And as you say, this is merely pushing the problem back one level. A
formalism modeling another formalism is still a formalism.
> Don't get me wrong...I'm completely fascinated by the work in the A-life
> movement. I just think there is a little bit more room to be further
> fascinated.
Exactly. I always defend ALife as an important branch of SYSTEMS
theory. They're doing great work, which will prove very vaulable. It's
just that they (generally) don't know that what they're doing is
really systems theory, and little else. In particular, it has verry
little to do with, well, life.
O----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
| Cliff Joslyn, NRC Research Associate, Cybernetician at Large, (301) 286-7816
| Code 522.3, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA
| joslyn@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov http://groucho.gsfc.nasa.gov/joslyn/joslyn.html
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .