Definition of Life
Life is a self-organizing and self-generating activity
of open non-equilibrium systems determined by their internal semiotic structure
This
definition is a modern translation of the Aristotelian definition: “Life is
a body’s feeding, growth and decline reasoned in itself”
(De Anima).
My
vision of life in the Universe is based on the principles of the quantum
measurement theory, which can be considered as a mirrored image of theoretical
biology. Life by its existence (in self-reflecting loops) establishes basic
physical parameters of the Universe. The philosophical background of this
approach is in Greek philosophy (Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle), in monadology of G.W. Leibniz and in the organism philosophy
of A.N. Whitehead. It also accepts certain features from the Russian cosmism.
Basic
principles of theoretical biology
The field of theoretical biology is a description of systems that possess their own embedded description (Igamberdiev 1999). Life always
maintains and solves these paradoxes since living organisms possess their
internal description inside them (Igamberdiev 1993, 1998). The structure of the
Universe includes a self-reflective loop to be observable (i.e. existing). This may
substantiate the structure of the Universe and the observed values of
fundamental constants (the anthropic principle)
(Igamberdiev 2001). These constants provide observability
of the Universe and the possibility of free choice at higher levels of
self-reference (Igamberdiev 2004).
The main problem of biology is explanation of actualization.
Any actualization takes place from the potential field which is reduced. The
potential field is a superposition of different opposite states existing potentially
as referred to the same moment of time. The reduction is irreversible
and leads to iterative recursive process (represented as a development and
evolution of the system).
The smallest details of living
systems are molecular devices that operate between the set of potential
dimensions (microscale) and the actual
three-dimensional space (macroscale). They
realize non-demolition quantum measurements
in which time appears as a mesoscale dimension
separating contradictory statements in the course of actualization. These
smaller devices form larger devices (macromolecular complexes), up to living
body.
The quantum device possesses its
own potential internal quantum state (IQS), which is maintained
for prolonged time via error-correction being a reflection over this state. Decoherence-free IQS can exhibit itself by a creative
generation of iteration limits in the real world. To avoid a collapse of the
quantum information in the process of correcting errors, it is possible to make
a partial measurement that extracts only the error-information and leaves the
encoded state untouched.
In natural quantum computers,
which are living systems, the error-correction is internal. It is
a result of reflection, given as a sort of a subjective process allotting
optimal limits of iteration. The IQS resembles the properties of a
quasi-particle, which interacts with the surround, applying decoherence
commands to it.
In this framework, enzymes are
molecular automata of the extremal quantum
computer, the set of which maintains stable highly ordered coherent
state, and genome represents a concatenation of error-correcting codes into a
single reflective set. Biological systems, being autopoietic
in physical space, control quantum measurements in the physical universe. The
biological evolution is really a functional evolution of measurement
constraints in which limits of iteration are established, possessing criteria
of perfection (e.g. the golden section) and having selective values.
Selected
citations from my works
Main publications:
Papers and chapters in monographs
Igamberdiev
AU (2009) Fundamentals of natural computation in living systems. In: Computational Biology: New Research (Alona
S. Russe, Ed.). Nova Publishers,
New York.
Igamberdiev
AU (2008) Objective
patterns in the evolving network of non-equivalent observers. BioSystems 92 (2): 122-131
Igamberdiev AU (2007) Physical
limits of computation and emergence of life. BioSystems
90
(2): 340-349
Igamberdiev AU (2005) The computation power of living systems is maintained by decoherence-free internal quantum states. In: Proceedings
of FIS2005, The Third Conference on the Foundations of
Information Science,
Igamberdiev AU (2004) Quantum
computation, non-demolition measurements, and reflective control in living
systems. BioSystems
77 (1-3): 47-56
Igamberdiev
AU (2003) Living systems are dynamically stable by computing themselves at the
quantum level. Entropy 5 (2): 76-87
Igamberdiev AU (2003) The mesoscale
level of self-maintained reflective systems – a dynamic link between micro and macroscales. In Micro – Meso –
Macro: Addressing Complex Systems Couplings (H Liljenström,
U Svedin, eds).
Chapter 5. World Scientific,
Igamberdiev AU (2002) Biological
evolution – a semiotically constrained growth of
complexity. Sign Systems Studies 30 (1): 271-282
Igamberdiev AU (2001) Semiokinesis – Semiotic autopoiesis
of the Universe. Semiotica 135 (1-4): 1-23
Igamberdiev AU (1999) Semiosis and reflectivity in life and consciousness.
Semiotica 123 (3-4): 231-246
Igamberdiev AU (1999) Foundations
of metabolic organization: coherence as a basis of computational properties in
metabolic networks. BioSystems 50 (1): 1-16
Igamberdiev AU (1998) Time,
reflectivity and information processing in living systems: a sketch for the
unified information paradigm in biology. BioSystems
46 (1-2): 95-101
Igamberdiev AU (1997) Information
processing as an intrinsic property in living systems.
Origin and dynamics of information. World Futures 50 (4): 571-582
Igamberdiev AU (1997) Information
processing in biosystems: quantum mechanical bakground and relation to symmetry-breaking. Symmetry: Culture and Science 8 (2): 193-205
Igamberdiev AU (1996) Life as
self-determination. In Defining Life: The Central Problem in Theoretical Biology (M Rizzotti, ed.). University
Publishers, Padova, pp. 129-148
Igamberdiev AU (1995) Logic of Organization
of Living Systems (Monograph).
Igamberdiev AU (1994) The role of metabolic transformations in generation of
biological order. Rivista di Biologia
– Biology Forum 87 (1): 19-38
Igamberdiev AU (1993) Quantum
mechanical properties of biosystems - a framework for
complexity, structural stability, and transformations.
BioSystems 31
(1): 65-73
Igamberdiev AU (1993) On logical analysis of development and time in biology. Izvestiya Rossiyskoi Akademii Nauk Seriya
Biologicheskaya [Proceedings of the
Igamberdiev A.U. (1992) Organization
of biosystems: A Semiotic approach. In Biosemiotics. A Semiotic Web 1991 (=Approaches to Semiotics 106) (T Sebeok, J Umiker-Sebeok, eds.). Moyton de
Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 125-144
Igamberdiev AU (1991) Stability and
transformation of the biosystems - physical
foundations and logical interpretation. Zhurnal Obshchei Biologii [Journal of General Biology] 52 (5): 673-690 [In Russian]
Igamberdiev AU (1991) Anthropic principle and the unity
of the humanities and the natural sciences. Alma
Mater 8: 57-68 [In Russian]
Igamberdiev A.U. (1987) The determinism principle and the problem of entity of a
biological object. In Determinism and
Modern Science (AS Kravets, ed.).
Igamberdiev AU (1986) Problems of
description of epigenetic systems. Zhurnal Obshchei Biologii
[Journal of General Biology] 47
(5): 592-600 [In Russian]
Igamberdiev AU (1985) Time in
biological systems. Zhurnal Obshchei Biologii
[Journal of General Biology] 46 (4): 471-482 [In Russian]