Bitbol and Luisi

This reaction scheme applies to the cases of a nuclear explosion, non-cyclic, and of increase in cell population and disease, which may appear to be expanding reaction patterns, but are also self-limiting (see Eigen in Further Reading). We also draw attention to autopoietic systems described by Bitbol and Luisi in Further Reading. 

I believe, however, that the assertion that every autopoietic system is living goes too far and in this section I would like to clarify the limits of this assertion. In doing so, I follow the lines of a paper recently presented in collaboration with Michel Bitbol (Bitbol and Luisi, 2004). The queshon of whether autopoiesis is the necessary and sufficient condition, or only the necessary one, has also been asked by Bourgine and Stewart, (2004) and earlier, in another context, by Weber (2002). 

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