The game of life: ten precepts and a patterned process

José Luis Díaz

Resumen


Within the notion of life as a game, the present paper proposes a decalogue of principles and mechanisms that in unison are characteristic features of living organisms. The ten principles are the following: (1) Organized body, (2) Distinctive and symmetrical structure; (3) Autonomous and energetic metabolism; (4) Excitability, sensibility, and response; (5) Modeled reproduction; (6) Homeostatic equilibrium; (7) Growth and transformation; (8) Synchronized rhythms; (9) Autonomous preservation, and (10) Patterned behavior. Each principle is briefly defined in an attempt to show its absolute relevance to the resulting phenomenon recognized as life. The principles are regarded as necessary but insufficient to explain life since there are global life properties emerging from their interaction and integration. A theory of patterned processes considered as emergent, complex, and kinetic properties of live systems is advanced. The theory is thought to provide a language appropriate to describe both the structure and the activity of every biosystem.

 

Key words: Definition of life, game theory of life, life forms, metabolism, homeostasis, homeorrhesis, reostasis, autopoiesis, excitability, behavior, patterned process.

 


Texto completo:

PDF

Referencias


Aréchiga, H. (1999), What is a Living Being? Mexico City: National Autonomous University of Mexico, Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in the Sciences and Humanities.

Aréchiga, H. (2000), Homeostasis. Mexico City: National Autonomous University of Mexico, Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in the Sciences and Humanities.

Ashby, R. W. (1964), Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Routledge Kegan & Paul.

Bateson, G. (1973). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Paladin Books.

Blanck-Cereijido, F. Cereijido, M (1997), La muerte y sus ventajas. México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Cannon, W. (1932), The Wisdom of the Body. New York: WW Norton.

Chaplin, M.F. (2001), “Water, its importance to life,” Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 29 (2): 54-59.

Crick, F. (1981), Life Itself. Its Origin and Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Díaz, J. L., (ed.) (1985), Structural Analysis of Behaviour. Mexico City: National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Díaz, J. L. (1997), “A patterned process approach to brain, consciousness, and behavior,” Philosophical Psychology 10: 179-195.

Fisher, D. C. (1994), “Stratocladistics: Morphological and temporal patterns and their relation to phylogenetic process”, in L. Grande y O. Rieppel (comps.), Interpreting the Hierarchy of Nature. New York: Academic Press.

Gilden, D. L.; T. Thornton, Mallon, M. W. (1995), “1/f noise in human cognition”, Science 267: 1837-1839.

Goodwin, B. (1994), How the Leopard Changed his Spots. The Evolution of Complexity. Nueva York: Charles Scribner's.

Grande, L.; Rieppel, O. (1994), Interpreting the Hierarchy of Nature. From Systematic Patterns to Evolutionary Process Theories. Nueva York: Academic Press.

Hamilton, T. H. (1967), Process and Pattern in Evolution. Nueva York: Macmillan.

Harrison, L. G. (1993), Kinetic Theory of Living Pattern. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Joyce, G., (2002), “The antiquity of RNA-based evolution,” Nature 418: 214-221

Lovelock, J. E. (1990), “Hands up for the Gaia hypothesis,” Nature 344: 100-102.

Mainzer, K. (1994), Thinking in Complexity. The Complex Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind. New York: Springer-Berlag.

Maturana, H.; Varela, F. (1990), El árbol del conocimiento. Madrid: Debate. (Edición chilena de 1983.)

Maynard Smith, J. (1982), Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pauling, L. (1938), The Origin of Life on Earth. A. I. Oparin (ed.). New York: MacMillan

Prigogine, I., Nicolis, G. (1977), Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations. New York: Wiley & Sons.

Rescher, N. (1996), Process Metaphysics. New York: State University of New York Press,

Schröedinger, E. (1967), What is Life? Cambridge: Cambridge University.

Troll, W. (1935), Vergleichende Morphologie der höheren Pflanzen. Berlin: Verlag von Gebrüder Borntraeger.

Varela, F. J.; Maturana, H. R.; Uribe, R. (1974), “Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model,” Biosystems 5: 187-196.

von Bertalanffy, L. (1976), General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. New York: G. Braziller.

Von Newmann, J.L. Morgenstern, O. (1947), Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Voss, R. F., Clarke, J. (1975), “ `1/f noise' in music and speech,” Nature 258: 317-318.

Waddington, C.H. (1957), The Strategy of the Genes. A Discussion of Some Aspects of Theoretical Biology. London: George Allen and Unwin.

Wiener, N. (1948), Cybernetics; or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. New York: Wiley.

Yates, F. E. (1982), “Outline of a physical theory of physiological systems,” Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 60: 217-248.


Enlaces refback

  • No hay ningún enlace refback.


Revista semestral editada por el Centro de Estudios Filosóficos, Políticos
y Sociales Vicente Lombardo Toledano de la Secretaría de Educación Pública,
la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa y Edicions UIB de la Universitat de les Illes Balears.

Lombardo Toledano 51, Col. Ex-Hda. Guadalupe Chimalistac,
Del. Alvaro Obregón, C.P. 01050, México, D.F.
Tels. (5255) 5661-4679 y 5661-4987
Fax: (5255) 5661-1787