Re: the machine/organism duality and practical considerartions

Alexei Sharov (sharov@VT.EDU)
Mon, 21 Jun 1999 08:53:51 -0400


Mario,

Epistemology is imprtant in the study of life because life is
creative, it always crosses the boundary of what it "knows".
Each new species is an invention of a new way of self-reproduction.

I agree that it is possible to view the whole biosphere as a
self-reproducing system. But I would argue that it is also
possible to define self-reproduction at lower levels of the
hierarchy. Self-reproduction is always CONDITIONAL, i.e.,
it occurs if certain conditions are met. But these conditions
are never eternal, they change via cosmological and
biological evolution. But in a limited lime-scale, there is
self-reproduction at various levels: molecules, cells, organisms,
and species; not just at the biosphere level, as you claim.

-Alexei
-------------------------------------------------
Alexei Sharov Research Scientist
Dept. of Entomology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061
Tel. (540) 231-7316; FAX (540) 231-9131; e-mail sharov@vt.edu
Home page: http://www.gypsymoth.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/alexei.html