I'm a big fan of Rosen's, and I think he was on to some important stuff, but his book is not exactly a model of clarity in mathematical exposition. It's readable enough, but the strokes are pretty broad. He also comes across as somewhat jaded; I don't think his work was very well received for most of his career. The serious student should have a look at A. H. Louie's "More than Life Itself", which is essentially about the same material, but considerably more rigorous.
-- Max On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 5:29 AM, Peter C. Marks <peter.c.ma...@gmail.com>wrote: > If I might add: The important point about Robert Rosen's work is that his > emphasis is not on structures at all. Instead, he develops his ideas based > on the relationships between biological components. Hence, the term > "relational biology". Moreover, he begins to show (in his book "Life > Itself") how biological systems can be modeled with the use of Category > Theory (it's all about the arrows/morphisms). > > Peter > > > On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Max OrHai <max.or...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I've encountered this "wet a-life" research program before. There's a >> biologist at my school who's doing similar stuff... see >> http://web.pdx.edu/~niles/Lehman_Lab_at_PSU/Research.html >> >> I think your analogy is quite understated, Subbu. There are an awful lot >> more than 2^(2^10) permutations of elements involved, for starters. (Have >> you heard of Tom Ray's "Tierra" project?) But, if I read you right, I >> totally agree that Cronin is being unwarrantedly optimistic. There's more to >> life than just evolution; metabolism and homeostasis come to mind. In a way, >> biology is in a similar situation to computer science in that we have a big >> collection of facts, a handful of vague heuristics, and relatively weak real >> theoretical grounding. >> >> I would encourage those with an interest in this stuff to read Robert >> Rosen, and also perhaps Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. While >> somewhat heterodox, they're the best I've found in the subject of >> theoretical biology so far. Any others? >> >> -- Max >> >> 2011/9/20 K. K. Subramaniam <kksubbu...@gmail.com> >> >> On Tuesday 20 Sep 2011 9:25:11 AM Shawn Morel wrote: >>> > only slightly off topic. The questions posed seem really applicable >>> when >>> > pointed at boot-strapping truly complex software: >>> > http://www.ted.com/talks/lee_cronin_making_matter_come_alive.html >>> The software equivalent of this experiment would be create random >>> mutations of >>> a 1MB array to see if it becomes a useful program ;-). >>> >>> Subbu >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> fonc mailing list >>> fonc@vpri.org >>> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> fonc mailing list >> fonc@vpri.org >> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > fonc mailing list > fonc@vpri.org > http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc > >
_______________________________________________ fonc mailing list fonc@vpri.org http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
