Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner
Biologists, philosophers, and mathematicians building upon Robert Rosen’s non-algorithmic theories of life using Relational Biology and Category Theory have continued to develop his theory and modeling approaches. There has been general agreement that the impredicative, self-referential, and complex...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2024-12-01
|
| Series: | Mathematics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/12/24/3972 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850085528065540096 |
|---|---|
| author | Patricia A. Lane |
| author_facet | Patricia A. Lane |
| author_sort | Patricia A. Lane |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Biologists, philosophers, and mathematicians building upon Robert Rosen’s non-algorithmic theories of life using Relational Biology and Category Theory have continued to develop his theory and modeling approaches. There has been general agreement that the impredicative, self-referential, and complex nature of living systems negates an algorithmic approach. Rosen’s main goal was to answer, “What is Life?”. Many believe he provided the best but minimum answer using a cellular, metabolism–repair or (M, R)-system as a category-theoretic model. It has been challenging, however, to incorporate his theory to develop a fully non-algorithmic methodology that retains the essence of his thinking while creating more operational models of living systems that can be used to explore other facets of life and answer different questions. Living systems do more than the minimum in the real world beyond the confines of definition alone. For example, ecologists ask how living systems inherently mitigate existential risk from climate change and biodiversity loss through their complex self-organization. Loop Analysis, a signed graph technique, is discussed as a hybrid algorithmic/non-algorithmic methodology in Relational Biology. This methodology can be used at the ecosystem level with standard non-algorithmic field data as per McAllister’s description of the algorithmic incompressibility of empirical data of this type. An example is described showing how the North Atlantic Carbon Pump, an important planetary life support system, is situated in the plankton community and functions as a mutualistic ecosystem chimera. It captures carbon from the atmosphere as an extended (M, R)-system and processes it until it is sequestered in the marine sediments. This is an important process to alleviate climate change in magnitude equal to or larger than the sequestration of carbon on land with forests. It is suggested that the ecosystem level should replace the cellular and organismic levels as the main system unit in biology and evolution since all life exists and evolves with full functional potential in ecosystem networks and not laboratory test tubes. The plankton ecosystem is the largest after the total biosphere and consists of evolutionary links and relationships that have existed for eons of time. If there was ever a genuine robust, highly self-organized ecosystem, it would be planktonic. Severing the links in these thermodynamically open networks by focusing on lower levels of the biological hierarchy loses the critical organization of how life exists on this planet. There is no theory to regain this crucial ‘omitted’ ecological relational causality at the cell or organismal levels. At the end of the paper, some future directions are outlined. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ce27664d62e44b8e86cdd76770a9b10e |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2227-7390 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Mathematics |
| spelling | doaj-art-ce27664d62e44b8e86cdd76770a9b10e2025-08-20T02:43:42ZengMDPI AGMathematics2227-73902024-12-011224397210.3390/math12243972Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic MannerPatricia A. Lane0Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, CanadaBiologists, philosophers, and mathematicians building upon Robert Rosen’s non-algorithmic theories of life using Relational Biology and Category Theory have continued to develop his theory and modeling approaches. There has been general agreement that the impredicative, self-referential, and complex nature of living systems negates an algorithmic approach. Rosen’s main goal was to answer, “What is Life?”. Many believe he provided the best but minimum answer using a cellular, metabolism–repair or (M, R)-system as a category-theoretic model. It has been challenging, however, to incorporate his theory to develop a fully non-algorithmic methodology that retains the essence of his thinking while creating more operational models of living systems that can be used to explore other facets of life and answer different questions. Living systems do more than the minimum in the real world beyond the confines of definition alone. For example, ecologists ask how living systems inherently mitigate existential risk from climate change and biodiversity loss through their complex self-organization. Loop Analysis, a signed graph technique, is discussed as a hybrid algorithmic/non-algorithmic methodology in Relational Biology. This methodology can be used at the ecosystem level with standard non-algorithmic field data as per McAllister’s description of the algorithmic incompressibility of empirical data of this type. An example is described showing how the North Atlantic Carbon Pump, an important planetary life support system, is situated in the plankton community and functions as a mutualistic ecosystem chimera. It captures carbon from the atmosphere as an extended (M, R)-system and processes it until it is sequestered in the marine sediments. This is an important process to alleviate climate change in magnitude equal to or larger than the sequestration of carbon on land with forests. It is suggested that the ecosystem level should replace the cellular and organismic levels as the main system unit in biology and evolution since all life exists and evolves with full functional potential in ecosystem networks and not laboratory test tubes. The plankton ecosystem is the largest after the total biosphere and consists of evolutionary links and relationships that have existed for eons of time. If there was ever a genuine robust, highly self-organized ecosystem, it would be planktonic. Severing the links in these thermodynamically open networks by focusing on lower levels of the biological hierarchy loses the critical organization of how life exists on this planet. There is no theory to regain this crucial ‘omitted’ ecological relational causality at the cell or organismal levels. At the end of the paper, some future directions are outlined.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/12/24/3972non-algorithmalgorithmsigned digraphsloop analysis (Type II)relational biologycategory theory |
| spellingShingle | Patricia A. Lane Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner Mathematics non-algorithm algorithm signed digraphs loop analysis (Type II) relational biology category theory |
| title | Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner |
| title_full | Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner |
| title_fullStr | Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner |
| title_short | Using Relational Biology with Loop Analysis to Study the North Atlantic Biological Carbon Pump in a ‘Hybrid’ Non-Algorithmic Manner |
| title_sort | using relational biology with loop analysis to study the north atlantic biological carbon pump in a hybrid non algorithmic manner |
| topic | non-algorithm algorithm signed digraphs loop analysis (Type II) relational biology category theory |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/12/24/3972 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT patriciaalane usingrelationalbiologywithloopanalysistostudythenorthatlanticbiologicalcarbonpumpinahybridnonalgorithmicmanner |