Final cause
The task of a CA, and the reason for its existence is to
make a product which is utilized by other CAs. This is the
Final Cause of its existence. . The age distribution at death may be
regarded as a frequency distribution of CA's product. Previously each CA
had its own , built in, death threshold. In reality
the cause of cell death is external to the CA. It is driven by the
environment (other CAs), whose demand for a CA product will set the death
threshold of its cells. Which is illustrted below.
Each frame depicts two CAs. One marked by an E represents
the environment. At any instant,
its state determines the death threshold of the other CA. The experiment
started by planting two CA#600 zygotes. Initially both grew and differentiated.
Then the E-CA started setting the death threshold of its brother. Some cells
started dying creating empty spaced (vacuoles). These resulted from cells
which died and released their
product into the environment.
The next frame depicts the effect of the same environment
on a CA#2058.
In the frames below, one CA#2058 acted as environment,.
The 'impact' printed below
the frames indicates the intensity of the effect of the environmental state,
on the age threshold. All three environments traverse the same states. They
differ by their impact on the death threshold.
This experiment illustrates several biological features:
- A mechanism by which production in a unit assembly is regulated, or
optimized.
- Modeling of organs during growth, like in an embryo. As it grows, cell death, called apoptosis, shapes organ structure.
- It illustrates also the effect of unrestrained capitalism (E)
on the market (the other CA). Or the exploitation (E)
of the Amazonas. Both are regarded here as biological processes.