✦ LIBER ✦

Cybernetic Formulation of the Definition of Life

✍ Scribed by BERNARD KORZENIEWSKI

Publisher: Elsevier Science
Year: 2001
Tongue: English
Weight: 237 KB
Volume: 209
Category: Article
ISSN: 0022-5193
DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.2001.2262

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis

A de"nition of life (a living individual) in cybernetic terms is proposed. In this formulation, life (a living individual) is de"ned as a network of inferior negative feedbacks (regulatory mechanisms) subordinated to (being at service of ) a superior positive feedback (potential of expansion). It is suggested that this de"nition is the minimal de"nition, necessary and su$cient, for life to be distinguished from inanimate phenomena and, as such, it describes the essence of life. Subsequently, a quantitative expression for the amount of the biologically relevant (&&purposeful'') information (as opposed to the amount of information in the thermodynamic sense) is proposed. This is followed by the application of the formulated approach to di!erent phenomena of a dubious status existing presently on the Earth as well as to the process of origination of life on our planet.

📜 SIMILAR VOLUMES

A new definition of life

✍ James D. Carroll 📂 Article 📅 2009 🏛 John Wiley and Sons 🌐 English ⚖ 103 KB 👁 1 views

Metabolic Modeling of Saccharomyces cere

Metabolic Modeling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Using the Optimal Control of Homeostasis: A Cybernetic Model Definition

✍ Marco L.F. Giuseppin; Natal A.W. van Riel 📂 Article 📅 2000 🏛 Elsevier Science 🌐 English ⚖ 433 KB

A model is presented to describe the observed behavior of microorganisms that aim at metabolic homeostasis while growing and adapting to their environment in an optimal way. The cellular metabolism is seen as a network with a multiple controller system with both feedback and feedforward control, i.e

Expanding the definition of quality of l

Expanding the definition of quality of life for prostate cancer

✍ John W. Sharp 📂 Article 📅 1993 🏛 John Wiley and Sons 🌐 English ⚖ 574 KB

Cybernetic model of the design process

✍ J.H.A.E. Amkreutz 📂 Article 📅 1976 🏛 Elsevier Science 🌐 English ⚖ 594 KB

Computer-aided design can be seen as a process in which a careful integration of the specific characteristics of man and machine is taking place. This integration may lead to better design results, quantitatively and/or qualitatively. The realization of this integration in c.a.d, systems necessitate

The use of cybernetics on the airways

📂 Article 📅 1963 🏛 Elsevier Science 🌐 English ⚖ 24 KB

## THE USE OF CYBERNETICS ON THE RAILWAYS BRITISH R?,~LWA'rS have been invited by the International Union of Railways (U.I.C.) to take part in an international symposium on the "'use of cybernetics on the railways" in Paris next November. In extending this invitation, the secretariat of U.I.C. sai

A definition of information, the arrow o

A definition of information, the arrow of information, and its relationship to life

✍ Stirling A. Colgate; Hans Ziock 📂 Article 📅 2010 🏛 John Wiley and Sons 🌐 English ⚖ 119 KB

A new definition of information is proposed that is minimalistic and incorporates a lifetime requirement for conditions, (which we define here) applied to anything that can be considered to be information. The definition explicitly treats a state in thermodynamic equilibrium as an effectively zero i