Computation as the Ultimate Metaphor

January 2, 2008 at 12:08 am PT

Our science, including mine, treats living systems as mechanisms at multiple levels of abstraction. As we talk about how one biomolecule docks with another, our explanations are purely mechanistic and our science never invokes “and then the soul intercedes and gets them to link up.” The underlying assumption of molecular biologists is that their level of mechanistic explanation is ultimately adequate for high-level mechanistic descriptions such as physiology and neuroscience to build on as a foundation.

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Tagged with: computation, molecular, Rodney Brooks

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