De Loof Arnold
Functional Genomics and Proteomics Group, Department of Biology, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Commun Integr Biol. 2017 Mar 13;10(3):e1301335. doi: 10.1080/19420889.2017.1301335. eCollection 2017.
It is undeniably very logical to first formulate an unambiguous definition of "Life" before engaging in defining the parameters instrumental to Life's evolution. Because nearly everybody assumes, erroneously in my opinion, that catching Life's essence in a single sentence is impossible, this way of thinking remained largely unexplored in evolutionary theory. Upon analyzing what exactly happens at the transition from "still alive" to "just dead," the following definition emerged. What we call "Life" (L) is an . It is nothing other than the total sum (∑) of all communication acts (C) executed, at moment t, by entities organized as sender-receiver compartments: L = ∑C Such "living" entities are self-electrifying and talking ( = communicating) aggregates of fossil stardust operating in an environment heavily polluted by toxic calcium. Communication is a multifaceted, complex process that is seldom well explained in introductory textbooks of biology. Communication is instrumental to adaptation because, at the cellular level, any act of communication is in fact a problem-solving act. It can be logically deduced that not Natural Selection itself but communication/problem-solving activity is the universal driving force of evolution. This is against what textbooks usually claim, although doubt on the status of Natural Selection as driving force has been around for long. Finally, adopting the sender-receiver with its memory systems (genetic and cognitive, both with their own rules) and 2 types of progeny ("physical children" and "pupils") as the universal unit of architecture and function of all living entities, also enables the seamless integration of cultural and organic evolution, another long-standing tough problem in evolutionary theory. Paraphrasing Theodosius Dobzhansky, the very essence of biology is: "Nothing in biology and evolutionary theory makes sense except in the light of the ability of living matter to communicate, and by doing so, to solve problems."
在着手定义对生命进化至关重要的参数之前，首先明确“生命”的明确定义无疑是非常合乎逻辑的。因为几乎每个人都认为，在我看来这是错误的，用一句话抓住生命的本质是不可能的，所以这种思维方式在进化理论中基本上未被探索。在分析从“仍然活着”到“刚刚死亡”的转变过程中到底发生了什么之后，得出了以下定义。我们所说的“生命”（L）是一种……它只不过是在时刻t由组织成发送者-接收者隔室的实体执行的所有通信行为（C）的总和：L = ∑C。这样的“有生命”实体是在被有毒钙严重污染的环境中运作的自我带电且能交流（即通信）的化石星尘聚集体。通信是一个多方面的复杂过程，生物学入门教材很少能很好地解释它。通信对适应至关重要，因为在细胞层面，任何通信行为实际上都是一个解决问题的行为。可以逻辑推断出，不是自然选择本身，而是通信/解决问题的活动才是进化的普遍驱动力。这与教科书通常所宣称的相悖，尽管对自然选择作为驱动力的地位的质疑由来已久。最后，将具有其记忆系统（遗传和认知的，两者都有自己的规则）以及两种类型后代（“亲生孩子”和“学生”）的发送者-接收者作为所有生物实体结构和功能的普遍单位，也能够实现文化和有机进化的无缝整合，这是进化理论中另一个长期存在的难题。套用西奥多修斯·杜布赞斯基的话，生物学的本质是：“生物学和进化理论中的任何内容，除非从生物物质进行通信并借此解决问题的能力的角度来看，否则都没有意义。”
