Metabolism and the problem of its universalization

Metabolism tends to be conceived either as an operationally closed network of production of components or as an autonomous apparatus of management of energy flows. Taking up some recent ideas that connect the concept of autonomy with thermodynamic requirements, we move further to defend the hypothesis that there must be a deep intertwinement between the relational-constructive logic of a basic biological system and the logic of its thermodynamic implementation. Hence, we propose that metabolism should be universally defined as the recursive self-maintenance of controls upon the energy flows necessary for the physical realization of a component production system operationally closed. Finally, being critical with some claims of the so-called `strongʹ artificial life approach, we try to show that present `computational metabolismsʹ are necessarily different in their structure and functioning from any real metabolic system, due to the distinct type of causal relations and mechanisms which are respectively established in them.