Autopoiesis

The CA is controlled by the following buttons:
Start:  CA are planted.
Hide CA-1 Hide CA-2
Infection: Infect CA-1
Information:
CA sizes, CA resources  

The term autopoiesis,  which means "self-production"  was originally introduced by Chilean biologists Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana in the early 1970s. They attempted to create simple models which capture the essence  of the living organism, like:

Its identity remains constant while its components continually change.
It  is a whole (holon)  despite the dynamics of its component parts.
It is self organizing,  can repair itself, and its properties emerge.

The original model was written in FORTRAN and placed in a lattice. The unit had a interior wrapped with a membrane through which it interacted with the exterior.  Since the present model applies two powerful tools, JAVA and CA it   is more versatile than the original one. The proliferon which has been presented in the last applets  is the most sophisticated   autopietic construct to date.    

1. Click on Start, whereupon two zygotes are planted. CA-1 (blue) and CA-2 (yellow). Both are immature larvae. In order to mature and produce an offspring.  CA-1 has to accumulate resources, which it gets from CA-2. Whenever  they meet CA-1 accumulates, and CA-2 loses resources.  Meeting means that only their membranes touch, and they do not overlap.  Whenever they touch each other, CA-2 changes its color, which does not happen when they overlap. 

2. CA-1 enlarges and matures whereupon it starts seeding its progeny. Each progeny  lives during one CA-1 cycle (= 46 states) whereupon it is killed and replaced with a new zygote. Sometimes  before being fully mature CA-1 starts seeding non viable zygotes. Ultimately it will produce  only viable offspring.

3. Click on Infection. CA will “de-differentiate”  to the larva stage and lose its capability to kill its offspring, which may now take the lead (not implemented)

4. Click on Start and then  Infection

Teleonomy

The experiment illustrates a profound philosophical question. Are living organisms teleological? Do they have an end purpose?  The proliferon has two end purposes:   To mature and produce offspring