On 03/15/2013 09:33 AM, Steve Smith wrote: > Glen wrote: >> How can someone ever say they understand their self if they don't really, >> practically understand the cloud surrounding their self? > > Using your own reference, that sounds like asking if C. Elegans can > understand > itself. I suppose one can say that this IS what life is, the perpetual search > for "self" through perception of the environment. "We" are whatever is left > after we percieve and discount everything else?
That is, indeed, what Robert Rosen said: the distinction between living and non-living is a) a closure of agency (efficient cause) and b) the ability to anticipate and plan for the future (final cause). I suppose it's also what Stuart Kauffman is saying first with autocatalysis then with his recent talk about final cause. You may as well lump Maturana and Varela, as well as Walter Fontana in there, too. "Knowing", in some sense of the term, one's self is core to all of those constructs. -- glen =><= Hail Eris! ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
