This was a fascinating and beautifully produced video (https://youtu.be/0GN5JYmnTFw).
It introduces a
broad audience to the idea that life cannot be reduced to chemistry alone, and that biological systems are structured by rules of correspondence — what
Marcello Barbieri calls organic codes. That alone is an important public
service.
Still, from a scientific standpoint, the video often moves into terrain
that becomes metaphysically seductive but conceptually vaporous. When meaning
is placed “before matter,” or when biological codes are conflated with human
language and interpretation, we slide toward a kind of neo-vitalism — a
direction that some forms of biosemiotics risk if they are not anchored in the
empirical program of Code Biology. Barbieri’s insistence is precise: codes are
not interpreted by an inner subject; they are implemented by molecular
machines that establish stable correspondences between otherwise independent
domains. Meaning, in this framework, is a functional outcome of codical
processes, not a pre-existing metaphysical substrate.
As someone trained in theology as well, I understand the existential
resonance of the question. It echoes, for example, Paul’s line in Acts: “In
Him we live and move and have our being.” But this belongs to a different
regional ontology. At the epistemological level of contemporary biology and
neuroscience, we are still far from a unified metaphysics of life or mind—and perhaps wisdom lies in not prematurely collapsing these layers.
This is precisely why I argue for a code–mediator–artifact (CMA)
framework. It keeps the scientific terrain non-vitalist:
- codes are
stable correspondence rules;
- mediators are the cellular, neural, or cultural mechanisms that modulate their
expression; - artifacts are the resulting morphological, behavioral, or symbolic forms.
This triadic model extends Code Biology without invoking hidden
interpreters or cosmic meaning. It respects the epistemic boundaries between
biology, psychology, and metaphysics while acknowledging that life organizes itself through layers of codification — from genetics to neural
circuits to cultural symbols.
So while the video is inspiring, the next step is conceptual precision:
appreciating the beauty of meaning in life without leaping into metaphysical
claims that science cannot yet sustain. If a broader metaphysics is possible
one day, it will need to grow from solid regional ontologies, not replace them.
João Carlos Major, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
07-12-2025