Gregory Bateson's Relevance to Current Molecular Biology

Among other things, Gregory Bateson is considered a pioneer in the study of communication in living systems and evolution. His contribution to cybernetics was very special because for him communication was a characteristic property of the living world. But his formulation of information as differences sensed by living systems did not hinder him from using the rest of the conceptual tool-box from cybernetics like, e.g., the notions of feedback, digital and analogical codes, and even information as improbability or restraints, which in his view emphasised the importance of the context in a developmental pathway. Being a central figure in the development of cybernetic theory he collaborated with a range of researchers from the life sciences who were innovating their own disciplines by introducing cybernetic concepts in their particular fields and disciplines. In the light of this, it should not come as a surprise today to realize how the general ideas that he was postulating for the study of communication systems in biology fit so well with the astonishing findings of current molecular biology, for example in the field of cellular signal transduction networks. I guess this is the case due to the fruitfulness of his abductive approach, being as he was concerned with advancing the search for fundamental principles in communication processes in living systems at different hierarchical levels. In this paper I point out some passages to illustrate Bateson’s coherent approach to context-dependent information, hierarchical contexts and analog/digital communication, which I think molecular biologists could find of great inspiration. In particular I highlight ten “Batesonean ideas” that may prove to be of great relevance to the field of cellular signal transduction.