Goals as Emergent Autopoietic Processes.

Area of Science:

• Systems Biology
• Theoretical Biology
• Philosophy of Science

Background:

• Goal-directed phenomena are typically framed as optimization problems.
• However, the 'becoming' of goals suggests a self-organization and emergence process.
• Existing definitions of emergence often require a pre-existing system, inadequate for emergent goals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a modeling framework for emergent goals.
• To represent goals as emergent autopoietic structures.
• To formalize the 'becoming' of goals within systems.

Main Methods:

• Reviewing formal definitions of emergence.
• Applying Chemical Organization Theory (COT) to model autopoietic structures.
• Analyzing changes in reaction network organizational structures.

Main Results:

• Identified limitations in current emergence definitions for goal formalization.
• Demonstrated COT's applicability to formalize autopoietic structures and emergent goals.
• Showed that emergence taxonomies can be derived from organizational structure changes.

Conclusions:

• Goals can be modeled as emergent autopoietic structures.
• Chemical Organization Theory provides a framework for operationalizing emergent goals.
• This approach offers a novel perspective on system evolution and goal formation.