Intelligence: Natural, artificial, or what?

We consider the competing attributes of natural intelligence (NI) and artificial intelligence (AI). Attention is paid to conceptual, theoretical, stylistic and structural aspects of both, and non-human intelligence. Intelligence is related to information processing and current views of physical structuring.

Primal awareness, evolutionary restriction, life and the origin of quantum mechanics.

We consider resemblances between humans and other species, without adopting categorical positions of either anthropomorphism or anti-anthropomorphism. Our target in doing so is to present a basis for the suggestion of a common ancestor for the similar or differing capabilities exhibited by different species. We propose that individual species exhibit a species-specific selection within what we describe as a universally available 'Basic Capacity to Interact with the Environment' (BCIE).

The local-global relationship of nature.

In the light of possible advance in the elucidation of emergence in natural systems we address the likelihood of an overriding relationship between the local and the global in Nature. We consider the possible views of an abstract conglomeration of entities, and whether a global representation can be established. This leads to a consideration of the problem in natural contexts to establish a relationship between local and global properties.

Origin of the temporal stability control of living system nonequilibrium.

Following Ervin Bauer we accept that a living system can be characterized by its stable nonequilibrium. We represent such a system by a model hierarchy and relate system stability to computational delays across the hierarchy. For natural computation across the system assembly we advocate chaotic computation, and evaluate computational delay at the different organizational levels of the hierarchy.

Entropy is better related to unification than to order.

There are difficulties related to the classical establishment of entropy. It is conventionally viewed as the inverse of order in a system, or more precisely as a quantification of the number of possible systemic microstate reorganisations. This should attribute the related energy to a spectrum of possibilities, from the conventionally 'expected order at one end to a different unexpected order at the other, with disorder between the two', rather than the conventional 'order at one end to disorder at the other'.

Chaos, complexity and computation in the evolution of biological systems.

Chaos, complexity and computation are especially important concepts with respect to both the Evolution of biological systems and the evolution of the Universe. We consider each of these five entities separately, and then view their combination in an overall consideration of both evolution and Evolution. The concept of computation can be directly derived from processes characteristic of the Evolution of biology or the evolution of the Universe, rather than presumed from our own mathematical ideas.

Computation in biological systems as a quantum mechanical simulation.

Our initial premise is that computation as we know it is formally derived from our bodies' internal processing, via our neural processors. Going backwards in time, our bodies' internal processing is in turn derived from wider Nature's own style of processing, which in turn is a rendition of the Universe's processing following the Big Bang. Computation is described as consisting of two intimately connected parts: comparative processing and conclusive processing.

An approach to the plant body: Assessing concrete and abstract aspects.

The paper aims at proposing a representation of plants as individuals. The first section selects the population of plants to which this study is addressed. The second section describes the effective architecture of plants as modular systems with fixed and mobile elements, in other words, plants and their extensions.

The necessity of hierarchy for living systems.

We present a short critique of living systems and of hierarchy, and then present model hierarchy as the parent of other less elaborate schemes. Model hierarchy consists of a number of organizational levels, each a scaled model of the entire system under consideration. Cross-hierarchy coherence is paramount.

Representing life: A natural philosophical project.

We address multi-levelled organization as a vital aspect of any characterization of Nature, and propose that a model-hierarchical description is fitting for a Natural Philosophical point of view. An important aspect is that the different organizational levels in a model hierarchy are partially isolated and autonomous, partially communicating across the entire scale assembly. Of particular interest are the complex interfaces between levels, and the manner in which these may be transited by a generic form of quantum error correction.

The living organism: Strengthening the basis.

In spite of the considerable amount of literature dedicated to the living organism, it retains its mysteries. One of the most discussed aspects nowadays is whether the term "cognition" can be attributed to all classes of organisms, or whether it only refers to a metaphoric use of one human reality. Our approach consists of retaining the term "cognition" and making it a technical term, in order to propose a generic model.

Toward bridging the gap between life and physics.

Examination of the scale properties of living organisms and the electronic configuration of crystalline structures suggests that related modeling may be used for both. This paper comments on individual and common properties of the two systems and draws a comparison between them. Both exhibit multiple 'scales' separated by complex or forbidden regions and a global 'overview' of their scale properties.

Re-mapping Robert Rosen's (M,R)-systems.

The central concern of this paper is to re-evaluate Rosen's replicating (M,R)-systems, presented in his book 'Life Itself ', where M and R signify metabolism and repair, respectively. We look anew at Rosen's model of an organism in the light of extensive research into natural hierarchical systems, and the paper presents conclusions drawn from a comparison between Rosen's relational model and that of a birational complementary natural hierarchy. We accept that Rosen's relational model provides a useful stepping stone to understanding the nature of life, but also suggest that it induces potentially digressive conclusions.