Does a complete description of biological systems require quantum mechanics? To answer Schrödinger’s question ”What is Life?”, we will consider the process of quantum measurement as a self-referential subsystem first conjectured by John Archibald Wheeler. He believed observers to be connected to the undecidability proofs of Gödel and Turing, where a no self-referential algorithm implies no generalized algorithm for some problems, like the halting problem. The three-way relation between undecidability, quantum and theoretical biology will shed light on each of the other topics. We will look at the central role of the delayed choice experiment for this framework of life—not only as the logical foundation but chronological origin. We compare this to overarching themes found in the work of Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Robert Rosen, Tibor Ganti and Stuart Kauffman.
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