What determines large-scale anatomy? DNA does not directly specify geometrical
arrangements of tissues and organs, and a process of encoding and decoding for …

Biosemiotics is the idea that life is based on semiosis, ie, on signs and codes. This idea has
been strongly suggested by the discovery of the genetic code, but so far it has made little …

One of the most useful metaphors for driving scientific and engineering progress has been
that of the “machine”. Much controversy exists about the applicability of this concept in the …

Lectures on Perception: An Ecological Perspective addresses the generic principles by
which each and every kind of life form—from single celled organisms (eg, difflugia) to multi …

The Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework (FEP-AI) begins with the
understanding that thermodynamically-open systems must regulate environmental …

Economics has accumulated a great body of knowledge about value. Building on economics
and other disciplines, service science is an emerging transdiscipline. It is the study of value …

This essay is presented with two principal objectives in mind: first, to document the
prevalence of fractals at all levels of the nervous system, giving credence to the notion of …

Abstract Systems Biology and the Modern Synthesis are recent versions of two classical
biological paradigms that are known as structuralism and functionalism, or internalism and …

To explore how molecules became signs I will ask:“What sort of process is necessary and
sufficient to treat a molecule as a sign?” This requires focusing on the interpreting system …

Nervous systems are traditionally thought of as providing sensing and behavioral
coordination functions at the level of the whole organism. What is the evolutionary origin of …