Plamen L. Simeonov

Integral biomathics: A post-Newtonian view into the logos of bios

This work is an attempt for a state-of-the-art survey of natural and life sciences with the goal to define the scope and address the central questions of an original research program. It is focused on the phenomena of emergence, adaptive dynamics and evolution of self-assembling, self-organizing, self-maintaining and self-replicating biosynthetic systems viewed from a newly-arranged perspective and understanding of computation and communication in the living nature. The author regards this research as an integral part of the emerging discipline of nature-inspired or natural computation, i.e. computation inspired by or occurring in nature. Within this context, he is interested in studies which represent a significant departure from traditional theories about complex systems and self-organization, emergent phenomena and artificial biology. In particular, these include non-conventional approaches exploring the aggregation, composition, growth and development of physical forms and structures, autopoiesis along with the associated abstract information structures and processes. This paper provides a critical review of the major assumptions which guide the development of modern computer science and engineering towards emulating biological systems. For this purpose, the author explores the potential and the virtues of biology to reshape contemporary science. The goal of this survey is to discuss the present state of natural and engineering sciences in the light of a necessary paradigm change in the structure and methodology of research and deliver some insights for developing a new kind of integral science based on the principles for dynamic interdependence of the constituting disciplines and on the evolving relationships among them.

A new biology: a modern perspective on the challenge of closing the gap between the islands of knowledge

This paper discusses the rebirth of the old quest for the principles of biology along the discourse line of machine-organism disanalogy and within the context of biocomputation from a modern perspective. It reviews some new attempts to revise the existing body of research and enhance it with new developments in some promising fields of mathematics and computation. The major challenge is that the latter are expected to also answer the need for a new framework, a new language and a new methodology capable of closing the existing gap between the different levels of complex system organization.

On some recent insights in Integral Biomathics

This paper summarizes the results in Integral Biomathics obtained to this moment and provides an outlook for future research in the field.

WLIMES, The Wandering LIMES: Towards a Theoretical Framework for Wandering Logic Intelligence Memory Evolutive Systems

This paper compares two complementary theories, Simeonov’s Wandering Logic Intelligence and Ehresmann’s & Vanbremeersch’s Memory Evolutive Systems, in view of developing a common framework for the study of multi-scale complex systems such as living systems. It begins by a brief summary of WLI and MES, then analyzes their resemblances and differences. Finally, the article provides an outlook for a future research.

Stepping beyond the Newtonian Paradigm in Biology

The INBIOSA project brings together a group of experts across many disciplines who believe that science requires a revolutionary transformative step in order to address many of the vexing challenges presented by the world. It is INBIOSA’s purpose to enable the focused collaboration of an interdisciplinary community of original thinkers.

The Western and Eastern thought traditions for exploring the nature of mind and life

The idea about this special issue came from a paper published as an updated and abridged version of an older memorial lecture given by Brian D. Josephson and Michael Conrad at the Gujarat Vidyapith University in Ahmedabad, India on March 2, 1984. The title of this paper was “Uniting Eastern Philosophy and Western Science” (1992). We thought that this topic deserves to be revisited after 25 years to demonstrate to the scientific community which new insights and achievements were attained in this fairly broad field during this period. This edition also serves to remember and honour two outstanding female scientists, Maryam Mirzakhani (1977e2017) and Mae-Wan Ho (1941e2016). Mirzakahnis work as a mathematician and Hos work as a theoretical biologist, each embracing both Western and Eastern traditions of thought, illustrate how such influences can open new horizons and result in major advances in knowledge, just as different cultural influences had stimulated the work of Hypatia, the brilliant Greek mathematician and philosopher of the ancient world. This edition is dedicated to their memory. It is not the first time that such comparative East-West studies are being carried out. From Leibniz to Nietzsche to modern times, such reviews are documented on a regular basis. It is well known that prominent physicists like Einstein, Bohm and Pauli were in touch with Indian philosophers like Tagore and Krishnamurti, and the 14th Dalai Lama is having regular meetings with scientists around the world (1991, 2012). Denis Noble, one of the editors of this journal, has also reported interesting advances in the field (2009, 2010, 2015). The link of biology to Eastern thought from antiquity to present days is a subtle one (Needham, 1956; Ho and Saunders, 1979). It overarches cultures that have been separated from each other for centuries. The common denominator has been the human mind (Partridge and Gabriel, 2003), which, since the Stone Age, has been occupied with observing and reflecting upon its home in the Universe (Kauffman, 1996). So, our attempt in this special issue

Towards a first implementation of the WLIMES approach in living system studies advancing the diagnostics and therapy in augmented personalized medicine

The goal of this paper is to advance an extensible theory of living systems using an approach to biomathematics and biocomputation that suitably addresses self-organized, self-referential and anticipatory systems with multi-temporal multi-agents. Our first step is to provide foundations for modelling of emergent and evolving dynamic multi-level organic complexes and their sustentative processes in artificial and natural life systems. Main applications are in life sciences, medicine, ecology and astrobiology, as well as robotics, industrial automation, man-machine interface and creative design. Since 2011 over 100 scientists from a number of disciplines have been exploring a substantial set of theoretical frameworks for a comprehensive theory of life known as Integral Biomathics. That effort identified the need for a robust core model of organisms as dynamic wholes, using advanced and adequately computable mathematics. The work described here for that core combines the advantages of a situation and context aware multivalent computational logic for active self-organizing networks, Wandering Logic Intelligence (WLI), and a multi-scale dynamic category theory, Memory Evolutive Systems (MES), hence WLIMES. This is presented to the modeller via a formal augmented reality language as a first step towards practical modelling and simulation of multi-level living systems. Initial work focuses on the design and implementation of this visual language and calculus (VLC) and its graphical user interface. The results will be integrated within the current methodology and practices of theoretical biology and (personalized) medicine to deepen and to enhance the holistic understanding of life.