ABSTRACT
A molecular reaction net of high specificity is a net of low connectivity. To the extent that restricted behavior in binary element nets generalizes to continuous or probabilistic element nets of greater verisimilitude, the results suggest that high molecular specificity may be necessary both for precision of product formation, and to yield a system whose global chemical oscillatory behavior is brief and stable. A formal genetic net is a finite sequential automaton, a machine with a finite number of states and a function mapping each state into a subsequent state. A formal genetic net must contain at least one behavior cycle; it may contain more. The number of cycles embodied in a net is the number of different behavior cycles of which the net is capable. The hypothesis that living genetic nets are randomly assembled does not imply that one gene of these nets lacks a specific effect on a second.
