Is it
illogical to claim that biological information processing systems can have
one-way causality?
The philosopher of mind
Jaegwon Kim claims that the physical world is "causally closed," that the mind is epiphenomenal, that every mental event has a
corresponding physical event that is the efficient cause of our actions. Mental events are redundant!
A study of the behavior of atoms and molecules in ribosomes in normal cells and in ion channels in neurons shows that semiotic information control flows only downward at the
biological/chemical and mental/biological interfaces.
The lower level atoms and molecules are shown to be in thermal equilibrium. Their paths do not contain the information (Gibbs/Boltzmann “molecular order”) that would be needed for lower levels to be “in charge” of the upper levels. The intuitions of the emergentists are confirmed that biology cannot be reduced to chemistry and physics, nor can mind be reduced to the brain/body.
Biosemiotic control has one-way causality.