory is demonstrated through a brief description of how to reverse-engineer the cortical neuron. The simplicity and elegance of this model leads to the observation that the neuron provides perhaps the best possible biological exemplar of the computational theory. The synergistic and hierarchical nature of biological processes in living systems is what principally differentiates living from non-living systems. The extensive or additive nature of energy is posited as providing a possible coherent binding mechanism between and across such hierarchies. This is exemplified through the positing of a conjoint computational-morphological Hamiltonian that is explicative in how conjoint adaptation can occur across synergistically across multiple biological “domains”.
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تاریخ انتشار 2015