Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems

It has been argued that the historical nature of evolution makes it a highly path-dependent process. Under this view, the outcome of evolutionary dynamics could have resulted in organisms with different forms and functions. At the same time, there is ample evidence that convergence and constraints s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interface focus 2024-10, Vol.14 (5), p.20240010
Main Authors: Solé, Ricard, Kempes, Christopher P, Corominas-Murtra, Bernat, De Domenico, Manlio, Kolchinsky, Artemy, Lachmann, Michael, Libby, Eric, Saavedra, Serguei, Smith, Eric, Wolpert, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
constraints
contingency
convergence
evolution
information
Review
thermodynamics
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Summary:It has been argued that the historical nature of evolution makes it a highly path-dependent process. Under this view, the outcome of evolutionary dynamics could have resulted in organisms with different forms and functions. At the same time, there is ample evidence that convergence and constraints strongly limit the domain of the potential design principles that evolution can achieve. Are these limitations relevant in shaping the fabric of the possible? Here, we argue that fundamental constraints are associated with the logic of living matter. We illustrate this idea by considering the thermodynamic properties of living systems, the linear nature of molecular information, the cellular nature of the building blocks of life, multicellularity and development, the threshold nature of computations in cognitive systems and the discrete nature of the architecture of ecosystems. In all these examples, we present available evidence and suggest potential avenues towards a well-defined theoretical formulation.
ISSN:2042-8898
2042-8901
2042-8901
DOI:10.1098/rsfs.2024.0010