Mapping Theories of Life into Cell Biochemistry, Part I: Robert Rosen — His Continuing Importance
Channel: Dialectical Systems
Date: 2022-05-23

In this three-part interview with Jannie Hofmeyr, we talk about Robert Rosen's pioneering work on the dialectical dynamics underlying living systems, the difficulties of relating his abstract models to cellular biochemistry (and how to overcome them), as well as the wide-ranging implications and continuing importance of Rosen's work for the study of living systems today.

This first part provides an introduction to Rosen's work, his formalism, his notion of complexity, and his formalization of Aristotelian (be)causes.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
4:43 Supply-demand analysis of metabolism
7:30 Thinking in terms of function: Rosen's "Life Itself"
12:06 Category theory: relationships are fundamental
17:13 Rosen's modeling relation: the dusty epistemological basement
22:20 Mapping models to reality: simulation vs. model
31:38 Rosen's diagrams: material vs. functional entailment
37:09 Impredicative cycles vs. cybernetic feedback regulation
42:26 Rosennean complexity
46:10 Rosen's conjecture: life is closure to efficient causation
50:22 Metabolism-repair (M,R) systems
54:01 How (not) to realize Rosen's model
57:30 Ways of integrating formal causation
1:08:44 Hierarchical cycles and levels of organization
 
Works mentioned in this conversation (in order of appearance):
1. Rosen (1991). Life Itself, Columbia University Press.
2. Wolkenhauer & Hofmeyr (2007). J Theor Biol 246: 461-476.
3. Hofmeyr (2007). In: Boogerd et al (eds), Systems Biology, Elsevier.
4. Hofmeyr (2017). In: Poli (ed), Handbook of Anticipation, Springer.
5. Hofmeyr (2018). BioSystems 164: 121-127.
6. Hofmeyr (2021). BioSystems 207: 104463.
7. Louie (2009). More Than Life Itself, De Gruyter.
8. Louie (2013). The Reflection of Life, Springer.
9. Louie (2017). Intangible Life, Springer.
10. Louie & Poli (2017). In: Poli (ed), Handbook of Anticipation, Springer.