On the Difference between Physics and Biology: Logical Branching and Biomolecules

Abstract: Physical emergence - crystals, rocks, sandpiles, turbulent eddies, planets, stars - is fundamentally different from biological emergence - amoeba, cells, mice, humans - even though the latter is based in the former. This paper points out that an essential difference is that as well as involving physical causation, causation in biological systems has a logical nature at each level of the hierarchy of emergence, from the biomolecular level up. The key link between physics and life enabling this to happen is provided by biomolecules, such as voltage gated ion channels, which enable branching logic to emerge from the underlying physics and hence enable logically based cell processes to take place in general, and in neurons in particular. These molecules can only have come into being via the contextually dependent processes of natural selection, which selects them for their biological function. A further major difference is between life in general and intelligent life. We characterise intelligent organisms as being engaged in deductive causation, which enables them to transcend the physical limitations of their bodies through the power of abstract thought, prediction, and planning. Ultimately this is enabled by the biomolecules that underlie the propagation of action potentials in neuronal axons in the brain.