dc.contributor.author |
Egbert, Matthew |
en |
dc.date.accessioned |
2016-09-01T21:36:27Z |
en |
dc.date.issued |
2013 |
en |
dc.identifier.citation |
Constructivist Foundations, 2013, 9 (1), pp. 109 - 111 |
en |
dc.identifier.issn |
1782-348X |
en |
dc.identifier.uri |
http://hdl.handle.net/2292/30187 |
en |
dc.description.abstract |
Open peer commentary on the article “Homeostats for the 21st Century? Simulating Ashby Simulating the Brain” by Stefano Franchi. Upshot: The target article proposes that Ashby’s investigations of the homeostat and ultrastability lead to a view of living systems as heteronomous, passive “sleeping” machines and thus are in fundamental conflict with concepts of autonomy developed by Jonas, Varela and others. I disagree, arguing that (1) the maintenance of essential variables within viability limits is not a passive process for living systems and (2) the purpose of Ashby’s investigations of the homeostat was to investigate adaptivity, a subject that is related to, but clearly distinct from, autonomy. As such, I find Ashby’s work on adaptivity to be neither in opposition to nor in direct support of modern concepts of biological autonomy and suggest that a productive way forward involves the investigation of the intersection between these two fundamental properties of living systems. |
en |
dc.language |
English |
en |
dc.publisher |
University of Vienna |
en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries |
Constructivist Foundations |
en |
dc.rights |
Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. |
en |
dc.rights.uri |
https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm |
en |
dc.title |
For Biological Systems, Maintaining Essential Variables Within Viability Limits is Not Passive |
en |
dc.type |
Journal Article |
en |
pubs.issue |
1 |
en |
pubs.begin-page |
109 |
en |
pubs.volume |
9 |
en |
dc.description.version |
VoR - Version of Record |
en |
pubs.author-url |
http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/9/1/109 |
en |
pubs.end-page |
111 |
en |
pubs.publication-status |
Published |
en |
dc.rights.accessrights |
http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/RestrictedAccess |
en |
pubs.subtype |
Article |
en |
pubs.elements-id |
537919 |
en |
pubs.org-id |
Science |
en |
pubs.org-id |
School of Computer Science |
en |
pubs.record-created-at-source-date |
2016-08-04 |
en |
pubs.online-publication-date |
2013 |
en |