Joshua Bongard, Michael Levin
The applicability of computational models to the biological world is an active topic of debate. We argue that a useful path forward results from abandoning hard boundaries between categories and adopting an observer-dependent, pragmatic view. Such a view dissolves the contingent dichotomies driven by human cognitive biases (e.g., tendency to oversimplify) and prior technological limitations in favor of a more continuous, gradualist view necessitated by the study of evolution, developmental biology, and intelligent machines. Efforts to re-shape living systems for biomedical or bioengineering purposes require prediction and control of their function at multiple scales. This is challenging for many reasons, one of which is that living systems perform multiple functions in the same place at the same time. We refer to this as “polycomputing” – the ability of the same substrate to simultaneously compute different things. This ability is an important way in which living things are a kind of computer, but not the familiar, linear, deterministic kind; rather, living things are computers in the broad sense of computational materials as reported in the rapidly-growing physical computing literature. We argue that an observer-centered framework for the computations performed by evolved and designed systems will improve the understanding of meso-scale events, as it has already done at quantum and relativistic scales. Here, we review examples of biological and technological polycomputing, and develop the idea that overloading of different functions on the same hardware is an important design principle that helps understand and build both evolved and designed systems. Learning to hack existing polycomputing substrates, as well as evolve and design new ones, will have massive impacts on regenerative medicine, robotics, and computer engineering.

Read the full article at: arxiv.org

Randall D.Beer, Ezequiel A.Di Paolo

Biosystems
Volume 223, January 2023, 104823

Enaction is an increasingly influential approach to cognition that grew out of Maturana and Varela’s earlier work on autopoiesis and the biology of cognition. As with any relatively new scientific discipline, the enactive approach would benefit greatly from a careful analysis of its theoretical foundations. Here we initiate such an analysis for one of the core concepts of enaction, precariousness. Specifically, we consider three types of fragility: systemic, processual and thermodynamic. Using a glider in the Game of Life as a toy model, we illustrate each of these fragilities and examine the relationships between them. We also argue that each type of fragility is characterized by which aspects of a system are hardwired into its definition from the outset and which aspects are emergent and hence vulnerable to disintegration without ongoing maintenance.

Read the full article at: www.sciencedirect.com

Diffusion models generate incredible images by learning to reverse the process that, among other things, causes ink to spread through water.

Read the full article at: www.quantamagazine.org

Cecile Philippe, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Stephane Bilodeau. Carlos Gershenson, Sunil K.Raina, Shu-Ti Chiou, Gunhild A. Nyborg, Matthias F.Schneider

The Lancet Regional Health – Europe
Volume 25, February 2023, 100574

After a period where many countries have let the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread more or less freely, individuals and communities are now grappling with the many negative health effects and economic ramifications from high levels of illness over long periods. As evidence of the detrimental long-term effects of the virus mount, it is increasingly clear that the policy vacuum comes at an unacceptable price both in the short and long term; its only justification would be if there was no other alternative that did not come at an even greater cost. Entering the cold season, the number of infections will most likely increase significantly in Europe (≈ one – two order of magnitude in 2021). While the world awaits and hopes for new and more effective vaccines, we need tools in the toolbox that can effectively control transmission of rapidly spreading new variants, especially if more pathogenic. Otherwise, we may face significant disruptions and enormous costs due to repeated waves of illness, with each wave increasing the numbers of workers thrown out of the workforce from long term health effects. Lockdowns, due to their social restrictions and high short-term economic costs, are no longer the best available option. We here point out that mass testing (regular asymptomatic screening of the general population) is an alternative approach that can dramatically reduce cases and quickly restore economic and social activity.

Read the full article at: www.sciencedirect.com