Notes
- . RalphWendell Burhoe. Values via Science,” Zygon 4 (1969):65–99.
- . Erwin Schrödinger, What Is Life? (New York: Doubleday — Co., 1956).
- . The argument presented does not require that the negentropic aspect be the only important characteristic of living systems or that it be entirely unique to living systems. The cybernetic aspects are obviously important, particularly when extended to the ability to run simulation models mentally or by machine. Likewise, the similarities between living systems and other systems of interacting flows far from equilibrium which have been discussed by Dr. Katchalsky are important in developing a view of the unity of natural systems, but do not negate the fact of the increase of information as an essential characteristic of biological systems. The importance of apparently random events (mutation, gene duplication, translocations, etc.), which has been emphasized by Dr. Potter, also needs to be taken into account. Indeed, there is an interesting parallel between the need to discard those random events which are not neutral (most genetic alterations are deleterious) and the need to discard most of the “eureka experiences,” which, though exciting creative events for the individual, usually prove to be ultimately deleterious or “wrong.”