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====== Farnsworth, K., Living through Downward Causation: From Molecules to Ecosystems (2017) ======

en Imari Walker, S. (ed), 2017, From Matter to Life – Information and Causality


Downward causation (first defined by Campbell, 1974) is both a
philosophical concept and an apparent phenomenon of nature attracting great
controversy. Most scientists usually assume that all observable phenomena
derive from elemental fundamental physics, so that even human behaviours
ultimately result from interactions of subatomic particles, via a unidirectional
chain of causes and effects. On closer inspection, the act of living seems able
to spontaneously generate events, breaking this chain; it is as though life
possessed ‘free will’ by acting without a prior physical cause. In this chapter,
we analyse this puzzling behaviour using information and control theory as a
general framework, applying it to a range of scales of organisation in
biological systems: from the molecular to the ecological. An essential
element (and possibly a defining feature) of life emerges from this analysis. It
is the presence of downward causation by information selection and control.
Through a series of examples, we show how this phenomenon works to
produce the appearance of autonomous action from information constructed
and maintained by the process of living. After a brief introduction to the
concept of downward causation, we set it more firmly within the concepts of
biological information processing used within this volume. From this we
attempt to derive a general classification of causation across scales of
biological organisation. We show how selection from random processes and
information embodiment in molecules, organism systems, and ecological
systems combine to emerge with the properties of downward causation and
the appearance of autonomy. These phenomena seem to be exclusive to life.