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The Robot and the Forest

Biology has long been under the influence of the animal-machine metaphor. Today’s reference machine is no longer a clock but a robot. Accordingly, living cells are but individual parts in charge of the smooth functioning of the robot. Now, what if the living body rather were compared to a forest? Ecosystems do not evolve under the tutelary guidance of some central programming biased by the search of a best collective interest, but rather by the conjunction of the particular interests of each of its individual inhabitants. That body-forest would arise not from a prefigured plan tending to a preconceived goal but merely from its history. Among the many questions that such a proposal might at once inspire is the following: how could specialized physiological functions such as say defence against infections which implicates the cooperation of multiple cell types emerge from that organization?

Key Words: collective motion • emergence • immunity • individuality • self-organization

Current Sociology, Vol. 53, No. 2, 311-322 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0011392105049543


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