Biologists use precise models to tackle the problems of their research fields, and one cannot say that those models are wanting simply because they are based on an informatic logic. It is necessary to show that a semantic logic can offer alternative models, and then let the experiments decide.
A semantic view of life, a view that takes energy, information and meaning into account, must be able to offer alternative explanations in all fields, and in particular it must be able to propose new models of the cell, of embryonic development and of evolution. Perhaps it is inevitable that the first attempts are vague and imprecise, but there is no alternative, and somehow a first step must be taken. In this last chapter, therefore, the arguments of the previous chapters will be used to present the first models of semantic biology, in the hope that this will encourage others to continue with the building of the new paradigm.

The semantic theory of the cell

The idea that an embryo is an epigenetic system goes back to Aristotle and, after the interlude of preformationism, has become an integral part of modern biology. The idea that the cell too is a system that increases its own complexity is, on the contrary, completely new. Epigenesis has never been explicitly named among the fundamental properties that define the cell (see Appendix), even if the experimental data which support this conclusion have been known for a long time: the linear information of the genotype does not contain a complete description of the phenotype, even at the cellular level, which means that every cell is a system where the phenotype is more complex than the genotype.
Epigenesis exists therefore even at the most fundamental level of life, but acknowledging this reality unfortunately is not enough. We need to understand how does a system manages to become more complex, otherwise the word “epigenesis” becomes a mere label that is conveniently used only to cover up our ignorance, just as “vis vitalis” in the past. We need, in other words, a mechanical model of epigenesis in order to understand it. Luckily today we do have such a model, and we can at least try to apply it to the cell.