ABSTRACT The metaphorical adoption of the concepts of information, programme and signal introduced into biology the logic and implicit causal structure of the mathematical theories of information; this is inimical to biology. In turn, those metaphors have hindered the development of a theory of organisms by transferring the agency of organisms to natural selection and to DNA. Moreover, those metaphors introduced into biology the dualism software–hardware and a Laplacian causal structure. Instead, we propose to uphold the agency of the living by adopting three foundational principles for a theory of organisms: namely, (1) the principle of biological inertia (i.e. the default state of cells is proliferation and motility), (2) the principle of variation, and (3) the principle of organization.

中文翻译：

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信息、程序、信号：否定生物体的死隐喻

摘要 信息、程序和信号概念的隐喻采用将信息数学理论的逻辑和隐含的因果结构引入生物学；这对生物学是不利的。反过来，这些隐喻将生物的代理权转移到自然选择和 DNA 上，从而阻碍了生物体理论的发展。此外，这些隐喻将二元论软件-硬件和拉普拉斯因果结构引入生物学。相反，我们建议通过采用生物体理论的三个基本原则来维护生物的能动性：即，（1）生物惯性原则（即细胞的默认状态是增殖和运动），（2）原则(3) 组织原则。