Theoretical Biology: Organisms and Mechanisms

Abstract

The Theoretical Biology Program initiated by Robert Rosen is intended to identify the key theoretical characteristics of organisms, especially those that distinguish organisms from mechanisms, by looking for the proper abstractions and defining the appropriate relationships. There are strong claims about the distinctions in Rosen’s book “Life Itself”, along with some purported proofs of these assertions. Unfortunately, the Mathematics is incorrect, and the assertions remain unproven (and some of them are simply false). In this paper, we present the ideas of Rosen’s approach, demonstrate that his Mathematical formulations and proofs are wrong, and then show how they might be made more successful.

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