Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

Cell Language 209

“6x9” b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

Pattee’s Constraints

on Mechanisms of the

Origin of Life [89]

Satisfied by

Anderson’s Model The Princetonator

This simple power law indicates that the

stability and the probability of spon-

taneous formation of the self-replicating

systems (SRS) increases and decreases,

respectively, with increasing n. That is,

the larger the value of n, the smaller is the

probability P, and the greater would be

the stability of SRS against its accidental

destruction by thermal motions

6. von Neumann limit The von Neumann limit below which no
   SRSs can evolve may be identified with
   the exponent n in the relation,
   P = pn, because n is determined by the
   balance between two opposing
   processes, namely the spontaneous
   generation of SRSs (whose probability
   decreases with n) and the stability of
   SRSs (whose probability increases
   with n). We may refer to n as the von
   Neumann exponent for convenience.

4.10 The von Neumann Questions and the Conformon Theory

In the article entitled “The Physics of Symbols: Bridging the Epistemic

Cut”, published in Biosystems [90] honoring his life-long contributions

to the “Physics and Evolution of Symbols and Codes”, Howard Pattee

discussed the seemingly unbridgeable gap (called “epistemic cut”)

between symbolic structures and dynamic laws implicated in all self-

replicating systems, from cellular automata to living cells. Pattee

was particularly interested in answering the questions raised by J. von

Neumann [271]:

“... By axiomatizing automata in this manner one has thrown half the

problem out the window and it may be the more important half. One

Table 4.14 (Continued)

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