AN EXAMINATION OF SOME METAPHORICAL CONTEXTS FOR BIOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED COMPUTING

Biologically motivated computing seeks to transfer ideas from the bios ciences to computer science. In seeking to make transfers if is helpfu l to be able to appreciate the metaphors which people use. This is bec ause metaphors provide the context through which analogies and similes are made and by which many scientific models are constructed. As such , it is important for any rapidly evolving domain of knowledge to have developments accounted for in these terms. This paper seeks to provid e one overview of the process of modelling and shows how it can be use d to account for a variety of biologically motivated computational mod els. Certain key ideas are identified in the subsequent analysis of bi ological sources, notably, systemic metaphors. Three important aspects of biological thinking are then considered in the light of computer s cience applications: biological organization, the cell, and models of evolution. The analysis throughout the paper is descriptive rather tha n formalized so that a large variety of potential applications may be considered.