[Buddha-l] Query about Francisco Varela

[jkirk]

Today I saw a reference to a Francisco Varela, so looked him up.
>From this obituary, the following:
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/varela/varela_index.html

"Francisco, an experimental and theoretical biologist, studied what he 
termed "emergent selves" or "virtual identities.".....

...an experimental and theoretical biologist, studied what he termed 
"emergent selves" or "virtual identities." His was an immanent view of 
reality, based on metaphors derived from self-organization and 
Buddhist-inspired epistemology rather than on those derived from engineering 
and information science. He presented a challenge to the traditional AI view 
that the world exists independently of the organism, whose task is to make 
an accurate model of that world - to "consult" before acting. His 
nonrepresentationalist world - or perhaps "world-as-experienced" - has no 
independent existence but is itself a product of interactions between 
organisms and environment. He first became known for his theory of 
autopoiesis ("self production"), which is concerned with the active 
self-maintenance of living systems whose identities remain constant while 
their components continually change...
                             "If everybody would agree that their current 
reality is A reality, and that what we essentially share is our capacity for 
constructing a reality, then perhaps we could all agree on a meta-agreement 
for computing a reality that would mean survival and dignity for everyone on 
the planet, rather than each group being sold on a particular way of doing 
things."  F.V.
http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html  Apparently he died quite young 
(1946-2001) Here's another link:

Has anyone on this list interested in mind studies read anything by Varela? 
Comment?

Joanna