From autopoiesis to self-optimization: Toward an enactive model of biological regulation
bioRxiv Preprint Server February 5, 2023 Tom Froese, Natalya Weber, Ivan Shpurov et al. 6 citations preprint
The theory of autopoiesis, influential in theoretical biology and origins of life, has struggled to connect with mainstream biology due to challenges in generating testable hypotheses. Recent developments in the enactive approach have clarified concepts like precariousness, adaptivity, and agency. This paper advances those ideas by integrating thermodynamic principles—reversibility, irreversibility, and path-dependence—and interpreting them through a self-optimization model. Modeling results show how minimal conditions allow a system to reorganize toward coordinated constraint satisfaction. Although abstract, these findings suggest a path for the enactive approach to productively engage with cell biology.