Putting aside the argument that an ant could ever understand a human...
To my computer scientist mind the DNA with its Helicase/Topoisomerase device looks like an amazingly ingenious information storage system. It has the ability to preserve information for about a million years - that's how long DNA survives in our environment, is self replicating and also able to operate in unknown environments to which it eventually adapts. What could work better given these requirements?
But as far as storage systems go, this one has a bug, unless it's a feature - mutation. We know that errors sometime occur during the copying process which results in information loss because i.e. not an exact copy. A cool side effect of this bug in the replication system is the entire tree of life... What could the initial information that was meant to be preserved have even been?
If however this is a feature and not a bug then where is this process going? What is it evolving into? What will the end state be? Me contemplating this is the system trying to understand itself...
Assume that the DNA system is the result of random permutations. Atoms formed molecules which formed cells that eventually evolved into organisms. Why is there order in chemistry? Why could we capture this in such a simple and elegant construct as the periodic table of elements? Their mass, their charge, their ability to bind to one another in such intricate prerequisites to eventual life. We know that atomic elements are not evolving, and that a hydrogen atom will always be a hydrogen atom. If that's too easy of a question then what of the subatomic particles and their properties?
It's not enough to know what the world is, it's far more interesting to know why the world is. Random after all is just what we call our inability to see the patterns for a while.
To my computer scientist mind the DNA with its Helicase/Topoisomerase device looks like an amazingly ingenious information storage system. It has the ability to preserve information for about a million years - that's how long DNA survives in our environment, is self replicating and also able to operate in unknown environments to which it eventually adapts. What could work better given these requirements?
But as far as storage systems go, this one has a bug, unless it's a feature - mutation. We know that errors sometime occur during the copying process which results in information loss because i.e. not an exact copy. A cool side effect of this bug in the replication system is the entire tree of life... What could the initial information that was meant to be preserved have even been?
If however this is a feature and not a bug then where is this process going? What is it evolving into? What will the end state be? Me contemplating this is the system trying to understand itself...
Assume that the DNA system is the result of random permutations. Atoms formed molecules which formed cells that eventually evolved into organisms. Why is there order in chemistry? Why could we capture this in such a simple and elegant construct as the periodic table of elements? Their mass, their charge, their ability to bind to one another in such intricate prerequisites to eventual life. We know that atomic elements are not evolving, and that a hydrogen atom will always be a hydrogen atom. If that's too easy of a question then what of the subatomic particles and their properties?
It's not enough to know what the world is, it's far more interesting to know why the world is. Random after all is just what we call our inability to see the patterns for a while.
