Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
without the involvement of a cause external to the system itself.
The system becomes qualitatively and irreversibly different from
what it was before. There is thus a discontinuous jump from one
level of organisation to another and the rules of a higher level are
irreducible to the rules of the lower level (inexplicable using the
rules of the lower level).
Simulations of the Darwinian model do not confirm this emer-
gentist assertion, quite the reverse (Kupiec, 2005). Interpreting the
spontaneous cessation of cell multiplication in our simulations as an
emergent property of this nature is totally mistaken.
Figure 27 shows the results of five simulations. All these cell
populations were produced by the same model that produced the
F
IGURE
27. Organisation gradient.
Quantitative variation in the parameters of the
model causes the gradual appearance of the bilayer of cells, yet the model always
remains the same qualitatively. There is no discontinuity or irreversibility in setting
up this 'organisation gradient'.
