"Biological systems usually operate like computer programs in which rules define different combinations of on-off settings as commands or conditional statements like “if,” “then,” “and,” “or,” and “not.”
Knowing the basics of logic-based regulatory control is necessary for understanding ICR’s adaptation model called continuous environmental tracking (CET).
We hypothesize that if human engineers can use a tracking system to detect and maintain surveillance of a moving target, then creatures might use a similar strategy to track changing conditions.
We predict that creatures would use elements corresponding to those in man-made tracking systems:
1) input sensors,
2) programmed logic mechanisms to regulate an internal selection of adaptable responses, and
3) output “actuators” to execute responses.
Innate logic-based regulatory systems are perfectly suited for the mechanisms an organism uses to effect adaptive responses to the different challenges it detects. These systems imitate the conscious logical intentions of a designer’s mind, which enables the organism’s logical systems to internally select output responses from a group of potential solutions.
When conscious organisms—or their unconscious cells—integrate sensory inputs, memory, and logical rules to make selections, they are said to express cognition. Creatures effectively use this type of programmed internal logic to self-adjust to changing conditions.
Dr. Robyn Araujo of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has worked extensively on the mathematics underlying the internal logic that enables creatures to “function and thrive amid changing and unfavorable environments.”
In a study published in Nature Communications, she established that “all networks that exhibit robust perfect adaptation…are decomposable into well-defined modules.” Modularity is an important design principle that engineers incorporate into mechanisms to help them resist breaking down (i.e., make them “robust”).
Dr. Araujo’s study begins with this incisive question: “How does the ‘brain’ of a living cell work, allowing an organism to function and thrive in changing and unfavourable environments?” This question is exactly what ICR’s design-based CET model tries to explain. Dr. Araujo responds by saying:
How rigid? Well, her studies represent “five years of relentless effort to solve this incredibly deep mathematical problem.”
After considering fundamental constraints on biological operation, she ponders “whether all biochemical networks, of any size, with a fundamental need to exhibit robust functionalities, are characterized by modular architectures."
Knowing the basics of logic-based regulatory control is necessary for understanding ICR’s adaptation model called continuous environmental tracking (CET).
We hypothesize that if human engineers can use a tracking system to detect and maintain surveillance of a moving target, then creatures might use a similar strategy to track changing conditions.
We predict that creatures would use elements corresponding to those in man-made tracking systems:
1) input sensors,
2) programmed logic mechanisms to regulate an internal selection of adaptable responses, and
3) output “actuators” to execute responses.
Innate logic-based regulatory systems are perfectly suited for the mechanisms an organism uses to effect adaptive responses to the different challenges it detects. These systems imitate the conscious logical intentions of a designer’s mind, which enables the organism’s logical systems to internally select output responses from a group of potential solutions.
When conscious organisms—or their unconscious cells—integrate sensory inputs, memory, and logical rules to make selections, they are said to express cognition. Creatures effectively use this type of programmed internal logic to self-adjust to changing conditions.
Dr. Robyn Araujo of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has worked extensively on the mathematics underlying the internal logic that enables creatures to “function and thrive amid changing and unfavorable environments.”
In a study published in Nature Communications, she established that “all networks that exhibit robust perfect adaptation…are decomposable into well-defined modules.” Modularity is an important design principle that engineers incorporate into mechanisms to help them resist breaking down (i.e., make them “robust”).
Dr. Araujo’s study begins with this incisive question: “How does the ‘brain’ of a living cell work, allowing an organism to function and thrive in changing and unfavourable environments?” This question is exactly what ICR’s design-based CET model tries to explain. Dr. Araujo responds by saying:
Proteins form unfathomably complex networks of chemical reactions that allow cells to communicate and to “think”—essentially giving the cell a “cognitive” ability, or a “brain”….It has been a longstanding mystery in science how this cellular “brain” works.
One characteristic of biological regulatory networks is their extreme exactness, an attribute that’s consistent with purposeful design as opposed to undirected, gradual evolution. Dr. Araujo “studied all the possible ways a network can be constructed and found that to be capable of this perfect adaptation in a robust way, a network has to satisfy an extremely rigid set of mathematical principles.” 
How rigid? Well, her studies represent “five years of relentless effort to solve this incredibly deep mathematical problem.”
After considering fundamental constraints on biological operation, she ponders “whether all biochemical networks, of any size, with a fundamental need to exhibit robust functionalities, are characterized by modular architectures."