Скачать или смотреть William Bechtel - "Organisms need mechanisms; Mechanisms need organisms"

International Conference "New Mechanism, Reduction and Emergence in Physics, Chemistry and Biology"
Lisbon (online), 14-14 October 2021

William Bechtel (UC San Diego)
"Organisms need mechanisms; Mechanisms need organisms"

As systems far from equilibrium with their environments, organisms must continually perform work to build, repair, and reproduce themselves. This work is performed by production mechanisms whose parts serve to constrain flows of free energy. But production mechanisms on their own won’t suffice to maintain the organism. They require the other mechanisms of the organism to provide the resources they need for their activities as well as remove the waste products they produce. Moreover, production mechanisms must be controlled so that they perform their activities when and in the manner needed by the organism. Control depends upon a distinct type of mechanism, one that makes measurements of relevant variables inside and outside the organism and alters flexible constraints in other mechanisms, changing the work they perform. Control mechanisms provide a bridge between the work performed by individual production mechanisms and the ability of organisms to build, repair, and reproduce themselves.


More info: https://mechanism.campus.ciencias.uli...