A.1 Spanish Text
Computational Autopoiesis: The Original Algorithm
Retrieval
This appendix contains two previously unpublished resources, relating to the early computer model of Autopoiesis by Varela et al., then referred to as PROTOBIO.
First there is a short text describing the model. I provide here both the original Spanish text, verbatim, and a rough translation into English[21]. I include some additional comments of my own interspersed with the translation.
Secondly, I include the FORTRAN IV source code listing of a version of the described program.[22] This was produced by manually rekeying a photocopy of the original program listing. In general, I attempted to preserve the original listing exactly verbatim, including comments, indentation, etc. The quality of the photocopy was poor, and there may be resulting errors in the rekeyed version. However, it has been successfully compiled. The program uses one external subroutine, NAL. A handwritten comment on the listing identified this as a ``library'' routine; however, no further information is available. From inspection of the code I have inferred that this was a random number generator. Thus, I also provide here a listing for a sample implementation of this subroutine, based on my inferred semantics for it; using this, I have successfully built and executed the program on a Sun (SunOS 5.5, Sun f77 compiler) platform.
These materials are undated, but probably originated c. 1971. The authors are not explicitly recorded, but Francisco Varela attributes them collectively to himself, Humberto Maturana and Ricardo Uribe. The documents were only recently rediscovered by Francisco Varela, and I am very grateful to him both for allowing me access to them, and for giving his permission for their publication here.
Note that it is not possible to be sure how the materials presented here relate to the results finally presented in (Varela et al. 1974).
A.1 Spanish Text
Computational Autopoiesis: The Original Algorithm
Retrieval
Copyright © 1997 All Rights Reserved.
Timestamp: Tue Dec 31 18:43:32 GMT 1996