The semantic theory of embryonic development

The ectoderm ensures that the inner space of a body is sharply distinct from the outside world, and all forms and shapes that we find in that inner space are entirely due to endogenous processes of three-dimensional organisation. And the same is true for every single cell. The plasma membrane controls virtually everything that is passing through, and is for a cell what ectoderm is for an embryo the structure 

The one and only parallel that can be made between a cell and the multicellular body that contains it is that both have the same genotype, and that in both cases the phenotype is more complex than the genotype. They both are, in other words, epigenetic systems that must solve - with different mechanisms - the same problem of reconstructing their structures from incomplete information. 

In the course of embryonic development, therefore, two different reconstruction processes are taking place in parallel, one at the cellular level and the other at the organism level. These two parallel processes, furthermore, are both discontinuous, because in each of them there is a crucial event which marks the end of one phase and the beginning of a new one. For a developing cell the crucial event is determination, the trauma that forever fixes its destiny for an embryo it is the appearance of the body plan, the pattern that determines for life the three-dimensional organisation of the body s organs. 

Determination and body plan are both arrangements of structures in space which are conserved in time, and therefore behave as organic memories . They are veritable stores of information, but in this case it is three-dimensional information that they are carrying. The problem is that the concept of three-dimensional - or contextual - information is difficult to deal with, and often it is confused with the idea of three-dimensional structure tout court. This is why it is 

We have already seen that the reconstruction model makes a sharp distinction between real-space matrices and memory-space matrices, and suggests that embryos too have equivalent types of three-dimensional structures the real structures of the phenotypic body, and the memory structures of the body plan. According to the reconstruction model, therefore, during embryonic development there is not only a development of phenotypic structures, but also a parallel development of memory structures. It should be noticed, however, that these two processes are sharply asymmetrical. 

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At this point we can combine the above concepts in a single model, and obtain the semantic theory of embryonic development Embryonic development is a sequence of two distinct processes of reconstruction from incomplete information, each of which increases the complexity of the system in a convergent way. The first process builds the phylotypic body and is controlled by cells. The second leads to the individual body and is controlled not only at the cellular level, but also at the supracellular level of the body plan. ... 

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