Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The term “semiosis” is defined as any physicochemical processes that are mediated
by
signs
such as
communication
,
computation,
and DNA-directed
construction
. This
triad of processes was referred to as
the C-triad
in (Ji and Ciobanu 2003).
One consequence of combining Statements 6.31 and 6.32 is the corollary that the
cell provides the physical basis and mechanisms for both living processes and
semiosis.
A theoretical model of the cell, capable of achieving both these functions,
was first proposed in 1983 in an international conference on the Living State held in
One of the basic principles underlying the Bhopalator is that of
information-energy
complementarity
as manifested in two ways - as
conformons
(conformational strains
of biopolymers harboring mechanical energy in sequence-specific sites; see Chap.
8
)
and as
IDSs
(intracellular dissipative structures such as cytosolic calcium ion
gradient; see Chap.
9
).
6.2.10 The Origin of Information Suggested
by Peircean Metaphysics
In this section, the general problem of the origin of information (including biological
and nonbiological) is discussed based on Peirce's metaphysics (Sect.
6.2.2
). As is
evident in the following quotations, Peirce made a clear distinction between
possi-
bility
, Firstness, and actuality, Secondness (see Table
6.7
):
Possibility implies a relation to what exists. (Hartshorne and Weiss 1931-1935, paragraph
#531)
...
a possibility remains possible when it is not actual (Hartshorne and Weiss 1932,
paragraph #42)
...
possibility evolves the actuality (Hartshorne and Weiss 1932, paragraph #453)
In order to represent to our minds the relation between the universe of possibilities and the
universe of actual existent facts, if we are going to think of the latter as a surface, we must
think of the former as three-dimensional space in which any surface would represent all the
facts that might exist in one existential universe. (Hartshorne and Weiss 1933, paragraph
#514)
Feibleman (1946) summarized the essence of Peirce's' distinction between
possibility
and
actuality
as follows:
Not all
possibles
can exist:
actualit
y is a selection of them.
When I read this statement, especially the term “selection,” it occurred to me that
Peirce's metaphysics might provide a philosophical foundation for the
origin of
information
in this Universe, since information can be broadly defined as resulting
from the
selection
of a set of objects, events, or entities from a larger set of them.
The formalism is very simple. Let us designate the number of all possibilities (or
possibles
of Peirce) out of which this Universe originated as
p
, and the number of
actual existents (which may be called “actuals”) as
a.
Then the primordial
