Tibor Ganti:
THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE (Omikk, 1971)


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The Hungarian chemist Tibor Ganti views life as the combination of of three systems: metabolism (a motor system capable of synthesizing material for its own growth), self-reproduction (an information system capable of self-reproduction) and separation (a system capable of limiting the penetration of external material). All three are autocatalytic systems. These are roughly equivalent to cytoplasma, nucleus and membrane of a cell.

Ganti identifies the simplest form of life, the simplest combination of those three systems: the "chemoton".

Tibor's living organism looks more like a computer than a program, because it includes the "hardware". Life without the hardware is not life, it is just the process that generates life.


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