Abstract This article develops a media philosophical framework for addressing the intersection of epigenetics and complex dynamical systems in theoretical biology. In particular, it argues that the theoretical humanities (and especially media philosophy) need to think critically about the computability of epigenomic regulation (proposed by the complexity sciences), as well as speculatively about the possibility of an epigenomics beyond complexity. The fact that such a conceptual framework does not exist suggests not only a failure to engage with the mathematics of complexity, but also a failure to engage with its history. Both epigenetics and the application of complex dynamical systems to biology originate in the mid-twentieth-century work of Conrad Hal Waddington. The article demonstrates how this genealogy of epigenetic complexity (which passes through Waddington’s epigenetic landscape, the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, molecular epigenetics, and the limitations of nonlinear differential equations for biological modeling) reveals the need for a speculative conception of epigenomic mediation beyond mathematical complexity. Using Whitehead’s philosophy as a conceptual anchor, the “epimedial landscape” serves as a first pass at a media philosophical revision of the complex dynamical systems view of the epigenetic landscape.

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原始景观

摘要 本文开发了一个媒体哲学框架，用于解决理论生物学中表观遗传学和复杂动力系统的交叉问题。特别是，它认为理论人文学科（尤其是媒体哲学）需要批判性地思考表观基因组调控的可计算性（由复杂性科学提出），以及对超越复杂性的表观基因组学的可能性进行推测。不存在这样一个概念框架的事实不仅表明未能参与复杂性数学，而且也未能参与其历史。表观遗传学和复杂动力系统在生物学中的应用都起源于康拉德·哈尔·沃丁顿 (Conrad Hal Waddington) 二十世纪中叶的工作。这篇文章展示了这种表观遗传复杂性的谱系（通过 Waddington 的表观遗传景观、Alfred North Whitehead 的哲学、分子表观遗传学和用于生物建模的非线性微分方程的局限性）揭示了对超越数学的表观基因组中介的推测性概念的需要复杂。使用怀特黑德的哲学作为概念锚，“表观景观”作为对表观遗传景观复杂动力系统观点的媒体哲学修订的第一关。以及用于生物建模的非线性微分方程的局限性）揭示了需要超越数学复杂性的表观基因组中介的推测性概念。使用怀特黑德的哲学作为概念锚，“表观景观”作为对表观遗传景观复杂动力系统观点的媒体哲学修订的第一关。以及用于生物建模的非线性微分方程的局限性）揭示了需要超越数学复杂性的表观基因组中介的推测性概念。使用怀特黑德的哲学作为概念锚，“表观景观”作为对表观遗传景观复杂动力系统观点的媒体哲学修订的第一关。