Semantic Closure - Pattee

Also, autonomy requires what I call semantic closure [39]. This means the organism's measurement, memory, and control constraints must be constructed by the genes of the organism from parts of the artificial physical world. Of course consistency requires that all activities of the organisms follow the laws they may discover. Whether such organisms are really alive or only simulated is a matter of definition. A more objective and important question is how open-ended is such computational life. No consensus can be expected on this question unless there is consensus on what computation means.

39. Pattee, H. H., 1995, Evolving self-reference: matter, symbols, and semantic closure, Communication and Cognition - AI 12(1-2), 9-28.