Biology ︱ system being studied. In addition, he The tree-like branching of evolution is investigated the boundaries of semantic programmed by natural selection. in order to outline the principles of an adequate intentional . LuckyStep/Shutterstock.com Metabiology and SELF-ORGANISATION Professor Carsetti quotes – “the function self-organises together with its meaning” – to highlight the prerequisite of both a conceptual the complexity of theory of complexity and a theory of self-organisation. Self-organisation refers to the process whereby complex systems develop order via internal processes, also in the absence of natural evolution external intended constraints or forces. It can be described in terms of network In his study of metabiology, rturo Carsetti is Professor Vittorio Somenzi, Ilya Prigogine, Heinz properties such as connectivity, making Arturo Carsetti, from the of of Science von Foerster and Henri Atlan, Arturo it an ideal subject for complexity theory University of Rome Tor Vergata, A at the University of Carsetti became interested in applying and artificial life research. In accordance new mathematics. This is a mathematics Chaitin’s insight into biological reviews existing theories Rome Tor Vergata and Editor and Information Theory with Carsetti’s main thesis, we have that necessarily moulds coder’s activity. evolution led him to view “life as and explores novel concepts of the Italian Journal for to living systems. Subsequently, to recognise that, at the level of a Hence the importance of articulating evolving software”. He employed regarding the complexity the during his stay in Trieste he worked biological cognitive system, sensibility and inventing each time a mathematics algorithmic information theory to of biological systems while La Nuova Critica. In his in collaboration with Gaetano is not a simple interface between capable of engraving itself in an develop testing functions, such as his demonstrating the role of latest volume concerning Kanizsa on the procedures of self- absolute chance and an invariant evolutionary landscape in accordance Busy Beaver function and Chaitin’s information processing and metabiology, he examines organisation in visual cognition. In intellectual order. On the contrary, the with the opening up of meaning. Ω number, to perform tests on living mathematical reasoning. On the philosophical and 1981, he began a working relationship reference procedures, if successful, organisms after a mutation has the basis of what is claimed by mathematical concepts with and Jean Petitot are able to modulate canalisation and LIFE AS EVOLVING SOFTWARE occurred. These functions are quantities , he perceives underlying natural and many other scholars in the create the basis for the appearance of Carsetti revisits a fundamental thesis that can be defined but, in the limit, evolution as a hill-climbing evolution. He reviews field of self-organisation theory ever-new frames of incompressibility enunciated by Gregory Chaitin not computed, and they are endless random walk in software space, existing theories and and complexity theory. In through morphogenesis. There which states that if a living organism resources that will not run out. making biology mathematical at explores novel concepts particular, he investigated is no casual autonomous process can be seen as a program in the a meta-level. This can underpin regarding the complexity the link between meaning already in existence, and no possible classical sense, then evolution can be Carsetti discusses how this abstract the thesis advocated by Chaitin of biological systems while and information as outlined by selection and synthesis activity via a considered as a random walk through process reduces an organism to the that is programming demonstrating the role of and his followers possible ‘remnant’ through reference a software space. A random walk is pure information encoded in its DNA, without a programmer. information processing and as well as the concept of “reflexive procedures considered as a form of the stochastic, or random, process a set of instructional information Professor Carsetti observes, mathematical reasoning. model” as introduced by . simple syntactic regimentation. “These that describes a path comprising of searching for optimum self- however, that to the extent He describes how natural procedures are in actual functional that a natural, biological selection programs the On the basis of this conceptual to the construction and irruption of self-organising system is evolutionary process and background, he again turned his new incompressibility: meaning, as In accordance with a well-known thesis characterised by its cognitive mathematics moulds attention to the work of the Forma formans, offers the possibility activities, the objectives are set the coder’s, i.e., French biochemist Monod of creating a holistic anchorage, and advocated by Gregory Chaitin, Carsetti from within. At this level the natural selection’s, and his attempt to join is exactly what allows the categorial perceives evolution as a hill-climbing function self-organises together activity. This prompts Shannon’s information apparatus to emerge and act according with its meaning, as pointed the creation of a theory and first- to a coherent ‘arborisation’”. random walk in software space, making out by Henri Atlan. This means mathematics that order cybernetics that any programming activity can be etched into in order to In other words, at the biological biology mathematical at a meta-level. on a natural level can only the evolutionary illuminate level, what is innate is the result take place with reference to landscape in view of the deep of an evolutionary process and is a series of random steps through a organisation. Actually, while the body a specific semantic context, a correct articulation mechanisms programmed by natural selection but mathematical space such as the set of the organism is ignored according a context that must each time of the modules underlying with necessary reference to continuous of integers. Evolutional complexity to the ongoing disembodiment be identified and constructed and principles of molecular biology. changes in . Natural can then be modelled in terms of process, we have the opportunity to as such. self-organisation. He examined, in selection is the coder (once linked to specific mutations, or programs, experience different types of selection particular, the advances the emergence of meaning): at the where the conceptual complexity in view of a possible optimisation. CYBERNETICS in research made in same time, at the biological level this H(M) of a particular mutation M is In his opinion, however, this should AND SEMANTIC recent decades that led to emergence process is indissolubly the size in bits of the program M. not be considered as an end in INFORMATION the introduction of second- correlated to the continuous This is the key concept used by itself: in fact, the aforementioned In the first half of the order cybernetics, where construction of new formats in Chaitin in his mathematical model disembodiment process is first of all seventies, influenced by the observer is part of the accordance with the unfolding of ever of Darwinian evolution. in view of realising a new incarnation.

Liya Graphics/Shutterstock.com www.researchoutreach.org www.researchoutreach.org to Skolem when he mentions that it If nature is programming without a programmer then it is self-organising. is the continuous passage from the first observer to the second that plots Behind the Research the course of natural evolution at the cognitive level. In this way, we have

Aliona Ursu/Shutterstock.com the possibility to preserve the deep Professor Arturo Carsetti insights outlined by Gregory Chaitin relative to the mathematical substratum E: [email protected] T: +39 06 8547363 W: www.arturocarsetti.it underlying biological evolution, but, W: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arturo_Carsetti W: https://openlibrary.org/ at the same time, we also have the authors/OL1735575A/Arturo_Carsetti W: http://www.arturocarsetti.it/documenti/ possibility to refer them to the realm nuova_critica.htm W: https://archive.internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2017/12/21/ philosophy-thursday-arturo-carsetti/ https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Arturo- of that dialectics between function W: Carsetti/37027915 W: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=M6H7hE4AAAAJ&hl=it and meaning that allows us not to close ourselves into the enclave of the first-order structures but to range in a Research Objectives References much broader realm of functions also featured in accordance with the tools Arturo Carsetti explores the philosophy behind Carsetti A. (2020). Drawing a Software Space for Natural offered by non-standard mathematics. natural evolution. Evolution. In: Metabiology. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Choosing non-standard model theory and Rational , 50. Springer, Cham. really ‘introduces’ a new general Detail Carsetti A. (2014). Life, Cognition and Metabiology, In the light of this new scientific , semantics. Hence the possibility of Cognitive Processing, 15 (4), 423-434 fully exploring the arena relating to Arturo Carsetti Carsetti A. (2012). The emergence of meaning at the co- nature appears to ‘speak’ by means of non-standard models as indicated, first V. Lariana 7,00199 Rome, Italy evolutionary level: An epistemological approach. Applied mathematical forms. We can observe these and foremost, by Skolem but taking Mathematics and Computation, 219 (1), 14-23. advantage of the latest acquisitions Bio Arturo Carsetti received a degree in Philosophy Carsetti A. (ed.) (2009). , Meaningful Complexity forms, but they are, at the same time, inside achieved at the level of the most recent from the University of Rome. From 1975 to 1980 he and Embodied Cognition. Springer, . theory of self-organising models. taught at the . In the years Carsetti, A. (2003). Rational Perception and Self- us as they populate our organs of cognition. from 1980 to 2012 he was Professor of Philosophy of Organization of Forms. Axiomathes 13, 459–470. THE ENACTIVE REALISM Science first at the and subsequently The real ‘extroversion’ is in function without a programmer, it is also Carsetti observes that with a natural, at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is the Editor of the activation of new selection self-organising. biological self-organising system that is of the Italian Journal for the Philosophy of Science La Personal Response procedures capable of ensuring a characterised by its cognitive activities, Nuova Critica. metamorphosis (from within) of the Carsetti also claims that removing the the objectives are set from within. What initially attracted you to the philosophy Funding behind natural evolution? system: a metamorphosis that will embodiment process reveals the pure The origin of meaning is an emergent Research Project (LNC, IRP 2018-2020) “ Non standard During the writing of my degree thesis I had the necessarily involve the mathematician abstraction where the instructional property within the organisation of the models, general semantics and Skolem’s ”. who builds the model. In this context, information (the DNA) is seeking system itself, and this is connected to opportunity to discover that , first in the modern era, had explicitly made use of the term (and the system’s pursuit can really offer optimal self-organisation. Paraphrasing precise linguistic and logical operations Collaborators the concept) of ‘self-organisation’ and had implicitly I would like to express my gratitude to the late Franz the opportunity to trigger more Galileo, often regarded as the father as well as distinct procedures of linked this concept to the problem of schematism. Then M. Wuketits and Barry Cooper with whom I initially sophisticated levels of embodiment of modern science, he says that and self-observation. when in 1970 expounded in the volume shared some ideas that later turned out to be one of only by changing semantics. nature is speaking by computations, These operations stimulate continuous Chance and Necessity the thesis that Nature works the bases of reference of my latest volume dedicated thus causing nature to be embodied. processes of inner reorganisation. like a tinkerer characterised by the presence of precise to metabiology . NATURE IS PROGRAMMING Professor Carsetti warns, however, He remarks, in particular, that “in the principles of self-organisation, I found myself in front WITHOUT A PROGRAMMER that precisely because they are closely light of this new scientific paradigm, of a series of suggestions that have, therefore, partly According to Gregory Chaitin: related to the process of embodiment, nature appears to ‘speak’ by means of guided my subsequent research. “Metabiology is a field parallel to such “natural computations cannot be mathematical forms: we can observe biology dealing with the random articulated only on a purely syntactic these forms, but they are, at the same evolution of artificial software level nor can they be flattened on time, inside us as they populate our (programs) rather than natural software disembodied crystallizations”. He organs of cognition”. Within this (DNA).” He considers this process as maintains, on the contrary, that at the framework, natural evolution also creativity in action on a metabiological biological level we are continuously scans the effective growth of our tools level, not just Darwinian evolution. challenged by semantic information of participatory knowledge of the His perception of evolution as a hill- and semantic phenomena thus coming world around us, our own coming to climbing random walk in software to be involved in an effective process of recognise ourselves as a stage within space, makes biology mathematical at self-organisation. a path concerning a real development a meta-level: this underpins the notion of creativity but on a co-evolutive level that nature programs metabiological NON-STANDARD MODELS and in accordance with a semantically organisms but without a programmer, Carsetti adopts a constructivist pregnant perspective. Such an because a programmer is not required perspective but with a view to awareness can actually give rise to a

for metabiological evolution to occur. introducing a renewed vision of new type of – the Two covers of La Nuova Critica, the Italian Journal for the Philosophy of Science It follows that if nature is programming realism: the enactive realism. He refers enactive (or participatory) realism. Carsetti’s latest work on Metabiology. of which Carsetti is the Editor.

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