Label Theory & the Value of Cross-talk
- Adam Timlett
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
This post is to present access to a PDF describing a theory related to meta-modularity, my main argument for how risk is managed in biological systems.
Label theory is a way to understand intuitively the potential value of 'cross-talk' in a system. The signalling systems and the gene regulatory systems in biological systems like the cells and the cell signalling in the human organism are full of cross-talk. This is the process whereby one signalling system interacts with a separate one that it appears at first to have little or nothing functionally, to do with.
An interesting example is that some people sneeze when it is sunny or suddenly exposed to bright light. The reason for this is probably cross-talk between the nerve that controls sneezing and part of the optic nerve. This is because part of the nerve that runs down the face which controls sneezing is very close to part of the the optic nerve involved in controlling the eye's information as the opthalmic branch of the trigeminal never also partly runs down the face.
Cross-talk as the sun appears causes a sneezing signal due the closely proximity of the stimulation of the other signalling system. This occurs in people with certain genes that means that these two nerves are closer together.
While this can produce seemingly random effects like sneezing when sunny, in many parts of the body the cross-talk seems to be part of the function.
Effectively, in these cases we are interested in how to describe the emergent value of cross-talk and why it can be so valuable.
This is where label theory comes in to build an intution based on information theory and games, where we consider different models as different overlapping parts of a system, the interaction between the models is seen via cross-talk.
The fundamental ideas relate to the concept of 'type redundancy' which I explore in my article on adaptation games Options Beyond Growth and Failure.
If you want to know more, below is a PDF of a presentation I have given to some biology friends on this.
