Ahem, as a biologist, I think this is totally right. Great post!
You might find many interesting things coming from researchers in the International Society for Artificial Life, which shares your perspective on this. The proceedings of their recent conferences can be found here: https://direct.mit.edu/isal
An interesting branch of their work is the origins of life, both biological and other, and how this could be relevant for finding instances of life off-Earth.
I assume you're familiar with What Is Life and related literature, which uses local violation of the second law of thermodynamics to define life—a project picked up by Friston by way of Helmholtz (who formulated the second law). Of note, on your definition, "life" plausibly precedes the laws of physics, which plausibly evolved from random perturbations—cf. Peirce and his tychism.
Yes, though you can find capable summaries online. It is one of those books which give credence to the notion that top physicists' rigor licenses them to invade other fields. A good companion is Crick, _Of Molecules And Men_, a series of lectures on vitalism and the nature of life addressing the themes you write about above.
Ahem, as a biologist, I think this is totally right. Great post!
You might find many interesting things coming from researchers in the International Society for Artificial Life, which shares your perspective on this. The proceedings of their recent conferences can be found here: https://direct.mit.edu/isal
An interesting branch of their work is the origins of life, both biological and other, and how this could be relevant for finding instances of life off-Earth.
Oh this is super cool. Thank you!
Hi Eigen. Glad to see you're back to the blog.
fuckin knowitall
This is awesome!
I assume you're familiar with What Is Life and related literature, which uses local violation of the second law of thermodynamics to define life—a project picked up by Friston by way of Helmholtz (who formulated the second law). Of note, on your definition, "life" plausibly precedes the laws of physics, which plausibly evolved from random perturbations—cf. Peirce and his tychism.
that is . . . a _generous_ assumption :) is it worth picking up?
Yes, though you can find capable summaries online. It is one of those books which give credence to the notion that top physicists' rigor licenses them to invade other fields. A good companion is Crick, _Of Molecules And Men_, a series of lectures on vitalism and the nature of life addressing the themes you write about above.