Francisco Varela
(1946-2001)
Varela was a Chilean neuroscientist, biologist, and philosopher who, with his mentor Humberto Maturana developed the concept of autpoiesis (self-organization and self-assembly) widely used in biology today. In their Santiago Theory of Cognition, they say "Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system."
Maturana and Varela were inspired by
Jacob Johann von Uexküll, the founder of
biosemiotics.
Our
information philosophy model of a living system is one that communicates signals between all of its parts to maintain
homeostasis. Cellular signaling is the most basic requirement for a cognitive system.
Like Maturana, Varela receive a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University. He was a graduate student under
Torsten Wiesel.
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