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To
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Karl
Popper
René
Thom
Heinz-Günter Wittmann
and Elmar Zeitler
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The
idea that the genetic code is only the first of a long series of organic
codes was proposed for the first time in 1985 in the book The Semantic
Theory of Evolution. Since then, the experimental scenario has changed
considerably and the arguments in favour of other organic codes have
increased, making it necessary to add a second volume to that first
book. This volume, however, does not deal only with the existence of
organic codes. It also raises the problem of understanding why they
exist, and to this purpose a mathematical model of epigenesis is proposed
that becomes the starting point of a new approach to life that here
is called semantic biology.
This book is the result of a scientific journey which started more than
25 years ago and is dedicated, with affection, to the four men which
made it possible.
Karl Popper has been my most important spiritual referee because
his pronouncement that the semantic theory of life “is revolutionary”
gave me the strength to persevere.
René Thom has been the deus ex machina who actually put
in print The Semantic Theory of Evolution and gave it an impressive
imprimatur by writing its preface.
Heinz-Günter Wittmann and Elmar Zeitler allowed me to
perform the experimental research which led me first to the concept
of ribotype and then to a semantic model of life. It is from them that
I learned what it takes to devote one’s life to an idea, and to risk
everything to make it grow, even if all is bound to be for another generation
of students. And in the end I realized that a new idea is all the more
beautiful the greater is its power to convince one that it really belongs
to the future.