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PATTEE, H(oward) H. The Physical Basis of Coding and reliability in Biological Evolution. Biophysics Laboratory, W.W. Hansen Laboratories of Physics, Stanford University. B.L. Report No, 193, May 1967. Original wrappers, staple bound. 37 leaves printed on one side only from typed sheets. VG Copy. [++] The paper considers the following question: Are the characteristic processes of biological organisms understandable in terms of the basic laws of physics? It is shown that in spite of the many classical models of cellular structures and functions there are severe difficulties in accounting for the reliability of hereditary transmission in terms of the elementary laws of physics. It is proposed that the ultimate source of the unique distinction between living and nonliving matter does not rest on idealized classical models of macromolecules, template replication, or metabolic control, but on the quantitative reliability of molecular codes which can correlate the contents of a quantum mechanical description with its classical phenotypic expression. To understand such a correlation between quantum descriptions and the corresponding observable classical event requires a quantum theory of measurement applied to elementary molecular hereditary processes. Such a theory presents serious, though not insurmountable, conceptual and formal difficulties for the physicist. However, in spite of the unsolved theoretical questions certain necessary conditions can be specified for individual molecular coding structures. These conditions suggest that the seat of coding or measurement processes in living matter is the individual non-holonomic enzyme catalyst, although it is likely that other structures in the cell serve to increase the reliability of these codes."--Abstract, Defense Technical Information Center. [++] Howard Pattee is a physicist who for many years has taken his own path in studying the physics of symbols, which is now a foundation for biosemiotics. By extending von Neumann's logical requirements for self-replication, to the physical requirements of symbolic instruction at the molecular level, he concludes that a form of quantum measurement is necessary for life. He explains why all non-dynamic symbolic and informational controls act as special (allosteric) constraints on dynamical systems. Pattee also points out that symbols do not exist in isolation but in coordinated symbol systems we call languages. Such insights turn out to be necessary to situate biosemiotics as an objective scientific endeavor. By proposing a way to relate quiescent symbolic constraints to dynamics, Pattee's work builds a bridge between physical, biological, and psychological models that are based on dynamical systems theory. Pattee s work awakes new interest in cognitive scientists, where his recognition of the necessary separation the epistemic cut between the subject and object provides a basis for a complementary third way of relating the purely symbolic, computational models of cognition and the purely dynamic, non-representational models. This selection of Pattee's papers also addresses several other fields, including hierarchy theory, artificial life, self-organization, complexity theory, and the complementary epistemologies of the physical and biological sciences. --from Pattee, Howard Hunt, Leonardi, Joanna (editors). Laws, Language and Life (2012), Howard Pattee's classic papers on the physics of symbols with contemporary commentary, in which the paper discussed here appears. [++] "The paper's focus on hierarchical organization and the relationship between physical constraints and emergent function is relevant to complexity theory and the study of self-organizing systems."--Wikipedia.
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