Considering the Definition of Life: Enhancing Robustness through Effects Loops
I view life and intelligence as systems, focusing not on the matter, qualities, or functions, but on the effects that arise when these systems operate.
The effects a system imparts, both internally and externally, can be seen to connect in a chain-like manner, accompanying the system’s operation and its interactions with the outside world. Through the cyclical nature of these effects, feedback loops are formed.
If these effects loops positively influence the loop itself, the loop undergoes self-maintenance or self-enhancement. When many such positively influencing effects loops intertwine, the system of life or intelligence becomes extremely robust.
Robustness can also be described as resilience. In simpler terms, it signifies hardiness — the capacity of a system to withstand environmental changes or external attacks and continue functioning.
In this article, we’ll delve into enhancing robustness from a loop-centric perspective on systems. To do this, we’ll start by clearly defining the types of robustness.
Influences on System Robustness
Among the effects, some enhance the robustness of the entities or phenomena producing them. From a systems engineering viewpoint, we’ll categorize types of robustness and list some systematic countermeasures below:
Robustness against input fluctuations
Countermeasure: Buffering
Robustness against temporary inhibitions
Countermeasure: Retransmission
Countermeasure: Alternate pathways
Robustness against failures
Countermeasure: Repair
Countermeasure: Redundancy
Robustness against wear and tear
Countermeasure: Maintenance
Robustness against contamination
Countermeasure: Discharge
Countermeasure: Filtration
Countermeasure: Protection
Robustness against bugs
Countermeasure: Debugging
Countermeasure: Foolproofing
Robustness against attacks
Countermeasure: Security
Robustness against environmental changes
Countermeasure: Improvement & Innovation
Robustness against dependency risks
Countermeasure: Insourcing (flow, container)
Countermeasure: Multi-vendor sourcing
Robustness against internal system change risks
Countermeasure: Backup
Countermeasure: Duplication
Countermeasure: Small start & phased transition
Keep in mind, this list is for reference and doesn’t cover all possible types or countermeasures. I won’t explain each item in depth here.
The point is that numerous factors can undermine a system’s sustainability, and each requires specific measures to bolster its robustness.
Among the causes and solutions listed, some are broad categories, while others could be further detailed, leading to countless factors and solutions. For instance, the variety of bugs or attacks is vast, and their countermeasures can become intricate.
Replication in Life
Within these classifications and countermeasures, one can identify an element pivotal to the system of life: robustness against internal change risks and its countermeasure, replication.
Systems must evolve, innovate, and improve to maintain robustness against environmental changes, but any change carries risk. Having a copy of a well-functioning system and only altering one while testing the other can minimize this risk.
DNA, which enables self-replication, serves not only the mechanism of evolution but also effectively counters change risks. It’s akin to software development where programmers register their programs in repositories, allowing them to confidently experiment with new features, thereby promoting system improvement and innovation.
Insourcing in Life
Alongside replication, another point of interest is robustness against dependency risks and its countermeasure, insourcing.
If a system relies on external conditions for parts of its operation, it can become incapacitated when those conditions change. Ideally, systems should prepare everything in-house to become more robust.
While some necessities, due to physical laws, must come externally, many others can be insourced.
From the perspective of effects loops regarding the origin of life, I believe the Earth’s water cycle and standing water bodies, like ponds and lakes, are essential. They accumulate and produce new chemicals.
For these effects loops to form, chemicals must transfer between these water bodies, with the Earth’s water cycle facilitating this transfer. My hypothesis is that rivers transport chemicals between ponds and lakes, and the upward currents produced during ocean evaporation carry airborne chemicals to clouds, which then move and rain over land.
Through such processes, numerous effects loops form. Those that had positive feedback loops persisted, strengthened, and evolved. At this stage, the formation of these effects loops depended on the Earth’s terrain and water cycle. Changes in terrain or climate could disrupt these loops.
It’s believed that with chemical evolution, cellular membranes and cytoskeletons emerged, enabling the independent movement and storage of chemicals.
By encapsulating these within cell membranes and moving them along the cytoskeleton, cells could function without relying on the Earth’s water flow. This insourcing mechanism, in my view, was an evolutionary solution to dependency risks that early life faced.
Proposed Definition of Life
When we proceed with the understanding that the phenomenon called life encompasses numerous “effects loops,” we can propose a definition of life itself.
It is defined as a system composed of numerous effects loops that enhance its own robustness.
If we apply this to the earlier mentioned classification of system robustness, many functions inherent to organisms immediately come to mind, such as energy and material buffering, alternative pathways, redundancy preparation, self-maintenance and repair, excretion, filtration, defense, security, etc. Moreover, there’s replication, flow, and containers as previously mentioned.
Such robustness-enhancing effects loops undeniably serve vital functions in organisms. And, using the concept of improved robustness, we can abstractly express the meaning of each function that supports life.
Evolution of Life
Furthermore, systems with high robustness, or those with numerous effects loops, can persist for longer durations. Also, when competition arises among systems or effects loops for energy and materials, more robust systems are more likely to prevail. Thus, from both survival and competitive standpoints, higher robustness is advantageous. As systems mutate, those with higher robustness inevitably survive.
In this manner, life — a system composed of numerous effects loops enhancing its robustness — evolves towards increasing robustness.
This idea is applicable not only to the evolution of cellular organisms as DNA and cell membranes formed but goes beyond that.
It’s also relevant to chemical evolution before the emergence of cells, where chemical compounds form systems of effects loops. Similarly, it can be applied to the evolution of systems within human societies, like academics, culture, and economy. Moreover, applying this to cutting-edge technological systems like robots and AI might provide clearer insights into technology.
In Conclusion
I have presented the idea that the phenomenon of life can be modeled systemically in a simple form through effects loops and the enhancement of robustness.
Based on this system model, by conducting mathematical analysis or system simulations, we might be able to provide more persuasive explanations about the origins of life and the evolution of organisms.
Furthermore, this model can also be applied to the evolution and development of societal cultures, economies, and academic knowledge systems. Therefore, this model might prove useful across a broader range of fields.
