Anticipation in (M,R)-systems

Abstract

Relational biology is a study of life in terms of the organization of entailment relations in living systems, independent of any particular physical mechanism or material realization. Anticipatory systems and metabolism–repair (M,R)-systems are two classes of relational models that characterize life. In this paper, I explore the connections between them: I explicate the circumstances under which anticipation occurs in an (M,R)-system, and show that the entailment pattern of an anticipatory system may be represented as a network of metabolism and repair components.

Keywords:

• anticipatory system
• (M,R)-system
• relational biology
• hierarchical cycle
• clef system
• impredicativity

Notes

1. Historical note: On 18 October 1972, the then-newly founded International journal of general systems received four papers submitted by Robert Rosen (all prepared when he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, CA, during the academic year 1971–1972). Their final forms were accepted on various dates in 1973–1974 for publication, and all appeared in Volume 1 (1974) of this journal (indeed, one in each of the four issues). The idea of anticipatory systems was discussed in two of these papers. Although the other paper (‘Some temporal aspects of political change’), since it was accepted sooner, actually appeared in print before the ‘Four fuzzy concepts’ paper, the latter was written earlier, whence had precedence.