Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
In Fig.
5.11
, complementarism is suggested to be a network of three
nodes - Gnergy, Mattergy, and Liformation - and three edges - Complementarity
(1), Uncertainty (2), and Measurement (3). BPB stands for the Bernstein-Polanyi
specifies the system-dependency entailed by Statement (5.55). Just as “mattergy”
embodies the intimate relation between
energy
and
matter
through Einstein's special
relativity theory (Shadowitz 1968), so “liformation” embodies the inseparable rela-
tion postulated to exist between
life
and
information
in the gnergy theory of biology
(Ji 1991, 2004b). Thus, as first suggested in (Ji 2004b), it may be concluded that:
Just as matter is regarded as a highly condensed form of energy, so life can be viewed as a
highly condensed form of information. (5.56)
Statement 5.56 may be referred to as the
information-life identity principle
(ILIP)
just as
E
mc
2
can be referred to as the
energy-matter identity principle
(EMIP).
¼
5.3 Cybernetics
The term “cybernetics” comes from the Greek
or kybern¯t¯s, meaning
“steersman,” “governor,” “pilot,” or “rudder.” Plato used the term to refer to
government, but the term became widely used in modern times after Nobert Wiener
published his topic in 1948 entitled “Cybernetics, or control and communication in
the animal and machine” (Wiener 1948). As the subtitle suggests, cybernetics is the
science of control and
communication
in machines, both artificial and biological,
that are endowed with the ability to achieve specific goals through feedback
interactions. Both control and communication implicate information. Communica-
tion is concerned with encoding, transmitting, and decoding information, while
control
utilizes
information. Hence, cybernetics can be considered to subsume
К
ubernZ t
5.3.1 Control Theory
Control theory is the science of controlling dynamical systems to achieve desired
outcomes. It originated in engineering and mathematics but is now used in biology
and social sciences. The concepts and principles developed in the control theory of
artificial machines have been found useful in describing the behaviors of living
systems and their components such as enzymes, metabolic pathways, and living
cells themselves. Some of these concepts and terms are illustrated in Fig.
5.12
. The
desired output of a machine is referred to as
reference
. When one or more output
variables of a machine must follow a certain reference, the
controller
of the machine
manipulates the inputs to the system to obtain the desired output. A part of the output
is directed to the
sensor
of the machine which feeds it back to the
controller
to adjust
