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Organic Codes: A Unifying Concept for Life

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Abstract

Although the knowledge about biological systems has advanced exponentially in recent decades, it is surprising to realize that the very definition of Life keeps presenting theoretical challenges. Even if several lines of reasoning seek to identify the essence of life phenomenon, most of these thoughts contain fundamental problem in their basic conceptual structure. Most concepts fail to identify either necessary or sufficient features to define life. Here, we analyzed the main conceptual frameworks regarding theoretical aspects that have been supporting the most accepted concepts of life, such as (i) the physical, (ii) the cellular and (iii) the molecular approaches. Based on an ontological analysis, we propose that Life should not be positioned under the ontological category of Matter. Yet, life should be better understood under the top-level ontology of “Process”. Exercising an epistemological approach, we propose that the essential characteristic that pervades each and every living being is the presence of organic codes. Therefore, we explore theories in biosemiotics and code biology in order to propose a clear concept of life as a macrocode composed by multiple inter-related coding layers. This way, as life is a sort of metaphysical process of encoding, the living beings became the molecular materialization of that process. From the proposed concept, we show that the evolutionary process is a fundamental characteristic for life’s maintenance but it is not necessary to define life, as many organisms are clearly alive but they do not participate in the evolutionary process (such as infertile hybrids). The current proposition opens a fertile field of debate in astrobiology, epistemology, biosemiotics, code biology and robotics.

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Fig. 1

Modified from Chi et al. (1994)

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Acknowledgements

STF was supported for Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ) and the Program of Pos-graduation in Philosophy at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. FP was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, CNE E-26/202.780/2018) and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, PDE 205072/2018-6).

Funding

STF was supported for Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ) and the Program of Pos-graduation in Philosophy at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. FP was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, CNE E-26/202.780/2018) and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, PDE 205072/2018-6).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Genética Evolutiva Paulo Leminski, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

    Savio Torres de Farias

  2. Laboratório de Biologia Teórica e de Sistemas, Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de Meis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Francisco Prosdocimi

  3. Departamento de Filosofia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil

    Gustavo Caponi

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  1. Savio Torres de Farias
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Correspondence to Savio Torres de Farias.

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de Farias, S.T., Prosdocimi, F. & Caponi, G. Organic Codes: A Unifying Concept for Life. Acta Biotheor 69, 769–782 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-021-09422-2

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