Immune self and non-sense
pp. 105-122
in: Massimiliano Cappuccio, Tom Froese (eds), Enactive cognition at the edge of sense-making, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
This chapter presents two rival paradigms in immunology, a field where the theme "Sense and Non-sense" has particular relevance. According to classical immunology, the immune system can potentially perceive everything; and it triggers the destruction of everything that it actually perceives. Consequently, in order to avoid self-destruction, this sort of immune system perceives everything except its own body. The alterna- tive paradigm is based on autopoiesis: What we see — Is not what we see - But what we are. This chapter presents computer simulations based on a mathematical model of an idiotypic network, which involves morpho- genesis in shape-space. The choice between these two paradigms involves value-judgments; this reflexively poses the theme of sense-making at a higher-level of abstraction.