Stephen Downes

This is a very interesting post. The idea, if I understand it correctly, is that the view of biological mechanisms as depicted by flowcharts linking different physical components together is wrong. Rather, what the physical components do is to combine to form functional components, and it is the interaction between these that constitute biological functioning. Any given functional component may be made of any number of physical components; the physical components can be swapped in and out, replaced with other physical components. This view reflects what in philosophy is called functionalism, and based on this I would expect to see some refinements to the biological theory analogous to developments in philosophical theory, leading to a type of biological supervenience.