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Autopoiesis

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

  • 212 Accesses

Synonyms

Metabolic organization; Minimal autonomy; Self-producing network

Definition

Autopoiesis is a recurrent set of component production processes that creates a physical/topological boundary, within which that set of processes is continuously realized.

History

The term was originally proposed by H. Maturana and F. Varela in the early 1970s (from Greek: auto, “self,” and poiesis, “production”) and proposed as an abstract definition of life. According to these authors, an autopoietic system is “organized as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (1) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produce them; and (2) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in the space in which they (the components) exist, by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia, Universidad del País Vasco, Ap. 1249, 200080, San Sebastián, Spain

    Alvaro Moreno

  2. Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, FICE, UPV-EHU, Biophysics Research Unit (CSIC - UPV/EHU), Avenida de Tolosa 70, 20080, Donostia, San Sebastián, Spain

    Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo

Authors
  1. Alvaro Moreno
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  2. Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alvaro Moreno .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Moreno, A., Ruiz-Mirazo, K. (2014). Autopoiesis. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_140-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_140-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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