Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory Systems Theory: The Science of Life and Mind

When I am at conferences, talking about the scientific work of my father (theoretical biologist Robert Rosen, 1934–1998), I am often asked which aspects of his work I think are most important. My answer is Anticipatory Systems Theory. It’s about the entailment and characterization of both life and mind. It explains the fundamental nature of all life, showing how the human mind is an evolutionary concentration of the same peculiar behavior patterns manifested by all living organisms, regardless of species. How can we hope to fully understand ourselves or anything else in the biosphere of Earth without an accurate scientific comprehension of the entailment patterns underlying and generating all of it? The physics of orbital mechanics or atomic particles is insufficient for this. Therefore, I spend a lot of my time working to make the meaning of my father’s scientific discoveries accessible to as many human minds as possible. I think humanity is going to need this work in the future, and already needs it now. This paper will examine the basic premises of Anticipatory Systems Theory and describe, using examples familiar to all of us from daily life, how we can recognize Anticipation at work in ourselves and in local ecosystems all over the planet. I will conclude with some important ramifications of this theory, including how Anticipation necessarily plays into evolutionary processes. I will also point out the vulnerabilities of Anticipatory Systems (i.e., living organisms) to rapid change in environment, potentially leading to extinction cascades.