Autopoiesis and cognition

As already mentioned, along with the question What is life, there was another question on Maturana s agenda, namely What is cognition In general, autopoiesis is concerned with organization, and cognition with the interaction with 

The starting point is the interaction between the autopoietic unit and the environment. The living unit is characterized by biological autonomy and at the same time is strictly dependent on the external medium for its survival. There appears to be an apparent contradiction here the living must indeed operate within this contradiction. 

It was said earlier that the interaction with the environment, according to the theory of autopoiesis, must be implemented on the basis of the internal logic of the living. In other words, the consequence of the interaction between an autopoietic unit and a given molecule X is not primarily dictated by the properties of the molecule X, but by the way in which this molecule is seen by the living organism. 

There is no particular nutrient value in sugar, except when the bacterium is crossing the sugar gradient and its metabolism utilizes the molecule so as to permit the continuity of its identity. 

Among all these cognitive interactions between autopoietic entities and the envi-romnent, some are particularly important because they are recursive, i.e., they happen repeatedly. For example, throughout a membrane there is a continuous flux of sodium or calcium ions. This active transport is selective in the sense that it happens with certain ions and not with others. Where does this specificity come from The answer lies in the phylogenesis, the history of the living species, where each state 

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Is it so Does a rose consist only of molecules and their interactions We can answer yes, but it is also fair to say that this would represent only a first, gross approximation. First of all, notice that the term consists of does not necessarily imply that life can be explained and understood in terms of molecules and their interactions. Here comes the age-old question of the discrimination between structure and properties, and whereas the structure per se can be seen as consisting of small parts, usually properties and behavior are not - or at least additional qualitative concepts are needed. In turn, this does not necessarily mean that life holds something intrinsically unexplainable or beyond the reach of science. This is an important and subtle point, and I hope to be able to offer some clarifying ideas about that in the chapter dealing with autopoiesis and cognition. 

Maturana, H. and Varela, F. (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition The Realization of the Living. Reidel. 

H.R. Maturana and F.J. Varela Autopoiesis and Cognition, The Realization of the Living. With... 

Maturana H, Varela F (1980) Autopoiesis and cognition the realization of the living. Reidl,... 

It is important to clarify these questions they are not entirely clear in the primary literature. To this end, the notion of cognition in the theory of autopoiesis first needs to be clarified. The question of the relation between autopoiesis and life will be discussed under Necessary and Sufficient ... 

From the above, one can elicit that autopoiesis is not a necessary and sufficient condition for life. It is a necessary condition, but then it takes cognition, at least in the simplest stage, to arrive at the process of life. The union of autopoiesis and the most elementary form of cognition is the minimum that is needed for life. 

Bitbol, M. and Luisi, P.L. (2005). Autopoiesis with or without cognition defining life at its edge. J. Royal Soc. (London). Interface, 1, 99-107 and references therein. 

As a matter of fact, accephng the two assertions in the primary literature, one that autopoiesis is sufficient to characterize the organization of hfe, and the other, that cognition is equivalent to life, the conclusion should be reached that each autopoietic system is cognitive, and therefore living. This is actually what Heischacker refers to. 

As already mentioned, Bourgine and Stewart (2004) arrive at the same conclusion, based on an elaborate and elegant mathematical treatment. They state in fact that autopoiesis is not a necessary and sufficient condition for hfe. For the hner differences between these two treatments, see Bitbol and Fuisi (2004), where broader implications of the definition of cognition are also discussed. 

The theory of autopoiesis is based on the observation of the actual behavior of a living cell. As such, it is not an abstract theoretical model for life - there are many of these - but a deductive analysis of life as it is on Earth. It is in a way a picture of the blue-print of cellular life, and it is fascinating to see how many concepts related to the process of life - emergence, homeostasis, biological autonomy, interactions with the environment, cognition, evolutionary drift, etc. - pour forth from this analysis in a coherent way. 

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