Hi Sara,
"I am not yet convinced that information control would be nearly as robust in a purely analog chemical system, and therefore its capacity for reliable network switching should be limited as compared to an analog digital chemical system. I'd be very interested in any examples to the contrary."
I see any self organized system as fundamentally analog, because it must be bounded and continuous. What I mean by that, is that the network node switching continuum examined on varying time scales reveals that the discrete effects of multi-scale variety (Bar-Yam) can vary widely as measured at short time intervals, though the system shows little change over the long term. The Braha--Bar-Yam approach to dynamic link utilization sheds light, I think, on why self organized systems -- whether organic or inorganic and by definition both self similar and self limiting -- are metastable. Even considering any multicellular organism as a corporation of cooperating cells that are constantly communicating, we see varying centers (hubs) of activity at short local intervals and stable coherence globally.
Where is the boundary between the inorganic chemical self organization, and the organic? System-wide, they are interactive. We can always prescribe arbitrary boundaries among systems when we isolate characteristics, though we inevitably regress to systems of systems, when we deal with the deepest foundational questions.
Yaneer Bar-Yam advanced the idea of " ... scale of response and the effect of coordinated versus uncoordinated response as a key attribute of complex systems ..." that integrates hierarchical control with distributed control in a compellingly rigorous fashion, in my opinion.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just questioning the idea that we may make any non-arbitrary distinction between life and non-life in the context of complex system self organization. If not, a logical entailment tells us that we can make no non-arbitrary distinction between consciousness and non-consciousness. *Then* from this continuum, digitsl schemata and thinking processes can be derived. The analog function is primary.
You write, " ... somewhere in that potential continuum a major shift in the way information is handled and processed does occur and ... this is a constructive way of thinking about life's origins." Yes, I strongly agree -- that's the way that self organized criticality (Per Bak) works, and which supports the Gould-Eldredge model of punctuated equilibria in evolutionary biology.
All best,
Tom