There is a class of dynamic systems that are realized . . . as networks of productions (and disintegrations) of components that: (a) recursively participate through their interactions in the realization of the network of productions (and disintegrations) of components that produce them; and (b) by realizing its boundaries, constitute this network of productions (and disintegrations) of components as a unity in the space they specify and in which they exist. Francisco Varela and I called such systems autopoietic systems. . . .
p. 36
Humberto R. Maturana "Biology and Language: The Epistemology of Reality"
Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought
Academic Press, 1978
Essays in honor of Eric Lenneberg, edited by George A. Miller and Elizabeth Lenneberg.

Previous Vital Dust, Savory Earth Next